Celebrate every living breath

Today I would like to say a few words in honor of my mother.  She passed away 2 years and 2 days ago.  She was, at 72 years of age, full of life and vigor, and enjoyed every moment of her life.  She always said that when it would come her time to go, she wanted people to still be happy – because that’s what she was all about – being happy and making people happy.  At my Martial Arts school, Jung SuWon Academy, Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim always says, “celebrate every living breath as if it was your last breath” – and that is what my mother did. thoroughly enjoying every moment of her life.

Being a full on Austrian, to her, making people happy, always was connected with food.  When I grew up we never had a lot of money.  In fact we went through some pretty rough spots.  But we never had to go without food.  Somehow she managed to come up with something to feed us. 

 Here is one of the most quintessential Austrian desserts my mom made for us a lot, because it was very cheap to make, and we loved it.  She always tried to make us happy.   Nowadays its more considered a delicacy  because of it’s down to home goodness, comfort, and just plain out ofthis world taste.  It’s not a diet food, and if you are worried about too many carbs, this is definitely not for you.  However, I can vouch for the fact that this is worth evrey single calorie it contains.  The recipe is very very simple:

Ingredients:

• slices of bread – Jewish Challah is great for this, but any sturdy white bread with raisins will do – but if you don’t have any, just use whatever bread you have – while not authentic it will still taste good
• Powidl  – this is a very dense kind of plum jam, looks and acts like a paste.  If you can’t get this try for some other kind of sturdy plum jam.  Do yourself a favor and forget about the sugarless stuff you can get – just get the best plum jam you can have and go for it.  If you really absolutely cannot get plum jam – use any kind of dense jam – it’ll still taste very good.  You can also mix a little brandy into the jam if you want to really do it up
• a couple of eggs, beaten
• some butter for frying, and yes, do use butter.  It’s important for the authentic taste.  For heaven’s sakes don’t use olive oil for this one.  Like I said, this is not a health food….

How to put it together:

put a thick layer of powidl on as many slices as you want to eat, or serve, and top it with another piece of bread.  Squeeze together a little bit and then coat it with the beaten egg.  Fry in melted butter until it’s nice and brown on both sides.  Serve hot with a little powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Enjoy!  And then go to Jung SuWon to work it all off again!