A December Breakfast

Our weekday breakfast are simple

Some sort of eggs

Often soft boiled

Toast with marmalade

Juice

Tea and coffee

But on weekends, we like a more substantial breakfast

A homemade breakfast bread, eggs, meat and toast with marmalade

Juice, tea and coffee

Although Betty Crocker calls Popovers a "Quick Bread", and I guess because they

have no yeast, they can be considered quick

But popovers are anything but quick

for

1 - you have to heat the oven to 450

That takes more time than it does to mix up the batter

2 - you bake them for a total of 30 minutes

(to me that's not quick)

But there is nothing that Jim and I like better than popovers!

And although you can bake popovers in muffin tins

A girl really needs a popover pan

There's just something perfect about a tall puffy popover in a popover tin!

Popovers are perfect for a December breakfast

in the breakfast room!

A white tablecloth

(nothing is better than a white cloth -- they are so pristine)

A Christmas centerpiece

Popovers 

And eggs, ham, orange juice and orange marmalade for the popovers

The Christmas china, of course

Royal Doulton Tartan

They don't make it anymore and our first 8 place settings -- well, plate and cup and saucer were hand carried home from England long ago.    At a cost of $8 for all 24 pieces!

Popovers look especially nice in a silver plated bread basket!

 We even got out the Waterford salt and peppers!

And a proper bread and butter plate and butter knife

for the popovers.

On the weekend we can afford to be a little more proper

for we have time we don't usually have on weekdays.

We pour another cup of coffee or tea, we linger and perhaps have just one more popover!

We Find An Old Friend

Twenty five years ago, I acquired a cute little tea set at an auction.

I'd never seen one like it.

It was English.

It was sweet.

And I didn't know what it was!

But I got tired of dusting it, and into a cabinet it went.      It really didn't serve a "purpose" -- it was just a cute tea set -- to set around!

Thirteen years ago, we auctioned things from our retail store.     I went through closets, cabinets and drawers and put things in the sale as well.     The items in "that" cabinet went into the sale.

Years later, I found out it was a Royal Winton

breakfast set

And it was quite valuable -- $200 up for that little tray with a cup, a wee pot, a miniature sugar, a miniature cream and a toast rack.

Boy, did I ever mess up.

I rued the fact that I sold it.

WHAT was I thinking?

Cleaning in the attic last week and going through bins up there

What did I find?

My Royal Winton Breakfast Set

It was like reuniting with an old friend!

A toast rack for two half slices of toast

A teapot that only holds one cup

Two sugar cubes in the sugar bowl

And just enough milk in the pitcher for that cup of tea

My old friend.   The friend that I thought was gone forever, got a new spot --

On the table in the front bedroom by a comfy chair

A perfect spot for a morning cup of tea and toast.

Pre-breakfast

brought up by the maid (giggle)

To give you strength to dress for the day and go down for 

"real breakfast"

 

Royal Winton is an English potter

Started in the late 1800s

Probably their most famous product

are their Chintzware

and these little breakfast sets.

No other potter made a similar breakfast set

So they are unique to Royal Winton

Best I can tell they are 40s (late) or 50s

They are rare but there are still quite a few available, especially here in America.

I think they were one of those "adorable" things that 

travelers to England bought in the 50s to bring home to America.

And like me, got tired of dusting it and so they were put away.

This little set won't be put away again any time soon.

While my "maid" won't be bringing me tea and toast in the morning, it will be

fun to have tea and cinnamon toast in my cozy spot in the bedroom

in the afternoon.