Umm… I don’t agree with this in several familial situations where other people are ridiculously messy cooks who use 4x the number of dishes needed for anything.
I’d so much rather clean my own mess as I go (mom’s training to avoid a pile-up and also to reuse cooking vessels that could be reused rather than dirty 3 more), and whatever little is left at the end after putting away leftovers, so it’s a bit of a problem when people want to go with “I’ll cook, you clean” 
I clean as I go too, or at least I try to.
But when dinner is over, I don’t mind hearing, “I’ll clean since you cooked”. I hear that frequently. 
That’s the deal at my house. I cook, the others do the dishes. Although I do the dishes as I need them, when I don’t have enough utensils or cookware to cook the next meal.
Last night we had Sushi Bowls again (by request – if you’re counting, 3 days prior was the previous instance, and the repeat request was made the very next morning ).
My vegetable bulk-ups were a zingy wasabi slaw and sesame carrots, along with a soy and sesame oil-dressed avocado salad with perfectly ripe avocados.
Mom had a tomato and avocado salad dressed the same way as ours, toast, and fresh malai (cream) paneer in case she needed a bit more substance (she said didn’t, but ate it anyway because she loves fresh paneer). Plus soup.
Seafood component in the previous instance was tuna (trying to make a dent in the stockpile of Ortiz cans), but last night we had fresh black tiger prawns.
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The first half of tonight’s dinner was bhel – usually a snack, but my mom loves it and won’t eat as much as she wants to if there’s a full dinner later, so I planned it as part of dinner tonight. I was thinking of you @gcaggiano as I mixed each batch 
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The second half of mom’s dinner was the leftover pizza from the other night. The second half of our dinner is blurred for the offal-queasy – my sis’s specialty of brain cooked in green chutney and ghee in the style of our late neighbor. Vegetable barley soup for everyone.
When I lived in Southern California, I’d sometimes have Japanese friends doing long term stays with me from 1 month to nearly 1 year. I would offer to cook as I love to cook (especially for others!) but am not fond of washing dishes (and didn’t have a dishwasher). They and my one Couchsurfer (from Sweden) agreed to do the dish washing for me). It always worked out well.
Speaking of Couchsurfing, it was nearly almost a positive experience as a host. I never had anyone put me up on their couch, though. Here in Japan I’ve never had enough room to put anyone up for more than a night or two, but I did guide a few tourists around Tokushima. I did so for a Japanese-Brazilian lady, a Portuguese man and 2 Japanese ladies from Nagoya…those were good experiences. My only bad one was with a Frenchmen who thought I would be an excellent interpreter so that he could meet young Japanese women during the Awa Dance Festival (1,000,000 visitors/participants over 4 days in mid-August). After 10-15 minutes of me interpreting and realizing his intentions, I told him I would have no more part of his scheme and left him on his own. He didn’t succeed with the few women did the interpreting for and I hope he failed with all the rest (rant over).
So sorry for your losses. So glad for your love of sharing food and drink. There are biological family and chosen family. Our parents have been gone for many years. My only brother is half the country away. We have several chosen family we love to feed. Most of them are from church, but any place where like minded people gather will. Alla famiglia!
When we lived in Japan, I learned to intensely dislike daikon. And to this day, cannot eat it.
What a shame. Such a versatile and IMO delicious Vegetable. Not to mention widely used all over most of Asia.
https://maunikagowardhan.co.uk/cook-in-a-curry/spicy-lamb-chilli-pickle/
We had this on a bed of homemade hummus with pita. Quite lovely after it’s had a couple days in the fridge to let flavors meld!
B/S chicken breast, seasoned with s/p and dried thyme, pan-seared in olive oil.
Meanwhile, several shallots and a cup of red grapes were roasting at 400° in the convection oven. Chicken was added to finish cooking.
White wine and a splash of lemon juice added to the sauté pan, reduced, then some heavy cream and cold butter whisked in for a sauce.
Served slices of the chicken with the lemon & white wine sauce on Near East rice pilaf with steamed green beans alongside.
Wine.
I went through an Andrew Zimmern phase years ago where I tried all kinds of offal but never brain. It was never available.
Where does one even acquire an ingredient like that? No Asian or Indian market I’ve been to carries it, despite a variety of offal.
I agree.
We have entered a disgusting 
deep freeze that is supposed to last well over a week. Perfect weather for more soup, then.
I made enough to include a hefty portion for another barter meal to feed our cat sitter & her hubster: white bean, nduja & kale soup, with a quarter sliced fennel thrown in & few baby taters that were lounging on the counter bc why not?
I’d picked up the nduja at DiBruno’s in Philly, and have been wanting to recreate a white bean & nduja soup I had at a local café for lunch forever. This has more stuff in it but it’s mighty tasty, and that nduja (and therefore, the soup) is S-P-I-C-Y!
Salad on the side bc of course there is salad on the side
We were invited to our friends’ place. They are vegetarian and made a red lentil soup. I brought homemade onion-dill bread, a green salad with dried cherries, pistachios, and sumac-balsamic vinaigrette, and a broccoli salad with cashews, golden raisins, aged cheddar, tomatoes, and a classic sweet dressing.
Coq au Riesling tonight, inspired by the Nigel Slater, Felicity Cloake and Serious Eats recipes.
We enjoyed another sensational dinner at The Circle Restaurant in Fredon, NJ, including raviolo with B O L O G N E S E B I A N C O ,
W I N T E R T R U F F L E C R E A M , P A R M E S A N F R I C O , L A R D ON; Hen of the woods mushrooms with C E L E R I A C P U R É E , P I C K L E D JI M M Y N A R D E L L O , Y U Z U K O S H O , M U S H R O O M D E M I - G L A C E; whole roasted lobster with G U A J I L L O C O M P O U N D B U TTE R , G A R L I C , E S C A R O L E , F O C A C C I A C R O U T O N; char grilled duck breast with C O A L R O A S T E D C A B B A G E , S P I C Y M U S T A R D , C O N F I T D U C K S P R I N G R O L L. Please excuse the CAPS 
I copy and pasted the descriptions from the online menu. It all went great with an excellent Chateauneuf Du Pape and red blend.
The Funk Zone in Santa Barbara are a few blocks of restaurants, bats, coffee shops in downtown close to the beach. Most of the places there tend to be more focused on attracting a young crowd than really focusing on the quality of dishes. The one exception for us was The Lark https://www.thelarksb.com/ which just celebrated its 10 year anniversary and is a great example of a place which emphasizes interesting New American cooking with still a great, rustic ambiance and good service. It’s a place which encourages shared plates (which tend to be quite generous plated) and so we order a few examples from different parts of their menu and didn’t have any disappointments - and a well executed cocktail list adds positively to the place
That’s an incredible selection of gorgeous food 
