Ramblings....: Recipe Rollercoasters, High Tea and Nixon...

Kind of a random title right?

I'm just throwing all the weekend stuff into this blog.

SO - mom turns 70 this month.

For her 70th Celebration she wanted to have High Tea with all her girlfriends since they were also all turning 70. Mom has all the Tea Decor and with the help of Danelle and myself we threw a wonderful party!

I bit off more than I could chew and volunteered to bring 4 Food dishes. All of which I've never made before. Bad Idea.

My plan was to make a delicious Spring Salad, 2 Tea Sandwiches and a Lavender Loaf! I mean that loaf was so "Tea" like I had to!

We begin:

You're gonna be bread!

I also must show off this adorable apron Pat got me for Xmas!

Puuuuurfect!

So - I made the Lavender Loaf using this Recipe.

I then started the process of making these delicious looking Salmon Sandwiches using this Recipe. With this one I had the bright idea of using these really cute TeaPot, Flower and TeaCup Cookie Cutters. I began...

Starting the layering

Now, there are not many more photos because I had a damn melt down. So you assemble these sandwiches, and there are 3 layers. Well - when you push down with a Cookie Cutter they make a damn mess. Everything squirts out, they stick, it was a nightmare. I start trying to cut around them and make it work. At the same time my loaf is done. The stick comes out clean. I take it out. I return to the sandwiches. I'm getting hot. I'm getting flustered. They are NOT cute. I turn around and see moistness on the loaf - WTF?! It was totally under baked in the middle. HOW?!?

By this point I'm running out of time and out of patience. I start to cry. A lot. Pat comes in and tries to console me but I'm a wreck. I was going to do a cute little step by step with photos and have fun and make cute delicious treats but now. Everything was failing. After I sat on the floor and cried for a good 10 more minutes, I regrouped and re-attacked. I just accepted the Salmon Sandwiches were going to look kind of fucked up. But they tasted good so that was a win. I also re-did the loaf. I was not going to fail this time. I cooked it about 7 min longer and it came out perfect!

2nd try is a Win!

The rest of the day I cut up and prepared as much as I could for the other two dishes I was planning to make in the morning.

These gonna be in a salad!

The next morning I was up early and at it. I needed to make this salad and these sandwiches. Thank GAWD these two were way easier. And after an almost trigger cutting pecans - I was done! (Thank you Pat for taking over the Pecan Halving).

Assembly Time!

How cute are these! And yum too!!

Off to the Tea to help get everything set up!

It was a perfectly lovely day! All of moms friends loved it. One gal said she's been to High Tea in Ireland and England and ours was better! My Lavender Loaf was a hit! (If you fail, try again). Everyone loved the food - including my weird looking Salmon Sandwiches. Mom had a wonderful time and was beaming all day. It was a beautiful celebration for a beautiful woman! I brought my nicer camera and some of my favorite shots are below:

Our Party Favors

My mom has all these teapots she turned into vases and most of the flowers are from her garden!

These bitches

High Tea

Happy Birthday Mom!

Belen spotted the camera

All the ladies!

Virginia painted this for mom!

Might be my favorite picture of my mom yet....(Stacey what did you say?!)

There we go

The next day Pat and I decided to try to get out of the house and do an Adventure Couples Challenge Book thing. Pat's been going through a lot and I thought we could do a fun couple thing. Well - we didn't have it in us to hit the 3-5 locations it suggested but we did hit one. The Challenge was called "Hometown Heroes". You were supposed to find historical places, tourist attractions, must see places in your Home Town and act like tourists. Well - OC is kinda boring. Not much popped up. But the Nixon Library did - and Pat had never been. I've been to a few events there, but never visited the museum. Because - well - it's Nixon. I know they have really pretty gardens though, and it is a piece of history - so we went. It was a nice little trip. I mean...yeah...it's Nixon - but he did get the Endangered Species Act up and running which I liked and his wife was quite the Goodwill Ambassador. But yea....Nixon. The docents there are also a little much. You really can't escape them and are going to get history lessons from at least a few of them. And if you want to go into the little house and into the helicopter (which was cool!) you gotta have a docent let you in. But we had fun. Chatted about how Nixon compares to Trump in weirdly similar ways but Nixon was actually just a dirty politician where Trump is a fucking nutcase. Also makes us want to maybe check out the movie Nixon with Anthony Hopkins...but other than that - just a lovely stroll through a museum and gardens with my love. We also landed at The Blind Pig for lunch which was delicious! It looked a bit pricy for dinner, but the lunch was great! I had fish & chips and Pat got an amazing Pesto Chicken Panini. Wonderful waitress and really cool atmosphere. So - success on another Adventures Couples Challenge!