Sorry, I’m so late posting! My website was down this morning, and I had to wait for the hosting site to do whatever they did to fix it. It’s all good now. ~DD

Yesterday, I underwent a PET scan to see how all those rounds of chemo did. I read the radiologist’s report and instantly went into “Google-MD” mode with my daughter, but I’ll wait to see whether my pieced-together diagnosis matches my oncologist’s on Monday. Damn, I hate waiting! I’ll share whatever he tells us. You’ve followed me, supported me, and encouraged me all along the way; you deserve to know the good or bad that comes of all this.

So, onto today’s puzzle!

Maybe you don’t know it, but I love food. I’m a huge foodie. I’ll try anything. Traveling to so many different countries in my younger days, I was game for anything. I remember eating a shared sheep’s head sitting in the middle of a bed of couscous on a huge tray with half a dozen Saudis around me—so delicious. A Greek woman, who I visited in her home, made a lovely Greek salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, olives—and octopus. I tried it, and guess what? I loved it! I have so many fond memories of food adventures.

These days, I’m a bit homebound, but my daughter has my foodie gene and finds exotic things to cook. The kids aren’t always so eager to experiment, but they probably have a more diverse palette than their peers at school.

I am a huge lover of pasta. The photo above? I make ravioletti with sundried tomatoes, onions, spinach, pine nuts, basil, oregano, olive oil, tons of garlic, and it’s so good. It’s one of my dd’s favorite things to eat. I like it with chopped up artichokes, too, but she doesn’t like them. *sigh* In that picture, she made the homemade focaccia bread. So yummy.

Of course, I make a very tasty spaghetti with meatballs. The 11-year-old recently went to the local Italian restaurant and ordered theirs and couldn’t finish it. She said mine was much better. Proud grandma moment there.

I’m always perusing pasta recipes on Pinterest. This looks so incredibly easy. Pasta with spinach, and it looks like bits of walnuts? I’d be all over that.

I digress because I’m hungry, and you’re here for a puzzle and contest…

Today’s puzzle features an aspirational (for me) dinner party. Pasta, seafood, all kinds of sides… For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me your favorite pasta dish that you think belongs on this table. If you have a link to the recipe, it would be much appreciated, but if it sounds good, I’ll Google the heck out it! Have fun!

UPDATE: The winner is…Beckie!
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Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to the big city for some imaging appointments. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass. However, my daughter and I try to take advantage of the fact we’re out and about to enjoy some shopping and some good food. We’re big foodies and have adventurous tastes.

Last week when we were in the city for another appointment, we hit our favorite Greek restaurant for gyros. There was a hummus appetizer and plenty of tzatziki sauce to slather on the pita bread. Delicious!

We haven’t decided what we’ll have tomorrow, but it will be good!

Since we don’t get away often, we experiment a lot in our kitchen.

Here’s a photo of one of my daughter’s latest entrees, Hungarian goulash. So good!

We dabble in Indian, Irish, German, and lots and lots of Mexican dishes. This week alone, my daughter made Indian Chicken Curry and the 19-year-old made chorizo-potato-egg breakfast tacos with homemade salsa and homemade corn tortillas. My spaghetti with meatballs is to die for, by the way. For Christmas, we toss the traditional ham or turkey and choose an international cuisine then research recipes. We’ve done Mexican, North African, then we circled back to Mexican, again. I’m hoping for Italian or Eastern European this year. Anyone have some good recipes? I know if we do Italian, I’ll have to do my meatballs and my dd will have to make her fantastic focaccia bread, but there will have to be more on the table!

So, thinking about food and tomorrow’s trip, I wondered how adventurous you all are! Do you like eating international cuisines when you’re out? Do you make special international dishes at home? (Spaghetti counts!) For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle then share in the comments!