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.

Here is the recipe for the shells which I

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

Sausage Pinwheels

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.

A VISIT TO THE LONDON TEA ROOM

For a long time I have wanted to visit

the London Tea Room in St. Louis.

When my friend Janice's November birthday
arrived, I wanted her to get to go to an 

Afternoon Tea.  Here's the birthday girl:

We found the London tea room to

be in a charming old building in St. Louis.

  With an Afternoon Tea Tray you eat
 from the bottom up so first there

were 3 savories. Lower plate: a chicken 
salad croissant, cucumber sandwich and
 salmon sandwich.  The scones with clotted
 cream and strawberry jam from England
 were on the middle plate and the top held
 4 desserts:
chocolate mousse cup, treacle tart, 
a macaroon and an orange madeleine.

  

I have given Afternoon Teas myself so I
 appreciate all the work that goes into this 
variety of finger foods.  I was dressed a
bit silly and fun for the occasion.

We were seated in a large lovely room
in the back and the front is reserved for
walk-ins who order pastries, tea and
there is a gift shop area.

I hope you will take time to check your

area and see if someone serves Afternoon 

Tea.  Yes, at first you might think it is
 more expensive but when you understand
 how special and unique the experience is - 
it can't be compared to lunch in a restaurant.
 (do I get an Amen from the tea room owners?)

THE THREE TIERED AFTERNOON TEA TRAY - WHAT GOES WHERE?

What tea foods go on which level of the Afternoon Tea Tray? 

(You might want to copy this post for quick reference!)

Back in 2010, I went through a big stack of my special tea books and I was surprised how few of the authors addressed this and since I have seen photos doing it so many different ways I thought it would be good to come to some conclusions.  I tend to be from the school of do what you like.....except when it comes to calling Afternoon Tea by the term "High Tea" which is incorrect.  I am not very flexible about that.

First of all, a 3 tiered tray can be used to serve 2 + people with plenty of food for each.....a very large tray (such as below) might serve 3 people.

I have recently changed my order for the levels of tea foods for about the third time. This time was after I was influenced by Linda Jennings.  She has been to England (and lots of other places) many times and has really become an expert.

So here is my newest preferred order of the 3 levels which means I have come full circle back to what I first believed to be correct:  The smaller top level holds the sweets.  It's nice to have 3 types of finger sweets.

The middle level which graduates in size should hold the scones. Plan on about 2 scones per person unless they are huge! 

Bottom level is for savories such as savory tarts or finger sandwiches .   Allow about 4 - 5 savory finger size items per person.   It is nice to have variety - I like to make 3 different types of savories.  

So basically you are eating from the bottom up!

These really big plate servers work best on a tea buffet where people are walking by.  Always use a paper doily on metal, wood or painted surfaces.  

LEFTOVERS?  I recommend giving guests paper kraft handled bags which you could decorate with stickers or art or a poem to take the leftovers home - place a couple sandwich bags inside.

JEAN'S HUMMINGBIRD MUFFINS for "Tea In The Garden"

Hello dear blogging friends and

welcome to another "Tea In

the Garden"!

I just noticed that the first official

day of summer is well into June

but we can tell our spring like

weather is being short lived

here in Missouri.

I am so happy to share the muffins

I made with Jean's recipe that

she shared last week!

Her muffins were delicious with

pineapple and banana in them.

It's a lovely day to be outdoors

enjoying the birds and flowers....

Please pour yourself a cup

of tea and let me tell you

a garden secret.  Mostly,

I need to say,  I make lots

of mistakes in gardening but

sometimes I get things right

too!  Ha!  I just figured out

that I could use an umbrella

to shield a transplanted plant

from the sun until it takes hold.
I leaned a shovel across the back
so that it wouldn't blow away.

It worked too!

Like many of you,  I love

these older Victoria issues!

If you do decide to bake Jean's

 muffins,  I

know you will love them!
I made a Hummingbird Cake years
ago and here is that recipe.

A PASSION FOR PANSIES

I've never met anyone who didn't like pansies.

Every spring I look forward to their arrival and

 I'm quite sure you do too!

  

Today is "Friends Sharing Tea" and I am glad you

 joined me as I am sharing a few Pansy teatime things.

Up above  is one of the Afternoon 

Tea Trays my husband

 had made for me.

I love tea strainers and different gadgets

 and find them entertaining!

 I gravitate to vintage things and I love the look of something old, worn and never let crazing stop me.  Do you know what crazing is?  All those tiny crackling marks on a really old teapot are crazing.  It means it was loved! 

LEMON CREAM CHEESE SCONES

This morning as snow fell on Colorado, the smell of scones baking in the oven welcomed another day.

We have had some unseasonably warm weather causing bulbs to start popping out of the ground.  I am glad it is gone as it was 70 degrees here on a few days which seemed silly for February.  I am sharing a new but old teapot today that I recently found!

  I just love it.  It has a lot of crazing and has certainly been used.

The scone recipe I used today is one I have baked numerous times.  I used the smallest of three sizes of the scone cutters.

I thought I'd share a tip about these darling little spoons you might like to purchase for your clotted cream or lemon curd.  They are generally silver plate or gold plate and require specific care to last.  First of all - never leave them with food on them or in the sink.  As soon as your teatime is over - wash them by hand  with a soapy dishrag and dry them immediately.  Their life will be much longer if you follow this rule.  Absolutely NO dishwasher.

Do pour yourself a cup of tea and bake some scones for yourself if you would like too!

We have Mrs. Darlington's English lemon curd and English clotted cream:

Here is my recipe for 

Lemon Cream Cheese Scones

 I like to try different ways of using ingredients in scones, so this is what I did today.
  Another day I might try something else.

2 1/4 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar (- 1 tsp high alt), zest of 1 large lemon, 2 tsp baking powder (less 1/2 tsp high alt), 1/3 cup firm butter, 4 oz cream cheese, 1 egg, 3/4 cup buttermilk today (sometimes I do heavy whipping cream), 1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder.  Using a kneader, cut in butter.  In a small bowl combine cream cheese, egg and buttermilk and lemon juice - combine into flour mixture and make dough ball.

I prefer to roll out my dough on a floured pastry cloth with a cloth covered rolling pin which has also been floured.  I cut these scones with the smallest of 3 sizes of scone cutters.  Bake on ungreased baking sheet about 13 minutes (because these were smaller) and remove from sheet.  Serve warm.  Made about 24 smaller scones.