I thought you might be confusing it.
To clarify, we haven't dropped the CookingBites Cookalong and the Dish of the Month isn't intended to replace it - its just a new feature. The 'Cookalong' started out quite well as you say and I personally really enjoyed it for the same reasons that you did. However, the last one (choux pastry) had virtually no entries at all and the one before that was also not very successful. I was thinking of running another one if there is enough support. But it has to have more than 2 members entering it! I could float a discussion thread to see if members would support it and ask for topics.