Chicken Stroganoff

Chicken Stroganoff is a lovely variation of the well-known and famous Beef Stroganoff.

 

Beef or chicken, frankly, this dish is amazing.

Just imagine – tender chunks of meat covered with flavorful creamy sauce served over hot noodles.

 

And I haven’t told you everything yet.

Ladies and gentlemen… there’s bacon!

See?

You just have to make this…
 
 

This is what you need.

Plus noodles.

 
 

1. First, chop the leek.

You can also use onion instead.

 
 

2. Cut the skinless and boneless chicken breast into strips or cubes, whatever you prefer.

 

I parted that chicken myself.

Early in the morning.

There’s nothing like parting a chicken while drinking coffee early in the morning.

There’s certain magic to it.

Horror magic.

 
 

3. In a large non-stick skillet or pan, fry the slices of bacon over medium heat…

 
 

… until crisp.

 

4. Remove the bacon from the pan and cut it into small chunks (or crumble it).

 
 

5. Add the leek to the drippings in the pan.
 
 

6. Then add the chicken cubes/strips.

 
 

7. Sauté together for about 6 minutes, stirring frequently.

 
 

8. Now we need our spices: ground black pepper, red paprika, pressed or minced garlic cloves, and salt.

 
 

9. Throw all the spices into the chicken-leek mixture. Add the bouillon and bacon.

 

10. Bring the mixture to a boil. Then cover, reduce heat, and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

 

You may want to transfer the whole mixture into a smaller pot if you don’t have a lid that large.

 
 

11. In the meantime you can cook the noodles.

 

12. Also, in a small bowl, combine the sour cream and the flour and stir until smooth.

 
 

13. Add the sour cream mixture to the pan/pot. Bring to a boil.

 

14. Then reduce heat and let simmer for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Your sauce will become thicker and creamier.

 
 

Serve your Chicken Stroganoff over hot noodles.

 

Enjoy, dear friends.

 

(This recipe was adapted from ivillage.com and make 2 portions.)

 

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Scrambled Egg Muffins

Happy New Year, dear friends!

I wish you health, love, happiness and joy!

And I am completely sure that you’ll have it all.

Some things I just know.

 

What I am also sure about is that you’ll love these scrambled egg muffins.

The idea comes from lovely and cute Jessica Seinfeld. She presented the recipe on Martha Stewart’s show recently.

The recipe is included in her cook book called ‘Deceptively Delicious’ where she shares very smart secrets on how to trick your kids into eating healthy stuff.

Cool, huh?

 

To tell you the truth, I am kind of blushing now. I need to own up to something. But it’s a little hard… because I think I’ve done something really naughty.

Maybe worse than naughty.

The original recipe includes chopped chickpeas and I just left them out wickedly.

And, I added salt.

Aaaaa…

I can only hope that the universal committee for healthy living will forgive me.

But I think they have to because these muffins tasted just amazing.

 
 

Here’s what we need.
 
 

1. First, preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C).
 

2. Then lay the strips of bacon in a large frying pan (or skillet, or griddle).
 
 

3. And fry them until crisp.
 
 

4. Slice the bacon thinly into 1/2-inch pieces.

You can also cut the bacon with kitchen shears if that makes the job easier for you.

 
 

5. In a bowl, whisk the eggs lightly.
 
 

6. Then whisk in the milk…
 
 

7. …and Parmesan, parsley, black pepper, and salt.
 
 

Nice.
 
 

8. Now we need six standard muffin tins. Metal or silicone, both are good.

Coat the cups with some vegetable oil (you can brush the cups with the oil or use non-stick cooking spray).

 

9. Divide the egg mixture evenly among the prepared cups.

 
 

10. And sprinkle with the bacon.
 
 

11. Bake at 400 °F (200 °C) for 13 – 15 minutes or until the eggs puff and are cooked through.

 

And in case you wondered, the person in the picture looks very much how I look these days.

You wanted to know it, so now you know it.

 

12. Then remove your egg muffins from the muffin pan and let them cool slightly before serving.

 
 

Here they are.

Just adorable.

A great idea for breakfast or lazy brunch, don’t you think?

 
 

The hearts are red bell pepper.

I’ve used sharp metal cookie cutters to cut them out.
 
 

See how deliciously moist they are?

Mmm.

And they are packed with wonderful and very satisfying savory flavors.

These are totally worth a try!

 

Enjoy, dear friends!

 

(This recipe has been loosely adapted from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. It yields six muffins and takes about 30 minutes to prepare.)
 

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Bacon and Cheese Biscuits

I’d love to reveal a little secret about our monkey household of two.

We love biscuits! All sorts of them!

Unbelievable, huh?

 

Biscuits are especially enjoyed by the male monkey over here.

You should see his smile each time he finds out they are in the oven.

It’s the widest and most content smile I’ve ever seen.

And when the biscuits are done my boyfriend immediately grabs his plate of at least fourteen and hurries to watch his favorite sitcoms.

I love to make biscuits because somehow they make the world a perfect place.

They are magical.
 
 

Here are the ingredients.
 
 

And here’s the bacon.

It’s a crucial part of the magic.
 
 

1. To make your own Bacon and Cheese Biscuits, first preheat the oven to 390 °F (200 °C).

 

2. Then slice the bacon thinly.
 
 

3. In a large pan, fry the bacon over moderate heat until crisp.

This will take a couple of minutes.
 
 

4. When beautifully crispy, remove the bacon from the pan and crumble it finely.
 
 

5. Grab the cheese and grate it.
 
 

Just like this.

This is a lot of cheese.

 

The cheese mostly will constitute the flavor of your biscuits. So choose the one you really like.

It’s completely up to you.

I used Leerdammer. Next time I’ll try Cheddar, I think.

It’s fun because the biscuits can be different every time.
 
 

6. Now we need a large bowl.

Using a pastry cutter (or just a fork), combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper and butter until crumbs form.
 
 

7. Stir in the grated cheese and the bacon.
 
 

8. Then add the milk…
 
 

9. …and stir together just until the dry ingredients are well moistened.
 
 

10. Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and make a Halloween face out of it.

Sorry.

What I really mean is that now you should knead the dough 4 – 5 times.

To make the biscuits perfectly soft, the trick is not to over-knead the dough.

 
 

11. Roll it out to about 1/2 inch (1 cm) thickness.

When it gets sticky use some flour to make the job easier.
 
 

12. Cut out rounds using a 2-inch (5 cm) cutter.

Pat the scraps together, re-roll them and cut out some more rounds.
 
 

13. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Arrange your biscuits on the sheet about 1/2 inch (2.5 cm) apart.
 
 

14. And bake them for about 15 minutes.
 
 

These are so yummy.

Enjoy, dear friends!

 

This recipe makes about 36 biscuits.

(The recipe was adapted from LeitesCulinaria.com.)
 

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