Ok, I admit it. You do not have to have Sweet Hungarian Paprika to make Hungarian Goulash. When my cousin emailed me that she had no clue where to look for the stuff, and had already been challenged enough by water chestnuts in THE Casserole, I knew I had gone too far. Here is the absolute truth, the paprika I used to make goulash came from the Sevierville Food City and was called Value Time Paprika. I don’t think it was sweet and it had certainly never had a passport in or out of Hungary. So the message today is, “Play with your food.” That’s why I like cooking in vacation houses, you get to invent and make do. I guess this was the case with the Value Time Paprika - the resulting goulash was delicious and it was certainly enjoyed by Richard when he came over to catch the Titans game. Note to self: reheats well!
After the Titans I was bored by football on TV and was trying to fake some interest while thumbing through a magazine. This magazine caught my attention because it had a list of essential beginner’s kitchen tools. I, myself, have just created such a list for Richard. Without naming the magazine I have to say it included some of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. I actually suspect that the article was written by a person who is a major stockholder in the Williams Sonoma Corporation.
Sweet Hungarian Paprika aside, here are a few items the article listed that you do not need:
2 different types of graters and a rasper (Do I have one of those?)
Dry AND liquid measuring cups
3 rimmed baking sheets (Not kidding, it said that. Of course, they wouldn’t all fit in my used Sears oven at one time so what do I know?)
A pasta pot – what is that?
And my biggest pet peeve: a salad spinner. Can no one figure out that those things take up too much room and the enterprising cook could just put salad greens in a colander and shake the fool out of them?
So here’s to inventing new uses for kitchen gadgets and learning to make what you have work in the dish you are creating. If you have to do everything by the rules you won’t ever have any fun cooking. I hope I’ve taught Richard that. I also hope this cookbook provides all the necessary information while still managing to spark a little creativity. Playing with your food is the only way to make it your own!
