So. I read. I read a lot. A lot being at least 2 books a month, sometimes 3. Unless it is from the Twilight series and then I read 4 books in 3 weeks.
Because I read a lot and enjoy it, I decided a few months ago to start a book club. Something to get me reading different stuff. A forum to discuss things and think a little more about the books I read. Instead of just devouring them and moving on to the next book.
We started with
The History of Love, a sad story made up of a million little details from the past and present telling all about love. Then onto
A Thousand Splendid Suns, a tumultuous story set in Afghanistan during the chaos of changing governments showing the lives of the people. And finally,
The House at Riverton, a story set at the turn of the century in an English manor highlighting the changing social times and standards.
That was the one we discussed last night. It starts when times are all fancy, with balls and servants and old-school marriage-for-gain arrangements and such. So I decided to host a tea party. The English do like their tea. So I spent the weekend getting ready for the event. I probably bit off more than I could chew though. I mean, I got everything done; it was just a little more intensive than I thought it might be.
We had hot tea, iced tea, lemonade and a little bit of wine thrown in for good measure. I made finger sandwiches: tuna salad, egg salad, bacon delight and of course mint cucumber. No crusts. In little triangles. Wheat or white, your choice.
I was more excited about the desserts though (no surprise there). I decided to make petit fours. With different colored icings. And little flowers on the top. And some with strawberry jelly inside. I took a shortcut and used Sarah Lee pound cake instead of actually baking the cake part. But the icing took plenty of time by itself, so I don’t feel too bad about it.
I also made chocolate-dipped strawberries. But I think I had a bunk recipe because the chocolate never totally hardened like I was expecting. But they were still good.
The most time-consuming thing was actually the mini cupcakes. Even with boxed chocolate cake mix and pre-made butter cream icing, it took forever. Mini cupcakes = a pain in the butt. Do you know how long it takes to fill in 24 little cupcake holes in one pan? And I only had one pan. So they had to cook and cool before I could even put the next round in. Not to mention that without liners in the pan, more than a few fell apart upon trying to remove them. All the more to snack on. So after 3 pan-fulls (= 72 mini cakes!), I was done baking. On to the icing. I luckily decided to invest in a piping bag and tips. I figured that that would be easier than icing each tiny cake with a knife full of icing. And it was. Much neater and I am pretty sure it was a lot faster too.
It was worth it though. Fun times were had. And maybe I found my inner Martha Stewart.
