Tea for Two

A dear friend of mine, Alyce, recently became engaged so I invited her over for some girly wedding chat. I decided to make snacks for an informal tea:

*Tea sandwiches: these prove difficult if you are not a big mayo/butter fan, since they are traditionally made by spreading one of the two on thin, crustless white bread and toping with either cucumber, turkey, egg, etc. Alyce is a vegetarian which made things extra tricky. Here are the two variations I came up with:

-Sharp cheddar, dijon mustard, arugula

-Pesto, cucumber, diced red bell pepper

For sweets, I made:

Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/claire-robinson/earl-grey-shortbread-cookies-recipe/index.html

Lemon Blossoms

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/lemon-blossoms-recipe/index.html

Unless you have a death wish, I would not suggest using as much frosting as crazy Paula Deen calls for...I just drizzled the glaze on top and they were plenty sweet.

We snacked and drank ginger tea, yum!

New Years Eve

Jake and I flew home from America on 2 different flights and met up at the Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese for New Years Eve:

http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-1312-sofitel-rome-villa-borghese/index.shtml

We fell into a random italian restaurant for dinner and all of the people were going crazy! The owner was setting off fireworks right outside the restaurant window and all the car alarms in the area were going off. They had a special menu for the night that we didnt know about so they just started throwing food at us- a meat and cheese platter, lentils with sausage, breads, risotto, pasta, steak, fish, fruit tarts....plus wine and prosecco of course!

A Granatino Christmas

I almost died laughing when I opened this- a Jane Austen action figure! My life is now complete, thanks John Granatino!

Frank and Rachel's new puppy

Fancy Ladies!

Miss you!