Sequim Lavender Festival, Lemon-Lavender Bars, Prince George's Birthday

Hi there! It has been summer here in the Pacific Northwest...and I have been happily up to my ears in farm fresh lavender, blueberries and peaches!

And... It's Sequim's 23rd annual Lavender Festival weekend!

 Here are a few Lavender Fair photos...

Outdoor Sequim band concert in the park...

I'd call this outdoor sculpture...at a Cedarbrook Lavender...

At Purple Haze Lavender...a mini Lavender market, with food and live music as well...

Lavender quilts at one of the booths...what a fun long weekend it always is!

There is a driftwood art show, farmer's market, concerts in the park, the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt show, car show, lavender crafts and basically entertainment every minute. And if anything can be made to eat with lavender in it... it'll be available!
There is a huge food court, mostly with vender...

Our favorite is the Swiss Chocolate Lavender ice cream!

Just a few more photos I took of the festival and a few venues...

Ad speaking of lavender goodies...

And while looking through old magazines I found this recipe for Lemon-Lavender Bars in the October 2013 issue of Country Living:

The recipe link is here:

https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/recipes/a5052/lemon-lavender-bars-recipe-clx1013/

And we have a few Lavender themed Adderley, England bone china mugs at Antiques And Teacups as well..

Hope you are having a lovely summer week... we are in for our hottest this year so far apparently... which for most of you won't seem very hot... 80s and possibly a 90... but that's hot for us!

Iced Harney & Sons Tropical Green in a large pitcher in the fridge, so all is good!

Promised Salted Caramel Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

Hi there! Better late than never, I hope! On my post a week ago HERE I shared a photo of the Salted Caramel Upside Down Cake I made for my Pink Spring Tea here on my blog...but didn't post the recipe. 

If you are looking for the current Tuesday Cuppa Tea for April 10, 2017, my Happy Easter Tea...it is HERE

We had been going through a difficult time with getting a new medication incorporated into my husband's Parkinson's Disease regimen, and he was having a lot of side effects, so I didn't have time to post it. So...as things have calmed down, here it is... I actually got the recipe from a Country Living magazine.  

Mine looks a bit different...I'm not the same grade of a photographer, and I didn't have a fresh pineapple so used chunks...not reccomended as it turns out...

Salted-Caramel Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

A salty and sweet cake perfect for all occasions.

Ingredients

Produce

• 1 Pineapple, medium

Refrigerated

• 2 Eggs, large

Baking & Spices

• 1 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 cup Brown sugar, dark
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon, ground
• 1 cup Granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Vanilla extract

Dairy

• 2 stick Butter, unsalted
• 1/2 cup Whole milk

Beer, Wine & Liquor

• 3 tbsp Rum, dark

1. Coat a 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat brown sugar and 1 stick butter, whisking occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook until caramel thickens and turns a deep brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in rum and 1 teaspoon salt. Pour caramel into prepared cake pan and swirl around to coat. Set aside and let cool completely, at least 30 minutes.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, remaining salt, and cinnamon. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium, beat together granulated sugar and remaining butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla; beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in half the dry-ingredient mixture and 1/4 cup milk. Repeat with remaining dry-ingredient mixture and milk.
2. Arrange pineapple rings atop caramel in cake pan. Fill in spaces between rings with pineapple chunks. Carefully pour batter over pineapple and smooth, using a rubber spatula.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool for 30 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake; invert onto a large serving plate.
4. Tip: Reduce the batter's butter to 1/3 cup and the granulated sugar to 3/4 cup, then add 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce. You'll save 4 grams of fat and 54 calories per serving.
5. The reason I don't reccomend the pineapple chunks, is that they are too thick, so make the batter too moist and requires extra baking time to firm up the center...but delicious!
6. Perfect with a cuppa! Cheers!

First Day Of Fall - A Good Report

Can you believe it? Today is the first offiial day of fall...although it's been here for a couple of weeks around here on the Olympic Peninsula...

This is from Country Living magazine...love the quote from Albert Camus....and Butchart Garden in Victoria, BC Canada, our closest big city, provided this next fall photo from a few days ago...

And last night we received the results of the brain scan...we didn't expect it for a couple of weeks, so was a bit apprehensive when we got the email notification...but it came back normal in every respect...albeit with the usual signe of Parkinson's Disease that was expected. So, no fluid on the brain and we can happily deal with whatever, knowing there is not a more underlying, more concerning problem. Sigh...relief! 

So have a wonderful day, and thanks so much for your sweet and supportive comments and emails.

Prince George's 3rd Birthday on Friday, More Lavender!

Hi there! It has been summer here in the Pacific Northwest...and I have been happily up to my ears in farm fresh lavender, blueberries and peaches! 


Friday, July 22 is Prince George's 3rd birthday...amazing! 


It really does seem like a few months ago, instead of July 2013 that he was born...

And he is certainly a typical little boy! Last weekend he visited an RAF base and sat in the helicopters his Dad trained in, and is reported to be getting a new puppy for his birthday from his parents. Cute!

You may remember from my Tuesday Cuppa Tea post, that at the George Washington Inn B&B as part of the Sequim Lavender Festival last Friday we had afternoon tea, which included Lemon Lavender bars. You can read that post  HERE if you missed it...

but while looking through old magazines I found this in the October 2013 issue of Country Living:

Haven't made them yet, but in case you have the issue they are page 121. Here are a few other Lavender Fair photos...

Outdoor Sequim band concert in the park...

I'd call this outdoor sculpture...at a Cedarbrook Lavender...

At Purple Haze Lavender...a mini Lavender market, with food and live music as well...

Lavender quilts at one of the booths...what a fun long weekend it always is!

Hope you have had a great week, and I'll see you on Sunday with Tuesday Cuppa Tea!

Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Spode Christmas Tree, Welcome December

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea. Not sure when this will finally get posted, we have had high winds and lots of power outages since Friday...hope I get it out in time! My Welcome sign I painted years ago is up by the door and it is definitely looking like Christmas!

We had a tea time in the sunroom in a brief flash of sun between fronts...and we had my year round favorite green tea Candy Cane Lane by Celestial Seasonings. I buy a case at this time of year and use it all year. We try to have a cup of green tea a day, and this is delicious!  I am having it with the classic and ever popular Christmas Tree pattern teacup from Spode, England....always good sellers this time of year in my webstore Antiques And Teacups.

Christmas Tree was developed by Spode...then Copeland Spode...in 1938, and has been a best seller since then.  It is still being made, but no longer in England. It is just so homey!

I paired it today with some macarons from our favorite organic bakery, and the folded ribbon pinecone I made years ago that I love.  They are so easy, and so versatile.

As it is December now...amazing! I have been reading...or rather, re-reading my favorite Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden which sits by my sunroom tea chair. I love her observations and lovely drawings. I posted a photo on my Facebook page and a friend commented....imagine what she would have accomplished if she hadn't dies so young. A very talented young lady!

Besides her drawings and diary of everyday occurrences she shares poetry, mottoes and some humorous observations as well. A complete joy!

The Christmas wreath is on the door...December is definitely here!

I

As I prepared dinner last night talking to a friend on the phone I mentioned I was making Toad In The Hole.....dead silence. "You are making WHAT?"  So I figured I'd better explain.

A dish from my childhood for English nursery tea with a funny name, Toad in the Hole is nothing more that Yorkshire pudding cooked with embedded bangers which are sausages to Yanks. The dish has become a fortnightly (2 weeks) favorite for my husband and myself with our hoarded English bangers we can occasionally find at a QFC market or buy at Central Market in Poulsbo, WA coming home from Seattle.

Yorkshire pudding is traditionally served with roast beef, preferably...but no healthily...cooked in the fat in the pan at the end of the roasting time.  Yorkshire pudding becomes popovers when cooked in smaller portions, but it's delicious how ever you cook it. So...here is a recipe I have adapeted to feed the 2 of us from my grandmother's recipe omitting most of the eggs & fat. This can be used for supper with salad and vegetables and can be legitimately served at tea....meat tea or high tea or as a great breakfast dish. It was traditionally a children's dish, hence the fun name.

Toad In The Hole for 2

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees or 400 degrees if convection oven is used. Lightly grease a heavy pie plate...I use a Corning Ware one I treasure.

Break up or slice one large sausage...preferably an 4-6 inch long English banger but any mild sausage will work...after removing the casing...and space around bottom of the pan. You can also use link sausages or kielbasa slices if desired.  Place into pre heated oven for 5 minutes.

In small bowl beat 1 egg and 1 egg white until well blended. Add 1/2 cup milk and beat in. Add a dash of salt and 1/2 cup sifted flour in portions, beating well until well mixed with no lumps.

After the 5 mins, remove the pan with sausage and add the batter all at once and return the pan to the oven, baking 15 minutes.

Turn down the oven after the 115 minutes to 350 degrees or 325 if convection without opening the door for 15 minutes longer. Remove, cut and serve. If desired serve with butter or margarine and pepper (my favorite).

Came across this quote from Charles Dickens I thought I would share with you:

The the circle of our Christmas

associations and the lesson that they

bring expands! Let us welcome every one of them 

and summon them to take

their place by the Christmas hearth.

Charles Dickens

taken from Victoria's A Woman's Christmas pg. 36

And.....

And this from Country Living magazine that I shared on my Facebook page this week:

"The first snowfall is not only an event, but it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world, and wake up to find yourself in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, where is it to be found?" 
J. B. Priestley

Hope you have a wonderful week preparing for Christ-mas!  

Below is the list of some of the blog parties I will be part of and there is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and can find you to visit!

Mosaic Monday

No Place Like Home

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden

An InLinkz Link-up

January Hot Tea Month! Heart Shaped Sugar Cubes, Vintage Tea Tin,Tea And Friendship

January is Hot Tea Month, which is of course a favorite with me! I will be joining Teacup Thursday with Miss Spenser and Vintage Thingie Thursday with Colorado Lady.

I can't think of anything more comforting than tea...but then, it has always been a big part of my life. Being from a British family, every morning was started with a cup of tea, although later in my teens, my father switched to coffee because that was what was to be had a work...he was a school administrator and state department consultant for handicapped and exceptional children. My mother began stocking coffee and we got a percolator. But...I never liked coffee and remained a tea drinker.

In Sandy Clough's great book Tea And Friendship, Savoring The Fragrance Of Time Together,  there is a great quote, un attributed, which spells out the bonding influence of a cup of tea:

Teapot is on, the cups are waiting,

Favorite chairs are anticipating,

No matter what you have to do,

My Friend, there's always time for you.

Some of my favorite online tea merchants...and I have a pretty British outlook on tea...sorry...it's just who I am...are:

Harney & Sons tea

Twinings Teas

Celestial Seasonings

Bigelow Teas

I got my February 2011 issue of Country Living magazine in the mail yesterday, The White Issue, and was struck by the Heart Of The Country section which includes heart shaped sugar cubes. How cool is that!

The sugar cubes are $4.49 for a 28 ounce bag at parthenonfoods.com.  As the article says, it gives you the opportunity to say "One heart, or two?".

Vintage tea tin at Antiques And Teacups, along with lots of tea related stuff! Click on the tea tin photos to visit.

Another tea quote from Bernard-Paul Heroux:

There is no trouble

so great or grave

that cannot be

much diminished by

a nice cup of tea

I'll drink (a cuppa) to that! One heart or two??? Have a great new day!