A Belated Birthday Feast

Aaron had his birthday a few weeks ago and leading up to it, I was excited ... I was going to make an really nice meal, maybe try out a new recipe ... and then ... and then we went to Franschhoek for Bastille Day and drank ridiculous amounts of wine (aided and abetted by a huge Australian) ... and of course the next day was his birthday ... no bueno ...

Aaron was fine (relatively speaking) but I could barely hold down water.  So needless to say, I was not up for cooking or going out the next day ... or even the day after (I was only up to dry toast and chicken broth.)  Then Aaron had to go out of town for a couple of days and in the end we had to have his birthday dinner almost a full week later! 

I felt rightly shamed and so decided to go all out and make a proper little feast.  So, though it might not look like it, I was in the kitchen for like 6 hours straight that day (and loving it)  I decided to make this recipe from the Africa Cafe cookbook (more on that soon) for the main meal:

 

Mwana Wa Nkhosa, an incredibly deep, rich lamb stew.  Aaron loves lamb and this was an amazing, unique dish flavored with lots of cumin and allspice.

We had it with a fancy salad, baked potatoes and a fresh loaf of my Potjiekos Pan to sop up that incredible sauce:

 

 Then for dessert (and birthday cake of course!) I made the Almond-Cherry cake from my IBS cookbook:

Aaron loves cherries and the cake was really delicious (if I do say so myself) -- moist, almondy and with bright bursts of cherries popping in your mouth.  So all in all (though terribly belated) it was a great birthday feast!