and the tea service---and I'd be almost as happy to have that confirmed a Toast Rack as to have a round-trip ticket to London. Like you, almost regardless of the summer temperatures, we too from time to time long for the kind of comfort food associated with winter - always more satisfactory when one is really hungry. Could it be that those plain Southern cooks had receipts which had, originally, come from Europe? We like to think so for in this way continents connect. The serving table in the dining room does, at times, become somewhat over loaded with salts, sugar sifters, sauce boats, etc. and, of course, the toast rack which, incidentally, looks in need of a polish! I'm not sure how authentic German goulaschsuppe is, but for my first week ever in Germany, I enjoyed it almost excessively for dinner - not being too adventurous at the time, I knew what I would get when I saw it on a menu (which it almost always was). Delicious. We think that we have all been there during those first trips abroad when one was desperate to recognise something and one did not have the language to ask. And yes, as you say, the gulysleves is absolutely delicious. How kind. We fear however that in the translating of the receipt our Hungarian might well let us down and we should be doing a major disservice to our readers by failing to include some vital ingredient or process. Haha! She was