This is my friend

She does things like bringing me homemade fish tacos, getting my kids to clean my house while I’m away, setting up my kid’s birthday party when I was sick with the flu and buying me Jimmy Choo boots for my birthday. She also gets and laughs at all my jokes, well, most of my jokes.

Recently I noticed that we had both gotten so busy with our lives that we had not seen or talked to each other for weeks. This is quite odd given the fact she lives in my building.

I had the perfect excuse to continue to be lazy about my friendship. A new baby, my kids, piles of laundry, but I decided something needed to be done, so I invited her out for a girl date. She had commitments all week so we planned to have a Halloween dinner party at my place so we could invite all the kids and mutual friends.

My friend has an Irish husband (actually from Ireland) so I decided to make beef stew.

My beef stew recipe is a twist on the Pot Roast Recipe from Whole Foods. I add extra broth and whiskey, chop up the meat after it’s cooked and thicken the broth with organic corn meal.

I was planning of feeding 10-12 people. I made my list and headed to the market. When I told the butcher what piece of meat I wanted, a huge boneless chuck roast, he picked it up, weighed it and tried to hide his excitement. I said to him-

“you are excited about this aren’t you”

“Yes, I am actually pretty excited you are getting this huge piece of meat” he said

“It’s actually really easy to cook it” I replied.

“But no one will know that” he said

We continued to converse about how I make it until he HAD to get to the other 5 people waiting.

Dry rubbed roast ready for browning

The upside of planning a party at your house is you HAVE to clean it, so you get it done rapidly. We got the house handled pretty quickly and  my friend came over and decorated. We also got Ella into her costume.

Zombie Princess

The guests arrived casually over the next hour and a half. We ate. We laughed. The kids played and we had an amazing time. The Irishman told me the stew “reminded me of my mums”. Sniff sniff, all the eyes in the room got misty.

I am so glad I made time for my friend. I have the added bonus of a clean house and really good leftovers.

The kids had a great time

Comment and lets talk about ways to keep friendships or relationships with anyone created and fun!

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Jennifer Latch