German Chicken and Dumplings and...Man Cream?

I'm a few weeks late on this, but better late than never, I guess!  I had a fabulous Easter weekend with my husband's family.  My absolute FAVORITE part was watching (and attempting to help) my German sister-in-law Iona make German chicken and dumplings and a wonderful dessert sent straight from German heaven called...Man Cream.  What an odd name, right?  I know what you're thinking, cause I thought the same thing too.  But seriously, it's delicious and I'll get to why it's called that in a minute.

We don't get to see Iona, Ben and their 4 month old baby girl Nora Elise (my favorite name ever), very often because they live in North Carolina and Ben is career military...which means he doesn't get to get away much.  So we made the most of it and I snuggled that baby as much as I could!  She is precious and just so chubby!  See?

My little munchkin has lost any remnant of babyhood chub and is now a lean and mean toddler.  I also forgot how much babies drool...

Anyway, Saturday night...Iona made us the traditional Sunday afternoon family meal in Germany.  Chicken and dumplings.  I WISH I would have copied her recipe, but it was in half German and half English (which is awesome by the way) and so I couldn't decipher it.  All I know is that I helped chop raw chicken livers and almost barfed.

Here it is in pictures...

The chicken...stuffed with sauteed hamburger, chopped chicken livers and onions.  She browned the chicken before it went into the water pot to boil. 

The dumplings, made mostly of bread, eggs, parsley and other stuff.  (No Bisquick here folks)

Then they are browned up to get a crunchy outside.

My sister-in-laws trying to turn the chicken in the pot.  They didn't really succeed, but I thought it was a great moment to capture. 

The chicken, boiling for a few hours in tomato sauce and water.

The end result was fabulous.  I mean...fabulous.  Definitely not my mom's version of chicken and dumplings, but this one took al ot more time and was truly a work of art.  I just wish I would have written down the recipe!

On to the man cream...I actually made most of this and I loved it!   Man Cream is a german traditional dessert made by the wives/mothers in the family to ensure that their men stick around.  Legend has it that it's so good, that it's supposed to keep them at home.  Let me tell you...I think legend is right.

First you make the pudding...but it's not just any pudding...it's this kind. It's made pretty much just like the jello stuff too.  Except it has a much richer taste and it's not as sweet.

Then you let it cool.  While it's cooling you whip your cream.

And then add this:

It's meant to keep your whipped cream stiff.  Once the pudding is completely cool, you add some rum.  Yup, the traditional German liquor of...rum.

Then you fold the cream in to the pudding very, very slowly...a little at a time.

Then you add chocolate chips, fold those in slowly and top with more chocolate.

Simple and delicious.  German food = Awesome.