Wait, I have a blog? And other recent discoveries...

Remembering chilly and rainy months of November and December - filled with holidays and excessive amounts of food, are a great reason to welcome myself back to the blogosphere. The truth is, I would love it if I could put all of my creative energy into blogging, but until I have the luxury of being a stay at home wife, that's probably not going to happen. One of the primary reasons I am not currently the picturesque 1953 wife in an apron with nothing better to do than run to the butcher and pour my husband scotch on the rocks when he comes home after a long day of work (side note - I am not, in any way, mocking this lifestyle... as previously stated... it is my heart's truest desire! bring on the whiskey!) is money. Since we were slightly lower on cash this year than previous holiday seasons, I decided to give "experiences" as my Christmas presents. My favorite such experi-gift was for my mother-in-law and her mother - Granny!

What could be a better gift for two lovely ladies than an afternoon of high tea prepared by their favorite* daughter/grand-daugher in law? *The term favorite is one I have given myself. I am choosing to ignore the fact that I a) stole away their beloved youngest boy Glenn and b) have yet to produce any type of offspring for them to play with. I don't even have a cat. And yet I am sure I am still their favorite, and will continue to live life as if I am. Because I'm usually right... right?

Kristin's Holiday High Tea Menu:

Julia Child's quiche lorraine (added a bit of my own touch to this by including red pepper flakes and not boiling the bacon but just pan-frying it)

cucumber sandwiches with salted sweet cream butter

shrimp curry sandwiches (from the Williams Sonoma Entertaining cookbook)

currant scones (also from Williams Sonoma Entertaining cookbook)

whipped cream (didn't have the time to go out and find the real 'clotted' stuff)

fresh strawberries and pineapple

Godiva white chocolate peppermint bark

pomegranate spritzer, which I made by putting a splash of pomegranate juice in each glass of Perrier sparkling water (served in chilled champagne glasses)

Japanese Cherry green tea

PG Tips English Breakfast tea

A few notes on the menu items before I wrap up here; the quiche was quite possibly the best quiche I have ever made. Julia has you cut up a tablespoon of butter and sprinkle the top of the quiche with it before baking, which added even more of that luxurious creamy flavor. I made the pie crust, then put the bacon and cheese at the bottom, and covered it with the egg mixture.

The scones turned out perfectly crumbly - something that comes only from touching and mixing the dough as little as possible before putting it in the oven. If there is one thing I can say about scones: DO NOT OVER-MIX! The less you touch the dough, the better. You want the ingredients barely combined.

We laughed and ate and then ate and laughed some more, a perfect (and inexpensive!) way to show two special women how much you appreciate them. To top it all off, now that we are only a week away from my birthday, these lovely in-laws of mine have invited me to experience high tea at a cute English tea shoppe in town. Yippee!