The curious incident of the missing bay leaves

I am sure I have it somewhere. Because I used it not long ago to cook beef stew. But I just couldn't find it anywhere in the kitchen when I needed it on Tuesday night. I have searched through all the cabinet for 3 times and there was no sight of the bay leaves.

Strangely, all the recipes I read now seems to use bay leaves. Have you ever have the same experience? When you are sure you have certain ingredients, and go ahead to prepare the rest of the recipe, then find that you couldn't find one of them? It's frustrating. I went ahead to cook my beef stew without the bay leaf. It was not a make or break ingredient. But I know the stew would taste better with it. Distracted, I forgot to add another ingredient, which I have - crushed garlic. Luckily the beef stew turned out nice. Even without bay leaf and garlic......

I also made a seafood pancake for dinner. But it wasn't noteworthy. I will post the recipe when I master the dish. Meanwhile, this was how it looked: