Sunday, April 16, 2017

Three Beautiful Things 04/15/17: The Deke Hops on Amtrak, Recovery Day, Potato Soup and Dumpling School

1. The Deke and I spent one full day together upon my arrival back to Greenbelt. Around 11:30 this morning, I dropped her off at the New Carrollton Amtrak station so she could travel to Nyack, NY to see Adrienne and Jack. I'll join them on Tuesday.

2. For the most part, today was a recovery day of resting after travel and a late-ish night at the Diaz's last night. After arriving back at our apartment home from the train station, I only went out one more time for Maggie's dog food and some groceries.

3. After making potato soup at Mom's the other night, I decided to give it another go with a few variations. I used up a little bit of half and half and used whole milk, not evaporated milk. I wanted my soup to have a deeper flavor and I was pleased with my idea to season it with cumin. I tend to like spinach in almost anything. I noticed we had a clump of frozen spinach in the freezer so I tossed that in. So, I started by cooking chopped onions and celery in butter until they were tender. Then I added chopped carrots, potatoes, cumin, and some flour, covered them with water, brought them to a boil, added the frozen spinach, turned down the heat, and when the carrots and potatoes were tender I poured in half and half and whole milk. I salted and peppered the soup at various intervals and ended up with a dinner I enjoyed.

Later, in preparation for a possible visit to Dumpling Galaxy in Flushing, Queens this coming week, I watched an episode of Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse on amazon.  In it, Lagasse and Mario Batali travel to Shanghai to sample dumplings at three different places and then one of the establishments lets them use their kitchen and they make dumplings and serve them to the staff. I very much enjoyed learning more about the art of making dumplings and the technique of eating them.

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