ROSSFORD – Chicken Boblagosh is a family staple for Bob and Tina Toth, that is a quick and easy recipe with Hungarian roots.

It’s pronounced “Bob”-la-gosh and the meal is a play on Bob’s name and Hungarian paprikash.

“The magic happens when you put in the paprika and the sour cream,” Tina said. “Really, it’s just throwing stuff together that tastes good.”

Bob said he began seriously cooking when he was laid off several years ago. He started by using the classic Betty Crocker cookbook and the recipe for meatloaf. He then expanded his cooking repertoire to the family recipe for paprikash, giving credit to Tina for teaching him.

“I like to use the chicken thighs, because they’ve got a little fat on them,” Bob said of his evolution with the dish.

He’s also done variations on the noodles, settling on basic egg noodles.

“We tried it with rice — it was edible, but I won’t do it again,” Tina said.

The real key is the paprika.

It requires Budapest’s Best: Sweet Delicate Hungarian Style Paprika. They have made Boblagosh so many times that they didn’t know the exact amount of the spice to use.

“We don’t know yet, I go by color,” Bob said.

It also depends a bit on the chicken. The juiciness of the chicken will make a difference. They initially thought it would be 3 tablespoons, but it ended up being four.

They get the paprika on Amazon, but have also found great paprika at Lee William’s House of Meats in Maumee.

Bob enjoys working on creating real things.

He’s a maintenance mechanic at MSC Walbridge Coatings, as well as a Rossford councilman, elected last November.

“They break stuff. We fix stuff,” Toth says about his day job.

He is also involved in the union, as a negotiator and union steward.

His wife Tina is proud of her husband, and more than happy to fill in gaps about his background.

“He was an ironworker for 15 years. He pops his collar a little bit every time he drives by a job he worked on,” Tina said. “He has his stamp all over the place. It’s pretty cool.”

Bob worked on the last two wind turbines installed just outside Bowling Green and at the casting yard for the Veterans Glass City Skyway Bridge in Toledo.

He said that Tina takes care of business at home, which includes homeschooling daughter Ella, who is 12 and attends the Ohio Virtual Academy.

The OVA educational option is one that has worked well for Ella. It wasn’t something they had considered as an option until the pandemic hit. Now, the fit is good for her.

“She’s thriving and a happy 12-year-old. That’s the goal, right?” Tina said.

Bob likes to show his daughter his work as they drive around Northwest Ohio.

“I did a lot of cool jobs,” Bob said.

“Believe me, Ella has had the tour. He puts her in the car and will say, ‘See that windmill over there? I helped put in those last two sets of turbines,’” Tina said.

“I’ve never seen a crane with so much counterweight,” Bob added. “It took over a week to move everything, because of disassembly, to move everything over to the next windmill. That was a fun job.”

He wasn’t there during the accident that killed four ironworkers during the construction of the Skyway Bridge, but he knew them and they were friends. He recommended checking out the memorial.

They have embraced city life.

“But Rossford is a great place to raise a family. I love it here. Right now I like where we’re going. There’s a lot of good happening,” Bob said.

They have a menagerie of pets, including three dogs and two cats and birds, a number that basically doubled when they brought Tina’s mother in to live with them a few months ago. She’s a Star Wars fan and Star Wars memorabilia collector, which works well for Bob. He became a fan as a kid, and is loving the various series that have come out in the last few years.

He wore one of his original shirts for the Boblagosh photo.