Today I want to share with you a special lady that lives only a couple of hours away; therefore it is close to HOME! Lisa Boalt Richardson is as much a Tea Aficionado as I am. Please read about her new book and her being featured in nwitimes: Author celebrates tea in charming books!
This is one of my favorite desserts.
Romantic Rose Petals and Strawberry slices in home baked shells; using won-ton-wrappers and brushing them with melted butter; than dusting with a mixture of sugar with cinnamon. Only about 5 min. in the oven and voilà. Next you whip up some whipped cream and add a few drops of Rose Water (Eau de Rose) and add carefully the pesticide free Rose Petals and sliced Strawberries... Dust with powdered sugar.
Oh, from the same won-ton-wrappers I'd cut out hearts for decoration...
Silver is
Alvin Bridal Rose, available at Replacements Ltd.
China is
Royal Albert Princess Anne also available at Replacements Ltd.
Just a yummy High Tea that I did from my home...
Tea cups from Mason Chartreuse with golden 4" paper doilies.
Another Tea for Friends...
Using a lace doily as invitation. (click to enlarge)
And YES, Tea goes very well with Chocolates too!
What a surprise to receive today an email with the message that
Gunnar Lloyd is born in The Netherlands, with accompanying movie of him (click above pink link). It is such a perfect baby on this futuristic movie and no wonder as he's already born on April 7! Never have seen anything like this, quite a space-age movie; what an art work done by his Daddy Raymond who is after all a
software architect. Gunnar of course is a Swedish name, we know that they went to
Sweden for a vacation and they must have fallen in love with that country and even more with themselves... then or at a later moment. At least a very special name for such a deep and true love.
Now the rest of the story... a very special one to share with my readers. On June 5 of 2006 we got a phone call from our friend/Judge Helen Harper. She said to me: "Guess what I did this afternoon?" I had no idea... So she told me that she'd married a Dutch couple who were staying at the romantic
Page House B & B in town after having been to Savannah. Helen said, oh I realized too late that you were Dutch too. That's alright I said, now they felt at least more at ease without any countrymen around.
Of course I did call, to congratulate them in
Dutch and invited them over for next day, to have dessert with us. They were quite surprised for finding two Dutch born Americans here in town! For their wedding day dinner they did go to the best Lady Chef in the region, to
Ristorante da Maria. Quite fittingly for the occasion! Spending the night after dinner at
Dublin Farm, Come Home to the Country, so they would not have to do any more traveling to find a romantic place to sleep.
I did bake a very special dessert for them: Phyllo dough shells with Strawberry-Rose-Whipped-Cream... and pastry hearts on the side. Got my
Royal Albert Princess Anne china out and quite fittingly; the
Bridal Rose by Alvin silverware, all from Replacements Ltd.
Made special flower arrangements from fresh, highly fragrant gardenias in a
Cream Color on Cream Color by Wedgwood footed compote white Lathyrus odoratus (fragrant sweet pea) and white gladiolus flowers.
Alvin Bridal Rose silver spoons
Romantic home baked hearts from Wonton Wraps with Strawberry & Rose Petal whipped cream
We were ready now to welcome the newly weds Daphna and Raymond into our home!
We did enjoy it as much as they did. It was very special and for me it was just labor of love to make the dessert with edible, red rose petals from our own garden, with strawberries and whipped cream. So romantic with only a few drops of rose water added.
Like on the movie where Daphna and Raymond welcome Gunnar Lloyd into the world, so did we welcome Daphna van Zoeren and Raymond Roelands into our home and one can see that things started out very rosy but more important is it did last.
We wish you lots more years in good health and happiness together as a young family.
If you ever find the time to visit Dublin again, to see Judge Helen who married you and to see the Page House again and our home; more than WELCOME!
P.S. One interesting point that Raymond made that afternoon when we moved out into the gazebo for a bite and a glass of wine. "My Mom has the very same Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet flatware as you have!"
He must have felt right at home...
Just like to share some nice photos with you, taken with Narcissus from our garden used for the dinner I hosted for 12 people here at our home on Monday, March 29. Didn't have time to take photos from the table setting but I did get the highly fragrant Narcissus Cragford; as I knew it would be my last chance and they were not yet introduced to my readers. So after dinner, unloading my second dishwasher and putting things up, I took this shot at 2:00AM from the perfect Narcissus Tazetta. If you click on the hyperlink you will be surprised with the detailed information about these Tazetta being from ancient Greece and Egypt. So if you plan on buying some of these beauties you might want to subscribe to this blog, just as I did. They do list some sales addresses that might be useful for fall ordering flower bulbs.
