An American and Hungarian Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving is always a food-filled holiday, but this year was exceptional. Deep-fried turkey and all the trimmings at Pete and Liz's house. An impromptu dinner party at my tiny apartment. Paprikash and Dobos torte at Andre's in NYC.

Thanksgiving Day at Pete and Liz's in NJ was really fun. My parents, my sister, Aunt K, Jeff, and others arrived around 3 to kick off the holiday. Pete was busily cooking the turkeys in the backyard in some sort of a contraption. It was great to see everyone, especially Jill and Paige, who are growing up fast. Jill just turned 14 and Paige just turned 12.

Unfortunately, throughout the weekend, I've had to work on and off. Friday morning, I worked for a while and then a friend called and suggested that I have a little dinner party. Three of my friends came over and we threw together some pasta with kalamata olive sauce, a frisee and arugula salad with mustard vinaigrette and a baguette.

We met at Kathryn and George's apartment on Saturday before dinner at Andre's to have some drinks and appetizers. My parents and sister brought Aunt Kathryn into the city, which was a little stressful for her. Aunt Evelyn and Peter were staying with Kathryn and George. After catching up over some wine and cheese and other snacks, we made our way to Andre's.

We ordered some red and white Hungarian wine. The red was the one that Diane imports from Hungary. After a bit of confusion about our table, all nine of us were seated next to a Hungarian family. We found out that their family was born near where the Heller family comes from.

They recommended the veal goulash, the Rakott Krumpli and the Turoscsusza Tepertovel. However, I decided to stick with the cabbage strudel, chicken paprikash and cucumber. At the end of the meal, we had some cookies, Dobos Torte and apricot Palacsintas.

More photos to come when I get them from my parents and Peter.

Tony's Visits NYC in November

Tony arrived in NYC right before Halloween and got to see all the crazy festivities that go on in the Village.

On Friday and Saturday, people dressed up in costumes to go to the bars at a night. Sunday, the entire neighborhood became a giant parade with floats and music and people running around in costumes. It's a very serious holiday in this part of town.

Unfortunately, I had to work more than I expected, so Tony was on his own a lot. He navigated the city like a pro and saw many of the sights -- Wall Street, Metropolitan Museum, a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, Columbus Circle, Grand Central, etc.

He enjoyed beautiful NYC sunny, cold weather for most of his time here, but it is quite different than the temperature in AZ. The only days it rained were the ones I had off, so we hit the museums, etc.

I managed to get two days off towards the end of his visit. We went to the Guggenheim and a comedy show and walked around Chinatown and Little Italy, etc. He also got to meet some of my friends - Teva, Jeff, Andrew, and Terry. In addition, he met cousin Julie and Amy.

Even though he was here a little over a week, we had so much fun that it really flew by. Looking forward to his next visit.