British High Tea in the Heights of Brooklyn

My friend from college, AJ, went to London with his family over the holidays.

They went to a very fancy High Tea, and he brought back an equally fancy jar of lemon curd.

He decided that the only reasonable use for this lemon curd was to make scones and invite us all over for a British tea party in his lovely apartment in Brooklyn Heights.

AJ is an excellent friend.

“Buttery, rounded and compulsively lemony”

Since most of us have a background in theater or at least a flair for the dramatic, I decided that we should speak in British accents all night. At first my friends couldn’t stop laughing that I was really sticking to my accent (which was bloody brilliant, if I say so myself) but they found it wearing off on them too, and soon all six of us were speaking in British accents at the tea table.

Costume pieces loosely inspired by Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey

Champagne toast with appetizers

Dinner was an arugula salad with walnuts and gorgonzola cheese, and three types of finger sandwiches

Makeshift two-tiered tray with the help of a Mason jar

After dinner, it was time for tea and dessert. We brewed two types of tea, and admired AJ’s fancy teapot with a tea candle below it to keep the tea warm:

Dessert wine

Our friend Chelsea’s Pearl Sugar Cream Scones (AJ used vanilla sugar instead of pearl sugar)

And Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones from his signed Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (AJ used blackberries instead of raspberries)

Strawberry preserves, lemon curd, and Brummel & Brown’s butter spread with yogurt – we were all impressed with how creamy and light this was, and tasted nothing at all like yogurt but was reminiscent of clotted cream or whipped butter

We ate with abandon, especially when the scones came out on the table. Afterwards we were so full of carby goodness that we found ourselves in a scone coma, which we quickly deemed a “scoma.” Not a bad way to spend a frigid January evening in the Heights of Brooklyn.

The next day, AJ reported back that he still had half a jar of lemon curd and had to find a use for it. He searched for some recipes and found one for cupcakes that used lemon curd in the cake and in the lemon buttercream frosting. So this is what Friday night looked like:

One of the reasons I love baking is that it really brings people together, as corny as that may sound. I love baking and decorating cakes and cookies, and whenever I bake something delicious I always want to share that deliciousness with other people. Last year in Sicily, I had so much fun sharing my American culture with my Italian friends through baked goods, and I introduced them to snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies, brownies, and cupcakes, among other things.

But it’s just as wonderful being on the other side of that baking arrangement – having a friend who loves to bake organize a whole evening around scones, lemon curd, and a bit of British panache!

What’s your favorite baked good to make for friends?

Would you speak in a different accent at a themed party?

Smitten Kitchen Cookbook Signing (and Other Holiday Adventures)

Last week was a long week.

On Wednesday, a girl I went to middle and high school with passed away suddenly. I didn’t know her well but my high school was very small, and some of my friends did know her well. It was shocking and saddening for us all.

Then on Friday, news broke of the tragedy in Connecticut. Like most people, I spent Friday glued to the news, crying, heartbroken, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.

More eloquent people have put much more beautiful words out there, and there is not much more I can add. I want to try to think of happier things now. It seems more than unneccessary to say we should remember the victims and keep them in our minds and hearts, because I can’t stop thinking about them and I’m sure that we’ll all be thinking of them for a long time.

So, acknowledging that, I’m going to focus on the wonderful, festive, and fun things that did happen last week, because I could use a little distraction, and maybe you can too.

Starting with – the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook signing!

You know Smitten Kitchen, right? Anyone who’s ever read a cooking blog or googled a kickass chocolate cake recipe knows Smitten Kitchen, the queen of all cooking blogs with gorgeous photos and delicious recipes. I was excited to meet Deb, the author, whose only “angle,” if she had to have one, is that she cooks in a tiny Manhattan kitchen. I DO TOO! (Along with almost  everyone else in line to get their book signed, no doubt.)

Deb was signing books at Fishs Eddy, a quirky and very New York dishware store, and was very sweet and humble. We chatted for a bit about cooking and baking. And the book is beautiful! I later discovered that Fishs Eddy posted a photo of me and my mom talking to Deb on their Instagram feed.

The only recipe I’ve tried so far is the Gooey Cinnamon Bars, which are soft buttery snickerdoodle cookies in bar form. They were a little work intensive (cookie layer, then gooey layer, then cinnamon sugar top) but so worth it.

Unfortunately I only took a few quick iPhone photos, but I froze half the batch to bring to a holiday party this weekend, so recipe and better photos to come!

The sugary kick continued through Friday, when I went to a friend’s house for a gingerbread house-making party. We listened to Christmas music, made eggnog pancakes for dinner, and assembled our gingerbread house.

A is for Alexander!

Before…

And after.

I’ve been doing a lot of cookie-baking and even more cookie-eating lately, but not a lot of running. (Some would argue that’s how the holiday season should be.) That’s because I injured my foot in the middle of October, and have decreased my running more and more until I finally admitted that I should see a doctor about it, since the pain wasn’t going away, and haven’t run since last weekend’s Jingle Bell Jog in Prospect Park. Even though I did two Jingle Bell Jogs in December, which may seem like a lot of running, those races ended up being almost the only running I’ve done this month. I ended up removing myself from the NYC Half Marathon lottery last week, because even if my foot injury is minor, I’m in no place to start training for a half marathon right now, and not knowing if I was going to get in was stressing me out.

Today I saw an orthopedic and sports medicine doctor and got my foot x-rayed. The good news is that it’s not a stress fracture. The bad news is that I have to go in for an MRI because it might be neuroma, which, as the internet tells me, is a swollen, inflamed nerve. Treatment will probably be rest, ice, and possibly a shot of cortizone. I also have a spiffy insert in my shoe. Nothing too drastic. So I’m counting my blessings, and not running for a while.

And tonight I’m going to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with my parents, one of our favorite holiday traditions. I read a few weeks ago that one of the camels in the Living Nativity scene is named Gabby, which I was very excited about. They named that camel well.

Nothing like a sparkly kickline of dancers singing Christmas songs and a camel in a manger that shares your name to put you in the holiday spirit, right?

Only 6 days til Christmas!