St. Patrick's Day and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party

You can see that my poor oxalis (shamrock) plant has a wee bit of a sunburn.  I've moved it to what should be a safer location now.  It's two years old and has continually sent out blooms.  What a pleasant surprise.  I had my shamrock shake and shamrock pretzel Sunday also.  Yum!  And I tried a new recipe, which is not Irish, but I justified it as having potatoes in it - Pierogi Lasagna.  It turned out to be quite tasty.  I used a little less onions and a little more cheese than was prescribed. HWNSNBP added marinara sauce to his portion, but I liked it without.  I think I will hold out one onion, slice it, and brown it in butter the next time for a topping.  I do not usually eat my pierogis with sour cream, but my mother, brothers and sister do and I wonder how that would add to the whole dish?  I guess I'll have to send them some leftovers next time.  

Friday night, two of my good friends and I attended the "Mad Hatter's Candlelit Tea Party" at my favorite tea room - Teaberry's.  The rooms and tables were all decorated with an "Alice In Wonderland" theme.   This was our table.  The water glasses came with pink flamingo straws.  The sugar cubes had little red hearts on some of them.  There was a crown in the center and playing cards scattered about.  There also was a little ceramic white bunny on the table.

We started with the Queen's Sparkling Rose Nectar Aperitif with a butterfly skewered raspberry.  (I had ginger ale as I am allergic to roses.)  That was followed by a choice of soups served in a teacup - I chose the Caterpillar's Mushroom Artichoke - "smokin'!"

Then we had the Duchess's Shrinking Berry Spinach Salad with Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing.  (All of the chairs had a large playing card taped to the back of them.)

Then we were served our tea sandwiches.  Tweedle Dee's were an onion sandwich, puff pastry veggie pinwheel, and one with portabella, bleu cheese & roasted tomato.  Tweedle Dum's were mini crab quiches, roast turkey with avocado, and a delicious pineapple cream cheese and carrot jam on date nut bread.  (Each place setting included, tied up with a bow, our napkin, a copy of the menu, a package of Alice in Wonderland themed stickers, and tiny tin of Alice's Enchantmints.)

The next course was the Cheshire Cat's Curious Scones.  I believe mine was a praline scone.  Provided for/with the scones was the traditional clotted cream, lemon curd, and raspberry jam.  Delicious! (Some decorations from the sideboard to follow.)

Our final course was The Mad Hatter's Wondrous Tipsy Trifle - a chocolate, cherry concoction.

We each had our choice of tea served in our very own pot, complete with cozy.

And our evening there included a visit by a wonderful actress who came as "Alice" - the woman, who as a child inspired the Alice stories written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - aka Lewis Carroll. She regaled us with the story of the friendship her family had with Mr. D, as they called him, his life, and a bit about the times.  She disproved the stories of his drug induced writing, and educated us about his interest in photography and how that was accomplished during that era.  She was very informative and entertaining, and as I was with such agreeable company, it was an exceptional evening.

Sunday morning at the condo - the water has receded but flooding from the past nor'easter has deposited more debris on the edges of the marsh bordering the property.  I'm afraid this will happen every time there is some flooding for a while as there is a lot of debris still visible in the reeds.

I am trying to get myself motivated in the stamp cave.  The last few months have found me struggling to find the energy to be creative.  Hopefully, now that the days are getting longer, I can turn that into some productive creating and will have more to share here in that respect.  Thanks to those of you who have kept visiting despite the long breaks.