February 06
Zsa Zsa Gabor's Birthday
 

Zsa Zsa Gábor was born  in Budapest, Hungary in February, 1917.  She won a Miss Hungary beauty contest in 1936, but was disqualified for being underage. Because her mother, Jolie, was Jewish, Zsa Zsa, her sisters, Eva and Magda, and Jolie were forced to flee Hungary when the Nazis threatened to invade their country.

Zsa Zsa's initial fame in the United States came from her work as an actress. She made a few good films in the early 1950s including Moulin Rouge (1952) and Lili (1953), but rapidly declined to the B list with the prophetic Queen of Outer Space (1958), and eventually was limited to cameos, often playing-herself. 

Zsa Zsa essentially invented the concept of celebrity and being famous just for being famous. Her celebrity persona, came from her talk shows appearances in the 1950s and 60s.  Her big, break came from her appearance on Bachelor's Heaven, in which the panelists took turns answering stupid questions from the lovelorn. In answer to the question "My husband is a traveling salesman, and I know he strays. How can I stop him?" Zsa Zsa replied "shoot him in the legs."

Zsa Zsa was referred to in the Congressional Record as "the most expensive courtesan since Madame de Pompadour"  by Representative Wayne Hays of Ohio in reference to her liaison with Dominican Dictator Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo who presented Zsa Zsa with a Mercedes and a chinchilla coat because she have him "a good time." Trujillo was apparently a sucker for good times since he also gave Kim Novak a Mercedes and a chinchilla coat, thereby adding a new dimension to the concept of "hostess gifts."

The Gabor/Novak/Trujillo affair was one of several Zsa Zsa love triangles that hit the tabloids. Other included Zsa Zsa, Barbara Hutton and Porfirio Rubirosa (the Dominican playboy/diplomat/racecar driver); and Zsa Zsa, George Sanders, and George Sanders (the penultimate narcissist). Sanders was her fourth husband whom she married after divorcing Conrad Hilton which makes her Paris and Nicky Hilton's half-great, great aunt. Hilton and Gabor's only child, born after their divorce, is Francesca Hilton  In 2005, Zsa Zsa accused Francesca of larceny and fraud, and filed a lawsuit against her in a California court.

On June 14, 1989, Zsa Zsa was accused of slapping the face of a Beverly Hills police officer named Paul Kramer when he stopped her for a traffic violation. She was found guilty of the assault in a well-publicized trial and sentenced to three days in  jail. She later complained that she was denied a jury of her peers, saying 'It was not my class of people. There was not a producer, a press agent, a director, an actor."

An appropriate way to celebrate Zsa Zsa's birthday is with an Hungarian Tart which we suggest watching with Moulin Rouge.
 

Hungarian  Tart

2/3 cup ground unblanched almonds
1&1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 hardboiled egg yolks, sieved
 

1. Cream almond paste and raw egg yolks. Set aside.
2. Combine flour and 2/3 cup ground unblanched almonds in a bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Place almond-paste mixture, sugar, zest butter, and sieved yolks in well. Gradually combine all of the ingredients with your fingers to form a ball of dough. Chill dough in refrigerator for 2 hours.
3. Roll out pastry between sheets of waxed paper, loosening top sheet of waxed paper after every few rolls. roll dough into a circle until it is 1/2 inch thick and about 11" wide (1"wider than the 10" flan ring).
4. Place the 10" flan ring on an ungreased pastry sheet. Peal off top layer of waxed paper from the dough and invert it over the flan ring. Gradually press down the dough without stretching it and press firm along the bottom and sides. Peal off the second layer of waxed paper. Press the overlapping dough down to make the sides thicker than the bottom of the dough. Flute edges and place f1an and pastry sheet in freezer for 1 hour.
5. Preheat over to 350º F.
6. Remove tart shell flan and pan from freezer. Mix 3/4 cup ground almonds with zest and spread on bottom of shell. Mix plums with sugar and place mixture in shell .
7. Bake  35-40 minutes or until browned and bubbly.