Tonight’s dinner was a beef and pepper stirfry. A little too much sauce and will pair better with rice than the rice noodles I used but the flavours were good.
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Thanks. It’s a floribunda, it seem very happy that I repotted it last fall.
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There’s been a ton of cooking but I’ve been too exhausted (mentally, physically, and every other way) to take pics or write it up. Bit more relaxed the past couple of days, so I paused to get my phone before we dug in.
Barbecue pork ribs with an Asian bent, garlic green beans (a la din tai fung copycat pandemic practice), rice. We started with a light vegetable soup — bottle gourd, aromatics, red lentils, vegetable stock. Mom had the soup along with “baby” onion-tomato uttapams (rice pancakes).
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We’ve been waiting on mom’s tummy to settle again before having pizza night as it seemed mean to eat something she loves while she watched. Her appetite and interest seemed to have returned in the last day, so I took a chance, and she actually ate a “whole” pizza (6" thin crust) – which is a Big Deal at the moment.
I topped each of 4 pies differently – olives and grilled artichokes, pesto and taleggio, leftover kheema (from the freezer) and pickled onions, and white / 3-cheese with smoked salmon (after it came out of the oven). Thought we might run short, so I also made bread pizza from the last few slices, topped with assorted things.
The kheema pie was my favorite - can’t believe I haven’t done that before, because it tastes like lahmacun’s long-lost brother (I adore lahmacun). Sis was tied between the pesto and the smoked salmon white pie. Mom ate 3/4 of the olives and artichoke and 1/4 of the pesto and enjoyed both equally she said. Think we will make this a weekly occurrence (I just need to streamline my prep process and make less of a mess hahaha).
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And sis made a delicious and apparently easy Kerala Prawn Moilee / Mollee / Molly I need to learn from her.
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Last week we had puri fest (and I did remember to take pics because there are so many puri lovers on WFD) – puris, potato bhaji, shrikhand: our quintessentially celebratory meal for a birthday amid a garbage pile of a year. Mom taught me something new for frying the puris, which worked like a charm. We made 50% more puris than the count (ie asking everyone how many they will eat)… and 2 were left 
(If my little nephew were here, we would have been 10 short even after the overage.)
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This would make a good math problem: If your mother says she will eat six puris, and your sister says she will eat four, how many should you serve?
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To say you are amazing would be an understatement! The meal is amazing as well!!
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Last night’s dinner was “Railroad Pie”. I saw this recipe on youtube and decided to give it a try. It was actually pretty good. (Recipe Credit: Catherine’s Plates)
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Thank you so much. I will use your tip and my stash of schmaltz. 
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I know, right?
With the kids it’s easy — they look at their mom out of the corner of their eye and state half as many as they will eat, which everyone knows.
With the adults it’s trickier, because you have to figure out who is going to summon superhuman self control to keep to their “diet” and who is going to say the heck with it as soon as the puris appear.
More like a poker hand than a math problem 
One person’s count also changes depending on whether the puris are being fried hot as we eat (meaning someone is frying first and eating later) vs being fried all at once. Same person also eats cold (leftover) puris as long as they are available, which is very confusing.
Somehow my mom has everyone’s number. Never fallen short, and always a few left for the cold-puri-snackers not to be disappointed, but not too many that they will get thrown away.
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Aww you’re too kind @Nannybakes 
It’s not bragging’ if it’s true😄
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Between this last and this:
you have a nice jump on your best-selling workbook.
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Indeed. Now if only there were a market for these types of things, I could get rich off these silly musings.
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Mom’s appetite is thankfully coming back, so we are weaving in lighter favorites to tempt her to eat a bit more each day.
Tonight we had one of her signature dishes: cauliflower cheese. Her portion was light on butter and cheese. Accompanied by toasted focaccia.
The rest of us had her regular version of cauliflower cheese, plus chicken liver crostini on garlic bread. I’ve loved chicken liver since childhood days when my dad would fry up a batch as a special snack on days he went to the market, as soon as he got back, before he started cleaning and organizing his purchases (on fish market days it was fried prawns, and both were occasionally wrapped in bacon which took them completely over the top 
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I also cooked gizzards for the first time ever – sis enjoys them, but it was not something our family ever ate, she learned to eat it at a friends’ house. Made those with some masala blend I made up as I went along: she hasn’t complained yet so hopefully it turned out okay.
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How did I FORGET that I made PAKODAS today?
Monsoon is in full swing, which calls for hot tea and fried snacks! But - mom’s tummy is still recovering, so I lightened up the batter and swapped deep frying for the appe pan (like an aebleskiver or takoyaki pan, but the South Indian version). Mom ate 4, so that was a resounding success.
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OMG those chicken livers!! Everything else looks delicious to.
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They were so tasty. I’ve been craving them for probably a year, I don’t know why I don’t make them more often 
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I should really seek some out, it’s been ages since I’ve had them 
Looks fab
(…no…)
If they still do it though, their cheese stuffed fried portabello burger slaps.
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Oh, yum! And beautiful blooms.
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Don’t forget Griessnockerl (semolina)! Or are those only in Austria (and maybe Tyrol)?
