Tonight was going to be ossobuco e risotto alla Milanese, but Mr. CE wasn't able to start cooking early enough so we pushed it until tomorrow and we got sushi delivered instead.

My Mom and Aunt are driving out next week for a few nights (before heading on to see other family). They'll be here a few months shy of my Mom's 80th birthday, so I'm trying to figure out a special early birthday dinner for her. We made a wonderful seafood chowder a few weeks ago, so I was thinking about doing that with fresh-baked bread and either a cake or Dutch baby pancake (a family fav) for dessert. My Aunt lived in Ethiopia for years and doesn't live in an area with an abundance of Ethiopian restaurants, so I always try to give her one Ethiopian meal when she's in town (and fortunately some of our favs are doing takeout). She's vegetarian/pescetarianish (but will eat anything she's offered -- a down-to-earth attitude after spending much of her career working and living in remote corners of the world that don't cater to special diets), so I'm brainstorming a few other meal ideas for their visit.