Friday, December 31, 2021

LAST DAY OF THE YEAR WITH JANE AUSTEN TEA COZY

I am sharing my Jane Austen
Tea Cozies I made on this last
day of the year.

I love Jane Austen's novel "Persuasion"
which is the love story of Anne Elliot
and Captain Wentworth:

Thursday, December 30, 2021

WINTERTIME MEANS TEA TIME

 We are enjoying a quiet week and doing
a little reorganizing here and there.
It is an overcast day which is very
typical in Missouri in winter.  I don't
mind and actually find this relaxing.






I have set up a little tea for us today
where we can enjoy the backyard
views.  As you see, we have no snow
but winter is here.  It's about 48 degrees
today and supposed to be about 60 degrees
tomorrow and then get colder again.





Please enjoy a cup of tea and a
slice of Coconut Cake.  I have been
watching the squirrels go up and down
the giant cedar out back and they have
stripped the bark off much of it.  I see 
them carrying long pieces to their nests
which must smell really good but I am
concerned because after reading about
this on line, I see it can kill the tree if
they strip off a ring of it around the
tree.


Winter is a time to enjoy the birds and
we surely do.  After a succession of bird
feeders we have three that work, meaning the squirrels leave them alone. This one
below works.



 Two of them were more expensive but
 in the end are probably a savings as the squirrels just can't get on them and eat
 all the birdseed like they did with
 the old ones.

I just got a new cookbook which is by
the same person as Dinner With
Mr Darcy which I had shared before.
This one is Dinner with Dickens and
I love all the history in it:








We aren't rushing to get our Christmas
decorations down this year.  We may
enjoy them yet for a few days.




I was reading through some cookbooks
 and one was the Colorado Springs 
Gazette (newspaper) spiral cookbook from 1994.  However, after making the Coconut Cake recipe I was going to share, I  have decided I'd rather recommend  another
 recipe by Charlie Andrews which I think is

Friday, December 24, 2021

ENJOYABLE AND RELAXING VIDEOS

 I don't know if you know this already or
not but there are some amazing, relaxing
and fun videos on YouTube.  You
might check a few to see if you are
interested.  I especially enjoy them
in the winter when we are indoors
more:

Here is a series I enjoy.  You can subscribe
to any of these "channels" and see all 
their videos:


There are others, similar and
yet different.









I enjoy different people
and styles. I often look
up Afternoon Tea videos
from London, etc.



and this is historically interesting:


and a fun and quirky couple:


And I am sure you can find dozens more! 

Thursday, December 23, 2021

LAST CHANCE LAST CALL



ALL THESE ITEMS ARE 
SALE PRICED TO GO!

Remaining Snowmen tea set

Remaining Christmas Tea 
Cozies are sale priced:

I recently went through all my tea cozies
and completely converted all of
them to DROP IN SNUGGIES so 
none of them now have elastic bottoms.


Here are just a few that
 are left
that I am
sharing.






Wednesday, December 22, 2021

A LITTLE CHRISTMAS TEA

 Today I had a few ladies over for
an Afternoon Tea.  I took advantage
of the baking knowing I could have
some extra sweets to share with others
this week.  This post will not be
exactly as I had planned because
of a little problem.  This has happened
before too - I forgot to take the photos.


Yesterday I made my sweets which included
Sugar Cookies cut like little teapots,
 (those have now already been eaten)
Cherry Bars and little
 lemon tarts.
I cut the Cherry Bar recipe in half
because the recipe served way
to many.

did go ahead and make the full recipe
so I could freeze a lot for later. 

 This was the lemon tart filling I made but you
could also just purchase a can of pie filling.

Lemon Tart Filling Recipe:

5 large eggs, 1 egg yolk, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup
fresh lemon juice, 1/2 cup butter

Wisk together the eggs, sugar .  Heat lemon juice over medium in a small saucepan.  
In another larger pan, melt butter and slowly add lemon juice mixing well and then  
add egg mixture stirring until it thickens.
Once thick, cool and refrigerate until
ready to use.  





I served 3 savories: Chicken Salad
on mini Croissants, Deviled Eggs and

I also made Orange Currant Scones and
we had both iced and hot tea.  The hot tea
came a little later in the meal.

