ESCAPE TO THE GARDEN for "Tea In The Garden"

 Today I decided to slip in a little 

"Tea In The Garden" and especially

since I have some lovely hydrangeas

in bloom around the yard.

It is very relaxing here by the pond

 and the sound of the water feature

 is very calming.

I baked some Blueberry Cream

Scones and will include the recipe

here at the bottom as you might

enjoy making some too.

Please pour yourself a nice

cup of tea:

Flowers around the yard are 

really in summer mode now so

there is always a transition.

This is meadow phlox which is

a Missouri native wildflower.  I have

 to pull it out as it really spreads.

We have lots of strawberry

 hydrangeas

right now.

We have had more rain this summer

which has been really helpful.

 

Blueberry Cream Scones:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

I made 19 little 1 3/4" scone cutter sized

scones with this recipe

2 1/4 cups sifted flour, 1 Tb baking powder, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 6 Tb cold, chopped unsalted butter,

2/3 cup washed blueberries, 1 cup heavy whipping cream (not whipped)

For a topping we used English Lemon

Curd

1.  Sift all the dry ingredients together

2 Cut in the cold butter (I actually shredded mine using a cheese shredder)

3. Stir in the whip cream and form dough

Add blueberries and mix into a nice dough

4 Roll out on a floured surface to about 1 inch thick.  Cut with scone cutter and place on parchment paper to bake.

SCONES, ANTIQUE NAPKINS AND OLD VICTORIA MAGAZINES

 

It was a lovely, cold but

sunny day to pour a cup

of tea and have a 

yummy scone at the 

kitchen table.

Last night I baked some lovely

scones which you might like to try

too.  They are Cranberry Orange

Scones made with this

recipe.  I got 10 scones out of

the batter cutting them with a

medium scone cutter.  I also

substituted with buttermilk.

As I shared in a previous post, we

have been enjoying the bluebirds

outside on our deck and they are

in fact flying in to feast right now.

I pulled out a stack

of the old Victoria

Magazines which

were from past

Januarys and

I have been

enjoying them.

I want to share some antique napkins I

purchased from the other side of the world.  They are tea napkins which 

means they are smaller and these

are made

from Bobbin lace:

We only have a tiny bit of snow

but we have certainly had our

share of cold weather.

If you love romantic style you will find

old Victoria magazines "your cup

of tea".  

Winter is the perfect

opportunity for

Friendly Village

Johnson Brothers

transferware:

I hope you are staying warm and

having a enjoyable winter.  Winter

is a helpful time to learn something

new and I enjoy all the gardening

videos on YouTube.  You can find

so many videos about England,

Tea Time and whatever hobbies

you love.

204TH QUEEN VICTORIA BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION for "Tea In The Garden"

 As I have shared over the years, I

am rather fond of Queen Victoria

and Prince Albert.

Queen Victoria was born May 24,1819 and how thrilling that an entire era is

named after her - not many can 

say that.

You might enjoy watching the BBC

series "Victoria".  I have the sound

track and play it often.

I had made this banner many years back

when we lived in Colorado.

I have several books

about Queen Victoria:

When doing my floral, I tried to

 incorporate the Victorian

era passion for color.  They

put orange with red.

The garden is changing from spring

to summer and I don't look forward

to the hotter temperatures ahead so

this weather now must be enjoyed

to the fullest.

These 2 cups and saucers commemorative

Queen Victoria's Diamond 60th Jubilee:

If you would like to bake these

scones, they are Cherry Vanilla

and the recipe is Marie's at

The English Kitchen:

My math was a little mixed up when

I put on my FB page that this was her

104th birthday today.  Naturally, a lady

quickly straightened me out and I corrected it.........senior moment.

SCONES, SNOW AND FRIENDSHIP TEAPOT

 I love this sweet little teapot that I

am sharing with you today.

And it was not made in China so

that's saying something because it

was made in the good old USA.

I first saw a picture of this teapot

in a book years ago.  A darling book

came out by a Christian writer, Patsy Clairmont. 

  I had ordered some of 

these books to sell at my shop (back 

in the day) and one of the  chapters 

was a sweet story and sentiment regarding

 these teapots.  Having written over 35

books, Patsy is still a popular

speaker now at age 76.

  So years ago, I gave a friend the book for her birthday. When my birthday rolled around, she gave me the teapot pictured

in the book which is the one I am

sharing about today.

I later found one of these teapots for my friend.  In fact, over the years I have bought several others and some that were very inexpensive because they were chipped or

not perfect so they have found a place

out in the garden.

So today since it was snowing, I decided to bake some scones that I have featured

before numerous times over the years:

Lemon Cream Cheese Scones:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour,  1/4 cup sugar,

 2 Tb grated lemon peel, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/3 cup cold butter diced, 4 oz of cold cream cheese diced, 1 egg, 1/3 cup buttermilk, and I add 1/4 cup lemon extract to make for an ULTRA lemony taste.

 lemon juice to brush on scones and

sugar to sprinkle on top - before baking

400 degree oven using a 2 1/2" scone cutter

with the dough rolled out at least 5/8" thick

Bake for 12 minutes convection or

16+ regular oven

You have probably baked scones and

it is your usual procedure here:  dry ingredients mixed first, then wet items added and then cut in butter and cream cheese

So this is also a bit of a tribute to my friend who made sure life was full of adventure and fun and always lived her gift of giving.

Kathilee Champlin               

 November 1, 1952 -

June 9,  2012

IRISH CURRANT SCONES FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY

 

 I always look forward to getting out 

the tea cozy I made from one of the

napkins in a linen set my Grandmother 

made me 52 years ago when I got

married.  Several of the napkins were

stained over the years so I used those.

 

Today I set a little table for us to enjoy

our tea time down in my basement tea

room.  I have made us some Irish Currant

Scones to enjoy with our tea.

I haven't crafted much this year but

made the little decoration last year.

You might enjoy baking these scones 

which were super easy so I leave the recipe 

at the bottom of this post.

I found the little Dome Tea Cozy 

at a mall in Kansas City last year.

It would be for a tiny teapot.

This is an old vintage shamrock apron

in the collage above.

I love these

darling personal

sized pieces for

cream and sugar.

I have to tell you that we have had a week

of rain.  It just keeps coming and more

is expected tonight.  The little birds

are all wet and this morning I saw a 

squirrel climb into one of the birdhouses

trying to escape the rain.  I

will be glad when the sun comes

back out but I do remember that

our rain in Missouri would have

been snow in Colorado!

And now here are the ingredients

 for some very easy scones.  

IRISH CURRANT SCONES:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line

a baking pan with parchment baking

paper which really helps to keep it clean.

Combine dry ingredients first and then add

the other items:  2 cups flour, 1 Tb baking powder, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, 1 tsp salt, 3 Tb soft butter, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup sour cream, and at the end add 1/2 cup of currants

I cut these 1 1/2" deep with a medium

scone cutter and baked them for 8 minutes in my convection oven so possibly 9-10 in a 

regular oven.

This recipe made 9 scones.