Christmas Tea

What to do on a -10 day in Minnesota that feels like -24? Enjoy a warm cup of tea, dainty treats and laughter with friends.

We ventured out into the cold to our favorite tearoom - the Mad Hatter. 

While I'm far too lazy to poach a pear I love a poached pear salad with candied walnuts, smoked blue cheese and spiced pear vinaigrette- divine!

We sipped several teas - Christmas blend, snowflake (coconut almond), spiced plum, smoked cocoa and earl gray of course!

Spiced Christmas scones with orange curd, fig jam and sweet whipped cream.

So many sammies to try

-blood orange sage cheesecake tartlet 

-heirloom carrot cheddar curry

-Mad Hatter signature chicken salad 

-ham and Swiss thumbprint cookie

-sugared cranberry and mint pesto

-spring pea and Boursin bruschetta

I was delightfully surprised by the curry sandwich and cranberry savory.

Dessert! Cannoli cream puffs, chocolate peppermint pavlova and red velvet cake truffles.

The girls!

And of course we shopped upstairs on the way out.

Happy Holidays!

The Avalon is back!

I was excited to learn that the Avalon tearoom reopened in White Bear Lake. I guess they reopened in Februray, which tells me their advertising could use some work. I am in the area at least twice a week and didn't know they were open nor did the prior owners take down the old Facebook page or indicate it was open again. Luckily I spotted a sandwich board on the street corner outside.

My mom and I went to check it out. The space is the same but less cluttered. 

They have the same tea purveyor but no longer sell the little sample bags although you can get as many ounces as you want in a regular bag.

We were the first customers and our table was ready upon arrival.

There were only two people working. A young man was running the show - he made the food and knew the operation. A young girl I'm fairly certain it was her first day working ever. She didn't know how to multitask - she took our tea order and then watched it steep. You can imagine as two more tables came in she struggled. Here's hoping in a couple weeks she gets the swing of things. 

On the bright side the tea was good - I tried an apricot decaf black tea and my mom had an orange tea.

The food was scrumptious!

Half the savories were vegetarian for me and half were not for my mom and we both enjoyed them thoroughly. The veg sandwiches were better than most tearooms offer - veggie hummus, warm caprese on focaccia, classic cucumber dill, egg salad and my favorite, pimento cheese. Seriously every tea sandwich I love plus two! 

They had a ton of scone flavors in the pastry case - I wish we could have selected our flavors, but nonetheless the cranberry and lemon blueberry were both great!

The scones were served with cream, curd and preserves of course.

And so many desserts! Almond thumbprints, lemon cookies, strawberry turnovers, lavender cookies, brownies.

We ended up taking dessert and a scone each home to enjoy later.

Mom and I.

Spring tea at Mad Hatter

Enjoyed tea at the Mad Hatter in Anoka today with these lovely ladies - Stacy and her daughter Abby. 

We sipped rooibos punch with notes of coconut and fruit. We also enjoyed the Mad Hatter house blend - an earl gray with chocolate and orange notes.

Three tiers of delights...the new summer menu revealed!

Savory sammies - egg salad, strawberry brushetta, cucumber, heirloom tomato phyllo cup, chicken salad on orange blossom muffin or apple cheese for the two veggie girls.

Scones - French lavender orange scone, cream scone with yummy accompiants: orange marmalade, lemon curd and, the table favorite, sweet cream.

Sweets - Raspberry tart, chocolate dipped strawberry, and an almond poppyseed cupcake - I liked the almond instead of lemon.

I lost my mind in the gift shop and bought ALL of this cute Alice party set!!! Tee hee! Guess I need to throw a tea partay!

We also visited downtown Anoka and Abby had success shopping at I. Appeal.

An excellent way to spend the afternoon on a 90 degree day.

Stacey's Birthday Tea at the Beach with the Queen (wait - what?)

In between boat cruises, beaching and nice dinners, we found time for tea in Panama City Beach, FL at Willows Tea Room. Kim is beckoning us into the air conditioning.

We were one of the first parties to arrive to the sunny little tearoom a block from the beach.

Celebrating Stacey's 35th and Queen Elizabeth II's 90th Birthdays. Happy Birthday Stacey! Best friends since 3rd grade.

First course: leek and potato soup



Second course: The Willow Royale Salad - Romaine and baby spinach with chopped peaches, almonds, crumbled blue cheese and croutons with apple cider vinaigrette. Delicious!

The spread with a cuppa earl gray.

Third course: Finger sandwiches

Coronation chicken mini rolls, cucumber and dill cream cheese on wheat, prawn salad vol-au-vents, bacon wrapped maraschino cherries, parmesan baskets of smoked salmon mousse

Fourth and fifth course: Scones and Dessert

Chocolate Gateau with cream, chocolate and strawberry mousse. The Gateau was really sweet and rich. I loved the scones! Apple and rosemary scones with apple conserve and clotted cream - divine! Might have to recreate at home.

Full house:

The birthday girls - Stacey and Queenie with Sheri and Kimmy.

NYC tea at Lady Mendl's

At a rather non-descript location in Gramercy Park, if you look closely above the left blue hydrangea you will see a tiny teacup sign indicating that you have, indeed, arrived at your destination.

Welcome to the 1834 brownstone the Inn at Irving Place and the Victorian tea salon within, Lady Mendl's. An historic home with tables tucked into rich tapestry adorned rooms.

Notice the crystalized ginger on the table. This was served instead of sugar for your tea.

 First course:
 A palette cleansing melon, feta, basil amuse bouche

Second course:

 My veggie sandwiches included cucumber with mint crème fraiche on pumpernickel, crostini with butternut squash and arugula with Boursin and maple balsamic reduction, goat and fig on pumpernickel

Third course: Classic scone with lemon curd, preserves, and Devonshire cream

Fourth course: Lady Mendel's famous layer cake

Fifth course: Strawberry and chocolate macaroons, chocolate dipped strawberries, sugar cookies

Tea with a great friend and my sister from another mother - Stacy aka SheStacy in the house.

My review: excellent period ambiance - you feel like you are stepping back in time, the décor is very detailed and well done. Asking our bow tied server for this picture = awkward! "I don't take pictures." Um excuse me, we are paying a lot for these little delights and we aren't the paparazzi - we went to the Met Gala later that weekend, ahem. However, the hostess did take pictures although this is not the first take as we had the most befuddled look on our face after the server snubbed us. I had to ask her later to take another so we didn't look we saw a snobby well dressed ghost.

Mad Hatter

The Maddest of tea parties was held in April. The table was set with a beautiful floral centerpiece from the guests.



Savories were served: The Queen's pizza crowns (prepared by assistant pizza makers Amelia and Morgan), cucumber sandwiches, carrots, lady bug gouda and crackers

Sweets oh sweets were served:

Eat Me chocolate all the way from Alice's shop in Oxford, England, Amelia's favorite Girl Scout Cookies - lemonades, strawberries, peanut butter banana bread, Cheshire cat tails, caterpillar grapes

  

Two big girls, two little girls and two dolls attended the party (not pictured Morgan's dolly at the end of the table isn't quite tall enough)

Queen Morgan wore her crown of course



And Queen Amelia as they played Mad Hatter bingo



And the final crescendo - Amelia provided the music.