My father was a truly wise and wonderful man and, together with my mother, taught me and my siblings that 'charity begins at home'. That is, we learned about the mentality of loving kindness (as opposed to the misconstrued belief that you 'should always take care of your loved ones before anyone else in the world'). And this mindset has pretty much stuck with me throughout my life. 

'Come and eat some gomboc,' my mother would say to me in Hungarian when I was a child. 'Köszönöm, nem kérem,' I would reply, shaking my head vigorously. In my mind I had somehow confused the word gomboc, or dumpling, with the word gomba, which means mushroom in Magyar. And the thought of a mushroom encased in dough and dusted with fried breadcrumbs simply didn't appeal to my very young taste buds.

Home Economics was one of my favourite classes through my high school years, right up there with History, English/Creative Writing and Asian Social Studies. For starters, there were a couple of guys in the class—both had a great sense of humour and, yes, they both were cheeky and naughty too. So even the washing up was fun (there were no dishwashers in classrooms back then)—we had more than a few 'sword fights' with the dish mops (the fellas always came out worse!). And if we were super bored (such as when frumpy Mrs M was talking about toad in the hole, fried brains and bacon, or cooking for convalescents), we'd make tiny wet pea balls from paper towelling and shoot them through our pens onto the stuccoed ceiling! 

'I remember poffertjes from my childhood.  My aunts made these golden balls of dough and served them with a lightly rose-scented sugar syrup as a special treat.' 
                                                                                     Charmaine Solomon, Charmaine Solomon's Family Recipes,1998

'Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments.'
                                                                                                                       - Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1890-1995

Retro: Ham and Pineapple Pizza (a.k.a. using up the ham)

Delicious retro ham and pineapple (Hawaiian pizza) a la Lizzy, made with fresh pineapple and leftover glazed ham