What a finger-licking good menu! If I had eaten all that, I'd probably be dead...but what a way to gooo!
Happy belated birthday orchid. Sounds like you have a super sweet hubby.

orchid, how cool is that? You must have felt so loved. I love a man who can cook and delights in it.

Yes, well he does like to experiment with food when he feels like it. If a guy starts talking about in great, accurate detail HOW his mother prepared certain dishes and that he does certain dishes himself, you know he wasn't just a mama's boy, but a boy who watched and helped his mother when he was growing up.

His mother is from a family of pastry chef and inn-vineyard owner in Germany since 1700's. So my partner has a right to be a food /pastry snob. She is a wealth of old German fine pastry chef recipes...in her head. We cannot find English language cookbooks that cover this knowledge. It is a version of cooking that blends a bit of French cooking since his family is from near the French border.

And my partner is proud that his son an aspiring chef in a restaurant, who will carry on this family interest into the future. It is pleasure to watch a 90+ grandmother teaching her 25 yr. grandson how to make dumpfnudel, a german steamed white bun.....actually similiar to Chinese steamed buns.

Orchid...Might you gently suggest that your mother-in-law let you (or someone) write down the recipes that are in her head? I am so happy that I did just that with some of my mother's recipes...and still, there were others that she took with her when she passed. We always feel that they'll be "here forever".

What a MAN!

What an elegant dinner! Happy belated birthday, Orchid. P.S. -- if you want any cactus pears in July-August, I get 100s of them. Not sure where they're in season now.

Happy Birthday, Orchid!

He must be so proud of his son. That is so meat.

My oldest son loves to cook. I love talking food with him. I'm a family cook. He's a gourmet.