Sunday, November 16, 2014

The Red Queen invites you to Tea

My first official tea party in my new house was on Nov. 16 in my Red Queen themed dining room.

 You're invited to a Mad party.

The table is set with a mix of Mikasa and red depression glass dishes. 




LOVE Kimmy's Mad Hatter tights - isn't she the cutest? My mom gave her a little planter.


 A sunny winter day with the Red Queen watching over us. (I bid on this sketch at the Children's Theatre Company ball)

 Let's eat! Orange earl gray tea cake.

Cucumber canapes, cucumber sandwiches and scones of course!

So many kinds of Gouda!

Tea and pimento cheese deviled eggs.



Soups on! Homemade creamy potato.

The girls!

Saw this in Vegas with Tiff and Jackie - quite the cake!


Saturday, November 15, 2014

Mad for the Mad Hatter

As I am catching up on my blog posts I frequented the Mad Hatter in 2014 - with at least four tea parties in the second half of the year. It truly is the best place for tea in the Twin Cities. Here's a highlight.

June 28 tea with mom:

Such an amazing historic home with fun china.

Mom's ready for her tea. Earl gray please.


Tea is served! Cranberry pecan chicken salad, egg salad croissant, strawberry basil tartlette, lavender herb cucumber canape.


Cream scone & lemon lavender scone with sweetened whipped cream & lemon curd.

Mom and I.

Love this teapot! 

Petits Pains Au Chocolat, pink pavlova with lemon Chantilly & fresh fruit and a petit four.

July 12 tea with Andrea and Brenda:

Ladies lunching

The homemade soups and quiche are divine!

You can't go to the Mad Hatter without tea and scones!

And a little dessert!

Tea with Emma 8-24-14:
Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures this visit, but the food was scrumptious as always and ever changing.

Tea with mom Nov. 2014:
It really is worth the walk made pretty by a light dusting of snow.


The table is set. This visit we had a pretty butter yellow pattern.

Mom and I.

Hearty homemade soup topped with pepitas.

A full house! I just love the decor.

Cranberry pecan chicken salad on pumpkin muffins, thyme & roasted grape & goat cheese tartlette, pimento cheese, and frenchy french.

Almond pear puff pastry, chocolate mousse cup & pumpkin cheesecake.

Cream scone & glazed pumpkin spice scone served with sweetened whip cream and orange curd.



Mom enjoying her tea!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Boston Tea Partay

As the plane took off over St. Paul I couldn't help but snap a photo as the Fall colors were nearing their peak.

I flew to Boston for a work event, but managed to maximize my time to play tourist a little as well. There is something magical about the first time you visit a city. I love when everything is a new discovery even if what you are discovering is more than a century old.

My colleague, Emily, and I enjoyed tea in the 1895 McKim building at the Courtyard Restaurant of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. America's first public library.

We took shelter from the rain and our table overlooked this central Renaissance-style cloister courtyard with arcaded gallery and fountain.

Once seated you are provided with a hardcover book.

The inside reveals the menu and tea selection.

I enjoyed my classic selection of Earl Gray. Emily ordered the lemon herbal for her very first afternoon tea.

A view of the tea room.

Our three tiered tray arrived carrying sweet and savory delectables.

Plain and currant scones served with a berry marmalade, Devonshire double cream, and lemon curd. Divine!

The sweets and petit fours were too much to complete. Fresh fruit tartlet with vanilla cream, glazed lemon poppyseed cake, raspberry thumbprints, devilish chocolate 'sinclairs' and the best French macaron I've ever tested - pistachio and salted caramel.

So many sandwiches!
-wild mushroom butter and watercress
-cured onion, fine herbs on rye
-Roquefort spread with walnut jam
-cucumber and hard egg yolk on pumpernickel 

Emily also had some non-veg options:
-lobster salad with chestnuts
-smoked salmon
-deviled chicken and espelette pepper

Emily and I enjoying the tea service.

After all those treats we perused the oldest library in the country.

Such a beautiful place to study. Notice the coffered ceiling of the great Bates Hall reading room.

The Abbey Room 16 panels depict the quest for the Holy Grail.




Throughout the library are murals by John Singer Sargent.

A final view of the courtyard.

We also checked out some sites, because sometimes you wanna go...


We stayed at the Omni Parker House - the longest continuously operating hotel since 1855. We actually had dinner at Table 40 where JFK proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier.

Malcolm X was a bus boy at this restaurant and Boston Cream Pie was perfected here. It's a spongy cake that while beautifully presented I was not fond of.
The hotel was also home to Charles Dickens who first read A Christmas Carol here.

Boston is full of history and it's compact enough to walk almost everywhere.

A stroll through the Public Gardens.

Make Way for Ducklings...

Trinity Church 1733

And a Starbucks with a whistling kettle!

Steam pours out the spout! Seriously! My life is complete! Thank you Boston!