Last Sunday was the annual Crab Fest at The Hungry Cat, which I was lucky enough to be invited to by the lovely Meg (in the photo above, depicting the general feeling at the end: sleepy, swollen-footed satiation). There is something magical about eating two courses of crab followed by all-you-can-eat boiled blue crab dumped directly onto newspaper-covered tables, which you smash apart with a mallet while trying not to get crab gunk all over your cucumber martini. Magical, I say. And very messy. You can see all my pictures from the day here.

And this Sunday was my birthday. My sister Sonya is in town, so I got to wake up to the sound of two of my favorite people making me breakfast in the kitchen. And wondering how to make coffee. (Rob: "But this is in OUNCES!" Rest assured, the coffee tasted fine.) Earlier in the weekend, Sonya had the honor of being my first scooter passenger ever and we had a couple thankfully-uneventful rides around town, stopping by Intelligentsia for coffee, Taqueria El Charrito for tacos and Scoops for ice cream. There was also a crawfish boil party in there somewhere. I know how to feed my guests at least.

Rob and I rounded out my birthday with an afternoon screening of WALL-E (we both teared up) and a Sunday dinner at Lucques, where the pork stew over polenta was good enough to make up for any unfulfilled birthday wishes of years past.

(There's a Cookery Book Monday coming later today!)