April Tea at the Avalon

Andrea hosted April tea at the Avalon in downtown White Bear Lake. While Kimmy was enjoying the last snow of the season on the slopes we were able to meet Anne, Andrea's friend from college. Knowing that Anne has a tea cup collection she will have to join us again.

The dishes were elegantly spring with multi-color flowers and varied cup shapes. The food was exceptional - all four courses! Quiche; four varieties of tea sandwiches; cream and cherry scones with devonshire, lemon curd and preserves; cake, shortbread cookies and two more desserts - yum! I think this was the first tea party where we all needed to go boxes.

Alice in Winterland Tea

After a postponement ironically due to a winter snowstorm; Alice in Winterland tea was held on a sunny winter day.

Four courses were consumed with all dishes having an Alice in Winterland title, including Cheshire creamy white bean soup and Red Knight royal sandwich Hearts. I emphasized savories over sweets on this menu as I find most tea shops have far too many sweets. The Snowflake Black tea from Lady Elegant's complimented the food wonderfully and the Cupcake prosecco was delicious.

 

Three varieties of sandwiches were served. Kimmy was so helpful and arrived early to help me prep. She did a great job rolling bread to make the Mad Hatter's celery cream cheese pinwheels and arranging the Dormouse's cheese and snowflake crackers. We put a twist on the traditional cucumber sandwiches using mascarpone cheese and layering with the cucumbers thinly sliced on top. Emma adored the roasted red pepper sandwiches so much she already called to ask if I'd make them for her birthday. Dessert included Knave of Hearts cranberry and blueberry scones and the ultimate coconut snowball truffles.

Red Queen's Strawberry Heart Salad - simple, yet elegant with feta cheese, slivered almonds and homemade heart croutons and strawberry dressing. 

Love my new Alice in Winterland tea set - notice Alice is figure skating across the teapot and the Cheshire snowcat is the lid. To center the table - a beautiful wintry blue arrangement with hydrangeas.

 

 Alice in Winterland ornaments incorporate the chandelier into the party theme.

The tea party girls! Thanks to Tiffany for all of the pictures!

“There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wander, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it. You need to be as mad as a hatter.”

Italian Princess Birthday Tea!

To say that I have the best friends ever would be an understatement...the tea partay girls made turning 30 special and fun. Kimmy - the hostess with the mostest - really outdid herself...again!!!!

In my honor, Kimmy hosted Italian princess tea. The Italian part was the food - all Giada recipes! The menu:

• pea pesto crostini
• fontina cheese crostini
• roasted red pepper soup
• green and white bean salad with fresh herbs and pecorino romano
• vegetable parmesan (red and yellow peppers, fennel, and eggplant)
• chocolate honey almond tart with whipped cream and blackberries
• mini tiramisu cake
• prosecco, prosecco, prosecco (Veneto Region of Italia and Mionetto Spa Valdobbiadene)
• Indigo Tea Co.'s "Celebration Blend" (a fine blend of black tea, orange, cloves, vanilla and rose)
• Mad Hatter Tea Room's Earl Gray Cream (our usual)

The food was fabulous! Many of us had seconds! Nice work Chef Kimmy! You can tell you put a lot of work and love into the food!

The princess portion of the party included little diamonds all over the tables - so cute! Tiaras for all of the partay girls in all different colors - fun! A birthday sash, balloons and cute tiaras on the wall.
 

Tiara Girls - Jackie, Em, Andrea, Sheri & Tiff (not pictured Kim the photographer)

 

Cake table



I'll toast to that! Jackie graduating from UST with an MBC degree and Sheri's 30th Bday!



Kimmy presenting her amazing homemade Italian chocolate torte. Isn't she super cute in her fun dress?



Blowing out the candles. Don't worry husband - no boyfriends, ha ha!



More whip please, ha ha!
(In this pic you can see that I am wearing the fun teacup dress and the
Platinum Diamonds by the Yard Tiffany necklace Jeff surprised me with :) 3 diamonds for 30 - yay!

Jackie had a grad party the night before, but we had to celebrate again - congrats girly on your Master's degree!!!

Alice in Disneyland

For Christmas, my mother-in-law, Dolly, bought me the perfect gift...Christmas tea! But it wasn't enough to just buy the tea, Alice also autographed it when she was at Disney. Too cute!

Dolly is also a master quilter and she made me the most adorable teacup quilt! Thanks Dolly!

