Sunday, October 5, 2014

the most wonderful time of the year


Ah, the annual country tea, one of my favorite events of the year... second only to Christmas. The anticipation started when we received the lovely invitations in the mail. If you want a recap of last year's tea, check out this post.



The beautiful place setting. Notice the champagne saucer? This tea is complete with champagne. This year Pannier Brut was served, I must say this ranks right up there with my beloved Veuve Cliquot. Would it be blasphemous to say that I may have even preferred it? I would need to do a side by side taste test to be sure, but I will happily sip Pannier  Brut any day. 

The girls had their own selections which included cherry tomatoes and pane cioccolata with raspberry jam. 


The adults started with roasted vegetable soup- it was heavenly. And this is coming from a girl who until recently would only eat broth-based chicken soups. 


Next up was assorted tea sandwiches and savories. This year's selection included: pane cioccolata with goat cheese and raspberry jam, caramelized shallot and blue cheese honeyed swirl, curried egg salad with mango chutney, oven-roasted kalua pig with shoyu sauce, and delta chicken salad with spiced pecans.



My favorites included the caramelized shallot and blue cheese honeyed swirl and oven-roasted kalua pig with shoyu sauce. 

We then enjoyed ginger scones, Welsh scones, and crumpets with huckleberry jam, lemon curd, and double Devon cream. The ginger scone was the stand out this year- I tend to reserve second helpings for desserts only, but I needed seconds of this one! Last year we had key lime curd, which was phenomenal and the lemon curd is just as delicious. Donna sent some lemon curd home with my mom, which she kindly shared with me. I have big plans for it (aside from eating it by the spoonful) including parfaits, lemon-blueberry muffins, and pain perdu. 


Then on to the desserts. Chocolate cheesecake with chocolate ganache, South African melktert, carrot cake bouchon, and chocolate madeleine. The cheesecake and carrot cake were the standouts this year. 


Then the Dom Pedro. Nothing like a delicious alcohol-infused milkshake to cap off an evening of gluttony. I will definitely be making this again, forget eggnog, this will be a must have this Christmas! I suspect I could throw in some nutmeg to amp up the festiveness of the drink. And I must learn how to create those chocolate swirls within the glass...


Best goody bag ever. 


Audrey enjoying her cherry tomatoes.




We were up a few hours past the girls' bedtime. They did well, but got tired towards the end of the evening. 


Audrey loved the pane cioccolata.

Cameron had fun at the tea party too. 



I had been planning on taking the girls to tea at the American Girl store once they got a bit older, but I suspect that Donna's teas would make the event much less appealing. I could envision them turning their noses up at some of the selections (a sample menu includes pigs in a blanket and jello jigglers, there is definitely nothing special about that!).

My mom mentioned that my grandparents used to participate in the Country Tea- that would have been something to see! Apparently my grandpa would have coffee, but they happily dined on all of the offerings. I remember my grandparents wondering what on earth I was feeding them when I made them quesadillas, so I have a hard time envisioning them eating a few of the more adventurous selections.

There are a few things left in Justin's my goody bag, so I will enjoy them over the next day or so and anxiously wait until next fall.




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