One last dinner with close friends before I leave for a few weeks.
They wanted to cook Mexican (new and exciting to them, lol to me given that it’s my nephews’ #1 cuisine choice) from a cookbook series they like.
I volunteered to make apps and dessert. (Other dinner guests also brought dessert (unannounced), so we had two giant tubs of vanilla ice cream 
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Apps: Mini (impossible) quiches Lorraine, Tuna spuma with pita crackers (I would have preferred breadsticks but they were out of stock).
Mains: Beef stew (not mexican, but New Mexican, lol), big salad (lettuce, pickled onions, grilled corn, tomatoes, avocado, and cotija), garlic shrimp, black beans, rice.
Dessert: French apple cake, flourless chocolate “brownie” cake (purchased), vanilla ice cream
I used some of the preserved lemons I made during the pandemic in the tuna, and it provided a lovely variation.
The mini quiches are getting closer to a texture I like – they were too muffin-y the first time, softer yesterday. I’m going to play with the proportions and baking temp and time to get to what I’d like them to be.
Pics only of what I made.
