Chicken with Heavenly Paprika and Cream Sauce

I am going to tell you a secret today.

Huge, important and life-changing secret.

It has something to do with love

Would you like to know?

I just know you do!

So sit down comfortably and listen.

This secret has been passed down from generation to generation in our family and it reveals how to win a man’s heart.

It’s not about magic, it’s not about spells… to win a man’s heart you just have to prepare this delicious chicken with heavenly sauce for the special one your heart is fond of.

You will watch the results in awe.

It’s earth-shaking.

I’m telling you.

It has been tested!

These are the ingredients – very simple dish it is, indeed.

1. Start by making yourself some nice cup of coffee and play one of Martha’s shows on the internet.

The atmosphere is very important here!

2. Then grab an onion and cut it into halves.

Cut the half horizontally…

… and then slice it neatly.

Nice.

3. Now pour 4 tablespoon vegetable oil into a bigger pot and heat it up.

4. Add the onions and fry them, stirring constantly…

… just until they have this yellow color.

5. Then add 2 teaspoons sweet red paprika.

This ingredient is crucially important in this meal.

6. Stir the paprika with the onions around for about 30 seconds – not more.

7. We are going to need the skinned chicken legs now… so yes, it is very good if you have skinned them in advance.

8. Place the legs into the pot and cover them with the bouillon/broth.

9. Stir gently, cover and bring to a boil.

Then allow to boil moderately just until the meat gets fork-tender.

This is going to take about 45-55 minutes, I guess.

10. Meanwhile, with Martha still talking about all the great stuff that girls love, we can prepare the flour-cream mixture.

That will make our sauce beautifully creamy.

In a separate bowl, pour 4 tablespoons flour, 3 1/2 tablespoons (heaping) sour cream and 1/2 cup (120 ml) whipping cream.

Give that all a good mix.

11. Now make a  little test of fork-tenderness.

Remove one leg from the pot and check whether it is tender enough to be easily pierced or cut with a fork.

Basically, it just should be… hmm… tender, folks.

12. After you’ve concluded that the legs are exactly how they should be, remove them all from the pot onto a separate plate or bowl.

13. Pour the flour-cream mixture into the pot while whisking constantly and bring the whole mixture to a boil (while still whisking).

See?… I wasn’t even able to capture this step properly, because I was using both of my hands. And my tripod is who-knows-where.

Allow to boil for about 3-5 more minutes – giving the sauce the necessary time to get thicker (and of course, stir constantly).

14. Remove the sauce from the heat and taste it. Some more salt might be needed – I added about 1/2 tsp (the amount of salt needed depends on the bouillon/broth you’ve used).

15. At this point you can decide, whether you want to serve the legs in whole pieces like this (in this case return them back to the pot), or if you want to serve the meat only (using two forks remove the meat from the bones and return the meat into the pot).

Here we go, nicely served with fusilli.

Now place this plate right under the particular man’s nose and see what happens.

And let me know!

(Click the RECIPE SECTION to see more of my recipes.)

Orchids Overload

Let’s get a little girly now… let’s talk FLOWERS!

YEAH!

Not that I know much about them.

But still, I love them very much… and I want to learn.

I especially love flowers in pots. Bunches of cut flowers are not that much to my taste (…I really don’t want to say this out loud… But I somehow can’t get rid of the feeling that they might not be… hmm… kind of… living. Sorry. But then, that’s my own impression… my crooked, cross-eyed impression. So it doesn’t really matter that much.)
 
 

Luckily, there’s a special person in my life who understands flowers and is willing to teach me.

Yes, of course, it’s my Mom.

My loveliest, best-est, perfect-est Mom.
 
 

These are all my Mom’s new orchids.

It’s her new hobby – to grow orchids.

And when she starts something, she starts it BIG.

I love that about her.
 
 

Her collection is growing at rapid speed.
 
 

There are loads of buds and loads of flowers in bloom.
 
 

I got really amazed as I walked into the room and saw them for the first time – these beauties create a truly special and romantic atmosphere.
 
 

Spectacular!

Oh… and then I took my camera outside to make a few snaps of the lovely flowers that my Mom grows in her garden.

A soul-warming view – that describes pretty accurately what I saw there.

I’ll be sending the pictures soon.

‘Cause you know what?

I just want to make you as happy as possible…
 

Looting IKEA and Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles


Do you like popsicles?

I love, love, love them.

‘Cause they spin my head right round, …right round.

