Header image  
"We Entertain When It Rains"  
  

 
  Static 125x125


  
 
 
One Lump or Two?
 

I can make that dish in three minutes – NOT!!

While every woman in America harbors a secret longing that she can produce (i.e. “whip up”) tasty treats from scratch with no mess and within the timeframe listed on the recipes, it is in fact a lie, and a damned lie at that.

When a recipe says
Prep: 30 minutes, Cook: 30 minutes, TOTAL:  1 hour
a more accurate plan would be:

  • Thinking about what to make

2 hour
  • Deciding which recipe to make

30 minutes
  • Reviewing list of ingredients and trying to remember if you’ve got any of it

15 minutes
  • Going to the grocery to buy stuff

45 minutes
  • Getting home and putting away the stuff you bought that doesn’t go in the recipe but was on sale

15 minutes
  • Measuring dry ingredients into little cups to dump into bowl and feel like a television cook

11 minutes
  • Rinsing, peeling, cutting, chopping other ingredients (including running sliced finger under cold running water to stop the bleeding)

30 minutes
  • Sautéing

10 minutes
  • Washing up the little bowls from which you dumped your dry ingredients

6 minutes
  • Adding too much of the other ingredients and having to stir constantly in hopes of actually sautéing things instead of steaming them

20 minutes
  • Adding final ingredients

15 minutes
  • Getting dinnerware ready to eat off of

5 minutes
  • Plating cooked items

7 minutes

TOTAL: Most of your waking hours

I realized early that I was not going to be able to make everything for the tea party. I decided I would make the tea sandwich fillings, I would make the scones, I would make the mini Black Forest Soufflé cakes but I would buy the little fruit tarts.

Having (finally) learned a lesson or two from Wan, who puts on an amazing Chinese New Year’s party for a lot of people every year, I came up with a plan, and started early. I did slightly veer off plan towards the end, but I pulled it back and more or less stuck to what I came up with, and the results were actually really nice, and I wasn’t the crazed hostess I have been in the past.

 

A realistic timetable

 

“Little sandwiches” does not mean “little work”

 

Irish scones at an English Tea

 

I’ll have one of those, one of those, and one of those (please)

 

How ‘bout a cuppa?

 

Thanks so much for coming

 

Tea party home

  
 
DESTINATIONS
 
 
SHOPPING