A Peek

At the wines we're serving tonight

We're having a dinner party

An "Italian" dinner party

And six friends will join us for an Italian feast.

We'll start in the parlor with

bruschetta and lemoncello martinis

And go into the dining room for a five course Italian dinner.

I wish all of my friends could join me,

By the lineup of wines, it promises to be a fun evening!

Dinner for Two

At Linderhof, we've once again begun eating dinner in the dining room.

For our first 19 years here we ate every meal in the dining room

for there was no other place to eat.

And then we built the breakfast room

Which became a breakfast, lunch and dinner room!

It was great for the two of us,

I would serve the Lunch Bunch there

as well.

But then, I felt that the dining room

was neglected.

Used only for family gatherings

or when we had six or more for dinner!

So we changed that.

We now eat dinner often in the dining room

Just the two of us!

At the old Duncan Phyfe mahogany table

An antique lace runner,

flowers in a glass vase and candles

The blue and white transfer ware

Wine glasses and the Waterford carafe for my "fizzy" water.

It's a bit more elegant.

The dining room

And for dinner?

Cheese ravioli baked with sauce and a good sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

And old fashioned "Mom's garlic bread"

(buttered, sprinkled with garlic salt and baked in foil)

We're trying to be good.

We have tea treats

But we've been skipping dessert

(unless we have a clementine after dinner)

It's good to be back in the dining room for dinner.

It makes the meal feel a little more special!

It's Thursday and I'm joining Susan at Between Naps On the Porch for Tablescape Thursday and Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish.

A Tea Room Lunch

The Lunch Bunch has been coming to lunch at Linderhof 

for 14 years.

What started as a "fun thing to do" in the January after I retired,

has become a monthly luncheon

that allows me to be creative both in the table setting

and in the menu!

It's fun to think of what to serve

and go through my cookbooks

to find just the perfect dishes for the season or the holiday

And then to set the table so that it's elegant and yet fun

And suitable to four ladies who like

to lunch in style!

In 2014 I decided that with my plethora of tea room cookbooks

I would "visit" one per month

Taking the entire menu from that book.

So last week

I set the table in the dining room

in what I feel like was my best

"tea room" style

And printed a menu

that acknowledge the "visit" to the tea room

Although I don't know whether this tea room does it or not,

but often tea rooms will do a "trio"

quiche, soup and salad

Frozen Cranberry Salad, Creamy Broccoli soup and Cottage Quiche

Orange Italian Cream Cake for dessert

Served with tea, of course!

And the whole cake was really pretty!

The tea room I chose?

The Glass Slipper Tea Cottage

Fort Walton Beach, Florida

I've not been there

but a friend, Sarah from Biloxi, has

and sent me the cookbook as a gift

with the following note:

When we go to Ft. Walton

Beach, Florida to see my sister,

we like to eat at The Glass Slipper.

They just published this book and

I thought of you and all your 

entertaining.   Hopefully there

will be a recipe or two in these

pages you will like.

Merry Christmas to you

and Jim.

     Sarah in Biloxi

It was a sweet gift and I kept it downstairs with my workhorse cookbooks

and sometimes of an evening I would read the recipes.

So, of course, it had to be the first tearoom

The Lunch Bunch

visited in 2014!

The recipes

From the pages of the cookbook --

Frozen Cranberry Salad

Creamy Asparagus Soup

(which I changed to Broccoli because I had cooked broccoli in the fridge

and I'm not overly fond of canned asparagus)

Cottage Quiche

Orange Italian Cream Cake

I had so much fun "visiting" this tea room and I will definitely make the cranberry salad again.   It was good and easy and made a goodly amount.     The cake was fantastic and was actually even better the next day.   I kept it covered and refrigerated and I think the flavor was really better on Wednesday.

The soup was probably the best creamy "vegetable" soup I've made and I would make it again.   I did get lots of compliments on the broccoli soup!

A big thank you to Sarah for thinking of me.

It certainly was a good gift!

I'm joining Michael at Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday.

Tea and Scones and Lemon Curd

As day follows night

Tea and scones and lemon curd

follow a morning of curd making

Taken in the dining room

Just because!

My Aynsley Pembroke

A long admired pattern

Freshly baked scones with freshly made lemon curd

There is nothing better than that for a teatime!

And the Pembroke has been pieced together over the years

Friday I brought home

This stash of Pembroke, 7 plates, 8 cups and saucers, 8 tea plates, 8 sauce dishes, 4 salad plates and three cream soups and 4 cream soup saucers

All for $30

At a flea market!

Isn't that why we go --

hoping to find bargains like this?

But, alas, they are far and few between

This kind of a steal of a deal!

The plate on the left is a turn of the century plate (I have six of those)

while the one on the right is one of the new ones (21st century)

You can tell them apart but they are so close that on a table I'm not sure you could.

It's always fun to have tea with new china.

