Friends for Tea

I invited five special friends to my house for Tea: Marie, Indra, Janet, Linda, and Barbara. It was a wonderful afternoon of stimulating conversation and a variety of refreshments.


Each guest received a frosted Pink Dress cookie from the Alexandria Pastry Cafe with her place card. (The lovely set of pink dishes was a wedding present from my sister-in-law Lucia Meloni.)


My Watergate cake is seen in the foreground. Its primary ingredient is instant pistachio pudding, both in the cake and in the frosting.

Marie brought the lovely flowers. Indra brought the exotic strawberry tea, a product of Sri Lanka.

But! Arthur's Peach Buns stole the show. He learned about this delicacy on the Internet, found the recipe, and spent an inordinate amount of time tracking down the exotic ingredients and many hours preparing the buns (he spent six hours in the kitchen the night before).

Here are some photos of his preparation.

 Upper left: pieces of red bean paste representing peach pits
 Lower left: the dough in the shape of peaches
 Right: pieces of dough representing peach leaves (green food coloring)


Close-up of the red bean paste pits


Close-up of the leaves dyed green


Arthur using a sieve and a toothbrush to splatter red food coloring on the peaches


Putting the peaches in his new bamboo steamer


          The steamer doing its job on the stove

 Arthur checking the steaming process

 The finished product

 Everyone agreed that the buns were unique and very delicious. Arthur, you are a Master!

Indra, Janet, Barbara, Christine

(Linda is not in the photo. Marie is missing. Arthur says that I photoshopped her into oblivion.) 

Thanks to my very interesting friends and their stimulating conversation, I can unequivocally say that the tea party was a success!

This lovely little bird was given to me by Barbara. I named him Augustus because it is the month of August and he has a regal (imperial) bearing. 

A close-up of Marie's flowers