Wednesday, January 3, 2018

A Look Back at the Christmas of 2017..... Pt 1

Gentle Friends, the next couple of posts are of our Christmas Holidays....
with quite a few snaperoos..... so here goes..........
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The Friday before Christmas found us at....

... our wonderful SF Flower Market.  We were having a few friends over for Christmas Lunch and so we had to get the house ready and what better way than with a load of flowers....

.... as usual, there was quite lot to choose from...

.... and lots of Christmas stuff was still available...  
these bay and pine garland were really lovely and smelled great!! 

 ... there was even lots of early tulips...

... these berry branches are super and I love them, but with the dogs, we never get any since they drop all over the place and I don't want to take the chance on a poisoning.... but I still really like them!!

... we had decided on red and white roses and this bunch was a nice starting off point for ideas....

.... there are lots of variations of color and tons of roses...

.... and all sorts of mixed bunches of flowers.... some worked... and some really didn't... 
 we usually buy just bunches of flowers and Rico creates the arrangements .... 
it's easier and we get what we really want !!
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This year I wanted to take Rico out to a Christmas Tea at Lovejoy's.... so I made a reservation and Saturday we headed over and it was very relaxing...  


.. the tea room was decorated for Christmas...

... one of the fun things about Lovejoys is the fun use of mix-matched china for all the tables...

... there are lots of choices for eats with tea, we got two"Queens Tea's"...

... with each "Tea", you get a pot of tea... I got a lovely Citrus based tea that was full of spice and peel, it tasted like Christmas in a cup, delicious!!  Rico got the lavender and vanilla, another delicious black flavored tea...

.. with our Queens Teas we got a couple of little sausage rolls...

... the food is served on tiered trays...

... with each Queen's tea you get a choice of two tea sandwiches, I chose pear/stilton and smoked salmon/cream cheese, Rico chose the special salad sandwich and chicken walnut salad... you also get warm crumpets, scones, green salad and caraway cole slaw....  after a long leisurely tea we headed home and I got started on the preliminary cooking  I needed to get done for Christmas .....
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With friends coming around and with two cakes to bake I got started.... 
one of the snacks I wanted to make was some sugared peanuts.... easy and tasty

...  it's a two-part process, stir raw peanuts, water, and sugar then....

when all the water is evaporated you roasted them stirring occasionally until dry and crunchy.
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There were two cakes I needed to make, one for the coffee hour after Midnight Mass and the second one a Birthday cake for Baby Jesus.  I've talked about the Birthday cake before in other Christmas posts there has been a birthday cake every year since I can remember at my family's Christmas table.....I've made all kinds of cakes and this year the Birthday cake I chose to make was a Lane Cake.  

...so, I wanted to get started and make the fruit/nut filling for the cake.  
The cake I made for after Chrismas mass...

...was a glazed Rum cake...

....  along with the Sugared peanuts, I made up some Spicy Nuts and Bolts (Chex Mix).
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I think that will wrap up today's post.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar

14 comments:

  1. Wow! Love the "tea"! A friend of mine and I did something similar in a teashop in Pasadena. LOVED IT!

    Your food looks scrumpdidlyumptious!

    Love,
    MaryO1230

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  2. Thanks for this 'tasty' blog post! Lovejoys looks like fun!

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  3. Oh my goodness! That tea looks divine! I love the mismatched china! I've had high tea in several places in my travels--it's always so much fun!!!
    I love all of your fabulous-looking cooking!

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  4. The food looks fabulous, I love mismatched china too. I was rather jealous to see the tulips, they don't arrive int he shops in England until February usually. x

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  5. Love your Christmas flower shopping, tea and baking! All so thoughtful. Looking forward to seeing your table, it is always beautiful 😊

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  6. What a lovely tea. I really like the mismatched china idea. Your baking looks so delicious.

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  7. That all looks like such fun. I would just love a flower market like that. All the food looked yummy and the tea was delightful!

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  8. I will have to look up Lovejoys since I'm frequently in SF. Your baking puts me to shame. The older I've gotten, the less I am inclined to bake since I don't need the calories! I hope your Christmas and New Year's were enjoyable!
    PS
    I haven't done midnight mass in years! Need to try and go next year.

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  9. I don't hear of too many people baking a Lane cake these days. My mother use to make
    them - as a coincidence, our name was 'Lane'! I'm not sure, but I think this is
    a true Southern cake. Did your grandmother or mother bake them?
    I know your guests enjoyed it very much.

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  10. The Queen's Tea brought back lovely memories of my one trip to London ages ago. I treated myself to tea at The Savoy - mostly because I had been going all day and I got off the tour bus right in front of it. The tiered trays were a bit different but nonetheless it was all served on tiered trays.

    So far it looks to be that you had an absolutely lovely Christmas.

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  11. What a great post, Edgar. The flowers were lovely... so fresh, I could almost smell their fragrance! The tea looked delicious and fun. The sugared nuts and snack mix looked yummy. I'm eager to read the next post.

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  12. Oh what fun to get to go our for tea! Love that tea pot. Looks like you have been very busy making lot of yummy stuff, too.

    Happy New Year. :)

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  13. This all looks so lovely! The sandwiches on your tiered tray all look very satisfying (not always the case!) The flower market looks extra nice on this trip, somehow! I DO love tulips, and I feel I can smell the greenery from here. �� I still remember the apricot tea you gave me from lovejoy's; it was excellent! That rumcake looks perfect; I'll bet it was hastily devoured!

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  14. Gorgeous tea you both enjoyed, a lovely treat

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“In every end, there is also a beginning.”

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