High Tea in Hawaii

On Dec. 17 I was still in Hawaii, sigh... My husband was a good sport and we walked along Waikiki beach past the Pink Palace (Royal Hawaiian) to its sister resort the Moana Surfrider. Built in 1901 it's the oldest hotel on the beach. It has a white facade with lots of columns. We sat on the veranda overlooking the ocean. While it was a bit odd drinking hot tea in 75 degree weather, it was a beautiful day and a wonderful high tea. I wish I was there now.

The only proof that Jeff was with me is his hand in this picture, ha!

The Menu
Course 1: creamy mushroom soup
Course 2: three tea sandwiches for the vegetarian: cucumber with watercress; tofu/avocado; cream cheese on a baguette with tomato, cucumber and diced kalamata olives. Jeff's sandwiches included: roast beef; salmon/egg salad and cucumber.
Course 3: raisin scones with lemon curd and Devonshire cream
Course 4: dessert: puff pastry with cream; tangerine and chocolate cake, fruit tart and chocolate shortbread cookies
Course 5: green tea sorbet

Mad Hatter Holiday

Kim and I started the morning of Dec. 10 early rolling 250 truffles. This usually takes us the entire day, but amazingly we finished in time to have lunch at the Mad Hatter with Emma. Maybe not opening the bottle of Proseco expedited the process?

The Mad Hatter is our favorite tea room. With the owner's daughter passing away from cancer, the tea shop was in jeopardy. Thankfully, the original owner bought it back, which was great news! She makes a mean cucumber sandwich - what's the secret? Creme fraiche? However, we learned that her Earl Gray Cream tea purveyor went out of business. Since this is our official tea partay tea, we cleaned her out of what she had on the shelf. I hope she finds a very similar tea to replace it because it is so delicate, yet hearty with the bergamot flower - it will be hard to find a truly comparable tea.

This is becoming an annual tradition. Last year, we went to the Como Conservatory. It was nice to exchange gifts and consume the first freshly made chocolate truffles.

Notice in the picture Kimmy's super cute dress! She also had four inch heels on (as usual).

An Afternoon of Mystery

The mystery began with ten inches of snow and a postponement, but today Emma was able to host her mystery tea. Was it Professor Plum? Mrs. Peacock, perhaps? Hmm....she was very mischievous in her party preparation. I thought for sure we would be guessing many samples of unlabeled teas...
 
First Emma served delicious food as usual, this was just one of her 3-tiered trays - love the wild rice Gouda! She also served pumpkin soup and many sweet treats - cranberry bread, almond mini bundt cakes, assorted chocolates, etc. The tea of the day was 1767 a blend from Lady Elegant's with fruity notes.

Each place setting had a different teacup and we were instructed to pick the seat with the teacup that most appealed to us. Then we matched which tea went with which teacup. Finally, we answered tea-related trivia questions, which quickly revealed that Andrea is a true art and history buff. The trivia was a lot of fun and I think we all learned something. Do you know how tea was discovered? OK, so you've heard the story of the tea leaf falling into the Chinese Emperor's water, but can you name the emperor and year? If you said Shennong in 2737 BC, then you should apply to be a contestant on jeopardy!
   

Emma sent us home with the tea, a really cute silicone strawberry diffuser and the vintage cup and saucer at our setting, which was a fun surprise! Mystery solved!

 

The girls (minus the photographer ;)



Mad for Dishes!

The Allice in Wonderland dish set is nearly complete! With this many dishes I'm envisioning a never ending table with lots of guests. More tea please!

Thank you Auntie Linda and Uncle Neil for the beautiful cabinet. I filled it up straight away!

Breakfast at Tiffany's

This really is Tiffany's face ;)

Menu:

Fresh mixed fruit

Egg and mushroom souffle

Mini apple pancakes with apple butter

Lemon poppyseed shortbread cookies

Tiffany really does make the best breakfast.

Attendees:
Tiffany, Amelia, Rachel, Kim, Andrea, Clara, Emma & me



The table is set



Beautiful bowl of delicious fresh fruit



That's not your car carrier



Andrea and Tiffany's Amelia



The Maddest Dress!

After stalking this whimsical silk tea cup dress in the store and online for a month it finally went on sale! I can't wait to wear it to one of our next tea parties. First, I need a mom to do a little strap adjustment and then I'll be all set. The dress is a lavender/gray color and the tea cups are quirky and very colorful. The name of the dress is Cream & Sugar and it's my cup of tea! I think Giada's husband Todd at Anthropologie designed this for me! Ha Ha!