Okay, let's talk about the Narcissus Cragford that I will show here in a few photos. Here I teamed them up with a cup and saucer from the Daffodil of Royal Albert Friendship series, which is listed at
Replacements Ltd so if you fall for it; try your luck! The spoon is from Avon and the embroidered handkerchief kind of matches the larger plate I do have for serving cookies. I thought they do match the Cragford Narcissus just perfectly.
Here they are, more close-up and just letting you catch a glimpse of the cachet pot in which I had arranged them. That is a Wedgwood embossed Queens ware. Below you can better see the Aries heads with garlands in-between.
Very nice embossing on this Queens ware. The inside even has some decorative embossing around the edge.
Hope you enjoyed this brief update but I certainly did not want to withhold this information from you...
It is about time to let go of our Narcissus for the year 2010 ~ they will be back next year and maybe surprise us once again with an early spring...
Easter weekend is over, at least here in the USA it is only till Sunday as they don't celebrate Second Easter Day which is Monday. But being from the Old World, it is still in our minds and always will remain that way.
Today is also the memory of Pieter's Mother's birthday... and a very sad tiding that did reach us on Saturday in the wee hours of the morning by 1:30AM (6:30AM Dutch time) that our dear sister-in-law Dora Vedder had passed on to eternity.
Let me first put a photo here from the champagne tin that I'd mentioned in my Easter Season blog, that I use to put up Easter items for storage till the next Easter. That was from Thé and Dora Vedder, given to Pieter for a special birthday.
Here it is together with a beautiful pot of mini cyclamen which were given by friend Maria Runggaldier from
Ristorante da Maria. We will treasure the tin even more so from now on!
Getting back to Dora... I will show here a beautiful teacup and saucer that I'd received from her one year. It is a Purple Violet from
Provincial Flowers by Royal Albert, in the Purple Violet England. I was lucky to find a second set just alike at Replacements Ltd. and even found two silver demitasse spoons from Wallace Silver in the Violet pattern at
Replacements Ltd with a bon-bon scoop as well. It helps to always have two of each so you can enjoy a cup of tea with a friend or with your husband who IS supposed to be your best friend as well.
Here you see the two demitasse spoons with the cup and saucer as well as a tiny silver vase that I filled with freshly picked purple violets from our botanical garden. They are all over the floor of our wood garden where we walk over a trail to enjoy all the beauty. In the front with the one demitasse spoon are candied violets that I made. Lots of work and no wonder why these candied violets are that expensive, if purchased to decorate a special cake! Only nuns in a monastery, or the many hands in a harem; given each a task could accomplish all this, but we as ordinary housewives cannot be that kind of centipede...
It was fun though for trying!
Well here we have two options... and which would get approval for a vintage look?
Pensez à moi ~ yes, Dora we will always remember you when comes violet time and I will treasure your teacup & saucer as long as I live and as long as they live... with the help of Replacements Ltd.
Dora, you have passed on to eternity but your heart remains forever young and you certainly were the Hostess of Hostesses serving so many generous, delicious meals to the ones you loved so much.
Thanks for feeding our body and soul.
On March 15 we did enjoy our very first arrangement of Narcissus Obdam, a perennial bulb in double cream yellow. They make superb cut flowers and almost look like gardenias or roses.
We did have a second showing on March 20 and they looked even prettier and next day they opened up wider and fuller and changing color more to white.
This is one day later, see that they turn whiter as they open up fully.
Here they are in the garden, waiting to be taken home with us or to be given to a dear friend... Today Maria Runggaldier from
Ristorante da Maria was the lucky recipient!
The fragrance only adds to the beauty!
In our garden we do have one spot with Narcissus Snowbird and they do resemble the Obdam like a twin. When we bought them the description read: Captivation! Opens lemony yellow and quickly lightens to pure white with a hint of yellow in the center. Strong 20-inch stems withstand bad weather and make long-lasting cut flowers. Midseason. All that is TRUE, it is a very pleasing, maybe the very best and longest lasting of Narcissi!
At
McLure & Zimmerman you can find this
Obdam Daffodil. Strange is that they have them listed as being not fragrant and they are highly fragrant! If you do like these, don't forget to order them for fall planting in order to start enjoying this spring show annually.
Related links:
Another Tea for Friends...
Using a lace doily as invitation. (click to enlarge)
