Tea for One Hundred and Sevety-Three. Oh,my, oh me!

In reference to my last blog entry, one hundred and three rhymed  with Tea, but as I counted numbers it was actually one hundred and sevetny-three.  Wonderful!  It still rhymes so I'll go with it.  Last minute stragglers are starting to come in, so my wish is that the number stays still rhyming, so 183 or 193, or 203 would be great, as long as we know far enough in advance to prepare enough food.  

Yesterday, we started the decorating and things are beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Broadmoor Baptist Church.  It is hard to get really detailed pictures with my little camera, but I will try.  The other problem is that I get so distracted with the details that I don't remember to take the camera out!  I get too busy living life to photograph it!  I am very fortunate that I have at my disposal a gifted interior decorator who goes to our church and who is just a wonderful person with whom to work.  Because she is working with materials the church has, and has had for several years, she is somewhat limited in what she can do, but she is managing to pull several delightful rabbits out of her interior decorating "hat", and I am quite pleased.  Then of course, the rest of my Tea committee is so helpful and dedicated.  It is all boding well for the upcoming event, but I must admitt I will be glad to get to the end of it all, and make it a wonderful memory.  

To my American friends,  I hope that your Thanksgiving was wonderful and that you survived Black Friday with aplomp!  Here in Canada, we celeberate Thanksgiving in October, but on American Thanksgiving, I did manage to celebrate "Turkey Day" as we prepared  an early "Christmas Dinner" for the ESL students who attend classes at Broadmoor where I am blessed to teach one of the advanced groups. My students sang "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" as part of the progrram for the event, and I think they performed quite admirably. Alas, and alack, though I succombed to my tendancy to not get pictures! Oh, well!  I am sure I will get a lot more photo-centric now that I am trying to blog on a regular basis.  Anyway dear trolleyites, I wish you well in your own dleightful festive adventures and endeavors.  In the words of one of Charles Dicken's immortal characters, "God Bless Us, Everyone!"     

      

Tea For One Hundred and Three!

You read that right, dear tea trollyites!  I am about to coordinate a tea for 103 (at least) ladies at my church.  On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, the first and Second of December at 7:00 p.m..  It is the 13th annual event, and I am hoping that the number is not an ominous one!  I am working with the most tremendous group of women: four dynamic dames who have been fixtures in the church for decades.  How I ended up coordiating this group of august women is beyond me!  (Just blessed I guess!)  Anyway, we are in the thick of preparations for this mammoth event, even as I pen these words!  I will keep you posted on our progress and hopefully have pictures to share with you.  Stay tuned and HOLD ON TIGHT!  The going might get a little bumpy!  If you are in our area (Richmond, British Columbia!)  drop by for tea!  $10.00 a ticket gets you a lovely repast, spectacular music, a whiz-band speaker, and DOOR PRIZES!  Catch you on the flipside!

Photo Credit :Sandy Lyman Clough

Tea-Ready in Twenty Minutes!

How can I be tea-ready in just twenty minutes?  It takes a bit of organization; something that I am unable to muster these days.  However, dear readers BE THAT AS IT MAY, this is my goal  for the up-coming holiday season and beyond. 

My husband and I live in a sweet little rancher home; a mere 1500 square feet, and it would seem more than possible to have it ready for company (Tea) at any given time.  After all, it is not a large space to clean or keep tidy.  But, (and here's the rub!)  we both work from home, and the activity of our two businesses lends itself to constant upheaval!  To add insult to injury, I suffer from chronic health problems that leave me exhausted a great deal of the time, so if I let the housework slide for even a short period, it isn't long before I feel completely overwhelmed.

Several years ago I compiled a list of  household chores, organized them according to the days of the week, and the different rooms in the house, with space for checking items off once they have been accomplished.   I laminated it and hung it on my refrigerator.  When I kept to the schedule it took a minimal amount of time each day to keep the housework to a dull roar. The key of course, is to keep to the schedule.

So what are YOUR secrets to keeping things in order?  How DO you manage it? (apart from hiring a maid, which I would love to do, but isn't about to happen! :) ) Any tidbits of wisdom would be gratefully acknowledged and accepted!

Welcome to Tuesday Tea for Two:

Today is , TUESDAY TEA FOR TWO, at my dear friend  Paper Princess, a.k.a./ Silken Purse's, The Plumed Pen blog. You are warmly invited to partake. We have been friends for close to four decades, and in later years have very much enjoyed the serving of numerous Afternoon Teas, each in our own coastal reagion of Canada.., How sad though, that we have never been able to attend each other's Splosh  Splashes!  Here is the link to her website where you will find information on how to join us for our little blogging tea party.., theplumedpen.blogspot.com

 Today in my end of the world it is raining to beat the band, and the wind is blowing up a tempest! Since I am unable to be with you in person, I am going to imagine that we are all together at the Paper Princess's  cozy bed and breakfast, seated comfotably in her lavish living room, each of us craddling a steaming cup of delicious, steaming, fragrant "rosie-lee", (the Cockney name for our favorite warm beverage).  Aren't the scones delicious!  I do believe they are the best I have eever tasted!  Please do come to our blogging Tea Party.  You would be as welcomed as a sunny day in Vancouver!   

