Afternoon tea, skirt finale and muffin things

The recent comment about afternoon tea and tiny sandwiches reminds me of a series of teas I gave a few years ago. Everything homemade, tiny egg salad and chicken sandwiches, little fancy cakes, homemade jam for homemade bread, pot of tea, choice of milk or lemon, the works. Great fun to prepare, and friends loved the event.

One person at a time, because I can't cater to more, not enough dishes. Also I've experienced having two guests who've chatted to each other while treating me as a waitress, no, not the caterer! Very few people, likewise cats, can handle a group of three comfortably. Two's nice for conversation, and my friends are usually up for that.

Anyway, some people were uncertain what to expect, so I explained it's an actual afternoon meal, usually women like it best, so they came prepared to enjoy, and we had a lovely afternoon. 

Others not so much, such as the lady who said of course I'm familiar with it, I've been to Harrods! I had no idea what that meant, found later it's a shop in London where tourists get an afternoon tea, lovely posh food. Si i concluded she knew what to expect.

This lady said she couldn't come to me because of the cats, even in another room. I understood it was a phobia, and she offered to reverse the idea and invite me to afternoon tea at her house close by. She would do it all. I asked was she sure, it was quite a bit of prep, and she insisted she was.

So I showed up as invited. No food nor prep in evidence. Finally she produced a small glass of iced tea each. Total. We did have a lovely chat though.  As they say in my native Yorkshire, nowt so funny as folks!

The pandemic put a hold on my tea party adventures, and unfortunately, several prospective guests have died in the meantime, how annoying of them. But it was lovely while it lasted.

I'm wondering what new adventures I'm up for. At a bit of a crossroads. Meanwhile you'll be happy to know the yellow skirt now has pockets so its positively final reveal is here.

and currently on the Freecycle site is this offering, for animal use, maybe fosters or rescue

I needed to use up some milk that soured, reminding me I will have to replace my 35 year old fridge soon. So this is the result

Cranberry walnut muffins, suitable for all occasions. I used to use olive oil in this recipe and recently tried avocado oil, with very light results. So that's now my choice. Makes me look like a good baker.

Happy day, everyone! It's a good policy to ask questions if you're not sure,  especially if it's a meal or is it..

Tearin' it up and morninglories

Last evening a sudden email from HOA management saying that paving work was scheduled for 7 am today, in front of, and a list of house numbers including mine. Cars to be moved or towed.

So I went out, amazingly found a parking space at the other end of the street, outside the range of specified numbers.

Then this morning another email,  now including the entire street including the slot I parked in. 

Soooo I went out, retrieved my car and went in search of another spot. There are more vehicles than spots, so I was lucky to find an overflow spot, not one someone would need in front of their house this evening. 

Then boys with toys arrived

And tore chunks out of the paving here and there. I won't be able to return until they've filled them back in, I expect.

So, not wishing to lose my spot by doing errands and probably coming home to find it occupied, I got on with setting up and starting the new woven panel

And hoping to improve the fell line, though my selvedges are much more competent than before.

And I did a bit of puzzling here and there

You'll notice the aspect ratio --a rectangle -- of the picture on the box, is different from that of the puzzle, which is a square. Springbok puzzles pull visual stunts like this, a bit jarring. I do like the irregular piece shapes they make though.

And the morning glories are now planted and hanging outside, 

replacing the Thai basil which is now next to its friend, the curry leaf plant

It was a great afternoon for sitting out with tea and the Mitfords. And sleeping might have happened, too 

The last couple of years have been very poor all over the neighborhood for iris, and here's this year's total bloom Chez Boud

Tomorrow I have the annual squashogram, so I'll have to get my car out of its precious space and hope to find another when I get back home. 

The parking situation will be fraught for a while as each street is repaired, because those residents will be displaced in turn and my own spots might be at a premium. We'll see.

Nevah a dall mament as a Mitford might say!

Happy day everyone, enjoy the good bits, rise above the rest!

Full and amazing day yesterday

Please vote if you haven't already. NJ voters who still have mail-in ballots at home please get them to a dropbox or, if you mail, specify you want a postmark. Particularly if you're in District 7, redistricted to bring many gop voters into a formerly juust about Democrat district.

 Meanwhile, yesterday. I returned the puzzle to the library and went to pick another, about Central Park 

And saw the parrot in the jungle puzzle I donated recently, there in the collection for someone else to struggle with, I mean enjoy

While I was there I checked the gallery for the current exhibit, some favorites 

She's a retired medical illustrator and you can see she's a good draftsman. Now she's exploding in color and collage and energy.

You'll notice the homage to the book reader there!

