Thursday Teatime!!

Today, we celebrated Joyce's birthday with a special tea! With Willy Wonka the Musical successfully behind me, I was in a celebratory mood. I finally got around to trying out the dark chocolate madeleine recipe from one of my new cookbooks.

Madeleine pans prepared almost as instructed, brushed with butter and dusted with cocoa(my experiment)

dark chocolate is melted with butter

whole eggs are beaten with sugar till pale and foamy

chocolate mixture is stirred in to finish the batter

Always a good sign when the recipe makes the stated specified amount.

 

 

success!!, and boy they are delicious!!

Next up , some scones. I decided to try something different and made cherry scones instead of the usual currants. I received some wonderful Dried Michigan pie cherries for Christmas from Kathy.

 

 

 

 

Tea is not complete without some savory foods. I decided to make turkey & watercress sandwiches and also made a wonderful shrimp salad with the wild shrimp from Publix.

peeled , deveined and tossed with olive oil, just the perfect song for a sing a long

 

 

dressing for shrimp

For the 2nd savory snack, Cajun turkey and watercress!

 For the tea service, I selected the more sparkly dish patterns since it was such a gloomy day.

Our tea selection for the afternoon

madeleines are finished with a quick dusting of confectioners sugar

 

 

 

After tea, we took a quick stroll in the garden to see what was blooming. The sun came out briefly and is was nice.

 

 

 

 

Thalia Daffodils

It has been a cold and wet spring so far, which is good for plants but I am eagerly awaiting warmer days ahead. Joyce shared a few tomato plants she started with us yesterday. I will spend the next few days "hardening off" the plants and plan to plant them in 2 or 3 weeks. We also received an invitation to a wedding in Charleston S.C. and I have till April 18th to decide weather to go or not.. decisions, decisions......

Breakfast & Baking

macaron shells all paired and ready for filling

My first full week after the play, no rehearsals means free evenings. The weather this week has been wet and gloomy so my plans for gardening have now been postponed till better weather. The rain has actually been most welcomed. It will help all the plants coming out of dormancy put on a beautiful spring show. We started the day with a leisurely breakfast(my favorite kind of breakfast) of eggs, fruit and toast.

honey mangoes from Publix have been particularly good this week

Mariage Freres Tea, YUM!

perfectly poached Crager-Hager egg for Raleigh, actually it is a soft boiled egg that he expertly shelled

For me, right out of the shell with some sea salt

Breakfast was followed by a quick survey of the wet garden and then it was on to piano students and then an evening baking macarons off course!

good macarons begin with aged eggs at room temperature, these are about 2 weeks old and sat out on the counter for 4 hours

I found some interesting looking coconut flour at Sevananda, going to substitute some for the almond flour to see what happens

 

Rather orange but they turned out well

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite filling at the moment, whipped cream folded with passionfruit pulp, with no additional sugar, creamy and tart!

 

coconut shells with passionfruit cream

 

 

Green tea macaron

 

 

green tea shells with chestnut cream filling

 

 

Chocolate shells with passionfruit cream

A most productive night of baking. I was very happy with the success since the weather was not the most ideal for macaron baking: Thunderstorms and downpours all evening!

nicely packaged and ready for pick up!