My first attempt to make Great-Grandma Andrews's chicken paprikash all by myself. I think I did a great job at least for having never done it before. Grandma Elsie would have been proud. Of course, there were several phone calls to my mother for emergency assistance, but generally all went well. I mostly cook vegetarian stuff, so this was not my usual kind of meal.
Chopping took up a lot of the day. Five onions! Four cucumbers, green peppers and fresh tomatoes. By the time dinner rolled around I was exhausted and wondering how women in the past did two big meals a day all the time.
Another challenge was my teeny kitchen with no counter space. It comes complete with a teeny stove and teeny refrigerator with a moderate-sized sinks. I've navigated smaller kitchens before -- that were literally closets or just a corner of the living room, so I wasn't too put off by this. The key is a butcher block with a big-ish space to work with. Living in NYC teaches you to make the best of every inch of space you have. I think this is a good lesson for me, especially coming from the suburbs where there is oodles of space to spread out and collect things you may not need.
I invited a couple of girlfriends over and we had the Paprikash with the famous cucumber salad, citrus salad with mint and feta and mini-cupcakes. Of course, the Hungarian wine was flowing. After that we just hung out at my place watching the olympics and having some laughs together.
Also, it was the first time I was able to open up my table to its full size. My apartment is small, but if you move things around you can fit six around the table. How exciting!
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