Home again and, after my walk,  I did the promised upstairs plant care in honor of my sister's birthday, including taking sansevieria cuttings. These are slow growers and when they get established I'll probably Freecycle them to some happy recipient.

The parent plant I grew from cuttings I took years ago from a friend's plant which I took onto the deck for a summer, like a camp visit 

This is an interesting plant, which I've propagated before this way and given away.  You just cut the leaf into sections snd shove them into  potting soil. 

I never use rooting hormone though the plant experts always say you should, and considering the reproductive success of my attempts, I think it's not as necessary as they say.

This is also interesting in that it will root only if you plant it the same way up as it grew. Apparently it senses north from south and doesn't like standing on its head.

Last time I made quite short cuttings and this time I'm trying bigger ones to see if it roots any faster. 

And I found yet another rogue potato plant trying to grow among the dracaena, see the fingers there for scale against the miniature spuds 

Then I seized the day

and set up tea and a little something, banana walnut cranberry bread, on the deck, reading Provincial Lady and watching the flock of warblers still here and flitting about the trees.

Amazing to be doing this in November, and lovely. Such a good day. An evening of knitting and then suddenly finding myself dicing a bowl of vegetables for an upcoming batch of flour tortillas. More on that anon.

Meanwhile happy day everyone, seize whatever kind of day you're given, some better than others. 

Vote. Rejoice if the good guys do well, refuse to be crushed if they don't. It's an endless struggle. La lucha!

Pocket coda, friendship coda with cicadas, chai coda, pasty coda

The coda on friendship: I did reference human friendship and everybody politely stayed within the frame of reference. But my friends include animals and plants. 

Two of these converged yesterday when the five year old grandchild visiting next door came to show me her new friends, cicadas in a jar. Just caught for a while to see them up close. 

She took one out to introduce me, and it gave a rattly squeak. I said he's talking to you. She: Yeah, when I pinch his butt he does that. Me: Do you think he's saying  ouch? She: Ohh. Maybe. Me: I like him. She: Yeah. Im putting him in the tree now. And off she went,  mission accomplished.

I doubt if I will live to experience another 17 year cicada season. So this was a great moment of friendship across race and species and age, all at once.

On to less weighty subjects.

More on the endless world of pockets, with another Pro Tip from Polly Pockets here. 

Here's another beloved linen shirt, altered to suit. Roll sleeves, cuffs long gone into some art or something, tail shortened to my liking. It already has a pocket but things can fall out if you bend to see stuff out walking. So it does need help.

As you see, the tail, complete with one button and button hole, still available. Which gave me a cool idea.

Before the cool idea, see that little pink item. It's a Tiny Pocket, a finger in the eye of manufacturers who love them. It's going on the chest opposite the side of the Useful Pocket on the pink shirt. More than one way to achieve balance. Small can weigh large. And a couple of square inches of linen can be a political statement.

And the cool idea is: these two cut out pocket bits, where the shirt tail curve is the pocket top, very well finished already, the front side finished, too, and only the hem and underarm side need my finishing. 

Tune in here for Simple Stuff I Can Do to Get Pockets and Smash the  Patriarchy.

This will happen tomorrow in daylight. 

Meanwhile another version of pasties, this time they probably have a name I don't know, and if you do, please say.

Granny Smiths, with nutmeg, cinnamon, golden raisins, small amount of sugar, usual tortilla dough except bolted flour. 

The flour is very delicate in this recipe, probably needs regular wholewheat combined. That's why it looks a bit lacy. I mean artisanal.

They were very good though, plenty more to come, and triggered another Clever Tip for Cooks Running to Catch up with the Big Kids. 

I finally got around to finding a little shaker for the confectioners sugar, see here. Filled it before I could say I was too tired, and there it is.  This has taken years to accomplish.

When I was first learning American labeling, a friend who cooks and bakes like a pro, gave me a handwritten itrecipe for her lemon bars, which I've since made many times for appreciative audiences. 

I noted the abbreviation she used for the sugar and asked her "what's this ten times sugar?" Such a look of compassion she gave me, never forgotten. 

And now it's short stories and chai.

That's another of those trap words like tea. 

If a Brit invites  you to tea, you're not going to get a cup of hot water with a teabag in it.  You've been invited to a meal, all baked from scratch. At my house, anyway,  including the bread in the little sandwiches, and the jam, a couple of kinds of cake, maybe a savory, and a fresh pot of tea, choice of lemon or milk. Nice cups. Napkins. Clean tablecloth.

When an Indian offers you chai you get this recipe I made, made slowly and with care, with milk. 

Yet chai just means tea. And you can get spice mixes called chai which are lovely, but not the classic Indian recipe.  It all depends on context.

I blame the English for all this confusion. For everything, really.