Orange Currant Scones:
2 cups flour, 1 1/2 Tb baking powder, 
1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, grated peel of 
1 orange, 5 Tb butter, 5 Tb shortening,
1/2 cup buttermilk and more for
brushing, 1/3 cup currants
425 degrees for 15 min or less convection

I cover my baking sheet with parchment
paper. I love using parchment paper.  Combine first 4 ingredient by hand, add orange peel.  Flake in butter and shortening.  Add buttermilk, mix fold in currant roll dough and cut out scones with small 2" cutter, brush with milk and bake
15 min Yield:12


The plates and other transferware were washed 
and ready to put back away.
I had every intention of sharing my
table with you......but.



We won't be ready for Christmas to be
over Saturday.  I think we may enjoy
it all for a while.  




Some snow would have made things
really festive but that doesn't usually
happen in Missouri until January
or February.

Saturday, December 18, 2021

A LOVELY LAFAYETTE CHRISTMAS #3

 I had just a few more photos to share
 that I took in St. Louis last Friday.

The area of Lafayette Square has a
beautiful manicured park in the middle
with sculptures and unusual planting
of schrubs, trees and flowers in the
summer.  This building is used for
events.


 The collage below shows some 
of the
 narrow type houses but many are bigger
 than we might realize because they are 3 
stories high and have
basements below.


I should have done a photo study on
the fences because there were so many
elaborate cast iron examples but this
simple one had fresh garland.


Because of the traffic, we didn't want to
be in St. Louis late but I would have
loved to see this yard after dark with 
all the little white lights.








I don't remember what the fancy
pieces under the roof edge are
called - perhaps corbels ? - but 
these were so detailed below.
I remembered that back in the 80's
there was an old Victorian turned
rental in Burlington, Iowa and there
were sadly corbel pieces that just 
layed on the ground around the
former grand home.


So that concludes my photos.  
I deleted many photos because I felt I was
sharing too many but I hope you enjoyed
this visit!

Friday, December 17, 2021

A LOVELY LAFAYETTE CHRISTMAS #2

 Yesterday, December 16,  I shared some
 photos I took in the historic Lafayette
Square area in St. Louis.
I have to say, this is one of
my favorite homes around
the park and square.


I am sharing these photos over
3 days because I took so many
 I am not an architectural expert but
 some of you might quickly identify 
the building styles from the details
 on these homes.
  I think the use of brick
has certainly led to their longevity.


I love the way the shrubbery is so
manicured on this home with the
topiaries: 



And this house reminds me of a much
 larger version of the Molly Brown house
 in Denver, Colorado.



But on my goodness, as we came around the park square, here was another amazing
 brick one:





The details on this home are
so unusual and well cared for
and how fun seeing that white Christmas tree up in that window on this mounted
turret.  This house is right
on a corner.  





What a
wonderful
grand
entrance
here as
you walk 
up and 
enter those
doors:





There are so many Second Empire
Style mansions:


The house below is different than
all the others and always reminds
me of New Orleans:


I will save a few more photos
for day #3 and then I will be
done with our little visit.

Thursday, December 16, 2021

A LOVELY LAFAYETTE CHRISTMAS

There is a lovely area in St. Louis that
has historic old homes and so many
have been restored.  It is called 
Lafayette Square and I have shared
it before several times.  Today my
husband and I enjoyed riding around
and seeing these wonderful Victorian
homes.








These homes are very closed together
but there are many streets of them. And
most had 2 doors on the front which were
very tall and unique.


I took photos of many of the doors.








I will share more photos
about this area on another day.


Lafayette Square Lafayette Square Neighborhood, surrounding Lafayette Park, is St. Louis’s oldest historic district. It began as a 30 acre park that was platted in 1836, making it the first city park as well as the first park west of the Mississippi. It was named to honor the Marquis de Lafayette, the popular hero of the American Revolution, who visited St. Louis in 1825. 

It is over 2 hours east of where we live.


I have been following a young man on YouTube who is restoring one of these
 Second Empire Victorians.
 He has taken on
an incredible project.