Author: cookieandacuppa

This weekend was a beautiful one! We turned back the clocks an hour which means nothing because I have a dog and kids. So we were up with the dawn trying to get a few extra chores done. I cleaned the play room- the first time in months.

I was unnaturally motivated to purge unneeded toys and old clothes and such. Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner and I felt the urge to organize a small sliver of our life before the holidays.

In the afternoon, I went outside to enjoy the last of the sunlight and the trees began to glow. The leaves on the nearby shrubbery were full of their last blast of color. I had to capture them as a back drop to this beautiful demitasse.

This morning, before dawn, the cold grey rain took over and the blustery winds blew the rainbow of leaves into the street. November is here and now I just want to nap. But it is Monday…back to work.

Although March came in like a Lion, with blustery winds and 1, 2, 3, 4 nor’easters dropping a foot of snow on the first full day of spring, I am ending the month on a warmer note.

Hello from Las Vegas! To some it is a gamblers’ paradise but for me it is about the warm sun and great eats. In particular, I am a huge fan of the town’s dessert scene. It wouldn’t be a blog about cookies and tea if I didn’t keep my focus on dessert!

In the mornings I have indulged in vanilla lattes and pain au chocolat- chocolate croissant. I had one this morning while I watched people lose their money gambling. But they are fools. If you’re going to lose money, lose it on a sure bet- cookies and pastries!!

if you cannot tell by the picture, that pastry is as big as my skull!!

After walking off the breakfast pastry- ok, there is no walking off one of those yummy beasts- I arrived at my favorite bakery in town – Bouchon at the Venetian. There I purchased a box of my favorite confections- french macarons (que the hand-to-mouth POP!!) with a glass of iced tea and a ton of people watching.

I bet I can’t eat just one.

On a side note, I have been trying to create french macarons at home- they taste ok but look awful. I must keep on trying!

Next is a quick rest by the pool to soak up as much sun as possible before we have to leave tomorrow for the chilly northeast.

Finally, after a lovely dinner at Sinatra at the Encore, I had my first affogado– hot expresso poured over a scoop of vanilla gelato. Totally indulgent. The picture does not give it’s creamy texture justice.

So that is how one should spend a day in Las Vegas! Don’t blow your bucks at blackjack, belly up to the bakery and carb load on a cookie and a cuppa.

I can’t believe that it is already the second week in March!  the winter winds have been blowing steadily from the northwest and my bones are cold and tired.  I also totally missed posting my St. David’s Day activities (March 1st).  My husband and I made welsh cakes and we celebrated by taking the kids to afternoon tea at a favorite tea house nearby.

My husband’s family firmly identifies with their Welsh heritage.  We look forward to March 1st as the beginning of the end of a long winter.  It is also the feast day of St. David, patron saint of Wales.  The national flower of Wales is the daffodil – or “Peter’s Leek” – and the dragon on their flag is steeped in Arthurian legend. Since I am a huge fan of sweets, especially cookies, I love that my husband’s cousins has passed down their welsh cake recipe to me.  I make dozens!  Enough for my husband and his parents.  They are like a griddle cake with nutmeg and currents – sweet tasting with a warm spice that screams for cold milk or hot tea.  the kids cannot get past the fact that the dried currents look a bit like little raisins (which they kinda are). The welsh cakes made a great breakfast with a cool glass of milk in a daffodil glass.  Yes, I am fine with eating cookies for breakfast!

The afternoon tea we attended was a new experience for the kids.  They expected an excessive amount of “girly” stuff.  But they admitted it wasn’t all that bad.  I did have to remind them that men drink tea, too.

It started with a spinach salad with blueberries, apples, and a poppy seed dressing.  We drank a wonderful French Caramel Crème Brulee black tea that the kids loved with milk and sugar.  They also enjoyed the brown sugar cookie with an icing swirl that capped off a meal of turkey and havarti triangles, apricot chicken salad, asparagus rolls, and sweet cream scones.

We have had a handful of significantly cold days in this early March and I am eager for the winds to die down and let the warm sun call out the spring flowers from the ground – lilies, hyacinths, crocuses, and daffodils.

The next holiday, St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and I am eager to find a cookie that goes with green beer and Irish whiskey!

Thanks for letting me share this cookie and a cuppa with you.

As the end of Winter approaches – somewhere between Valentine’s Day and President’s Day – I start to dream of the upcoming spring sport season for my boys and the spring allergies that come with the pollen overload from the flowering trees. Although a brief snow storm blew through last night with a promise of a half foot of snow, Old Man Winter only delivered two inches. Then the sun came out this morning and was warm enough to melt away all of the last evening’s weather concerns. On this bright morning I was excitedly on my way to see a new batch of vintage China.

Shortly after the posting of my first blog entry, a neighbor approached me through Facebook about several boxes of dishes she obtained after a recent home purchase. The boxes were filled with old pieces of China and she had no idea whether they were valuable or trash. I visited briefly with her and I saw several adorable pieces- a three footed Nippon nut dish and a Johnson Brothers tea cup with saucer were the most interesting. I then began to talk about my experience with antique stores and possible ways for her to sell her treasures either directly or indirectly to those most interested in them.

For some reason, I was surprised when she mentioned that she doesn’t go antique shopping. But why should she? Not everybody finds it as thrilling as I do. Heck my own family doesn’t enjoy it as much as I do. I scolded myself for being so close-minded, living in my own cocoon. Shame on me! Everyone has their hobbies and mine are as special to me as anybody’s is to them.

As I drove away, I thought about how this time of year, when I have been holed up in my home during the long winter, I feel so disconnected from my neighbors and friends. The boys’ sports seasons, in the spring, summer, and fall allow my husband and I to interact with numerous other parents who share the same love, the same hobby, which is watching our boys play their favorite sports. But this is the off-season and it is almost over – thank goodness!

Everybody has a cocoon from which we all will be emerging very shortly. So I will celebrate the February holidays with George & Martha W. (they hang in my library above the piano, but that is another story). I will toast the holiday if only because the boys will have a day off from school to catch up on sleep and continue to NOT do any of the chores I ask them to do. I will linger in my cocoon for a bit with my warm cup of apricot tea and my tasty little cherry cordial chocolate treat. Oh and thank you for letting me share this cuppa, too.