Experiments in the kitchen

Very tired of banana bread, even if it is reliable, always eaten. So I thought I'd try using sweet potato instead. I already had a container of cooked sweet potato, mashed with butter, in the freezer, so I thawed a cupful.

I looked at a couple of recipes for sweet potato bread and noticed one added water. And a lot more sugar than I like. Anyway I bore the water in mind, and found that the batter did need moisture. So I added probably half a cup of milk, didn't measure. Till the batter looked likely. As you see below. 

Added in chocolate chips, chopped walnuts. Basically the old banana bread recipe, plus half a cup of milk, and it baked about ten minutes faster. 

 Looked like this, nice texture, going in.

It tastes good, a nice unfancy cake, less moist than banana bread

And it's pretty good. It needs the nuts definitely, for interest, and chocolate chips never go wrong.

We'll see how many stars Handsome Son gives it. I'll save some for him.

Speaking of tea, the meal, that is: the posh kind, with the tiny crust-free sandwiches, savory spread, little tartlets, cake, tea in a pot, cups with saucers, is afternoon tea. If you're invited to tea that's what it means. Allow about an hour and a half at least.

If I'm the hostess, it's all baked from scratch specially for you. About once a month, I used to invite individual interesting people as a kind of special one-on-one treat for women friends.

 We did run into a snag here and there where people thought it was a bit more casual than it was, not being familiar with it. So they'd say, well I can only stop in for a few minutes, or an hour before expected, call to change the date. Interestingly these were people who were traveled, who claimed to know all about it... Maybe not. But it was still fun when it worked. And the dear friend who tried the lemon tomato jam and said I'm taking this entire pot home! I did send a care package with her. 

The other hitch was friends I couldn't invite because of problems with gluten and caffeine. A good afternoon tea really consists of gluten and caffeine!  Subs don't work. So we did other things.

And while we're here, this is not high tea. That's a cooked meal in the early evening, like a supper, and it requires knife and fork. I think sometimes people assume the careful presentation of afternoon tea adds up to high. I explained this to a friend who asked a while back, and she said, no, in England I had that fancy one, so is that low tea? She was determined to get the technicalities right. 

And the Brits don't help by using the same word for a beverage and a meal. As in "come on now, eat your tea!"

I'm going to read Pride and Prejudice now,  along with my sp cake and a pot of tea .

First tea on the patio this year

First outdoor afternoon of the year, listening to a Georgette Heyer audiobook, weaving a miniature hat, watching the clouds.

 A crow chasing a redtail hawk out of his nesting territory, getting in a fierce peck at the tailfeathers. Turkey vultures flying lazy circles.

 Drinking tea, eating cashews and golden raisins, while bees buzzed around the flowers and the newly opening lemon balm, sage and thyme.

 Calm, neighbors playing with their kids. Kids laughing, because out of the house.

The trees in their earliest green. Dogwood in blossom.

I wish everyone this kind of quiet afternoon, to recover our balance, and remember later.

Afternoon tea, species specific

One beautiful sunny day, high 50sf, rain forecast p the rest of the week, so  I seized the day, or rather the afternoon, the morning spent hauling large bags of books for the library donation, and hauling bags of dishes to the car ready for a thriftie run. And yet another bookcase out to join his friends at the dumpster, courtesy of kind neighbor..

Where was I, oh yes, great walk around the neighborhood. Walking is great for avoiding  stress problems from lifting and carrying, so I make a point of it.

Halfway around, I spotted a gang of turkey vultures in the street, disposing of a rabbit, which reminded me it would be teatime when I got home (!).

I'm grateful to turkey vultures,and we have a lot, for cleaning up all the roadkill and losers in nature's battles for us. Those guys are enormous on the ground, must be a six foot wingspan.  Couldn't get pix because cars kept scattering them. In the sky they hover and zoom about in big lazy circles, looking much smaller.

So home to tea and banana bread. More downstairs than upstairs, despite the Shelley putting in an appearance.

The giant slice of banana bread and big fork detract from the Downton Abbey effect. Also the milk powder, I never use liquid milk these days. The powdered is all kinds of pure. And it doesn't sour. But I think that Downton Abbey old lady would look at it and ask what IS milk powder?

Tea tastes different from different pots and cups. This was much lighter tasting than from my usual Chinese porcelain pot and mug. Same tea, same proportions. Some mysterious chemistry.  The cup is smaller, so I was kept working hard refilling it..

It's all research. What I do for science, and do they thank me? Do I get Time covers? Nobel Peace prizes?  But I think tea has probably averted more conflicts and assisted in handling more crises than it gets credit for.

Now back to my current Sue Ann Jaffarian, another good antidote to dark times.