Barbara's lunch inivtation and pigeon update

Barbara has been living in the Paris area for two years now. Her curiosity has made her discover in France many things that remain unnoticed to most expats.
She invited Priscilla, Dee and me for a lunchon at her house and arranged for us to tour La Malmaison, Josephine's mansion in Rueil Malmaison. Josephine was Napoleon's beloved wife - whom he divorced because she could not give him a heir.
So what was for lunch?
We started with Barbara's delicious Oriental Salad served in matching beautiful fine china plates with Annees Folles design.
Barbara feels that my picture of her main course shows my plate almost empty ... but I wanted to get the design of her plates in the picture too. She served "joues de porc" (pork cheek) stewed in the oven for a long two hours with turnips, carots and a touch of orange juice. She served cumin flavored couscous as a garnish.A soft apple cake was our desert and Barabra is sharing her recipe with us.The Apple Lady’s Apple Cake
¾ C all purpose flour
½ C sugar
1 T baking powder (or yeast)
¼ t sea salt
1 t vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3 T vegetable oil
2/3 C whole milk
6 baking apples, cored, peeled and cut into thin wedges
Topping:
1/3 C sugar
1 large egg
3 T melted butter
Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Equipment: 1- 9 inch springform pan, buttered
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and sea salt and stir to blend. Add the vanilla, eggs, oil, and milk and stir until well blended. Add the apples and stir to thoroughly coat them with the batter.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until fairly firm and golden, about 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the topping: in a small bowl, combine the sugar, egg, melted butter and lemon juice and zest and stir to blend. Set it aside.
Remove the cake from the oven and pour the topping mixture over it. Return the cake to the oven and bake until the top is a deep golden brown and the cake feels quite firm when pressed with a fingertip, about 10 minutes.
Transfer the cake pan to a rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Then run a knife around the sides of the pan and release and remove the springform side, leaving the cake on the pan base. Serve at room temperature or warm, cut into thin wedges.
Thank you Barbara, you're a great host.

Laura's PIGEON UPDATE:

WHERE IS MY MAMA???

I do not want to"anthropomorphize" the life of a pigeon .. but when its mother flew away yesterday and didn't return ... I was pretty anxious ...
I made a paste with unsalted butter, bread softened with milk and put it next to my "protégé". The paste disappeared but Jean-Louis suggested it could also be that I was feeding all the pigeons in the neighborhood ... and he was right, I saw a pigeon eating my paste - and it was its mother! I have placed kebab sticks in all the plant pots around to stop them from coming, and now Teenage-pigeon is a little bit safer. I have read that a pigeon becomes adult at 4 weeks, and ours is 3 weeks old ... Let's hope it can grow to become strong enough to fly away soon.