Mirepoix, mysteries and dishes.

Jeremy made a slightly longer than one day trip to Philly yesterday, so it was just going to be “the girls” at home – Edda, me and Elka. Sometimes I’m like – I just want to spend the time by myself, but I overruled my initial reaction and invited Megan over for the afternoon and evening of low-key cooking and chatting.

I like this particular NYT’s recipe for chicken and dumplings which involves making a mirepoix which somehow sounds fancy and complicated, but it’s not really. I make this recipe about once a year and it’s all out comfort food to eat and soothing to cook as well. It takes a lot of the afternoon, but it’s nice to step through the steps and have the kitchen fill up with various aromas. I’ve always cooked this alone and never while actively chatting. Turns out, it’s hard for me to multitask – the chatting and following the recipe, but it did end up getting done at the right time – dinnertime.

It also involves leeks which I enjoy chopping and washing.

When Megan comes over, I like to try make layered colored non-alcoholic drinks. So I made a crushed pineapple, mango juice and grenadine mix which kind of layered a little bit, but was fun to eat/drink.

We also like to play these murder mysteries, we were not confident in our selection of the murderer – but it’s not the gardener!

I went to bed without washing any dishes, so I awoke to this. But now the kitchen is clean again and I’m going to enjoy the rest of this long weekend.