What a fun way to spend Sunday afternoon!

It's Tuesday and I'm joining Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for Tea Time Tuesday, Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday and Bernideen for Friends Sharing Tea.

If It's January . . . It's Lemon Curd Time!

 I've had a Meyer Lemon Tree for a long time

Since before we had the breakfast room

It loves its summer outside

And tolerates its winter inside

The heady smell of lemon blossoms

help chase away the winter blahs

For it always blooms when it's inside

Some years we get more harvest than others . . .

This year --

There were three -- and one was itty bitty]

So I supplemented my harvest

with a bag of grocery store Meyers

Zested and juiced, added sugar and eggs and butter

And slowly cooked it until it thickened

Then I ladled it into jars

This year I got four jars -- one big one and three smaller ones.

I don't can the curd, preferring to keep it in the fridge

And it does keep until it's all gone.

A spoonful is great on breakfast berries

or on blueberry muffins or toast or biscuits

And, of course, you can use it to fill tarts.

The harvest at Linderhof is sporadic.

Some years are good, others not so

2013

 2013 was a bumper year!     Nine!

2012

2012 not so much.    The only actual Meyer Lemon that my tree produced is the

large one on the right hand side.     It's big my Meyer Lemon standards!

2011

2011 only had two.    Average size.    Alas in 2011, there were no Meyer Lemons to be had in the market, so I did a part Meyer Lemon and a part regular lemon curd that year!

2008

2008 was a number year as well.   The largest harvest ever -- ten!

It is always fun to see how many lemons we'll get.   It seems a sparse year is often followed by a good crop year.     We'll see what 2014 will bring.

This afternoon, I think, I shall make some scones for tea.

Scones and lemon curd.    There are few tea times better than that!

And since making lemon curd is a rite of January, I'm joining The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays.

A Sweet and A Savory -- From One Box

In the freezer at Linderhof, there always seems to be a box of

Pepperidge Farm

Puff Pastry Sheets

They thaw easily in the refrigerator

to be made into all sorts of treats

This week, I used my box

to make treats

both savory and sweet

From two different books

Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris

Her palmiers

The sweet 

and

Livia J. Washburn's Wedding Cake Killer

Her Cheddar Garlic Palmiers

The savory

A bit of cheese (both Cheddar and Parm) and garlic (both minced and salt)

sprinkled on top of one sheet

Sugar and a bit of salt sprinkled on the other

And when I cut off the ends, I always bake those off

(and a few more)

to savor

With a cup of tea

And if a friend arrives unexpectedly and the larder is bare

Palmiers are a perfect tea nosh and it looks like you went to so much trouble!

(and one would never tell her secret!)

The savory ones

A few were baked off to go with Sunday's soup

The rest (both sweet and savory) are in the freezer to be baked off as needed.

The savory ones make a great last minute appetizer

They go from freezer to oven to tray in not much time

And there is nothing better to nibble with a drink

than something cheesy garlicky and warm!

INA'S PALMIERS

2 cups sugar

1/8 t. salt

2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted

Preheat oven to 450

Combine the sugar and the salt.    Pour 1 cup of the sugar/salt mixture on a flat surface.   Unfold each sheet of puff pastry onto the sugar and pour 1/2 cup of the sugar mixture on top, spreading it evenly on the puff pastry.

This is not about sprinkling.   It's about an even covering of sugar.     With a rolling pin, roll the dough until its 13 x 13 inches square and the sugar is pressed into the puff pastry top and bottom.

Fold the sides of the square towards the center so they go halfway to the middle.    Fold them again so the two folds meet exactly at the middle of the dough.    Then fold one half over the other half as though closing a book.   You will have 6 layers.    Slice the dough into 3/8 inch slices and place the slices, cut side up, on baking sheets lined with parchment (or sill pat).    Place the second sheet of pastry not he sugared board, sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar mixture and continue as above.    (There will be quite a bit of sugar left over not he board.)    Slice and arrange on baking sheets lined with parchment.

Bake the cookies for 6 minute until caramelized and browned on the bottom, then turn with a spatula and bake another 3 to 5 minutes, until caramelized on the other side.    Transfer to a baking rack to cool.

CHEDDAR GARLIC PALMIERS

1 1/4 c finely grated sharp Cheddar cheese

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

2 t. minced garlic

1 t. garlic salt

2 puff pastry sheets, thawed

Toss the Cheddar, Parmesan, minced garlic and garlic salt in a bowl.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese mixture onto work surface.    Unfold 1 pastry sheet and place it over cheese.   With a rolling pin, roll the pastry into a 10 inch square.    Sprinkle 1/2 cup cheese mixture over all the top of the pastry, pressing lightly to adhere.    Fold the sides of 2 ends to meet in center.     Fold once more, lengthwise, into the center and press ends together.    Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour (or freeze 15 to 30 minus).    Repeat with remaining cheese and second sheet of pastry.

