Lowell Inn Tea

On a lovely snowy Saturday we ventured out for tea at the charming Lowell Inn in Stillwater.

The glamorous historic lobby greeted us with sparkling chandeliers.



   We enjoyed tea in the George Washington room, which recreates the elegance of Colonial Williamsburg in an elegant and formal setting. We loved the black and white decor accented by the burgundy napkins and picture of George himself. 

 

Kim and Andrea picking out their tea selections from the tea chest.

 

Pinkies up!

 

The first course was a luxuriously warm apple cinnamon scone with apple vanilla butter - so good!

 

The Lowell Inn cream of mushroom soup was

divine and so cute accented with a creamy L and crackers.

We each enjoyed three tea sandwiches served on toasts with wonderful texture. Seriously, who is this chef? The food was superb - some of the best we've ever had at tea.

The fourth course was a domestic and imported cheese selection, including a smoked Gouda, served with fresh fruit and four cracker varieties.

 

The girls enjoying tea.

And the grand finale - dessert. Brownie, cake and a chocolate cover strawberry.

Birthday Blog

Kimmy: "What are you going to do for your birthday?"

Me:" "Nothing, but I have a theme, 32 boo hoo!"

Kimmy: "Well that simply won't do!"

A two page itinerary followed.  

"You have to have an itinerary - that's how you maximize fun time per hour." The Mindy Project.

 Kimmy truly thought of everything! She had her own theme: 32 and Fabulous!

Not only was the cake super cute, it was my favorite. The bakery in the small town we grew up in has a really light white cake with a berry filling and she special ordered the cake - so sweet!

Kimmy and I - she even decorated my house - birthday signs and streamers!

We all had to work on Friday (boo hoo!), but when evening arrived,

the girls came over to make homemade pizza like when we were kids. Tiff brought a salad, Jackie brought Prosecco, Andrea brought movie treats, and Kimmy brought us all together.

My girls: Tiff, Jackie, (me), Andrea, and Kimmy

Clearly we enjoyed the champagne and five flavors of champagne toppers.

 

It's my birthday! Make a wish!

 

Four bottles of champagne, five girls and some not so "magic" Mike.

We didn't even make it to the mud masks and nail polish.

 

Kimmy decided one night of fun wasn't enough, so we continued the fun into Saturday

with brunch at W. A. Frost. And yes, there was tea!

  Tea Source gold and earl gray white tip in cute little teapots. We were slightly aghast at the diners around us who failed to remove the tea strainer - their tea must have gone tart - blah! We know too much about tea - it's official. We also enjoyed a Pineapple Collins and a hazelnut soda.

 

The food was divine. I enjoyed vanilla brioche French toast with maple syrup and fresh fruit. I also had a cup of creamy mushroom soup with toasted sourdough and shiitake marmalade. Kim tired the croque madame - ham, Emmenthaler cheese, fried egg and mornay sauce.

 

It was nice and toasty by the fire - what a lovely ladies brunch! Thank you Kimmy!

 

We walked west down Selby and stopped in Great Harvest for some scones to go - marionberry and raspberry white chocolate cream cheese.

Our destination was Dr. Chocolate's Chocolate Chateau - a beautiful Victorian filled with gourmet chocolates. I enjoyed the brown sugar and spice hot chocolate and a Mayan truffle. We also bought some chocolates to go, which were packaged in their own treasure chests - OMG!

 

 

Walking west past W.A. Frost on Selby we decided to check out the Red Bull Crashed Ice course. It was around 3 p.m. and the championships began at 7 p.m. so there wasn't much action, but it was fun to check out the course.

 

 

We finished the festivities with a candlelit hike at Wild River State Park.

(We had planned to snowshoe, but there wasn't quite enough snow.)

The luminaries were packed with snow and melty candles. The bonfire was so large you could see it miles out as you drove up to the park - they claimed it was the "largest bonfire in Minnesota."

 

Kimmy and I in our warm snow bunny attire.

 

We walked a few miles through the woods with only the luminaries to light the way. Half way through we enjoyed warm apple cider and cookies. Matt joined us for the adventure and protected us from wild creatures, ha ha!

 

Yay for a fun birthday weekend with friends. No more boo hoo!

Tea Source at Tiff's

Tiffany hosted the first tea party of the year today with a very special guest from Tea Source. The table was set for eight with her beautiful Mikasa dishes and a little added fun with wine glasses.

Her place settings were so elegant and two included a special birthday message.

I don't know about the other girls, but Tiff made ALL of my favorite tea foods starting with

Dill Gouda, Parmesan cheese, and sea salt crackers.

Mediterranean skewers with herb feta, kalamata olives, tomato and cucumber.

Tiers of deliciousness: cucumber cream cheese and egg salad sandwiches

as well as white chocolate raspberry scones served with devonshire and homemade raspberry preserves. This was Tiff's first attempt at homemade scones from scratch, but you'd never know it - they were cooked to perfection! She might be the designated scone maker going forward.

Did someone say Moscato?

 

Great food, friends, and conversation.

 

A steaming cup of Tea Source apple cider spice tea

and a full plate of goodies - what could be better?

The Birthday girls, Cindy and I, with our mini pumpkin tiramisu trifles and birthday leis.



And a very special guest! This is Mary from Tea Source.

 Mary ensured we were fully knowledgeable about tea from

where it grows to all five types of tea - can you name them?

Hint: herbal is not one of the five.

We sampled several teas, but I think we all fell in love

with the chai made with sweetened condensed milk - how could you not?

 



The Puerh tea was pressed into little shapes - birds nests and hearts.

Tiff holding a tea brick, which used to be used as currency.

The girls and table full of tea and tea catalogs.

A big thanks to Mary - we are now all practiced tea experts.

I think we all ordered quite a few new teas to try from Tea Source.

Can't wait for the package to come in the mail! Funsies!

 

Mrs. Moos brought Daisy to tea

(she had a pink sweater on). 

Kimmy really needs to get her woofer!

Christmas Tea

This is the most curious Christmas tea party I've ever been to.

Emma visited for a holiday tea for two today, which gave me an excuse to use my red glass dishes as well as my Alice in Wonderland Christmas teapot, mugs, and serving tray.

Poinsettia placemats and napkins, ornament place cards, British-style Mad Hatter mugs, an Alice in Wonderland "poison" candle, and Eat Me fruit and nut bar complete with riddles, made up the place settings. Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.



 

The table is set, Prosecco popped, and the food is ready.

Eggnog mitten scones served with vanilla bean curd,

Gouda and crackers, and pumpkin bars.

Curiouser and curiouser - a Cheshire cat Santa teapot.

Christmas crescent roll pull-a-apart wreath. Veggie pizza is on my favorite food list. This was fun and easy to make. Simply cut the crescent roll log so it makes small circles to make the wreath, bake, when cool, spread the cream cheese dill mixture, top with carrots, cucumber, celery and tomato, and cut a red pepper into a bow. 

Snowman pizza (before & after)

 

We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad.

Sipping cranberry mimosas and Twinings Christmas tea.

I love the cinnamon and spices this time of year.

 

My mom found cute sparkly hedgehogs in Fort Frances

and they were perfect for Emma for Christmas.