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A & E

• Place Gouda, cream cheese, butter, milk and steak sauce in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
• Mix until well combined.
• Transfer mixture to refrigerator. Let chill overnight.
• Roll cheese mixture into a ball. Place nuts in a shallow dish.
• Roll cheese in nuts to fully coat.
• Serve with crackers.

• Bring the wine to a boil over a high heat in a small pan. Stir the jello into the hot wine in a glass or stainless steel bowl with a rubber spatula until the gelatin dissolves. This should take a couple of minutes.
• Stir in the cold water and lemon or lime juice.
• Place the bowl in a bigger bowl of iced water and let it stand for about 20 minutes until the jello partially sets.
• Grate the zest from an orange and set aside. Use a serrated knife to cut the oranges into segments. Stir the segments, zest, raspberries or strawberries and grapes into the partially set jello.
• Lightly spray 6-cup jello mold with the vegetable spray and pour the jello into it.
• Cover with plastic wrap and chill until set. This will take at least 4 hours.
• To un-mold the jello, run a knife around the inside edge of the jello mold and tip on to a serving platter. You can dip the outside of the mold into hot water for 5 seconds first to make it easier.
• Serves 8-10

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Allow cream cheese to come to room temp. and soften
• In a large mixing bowl, combined softened cream cheese, sour cream, lemon juice, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, 3/4 cup cheddar cheese and the mozzarella cheese. Add seafood seasoning to taste and mix, by hand, until all evenly distributed.
• Carefully blend in the crab meat. Add milk to moisten.
• Pour into a lightly greased deep dish pie pan. Sprinkle top with remaining cheddar cheese and top with parsley and more seafood seasoning to taste and add color.
• Bake at 350 degrees, until top is golden brown and sides are bubbling.
• Serves 10. Serve with crackers or chunks of a hearty, crusty bread for dipping.

Simple syrup is:

1. 4 cups water
2. 2 cups sugar
3. 3 vanilla beans
4. 3 nut megs
5. 10 cloves
6. 3 cinnamon sticks

• Boil all of above together, covered, for 1 hour.

• In 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, saute over medium heat for about 5 min a lb of skinless and boneless chicken breasts and thighs cut into 1.5 inch pieces. A heated clay pot on the stove does this very nicely.
• Lightly brown all around and add 3 Tablespoons of Hot Hungarian Paprika (key ingredient) .
• Turn and coat the pieces of chicken in the paprika allowing the paprika to lightly toast in the olive oil.
• Add half a teaspoon of cayenne if you really like it spicy.
• Gently squeeze out the soft garlic meat of a roasted full head of garlic (chopped garlic can be substituted) into the pan of sauteing chicken and paprika.
• Cook for about 4 min more, add another Tablespoon of olive oil heat for a min or two and then sift or sprinkle over the chicken about 2 Tablespoons of flour, cook for couple minutes more to get the flour
  blended and heated and set aside, covered to keep the moisture and flavor steaming in. The heat in the clay pan will keep cooking the contents of the pot slowly, so you might want to lightly stir once or twice.
• In another pan… preferably a clay cooking pot because I love what it does for breaking down the vegetables softly and the clay works to make a very velvety sauce, saute 1 chopped onion in 2 Tablespoons of oil. Saute slowly and let the onion completely break down till you have a caramel like sauce, you can speed this step up but the more you cook the onions the more complex the flavors of your dish will be.
• Chop finally half a red and half a green pepper. Cut the other half of each of the peppers in to medium chunks. We will save the chunks to add later. Combine with the cooked onions a half of the finely chopped green/red pepper mix and continue to saute. You will want to let these pepper onion ingredients get very soft. They are going to be a part of the smooth part of your paprika sauce.
• Cook for about 10 min, more covered… longer time, slower the cook, lower the heat the better.
  Patience makes a great stew particularly in a clay pot.
• Add 2 cups of chicken broth and the chicken mixture, the larger green and red pepper chunks. 1 teaspoon of salt and black pepper. Cover and simmer for 20 min. or as mentioned before Long, Slow, Low.
• In the last couple of minutes of cooking add 2 teaspoons of butter to add a nice gloss and flavor.
  Vegeta (not recommended because of MSG content) can be used to give it a quick jolt of flavor and is a staple in many Slavik homes. Serve immediately or reheat later. This recipe can be made and refrigerated a day in advance allowing the flavors to really develop. Rice is my personal favorite side dish for this stew or boiled potatoes could also be served to compliment this spicy chicken stew well. Gently roasted paprika and garlic are the key to the sauce and flavors in this main meat dish.