And if something makes my head spin, I heart it endlessly.

In fact, pops might be the greatest invention of the humankind ever, I think (a proper science investigation is needed here).

I love the juicy ones and the creamy ones, as well – my favorite flavors being… hmmm… strawberry (yum), peach (yippee), apricot (oh, dear), lemon (mmmmmm…) and caramel (instant-coma) and vanilla (yo, man) and let me stop myself right here, because I’m afraid that what I’m possibly doing right now is naming all the existing flavors…

Once I even attempted to make Cookie Pops – that was so much fun!

Anyway, just recently I stumbled upon a homemade-popsicle idea somewhere in the deep web.

And that made me think, OH… DID that make me think about all the homemade-popsicle related stuff.

Questions like: ‘How exactly?’, ‘Can I put a glass into a freezer?’, ‘What kind of stick’  – buzzing in my head constantly.

Last Sunday was the day when I was shown a sign – A MIGHTY SIGN.

It stroke me right there in IKEA, while I was looting their kitchen department, wearing a multi-orgasmic expression on my face.

A popsicle mold? Like REALLY? I didn’t know you existed? I didn’t know about you. Can you forgive me, please? Can we be friends? From now to infinity… and beyond, please?

I really am a lucky person, so lucky…

So immediately, after we’d arrived home, I jump-started the action.

I poured in two containers of plain yogurt into a food processor.

Then I added these wonderful, gorgeous canned strawberries.

Then some sugar and lemon juice to taste.

Little bit of mixing ensued and our homemade strawberry yogurt was born.

This mixture might not have been aware of the fact that it was going to be turned into something really amazing.

Things like this had never happened in our household before.

Then I went on and spooned the mixture into the lovely molds.

I put the mold into its stand.

And then I stuck the handle in.

There were six molds in one package.

And I filled them all and sent them to my freezer for a 24-hour life-changing trip.

Yum!

We just can’t get enough of them.

I did a little research on homemade ice lollies which eventually transported me into the state of utter bliss with all those amazing ideas running through my head.

I’ve chosen one particular pop idea to round off this sweet pop post with…

MOJITO POPS!

(Isn’t that just the perfect way to end a post with? I’m now considering ending all my future posts that way.)

Cauliflower Soup

Aren’t these just wonderful?

Let me introduce these delicious ingredients that have been captured bathing in the morning sun.

And they are ready and eager to turn into…

… the most yummilicious and soul-warming soup ever invented.

And here we have our ingredients introducing themselves to you in a written form.

So kind of them.

In case you’d also like to have the delightful experience of tasting this soup, just go on and follow these easy steps

1. Chop the onion finely.

Chop, chop, chop.

2. Cut the carrots into small even dices.

3. Remove the leaves from the cauliflower and cut it into halves.

4. Now break it into individual florets.

Rinse the florets under running water and then slice them into smaller pieces – you can slice one floret into 2 or 3 pieces (depending on what mood you are in).

5. In a large soup pot melt two tablespoons butter.

6. Add the chopped onions, stir and let them get a little color inside there.

7. Then, after about 3 minutes, add the carrots.

Stir around for about 2 more minutes.

8. Soon we are going to use the chicken broth/bouillon.

You can use the ready-made stuff from a store or you can prepare it at home – from bouillon cubes – like I do.

I used 3 bouillon cubes for 7 cups (1.75 l) hot water.

And, of course, you can also use your own, home-made bouillon.

You really have a wide range of possibilities here.

9. Throw the cauliflower into the pot and pour in the bouillon.

10. Add 2 teaspoons parsley, …

11. … 2 bay leaves, …

13.  … and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.

Stir to combine.

14. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Then reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for about 25-30 minutes.

15. Meanwhile, we can prepare our white sauce that will make the soup nice and thick.

In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups milk with 4 tablespoon flour…

… and mix with a whisk.

16. In a medium saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon butter.

17. Pour in the ‘milk-flour’ mixture…

18. … and stir constantly over medium heat.

Bring to a boil and mix for about 2 more minutes.

Then remove from the heat.

19. Add the white sauce to the soup mixture and stir to combine.

Let simmer for about 5-10 more minutes.

Then remove from the heat.

Add 2 1/2 heaping tablespoons sour cream and stir again.

Taste the soup and add salt to taste (if needed).

This is D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

Just trust me.

The best soup ever.

 

(This recipe was inspired by this lovely soup.)

 

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