LB looks so happy and content! Congrats!
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We enjoyed another excellent dinner at Jessica’s Cafe, including soft shell crab with zucchini pancakes, roasted corn, and Calabrian chili mayo; grilled pork chop with mustard caper sauce, roasted apples, and red cabbage; jumbo lump crab crepe. It all went great with an excellent Shiraz and Syrah.
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Pan-roasted Alaskan sockeye salmon. Caesar salad with garlicky, toasted baguette in lieu of croutons. Roasted garden carrots.
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Friday’s dinner was just my fam and my parents. Yesterday’s dinner also included my FIL. Wfd was vietnamese rice bowls with grilled pork. Yesterday, I posted the food and the table, and today I’m posting the table and the setting.
We also had the ice cream buffet to end all ice cream buffets. As many of you know, my big little has nut allergies, and he’s never been able to go to an ice cream spot and just get whatever. So I tried to create that experience for him at home. We had 10 pints, chocolate and caramel sauce, whip, choc chips, sprinkles, and cherries! I also realized it was the perfect opportunity to put up a lot of flavors from the same brand (B&Js here) and really compare and contrast in a way that is very hard when you only have one or two flavors at home. Educational experience bonus!
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My kind of ice cream tasting <3
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It was a Hard Week for me this week. Several things piled up, but the trigger was someone mistakenly convincing us it had been 6 months since we lost Dad (it’s been 5, half a year just hit different, but also thinking I didn’t remember exactly how long it has been).
Anyway, dinner catch-up:
Pasta night yesterday: Burrata and corn ravioi (TJs) for mom, fettucine aglio olio e peperoncino plus shrimp for us, homemade rosemary onion focaccia for all
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Parsi feast: Mutton Dhansak, caramelized onion rice, kababs, papad, onion salad, and a rare treat: fried dried bombil / Bombay Duck – the stinkiest of foods in existence (durian’s got nothing on this 
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Dad favorites: Chutney bheja fry (offal) with fresh pao (dinner rolls), plus kababs from his favorite place
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Laksa (doctored heavily starting from a packet)
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Chicken wings alla diavola with farfalle and broccoli soup (mom had “desi” pasta)
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Masoor (brown lentil) Biryani with onion raita and jowar (sorghum) papad
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If Larry doesn’t eat his dinner, try opening a can of tuna.
In my youth, I adopted a cat and she didn’t seem to want to eat (from time to time). If she went more than a day or two without eating her normal (dry) food, I’d open a can of tuna and set it out.
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She guards the table from our cat. If she doesnt get mussles you bet shes not letting the cat have any.
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He’s been eating some of the wet food at night - the breakfast/daytime food seems to be ignored. I’m going to pick up a couple of cans of Fancy Feast tonight on the way home (I usually give them grain-free) to see if that’s a bit more enticing to him.
But yeah, going to keep an eye on the dry food as well.
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What fun!
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There were some unhappy comments recently about folks participating in nominations but not actually cooking through COTM. With that in mind, I’m not sure inviting folks who don’t normally participate to nominate is useful. Just my opinion.
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My view fwiw is that it’s worthwhile for folks who we know cook often (ie WFD) to see that there’s opportunity to “cook along” with others (and that it’s fun, whether looking for dinner ideas in the same cookbook, or trying variations on the same dish).
To me the issue is more when people vote (vs nominate) but don’t cook — as in “I’d like to see other people cook from this book / cook this dish / etc even though I have no plans to cook any of it myself”.
Some of those monthly threads used to be a lot more active, so if we can get some more interest / momentum it would be more fun, even if there are some blips along the way.
Maybe it would help if we made a note in the header or as the first comment, for the benefit of newer folks to those threads, that nominating / voting is an implicit commitment to participating later? (@MelMM)
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Quiche for dinner tonight. Mushrooms and spinach, parmesan cheese, custard.
Stupid tart pan betrayed me and ruined my perfect crust (after I par-baked it) by leaking. First leaky quiche ever. Luckily I had held back some custard, so I blasted the heat to let the leaked egg set and seal the situation, then added the rest of the custard 
(Sis said she wouldn’t have known if I wasn’t complaining about it so loudly )
Mom decided at the last minute she didn’t want (eggless) quiche (ie thick-set bechamel with the same filling), so I repurposed the aglio e olio fettuccine I had left vegetarian for her last night. Added some sautéed spinach and paneer plus a bit of milk for sauciness.
(Thanks to @Lambchop for the oil crust tips from ages ago — I finally went back to those notes, and the crust was perfect.)
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Beautiful cat! Congratulations and best of luck & health.
When we got ours, he had already been named Larry (after the park ranger who found him-- my mom was working at a park visitor’s center where someone dumped him). We were going to name him Lawrence, which was kind of ironic.
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Such a natural pairing, spinach and mushrooms, in anything imho.
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It’s a favorite pizza topping combo for me. When I was a student I used to deliver pizza from a small, independent shop in my hometown. The pizza was actually quite good, so I’d often order from them as well. My standard order was 1/2 spinach, mushroom & prosciutto cotto, and 1/2 tuna, onion & corn.
Perfection π.
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I cooked, I cooked! The pasta was purchased at the culinary wonderland that is the Italian market near us, the chanterelles at the FM on Saturday.
Tagliolini ai funghi porcini con finferli. The cookware leaves much to be desired, but everything came out wonderfully. Started the ‘sauce’ with a mix of ghee & olive oil, rendered some diced bacon (and ended up spooning some of the fat out) until crispy, added diced shallots, then the chanterelles, splash of white, crème fraîche, fresh parsley – et voila. La pasta.
Side salad with my lettuce obsession, mâche, cherry tomatoes & half of a perfectly ripe avocado in a creamy mustard dressing.
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Day 2 dinner at Cabaret L’Enfer
Tasting menu with 7 courses + the lobster option + the Chef kindly showered my pasta course with black truffles gratuitement + wine pairing for 7 courses, a very special place indeed.
*It was easier to post my cheesy Instagram photos than to post individually.
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