While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 400 with racks in the upper  and lower parts of the oven.   Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  

Working with 1 piece at a time (keep remaining chilled until ready to use) unwrap the pastry and cut, seam side up, into 1/4 inch thick slices, arranging them 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.    Bake, turning the palters over and switching the positions of the pans halfway through until the pastry is golden and cooked through, 18 to 22 minutes total.    Transfer the palmiers to a rack to cool.    Cut and bake the remaining pastry on the cooled baking sheets.

NOTE:   I made a half recipe of each so I had both sweet and savory from one box.

And I froze most of them.     

It's Friday and I'm joining Michael at Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday

Orange Tulips, Two Luncheons

It started with a vase of orange tulips

For I was having company for luncheon

You may seen them first 

In the breakfast room where they graced my Sunday tea table

But they weren't meant for the breakfast room nor for tea

They were for the dining room

And lunch!

On Tuesday . . .

It was the Lunch Bunch

Four of us

The tulips in the middle

A small "tea" cloth on the table

And my beloved blue and white

The tea cloth was bought in the Azores when we sailed across the Atlantic

a few years ago

It's workmanship is superb!

A tea cloth because this year I'm treating

The Lunch Bunch

To Tea Room Lunches

Of course, everyone who dines at Linderhof

gets a remembrance menu to take home

And on Wednesday,

I had five for lunch

Ladies as well

But a bit more "elegant"

Dining room, the way my mother would entertain elegant

And my grandmother's Noritake

Such an elegant china pattern, Marcasite

A Quaker Lace Cloth covering the whole table

And a menu, of course

With orange tulips to echo the centerpiece tulips

When the house is clean, back to back parties are a cinch.

I even had time to attend Bible Study Wednesday morning!

It's cold on the prairie this week

(after an almost balmy Monday)

The dogs are usually banned from the house 

when we have ladies for lunch

And Dolly was

But Doogie doesn't have all that much hair

And so he stayed inside.

I must admit he was mostly a gentleman

Until he decided that he needed food, too

First he was on my right side . . . 

And then on my left!

And not getting anything "good", he decided to take his dish in the living room

to remind anyone that it was empty!

It was two fun luncheons and I did use some of the same food for both (the salad, the cake) but that's just being smart!

The best thing is, however, that there was enough left that dinner was a replay of lunch!    And since Husband Jim didn't have it the first go-round, he didn't mind it the second!

It's Thursday and I'm joining Susan at Between Naps On the Porch for Tablescape Thursday and Cuisine Kathleen for Lets Dish.

The Dressing Table . . . Downton Abbey and Linderhof

I adore Downton Abbey

It's a period I'm quite fond of

That period between the wars

When there were still English country houses

And house parties

Not only the story line but I enjoy

the peek into the rooms

of "Downton"

How the sets are decorated

And I love the bedroom scenes

(not the steamy sexy ones)

But rather, the ones that take place

at the dressing table!

And a lot of scenes do

For they're either getting ready for bed

Or getting ready for the day

Or getting ready for dinner

And what better time to talk to your Lady's Maid

Than when you're at the dressing table!

Lady Mary has one

With a bit of lace, a mirror, scent bottles and lotion jars

And a picture in a silver frame

And so does Lady Edith

With lamps and candles

And a mirror, of course

So that you can comb your hair, put on your "face"

And ask questions . . . of yourself!

At Linderhof

I've had a dressing table "forever"

It's in what is really a closet off the master bedroom

Separated from the bedroom by French doors

And it has a window, a full size window

And so, early on, I chose to make this space

my "dressing room"

With table and chair

It's where I sit last thing at night to comb my hair

(but, alas, not 100 strokes)

And first thing in the morning when I "put on my face"!

An English sofa table serves as the dressing table

A cherval shaving mirror sits on top

(It's not an antique but rather a Bombay purchase -- 

with Christmas money one year.    The one on top of Husband Jim's dresser is an antique)

A small silver tray holds jars of lavender and lotions

The brushes were gifts from Husband Jim

The one on the left was a wedding present.

And (like Lady Mary) a silver dresser set

to brush my hair

(but alas, not those 100 strokes!)

The piece of "lace" came from Italy this fall

The small Asian box was bought by husband Jim over 40 years ago

Two lamps with crystals

And the perfume bottles

Every dressing table needs perfume bottles!

And on the right -- two Bibles

A very old one that belonged to my German uncle and was given to me by my cousin the day of his funeral, because he knew I would want something to remember Uncle Laurence by.    And I did! And the bigger one was given to my mother when she was baptized.

It's a peaceful place,

this dressing table of mine

And although I don't have an Anna to take care of my clothes

and wait on me.

I do feel special whenever I sit at my dressing table

Alas, I am still trying to figure out how, as a married lady, I can have breakfast in bed!