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Jackie hosted a lovely French tea this weekend with delectable treats!



The table was set with Jackie's grandma's china and real silver!



She made a to-die-for spinach and cheese souffllé (we all asked for the recipe!), dill Havarti, baby Swiss cheese and Brie was served as well as strawberry rhubarb jam for the croissants. Jackie also made homemade chocolate mousse with raspberries, which I'm sure is laborious to make, but tasted amazing!

Croissants, macarons - pistachio and vanilla with chocolate filling, caramel eau claires, oh my! How do those French women not get fat?

The Girls tea partaying!

Tea at the Ritz

My first tea ever at the Ritz-Carlton! Thursday is not a busy tea day as I was the only patron having tea. I noticed the teapot did not match the Wedgwood India pattern china. Apparently, when they packed up all of the dishes because of Hurricane Katrina, the lids to the sugar and the teapots were never found.

I enjoyed Harney and Sons Paris tea, which I have at home too, but it's a nice black tea with smooth current and caramel notes. The server was most attentive. He even gave me a cute little Ritz bag with tea sachets, which they do not typically do as he put them in a used loose leaf tea container - very sweet!

My last moments in New Orleans - a relaxing high tea. Notice the three-tier tray even has a silver Ritz signature lion.

Beautiful room for tea, but very eclectic as is chic now I suppose

 

The little crunchy balls on the banana and chocolate desserts were very interesting. The server referred to them as Ritz cocoa puffs, ha ha!

Hot-tea!

Even though I was travelling alone for work, I made a point to both begin and end my journey with high tea in New Orleans.

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.    --Henry James

The first tea was at Le Salon in the Windsor Court Hotel. There were a number of folks having tea. I expected hats in the south and there were none in sight. I also found it intriguing that there were two tables of men with dainty dollies and petite sweets in front of them.

As I'm sitting enjoying my tea (pictures below), the girls at the table behind me are making a bit of a commotion. I turned around and asked them what was going as they pointed to the lobby as Quentin Tarantino and James Marsden (27 dresses!) are waiting for the elevator! Just then one table of men having tea gets up to leave. The girls inform me that it is Rufus Sewell of a Knight's Tale, a director and a screenplay writer.

While we didn't want to accost him while taking tea, we pounced like kittens as he headed for the lobby door - "hot-tea!" He is even from England. As I was posing for the picture below, I asked him "Are you here filming the vampire movie?" He replied with his rather dreamy British accent "Oh yes, I am the king of the vampires!" He wasn't short on confidence, but very nice and very handsome!  He’s filming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – June 2012 ladies!

James Carville and Mary Matalin were in the lobby when we returned from picture taking. I definitely stumbled upon the celebrity hotel. I must say this may have been the most invigorating high tea I've ever experienced!

 

Souvenir menu $8; picture with a handsome & famous Brit = priceless...

Cucumber and egg salad sandwiches. The egg salad had a peach chutney for an interesting twist.

Scones and the best Devonshire cream ever - it was from England and so thick you can tell they used an ice cream scoop.

The tiniest pecan pie tartlet - very popular in New Orleans.

Rufus Sewell a.k.a. hot-tea vampire!