I've been on the hunt for the perfect lemon ice cream recipe for ages, and I reckon I've finally found it in my Ciao Bella book.
The author's wife loved it so much she insisted they serve it at their wedding, and I can see why. So smooth and creamy, it has just the right hit of lemon flavor. Plus it's the loveliest shade of pale yellow, just like my Easter eggs from Jo,
making it the ideal Easter Weekend ice cream! Happy Easter!
While we've been awakened by exuberant bird song every morning this week, we've yet to see a single nest or egg in Teddington. But today Miranda, Donna, and I spied a crate of the most exquisite praline chocolate eggs in Marylebone,
which reminded me that soon it'll be time to dye eggs too--in Nest Egg blue of course!
As the British Rice Krispies box inexplicably lacks the original recipe, I now make Nigella's Marshmallow Crispy Squares,
minus the glitter and sprinkles, because one must draw the line somewhere! But I think my line may be about to move, as I've just stumbled across the Rice Crackle Cake:
Just watch this space come September!
including a spectacular pinecone sadly much too big for our table or tree,
there were no leaves to be seen.
But we soon found solace in free Christmas coffees and a slice of lemon and poppy seed cake, which was so deliciously more-ish I forgot to snap a picture till we were nearly halfway through!
And because the Café had already closed for the season, we were able to carry our Teahouse tray into the Café proper and sit in its elegant and exotically warm surrounds.
There were big buckets of mistletoe for sticky Christmas kisses:
And on the way out, we passed tray after tray of bright green bulbs and flocks of little golden birds,
a heartening change from the gray, slush-crusted fields outside, and a reminder that spring really is just round the corner.
But before I get ahead of myself, as I so often do, we wish you a very merry holiday filled with love and happiness...
...and maybe a few mistletoe kisses, too!
The café was sparkly with both tinsel and ice. Even with two kettles on the boil, it was a frosty affair.
The polar conditions didn't deter the customers, though, who came in for coffee and cake, then headed back out to stand round the brazier, where the chestnuts were a-popping and wine was a-mulling.
Anticipating the cold, I'd bundled up with three pairs of socks (over-the-knee, cashmere, and ski) inside my snow boots, five layers beneath my coat (I could barely do the buttons up!), and my toasty new cowl.
But after four hours, I was feeling an awful lot like this guy:
Do you think it's too late to add thermals to my Christmas list?!
Hannah and I baked the pieces last week, then decorated and assembled them on Tuesday.
It may look conservative here, but the house really glistens. We brushed the sugar paste leaves and roses with luster dust, sprinkled the roof with sugar crystals, and inset the shingles and window frames with shimmery pale green sugar pearls. Not normally a glitter girl, I found my enthusiasm for the sparkly stuff nearly equal to that of Kirstie! Who knew?
And it has the most divine gingery aroma. Now if only I could escape the holiday hubbub and move in myself...
too many jingly bells,
or too much coffee and cake! Well, maybe too much coffee...
as well as snowy pine cones, gathered into knobbly white bowls:
But what we really came to see were the mercury glass baubles, piled in buckets...
and baskets...
and hanging from the beams:
Amongst the woodsy whites and shimmery silvers, there were hints of green. But even the wreath forms were bare,
which somehow seemed fitting in that wintry wonderland.
And happily, Petersham had my favorite fig and almond cake. So moist and moreish, the only thing missing was the candle!
While it was warm in the sunshine, the gardens and greenhouses looked positively autumnal, with grapes in abundance:
There were still plenty of flowers,
but the blooms were mainly in russety reds and oranges:
Even the shop displays were being re-worked to reflect the changing colors outside:
Fall has arrived...at least for me, and it seems for Petersham, too.
Luckily this year Lynn came to the rescue! G and I had a super afternoon with our PAAS kit, transforming ordinary white eggs into ones an Araucana would be proud of:
Almost too pretty to peel and eat...well, almost!
While my Chelsea bun was scrumptious and the coffee was strong and warming, I was far more excited about the myriad baubles, piled high in galvanized buckets and stone pots...
and hanging from every available branch:
Clear glass...
and silvered glass:
Plenty of sparkle to warm the heart on a freezing December day:
'Even when eaten within minutes of its arrival at the table, it still manages to be pliable, stretchy even. The butter refuses to melt, staying sweet and firm on the surface. Yet there is something perfectly agreeable about [it].... Bendy, cold, elastic and invariably too thin, hotel toast is still curiously moreish, and feels somehow special.' (Eating for England, 2007)
Last week, Jaye, Rachel, and Sue indulged my love for hotel toast by giving me the most wonderful birthday present: a proper pewter toast rack from Brissi!
Now I can have hotel toast at home. I just need to perfect my knife skills, as we had no luck trying to wedge an ordinary slice in: only the thinnest, most elegant slices will do! Yummy!
