Hungarian Goulash and Spaetzle

Another few fun words to say.... Goulash and spaetzle. I had this dish last July in Tyrolean Inn in Ben Lomond. It was so good! I attemtped to make this as a part of my Sunday morning tradition (aka making something wonderful/ trying something new every Sunday!) The dish was definitely better at the restaurant... but this was pretty darn tasty as well.

What's goulash? Depends on who you ask and where you are. The Hungarian version, has Hungarian paprika ( which I did not have :( ) and can be made with or without tomatoes and bell peppers. I made it with tomatoes because I want a thick base. It's a simple stew, just onions, stewed beef, a few spices, and I threw in a potato to thicken it up. I substituted Hungarian paprika for some regular paprika with a pinch of cumin. I read that this was the next best thing... it probably tastes far off from real hungarian paprika, but I don't think I will ever be able to distinguish between the two. In my pantry, I have regular paprika, smoked, and Spanish... no Hungarian... never even thought about it.. oh well, maybe next I'm in Seattle I'll pick it up :)

My Ugly Spaetzle :(

What's spaetzle? It's an egg noodle/ pasta thing. I attempted to put it through a ricer but then it started clumping together, my quick thinking did not let the dough hit the boiling water.... because I knew I'd end up with a HUGE clump of pasta. I decided to do it the very rustic way... cutting each piece by hand... it was messy, ugly, and probably way too big, but definitely still edible. Next time I will be a little bit more careful. I didn't care to sauté it with butter since I was ladling the stew over it.

March has been quite an eventful month for me in terms of blogging. I'm glad I've finally come back to it. Something about blogging to me just makes me feel so at ease. Last month I had almost 17 thousand page views, yay! I've branched out of the normal cupcakes and cookies recipes.... and tried my hand in cooking. This was great because I had an awful diet for quite some time now. I finally feel well nourished! I can't believe it's April now.. time sure does fly. Now onto my week 2... filled with fun teeth pulling... and trying not to be ridiculously irate at my upstairs neighbor who just moved in.... seriously, is it so hard to pick up your feet when you walk? I've never been so frustrated.... she moves like a mile a day in a freaking studio and stomps around in heels (is that really necessary.... when you're at home?) FML in deed. All I wanted to do was relax in bed this morning, but I couldn't... you would think people had places to go or at least want to take it slow one day... It's only been a week... and my peace at home is definitely ruined.... ridiculously ruined :( I am bummed. The worst is that I can't have a quiet kitchen anymore because she stomps around on top of me as I'm cooking... I've been blasting music to try to muffled that heavy footed nuisance.. but I'm sure I'm just annoying my neighbors downstairs as well. Arg. I will figure this out. I love my apt. I love my time spent in it... but lately.. I'm having my excuses to leave. I pay too much for this to happen though..All I'm asking is for some peace and quiet... apparently that's too much to ask in an apt building :( .. Welcome to city life?

I've been on all recipes a lot lately... I used to use that site more but with all the advertisements... I started just looking on people's blogs. I remember when it used to be such a simple website... now.. like many things it's gotten out of hand with sponsors, and featured recipes with name brand products.. not to mention paid memberships to use cool features :( .. oh well foodgawker.com is still my go to site for recipes and inspiration :)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/hungarian-goulash-i/
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/german-spaetzle-dumplings/