first cherries appear and so on!! Well I never knew that! I've always been under the popular misconception regarding Hungarian goulash too! Oh dear poor Delia - her books served me well enough in my early days learning to cook, but her more recent "short cuts" and her overly long lists of ingredients sent her to the back of my cookery bookshelf a while ago. Timea's authentic version looks very tasty, and how wonderful to have someone to cook for you! I wish!! Yes, we feel very fortunate indeed to have someone cook for us. We are really no cooks ourselves and are not particularly interested in food except for eating it, so the idea of having someone to cook for us was something we have always aspired to. Timea is the dream come true. My mom used to make Hungarian Goulash often. Of course, she was Irish and not exactly a gourmet cook, but I did love this dish. Her's was more like a stew, and from what I remember, had beef chunks, onions and carrots, paprika and stock. It was cooked in a pressure cooker and as I write this, I can once again hear the sound of the rattlle and whistle as the steam came seeping out. When it was done, it was poured over egg noodles. It was one of the few meals that she could get me to eat without an argument. Arleen, your mother's Hungarian Goulash sounds very much like the one that Timea