LITTLE WOMEN RECIPE BOOK for "Tea In The Garden"

Welcome to a "Little Women

Tea In The Garden":

A darling cookbook I ordered recently came in the mail. It was published in 2019 and I was reminded why I love this type of cookbook.  I adore cookbooks that are historical and those that feature recipes to do with classic books and movies.

Have you seen any of the Little Women movies?  I have at least three.  I prefer the one with Winona Ryder in it but enjoy them all. I feel I need to actually read the book because

I can see from the cookbook that there is of course much more to enjoy about the March family than what is presented on the screen.

So The Little Women Cookbook by Wini Moranville is really sweet. Many of you will remember when Amy March said that Pickled Limes were all the rage at school and her sister Meg felt sorry for her. She gave Amy the rag money so that she could buy some to trade or give away with friends.

 

"Amy's Pickled Lime Sugar Cookies"

suggests you purchase a market sugar

cookie mix and add the icing.  I took my own sugar cookie recipe and reduced the quantity.

 So here is the recipe I made for todays "Tea in the Garden".

Sugar Cookie Base 

if you want homemade:

makes 2 Dz medium cookies

1 stick butter - 1/2 cup , 1/2 tsp vanilla, 2 med eggs, 1 3/4 cup sifted flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp cream of tartar, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt

I prefer to roll this out and cut it with a medium size scone cutter or round cutter

Bake 375 degrees for about 8 minutes

in a regular oven or 7 1/2 convection

Cool completely and then ice

Icing here:

1 1/2 Tb butter unsalted/soft, 1 1/2 Cup confectioners sugar, 4 1/2 tsp lime juice. 1 1/2 tsp grated lime zest, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, little milk if need to thin, green food coloring, 8 small jellied line green candies sliced into 4 pieces each

I could not find the lime slices but found something else that worked....be flexible right?

I hope this has been fun and I would suggest it for a tea time with little girls or teens

and especially with a "Little Women" tea themed party.

Late note: Now I am in therapy twice a week

and will be doing exercises three times a day.

As you may be surprised to see this post and

me out setting it up - I am not one to sit but

I am moving slow and easy!

MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS PAY A VISIT

A few months back, the Children's

Director at my church approached me
 about borrowing my tea room.

Since they are from my church and

the date was open,  how could I say

 no to those sweet mothers and daughters. 

I let the committee in several times

 this week to set the tables, do their
flowers, get a plan and figure

out their format for tea time. 

 It was held early on Saturday 

because everyone wanted to move 

on to their busy day.

For me,  I helped in the dish washing department at the end
 of the tea. Since they are my teacups
 and teapots, etc. I thought
 maybe I would jump in.

I hope you enjoy the photos of
the room.  I am not sharing photos
of the children for privacy reasons
but will tell you this table was
where girls sat who came here
from Rwanda and several were
born in a refugee camp.  They
were totally awestruck!

Teapots and Afternoon
 Tiered
 Tea Trays were
used at every table.

I do have permission to share
this photo of the director and
her daughter:

ALICE SAYS IT'S TIME for "Tea In The Garden"

You really shouldn't be late for this tea -

 but if you are,

I don't mind!  Since I retired 

I don't like to hurry

anymore!

I set up tea for us under the

 deck on the patio area.  This
was one of the toppers I created by
layering vintage linens and 
stitching them down.

You get the idea of the

 area in this photo:

And yes, I am still doing
 decoupage and have been
 doing old vintage picnic baskets

by staining them first
inside and out and then
applying decoupage in
various themes.

Please help yourself to tea and Apricot Scones.
(scone recipe)

I hope you can join my tea time blog
party today and post something
tea related from your blog.
  A special thank you to 
everyone who participates.

FLOWER FAIRY TEA TIME BEFORE THE RAIN for "Tea In The Garden"

Last night we had some rain and now the garden is happy!  I barely got the pictures taken which is why you can see the woods in the back are very dark:

We will have a cup of tea before we sing "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" as it is starting to sprinkle now!  The purple bush you see is Spirea and it is blooming now.  You may remember that we dug it up from over by the pond where it totally blocked the view.  It seems quite happy out in the back yard now.

 I recall that Cicely Barker was the originator of Flower Fairies and I do so love her books.  I will always remember these as one of my favorite things I sold at my shop and how people loved them.

Cicely's fairies had no ethereal powers but were just for fun.

My garden is beginning to get "set in".  By that I mean new root growth which is so important before the temperature starts to soar here.  By June it will be getting very hot.

 One of our goals here in Missouri is to take a lot of "day trips" around the state.  We did so one day last week and came upon a small town called "Greenwood" where there were 4-5 antique shops.  I found this quilt at one of them for a reasonable price:

And watch out for the butterflies too:

IT'S A LITTLE GIRL'S TEA

Welcome to a little girl's tea in the garden:  this is my childhood bride doll "Sweet Sue" which I had restored about 22 years ago.

I am a great fan of Beatrix Potter so today's tea has a theme:

Last year we had already had snow by this time (and the year before that) so we are happily enjoying a longer fall this year.

A while back somewhere on an antiquing journey I found this darling vintage linen set with embroidery

 and applique doggies on it and 4 little napkins.  See how the napkin just fits right in:

 We thought we were going to be getting new windows in our house last week - but guess what?  False alarm......they don't come until later this week.  That means we have everything piled up away from the windows everywhere.  Can you see why I'm happy to be outside today?

The little doll with the green hat below is porcelain and I got her in Toronto, Canada back in the 1980's: