Monday, August 27, 2018

Vanilla Madeleines

For today's tea in the garden, I am using a beautiful vintage, embroidered lunch cloth that my forever friend, Joy, brought back from her vacation.  Joy and I went to the Bush Library to see the First Ladies Exhibit, and we had lunch there, at Cafe 43,  to belatedly celebrate her birthday.  I was so busy gushing over the lunch that I forgot to take pictures.  My lady vase is holding the few flowers that I could find in my garden. 


Just look at the pretty detail on this lunch cloth with the beautiful embroidery, and the blue crocheted edging.  Joy even did some repair work on part of it to make  it perfect!   Isn't it the perfect tea time cloth?  I am grateful for my friend in gifting me this work of art that someone so lovingly did.

I crocheted the tea cozy in a granny square pattern, and then joined them together at the bottom.  For the top, I chained a cord, and then wove it though the top, about an 1 and 1/2 down.  I like the way it turned out, and I was able to finally use it on this pretty tea cloth.  I'm using my Royal Albert Petit Point teacup, in the front, and my Rosina teacup in the back.  Of course, some Tazo vanilla bean macaron tea sounds perfect with the vanilla madeleines, don't you think?  Which cup would you like to choose? 


Darling Cissy still wants to come and bake after school, when she can, and this time she chose to make Madeleines.  She learned how to alternately add ingredients, and how to properly fold those ingredients into the batter.  It thrills this Nana to know that she wants to come over for special time with me.

 


Yield: 30

Vanilla Madeleines

These little gems are the most delightful teatime treat! Be careful to watch them, as ours were done before the allotted time. They can quickly over brown! Be sure to plan ahead, as the batter needs to refrigerate for 45 minutes.

ingredients:

  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 cup flour , sifted or whisked, to aerate

instructions:

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter, then set it aside to cool to room temperature.
  2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat the sugar, eggs and salt until they're light yellow and very thick. Stir in the vanilla and butter-rum flavor. Add the flour and melted butter alternately, using a folding motion (be gentle!), so the batter loses as little volume as possible. Refrigerate the batter, covered, for 45 minutes or so, until it's thick.
  3. Scoop the batter into the lightly greased wells of a standard-size madeleine pan, using 1 slightly rounded tablespoon of batter for each cookie. (If you have only one pan, bake in sequence, keeping the remaining batter refrigerated).
  4. Bake the madeleines in a preheated 375 degree oven for 12 to 14 minutes (ours were done in about 9 minutes) , until they're light brown at the edges. Cool in the pan for several minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack.
  5. Sift a light coating of confectioners' sugar over the madeleines just before serving.  Store cookies in an airtight container.

NOTES:

If you forget to get your eggs out in time to bring to room temperature, a quick way to do it, is to put the eggs in a bowl and cover them with hot water for about five minutes.
Created using The Recipes Generator


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Monday, August 20, 2018

Homemade Play Dough and Memories


 On August 16th, it was the fifth anniversary of my beloved Rich's passing.  I invited the family over to enjoy his favorite dessert of Ice Cream Dessert with Peanut Butter Crust.  I was planning on showing a picture of it, but when I went to get the pan out of the freezer, someone had finished it off!  You can check our favorite recipe here


 I saw all of my four children on the day, but not everyone at once.  Some had to leave early, and one came later with this bouquet of flowers. 

 This little Harper came and spent the night, and she was soooo excited for her visit to my house.   Her parents were on a staycation for the week.

 My youngest son and DIL came to pick Harper up and take her on an outing, and left little Hayden in my care. She is such a sweetheart!

 Cissy came by and she was excited to feed her baby cousin! 

 Harper is enjoying her dance class so much, and Nana wanted to make her a tote for her shoes.

 Here's her new tote I made for her, and a shirt that I embroidered, which you can see below. 

 This little ballerina reminded me of Harper, and she loves getting presents from Nana!





Homemade Play Dough

I got this recipe over 40 years ago from my friend Susie, who lived across the street from me.   I've never tried another play dough recipe other than this one.

ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon cooking oil
food coloring of your choice


instructions:

In a heavy saucepan, mix the flour, salt and cream of tartar.  Add the water, oil and food coloring.  Cook for 3 minutes or until mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. 
Knead slightly, while still warm.
Store in an airtight container.
Keeps for weeks!
Created using The Recipes Generator

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Monday, August 13, 2018

Almond Cake

 It was awhile back that I read about this fabulous sounding  Almond Cake on Susan's blog, Savoring Time in the Kitchen.  I knew that I wanted to make it and even ordered the Rehrucken  cake pan from Amazon., which describes the cake as one that is enjoyed in Germany and Austria. I finally got around to making it, and oh, is it ever tasty.  You can read about it on Susan's post here.  One of my friends let me borrow her Norske Nook Book of Pies and Other Recipes, and the Almond Cake recipe was in it, also. However, in the Norske Nook cookbook the baking time for the cake was 1 hour and 15 minutes, which in my opinion, would be way over baked!

I thought I'd use some pretty, summery teacups for my tea, in honor of the pretty cake.  The two on the right are Royal Albert ones gifted to me in a set of five from my youngest son and DIL, and the one  on the left is a Gracie teacup from a dear blogging friend.  I love rotating my teacups so that they all get used and loved. None of the flowers came from my garden, but came from the bargain section at Kroger's, which was a tip from my daughter! 


Yield: 12 servings

Almond Cake

I left out the vanilla and doubled the almond extract because I wanted a pronounced almond flavor to the cake. If you prefer, use 3/4 teaspoon vanilla and 3/4 teaspoon of almond.

ingredients:

1 and 1/4  cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 and 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
2/3 cup heavy cream  or milk (I used milk)
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt  (I omitted )
1 stick melted butter (I used salted)
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds (optional)



instructions:

Toast almonds on a small baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for approximately 5-7 minutes, watching carefully so they don't burn.

Beat together sugar, egg, extract and heavy cream, (or milk).  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and add to mixture. Fold in melted butter and blend until smooth.

Prepare the Rehrucken pan by spraying with non-stick baking spray (I used Baker's Joy).

Place toasted sliced almonds in bottom of prepared pan and then pour in batter.

Bake at 350F degrees for about 40 minutes (my cake took 50 minutes).   A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean and the cake should be brown around the edges.

Cool cake in pan for 30 minutes and then place a serving plate on top of the cake pan and invert to release the cake.

The cake can be sprinkled with powdered sugar, served with fresh berries, and whipped cream, or sliced through the middle and filled with whipped cream. 
Created using The Recipes Generator

This cake is so tasty!



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Monday, August 6, 2018

Happy Tea Time Birthday for Cissy

 To celebrate Cissy's 11th birthday which is this week, I took my daughter, Molly, and granddaughter, Cissy to a high tea at a local tearoom.   Cissy looks so pretty, doesn't she?  Besides being pretty on the outside, more importantly, she's pretty on the inside.

  The Chocolate Angel tea room serves a kid's menu, besides the adult menu,  for tea at 3:30. We had our own private area for our tea.  Underneath the glass table, they have old fashioned pictures of weddings.   The brown things sticking up, are our napkins! The tea room is decorated in a shabby chic style, with different teacups at each place setting, some with matching saucers, and some without. 

 Here is a picture of the three of us ready to enjoy our tea and laugh as only three generations can, with fun memories, and happiness!


Here is a picture of our dessert course, with a macaron, mini brownie, and a frosted thumbprint  sugar cookie.  Cissy chose the Chocolate Angel's Signature White tea for our main course, and then their Toasted Pecan tea, which is pink in color,  for our dessert course.  We had a wonderful time celebrating this sweet girl's birthday!  Thank you for sharing in our joy.



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