I was five steps away from my hood mama friend's door for an impromptu play date yesterday  (read: cooing over her new babe, Gabe + complaint session) when my celly rang. What? Oh, yes I did indeed forget my mother-in-law was coming over for dinner. And to spend the night. Beginning in 35 minutes. 

We still play dated for 20 of those minutes though, then I ran my buns back to my house for some GENIUS stew making. Seriously, how genius is this: I sauteed garlic and an onion in a pot so the whole house smelled like dinner (mwahahaha) and bought myself a few minutes to do some thinking and mess-hiding.

I added water to the pot, cut up a piece of celery, shredded three carrots and added salt. Boom, veggie broth, right? I set a little aside for my vegetarian self and carried on. Somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain I remember my little Mamaw telling me how to make dumplings. Flour + water + shortening rolled out and sliced. I did it and threw it in my stews. Then I cut up some chicken and tossed it in the meat eater pot.

It simmered for a while and they ate it! It was good! Not to be all I'm-so-awesome (but who am I kidding?) it was *so* good that I was dying to make it again today. I had more time so I added the step of pureeing the broth in the blender before adding the little dumplings. And of course I took pictures. Because I do that.