       

Making tarts for tea is a wonderful idea.  But every good idea has it's challenges, and making tarts is no exception.  I TRULY dislike rolling out pastry!  It is something, dear reader, that I do not do well.  Enter the handy tart pastry tamper.  What an absolutely wonderful kitchen gadget!  I purchased mine from the Regal catalogue several years ago.  As you can probably see from the picrture, the tamper has a large end and a small end for tamping down either the miniature and regular-sized tarts.  You portion out about a teaspoon of dough, roll it into a small ball and place it on the bottom of the tart pan cavity.  Then, taking the tamper, you press it into the cavity with an even pressure.  The pastry dough travels up the side of the muffin cavity, creating a perfect tart shell.  If you want to bake unfilled tart shells, as in the recipe for Cape Breton Pork Pies  you will need to puncture the bottom and sides of the uncooked shell repeatedly with a toothpick or a fork so that as the shell is baking, it stays flat.  If you don't do this, you will end up with little tart shell sombreroes, ( the bottoms will arch upward!) making it impossible to fill the shells with the filling.  I cannot emphasize enough how much wasted time and how many headaches this little instrument will help you to avoid.  It is a really good thing, as Miss Martha might say! So run, don't walk and find yourself one of these neat doo-hickeys.. You'll not regret the purchase, I guarantee it!   

The Delectable Tart

If the scone is the "queen of sweets" for the tea table, then surely the delectable tart must be her "lady in waiting".  Easy to make, and ever-so-dainty, a variety of tempting tarts offers the tea-taker a symphony of tastes wrapped in  a sweet, melt-in-your mouth shortbread crust.  For an afternoon tea, I delight to offer at least two (and sometimes three!)  types of tarts,.  My favorites are the ever popular lemon curd, tart served plain, or presented with a diminuitive dollop of clotted cream,  the Maid of honor, a delightful jam filled tart with a delicate cake hat punctuated with a flowerette of pink buttercream, and finally, in deference to my east coast  ties, the toothsome Cape Breton Pork Pie.  This little gem, one of my husband's all-time favorites, contains NOT ONE OUNCE OF PORK!  It's name is the subject of some conjecture. My favorite explanation is that they are so good, when you have one, you can't resist having another, and another and another!  Thus, you "pork" out on them, making a little piggy of yourself in the process!  So dear blogerites, here is my recipe for Cape Breton Pork Pies. I found it in a venerated cookbook, which was given to me by my dear friend , June one year for Christmas.  Imagine my delight, precious blogerites, when I received this, to discover that it was the cookbook most used by my own sweet Mom.  In fact, she used it so much it was in tatters by the time she passed away, and was mistakenly discarded when my sisters were packing up her kitchen.. The title page had gone missing when I was just a little girl,  so the name on it's front meant little to me, but the pages looked familiar somehow, so I quickly turned to the cake section to discover the recipe for the birthday cake mom had always made for me.  I felt as though I had recovered a bit of my own heritage from the ashes of time.  What a blessing! Upon further investigation of it, I found the recipe for the Pork Pies, something my husband had intimated was an integral part of his own Christmas tradition from Sydney, Cape Breton.  I made them as a suprise for him, and to his delight, he pronounced them "better" than his auntie's.  So now they are a staple in our house for Christmas, but also for tea.  Enjoy and please let me know how yours turn out.  

CAPE BRETON PORK PIES

Tart Shells:

1 cup of cold, creamery butter ( this is what made them better than Auntie's.  She probably used margarine, which was a common practice in Cape Breton.  The difference it makes to the recipe is unmistakable!)

4 tablespoons icing sugar

2 cups flour

Cut the butter into the flour suing a pastry cutter.  Add sugar and knead until well-blended.  Press small amounts into small muffin tins.  Bake at 425 degrees F. for 10 minutes.  Keep a close eye on them as they brown very quickly, and you DO NOT want to make them too dark. ( In my opinion, the lighter they can be, the better, but that is just MY preference!) Remove and allow to come to room temperature.  Carefully remove from tins, as they are VERY delicate!

Filling:

2 cups finely chopped dates

1 1/2 cups brown sugar ( I use demerara)

1 cup water

Lemon Juice (the juice of one lemon, whatever that may be.  I usually heat my lemon in the microwave for a quick 10 seconds.  It DOUBLES the amount of juice you will get from it.  How much of that juice you put in is really up to your taste, but I like the whole amount.)

Simmer the above ingredients until the dates are of a soft consistency.  Cool, then fill the tart shells.  Top with a piped swirl of butter cream icing which has been flavoured with maple syrup or flavouring.  YUM! YUM! YUM!  These freeze well, and can be made weeks ahead if covered well in the freezer.

* anecdotal additions are my own, but this wonderful recipe is from "Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens" by Marie Nightingale  (Nimbus Publishing Limited)    

Rolling Out the Tea Trolley Once Again

After a delay of many, many months, I am pleased to announce the re-introduction of "The Tea Trolley", my blog dedicated to the sumptuous art of preparing and enjoying afternoon tea. I want to express my heart-felt appreciation to my dear friend, and blog collaborator, the Paper Princess, creator and author of The Silken Purse, who graciously gifted me with an absolutely stunning banner to crown my new venture. Even though we are sadly seperated by thousands of Canadian miles, it was so much fun to partner on this project, via long disatnce and internet. It was ALMOST as fun as spending an afternoon at her lovely Bed and Breakfast on the east coast, enjoying her precious company, sipping a steaming bowl of splosh and indulging in freshly-baked scones smothered with raspberry preserves and topped with a generous dollop of clotted cream.. (ALMOST, but not quite!)

My vision for "The Tea Trolley" includes the sharing of recipes, table-setting and tea invitation ideas, and so much more. Come and be a part of our little community. There may even be an opportunity for a cyber-space tea party and a give-away or two! Our only limitation is the breadth, height and depth of our collective imagination. How wonderful is that!


The Paper Princess and I have been blessed immeasurably by the people we have fellowshipped with over the intoxicating aroma of a finely-brewed cup of tea. Between the two of us, we have hosted and attended hundreds of tea gatherings, each unique and memorable. We invite you to join us at "The Tea Trolley" to glean what you can from our experiences, and to contribute what you will to our tea-sipping community at large. You are most cordially invited and welcomed!