A Birthday and a Father's Day and a Lot of Food

At least they were on two separate days this year.  Last year cheated Dave.

Although this year, Dave cheated himself.  He informed me that he had purchased his Father's Day and birthday presents, and I was not to buy him anything else--to which I reluctantly agreed, since we're short on funds, but geez, at least let me pick them out!  But if he had, I would certainly not have bought the gift he wanted: Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home.  Yep, it would frankly never occur to me to buy him a cookbook, although that certainly is one I would have had my eye on for my own self.  It's not that Dave doesn't cook, or doesn't like good food, it's just...I don't know.

Anyway.  On Father's Day Toaster made buttermilk cornmeal pancakes with blueberries, which sound a little much, but were actually delicious.

 And then on Monday, I cooked three dishes of Dave's choosing from his chosen birthday present: blueberry cobbler, chicken thighs with fennel and olives, and corn on the cob with lime salt.

A little ambitious, to be sure.  But Willow cooperated greatly by napping for four whole hours, and so I was able to do vast amounts of prep.

And I even had so much time that I chopped very neatly and arranged everything and took pictures like a grownup food blogger type person that I have sort of vague fantasies of being.

Look at that prettiness.  Food is lovely.

But then the reason that I will never, ever be a food blogger woke up and got fussy and the cooking became more time-sensitive and less prep-like and then it was done and Dave and I were hungry and wanted to eat and completely forgot to take pictures of the finished products but believe me, they were both attractive and tasty.