2022 February 22

Too many cooks spoil the broth. I do most of the cooking at home. That’s the way I like it. I like cooking. I like using my creative juices to discover new combinations of flavors and cooking methods.
Since we are having company for lunch, last night we had discussed what to prepare. Ella said that since we have some frozen chicken breasts, we could have chicken with dressing.
While I was preparing breakfast this morning, Ella began getting the chicken from the freezer. She asked me to hand her a plate for the chicken so that she could reseal the bag and twin it to the freezer. Instead of a plate I handed her the insert for the Instapot. Why dirty a plate when it’s going to be cooked in the pot?
While she was putting the chicken back into the freezer, I added a little water to the pot and set it to pressure cook for ten minutes. I just wanted to thaw it and then sauté it and let it brown before returning it to the pressure cooker. Ella said, “What are you doing?” I explained that I was thawing the chicken. She said that it wasn’t necessary, we just needed to allow more time for it to slow cook.
I wasn’t going to slow cook it. After it was browned I was going to pressure cook it and then fix the dressing. She wanted to slow cook it with the dressing on top plus a can of cream of chicken soup over it all. So I took the chicken out and started to pour out the water. “Stop! What are you doing?” I was getting ready to brown the chicken, so I didn’t want water in the pot. I slowly began to realize that I wasn’t cooking lunch. Ella was. So I got out of the kitchen. That is until she told me she didn’t know how to set the Instapot. I tried to tell her how to set it. However, our interpersonal communication system was really broken by this time. I went in and set the machine.

At ten o’clock we went to the great room and had Coffee and Conversation with Friends. It should be more aptly called whatever you want to drink with aquntences. I only know the names of two of them. We are working on becoming friends.

Shortly before noon, Bill Kennedy arrived. The slow cooking chicken still had a hour and half left to cook. The potatoes were done and I mashed them. The peas were done and in the serving bowl. I cancelled the slow cook and pressure cooked the chicken for ten minutes. Ella had mixed up some 3, 2, 1 cake* which we had with strawberries. Bill stayed after lunch and played a few games of Fast Track. It was my day to win. It was nice to have time to spend with him today.