Memorial Day weekend grubbin'

This weekend was a pretty busy one. Its the first long weekend that we get to spend with hubby after a long time since school started for him last fall. And to top it off, hubby got straight A's during this tough semester. Therefore, to celebrate, I told hubby I'd take him and my daughter out for breakfast at a beach cafe in Malibu that I had been dying to try.

Paradise Cove Beach Cafe, Malibu. Their outdoor seating is on the sand of the beach itself. We got to eat breakfast while running our toes through the sand and listening to the crashing waves. Reminds me of our times in Hawaii, eating breakfast at a restaurant at the beach and listening to the waves. I guess this is the closest thing we can get to Hawaii for now.

For my meal, I ordered the carrot cake waffles. It tastes just as it sounds - carrot cake. And it was delicious.

Hubby ordered the Huevos con Tortilla dish, which I decided he can share with me ;)

We hung out at the beach for a little bit after breakfast. My daughter wasn't enjoying it all that much. She was scared and hated walking on the sand. So we took a few photos and left. But it was a nice day to be out on the beach.

Later that evening, we went over my parents' house to watch the LA Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns for the Western Conference Championship.

My parents had a spread of all grilled foods - korean bbq, shrimp, oysters and asparagus. Hubby and I decided to bring dessert - Banana Cream Pie and Strawberry Fudge Pie, that I bought at a local diner that I heard had really good Banana Cream Pie. Hubby loves Banana Cream pie, so I thought today would be a good day to try this place out.

On Memorial Day, hubby and I decided to chill at home, since we had been out and about practically all weekend. The beach and my parents house on Saturday, then Chuck E. Cheese on Sunday for my best friend's daughter's birthday.

We decided to have an intimate BBQ dinner at home so I can use my new BBQ grill again. I bought some already-cooked ribs from Costco that I threw on the grill. I also bought a lot of corn last week in the hopes of grilling them this weekend. And I put together some coleslaw for a quick side dish.

For Asians, no meal is complete without rice, so of course, I had to have some on my plate.

It was a beautiful Monday evening. The sun was still out at 6 pm and the weather was still comfortable. The food was great and the company was even better. It was a great end to a great long weekend spent with my loving husband and daughter, and a great start to summer. Can't wait till the next long weekend this summer - 4th of July.

Watermelon Sherbet

My daughter loves watermelon. Maybe its because its all I ate when I was pregnant with her. My husband and I always look back to the time when I sent him out at night to buy just watermelon. Which he was happy to oblige. He always used to say that he'll run out to get whatever I wanted when I was pregnant. *sigh* I miss those days. lol!

Although I miss being spoiled when I was pregnant, I now love spoiling my daughter. Especially with foods she likes to eat. So when I found this recipe from a blog I visited, Proceed with Caution, I had to try it out. I'm glad I did because it tastes just like a frozen watermelon. Its a refreshing treat for this hot weather we're having today. Its definitely a great start for the summer.

3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
5 cups seeded watermelon, chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
3 drops red food coloring.

1) Puree watermelon in a food processor. Strain liquid through a sieve to catch the juice. Set aside.

2) In the food processor, combine sugar, salt and lime juice. Pulse until sugar looks like wet sand, about 6 times. While food processor is running, slowly pour watermelon juice. Process for about 1 minute to ensure sugar has been dissolved. Strain liquid through a sieve, pour liquid in a bowl, and lace in freezer for about 1 hour.

3) In a chilled bowl, beat heavy cream with a mixer until it reaches soft peak stage. Slowly pour cold watermelon liquid into cream while continuously beating. Add food coloring.

4) Immediately pour into ice cream maker and churn for 30-45 minutes, until the consistency is like soft serve ice cream.

5) Pour sherbet in a container with a tight fitting lid and freeze for at least 3 hours before serving.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

I've been dying to try out my new BBQ grill. And I didn't really feel like cooking today. So I decided to finally try the jerk seasoning I got for Mother's day that my sister-in-law gave me.

Whenever we have a get together at her house, her Jamaican husband (our brother-in-law) always makes his famous Jerk Chicken. So I was told that this Jamaican Jerk seasoning is what he uses and I was so excited to finally give it a try today. I sort of joked at my brother-in-law and told him we don't need him to make the chicken anymore, now that we have the secret seasoning. lol! Its deliciously spicy. Just like how brother-in-law makes it. But it does taste better when he makes it ;)

1 lb. chicken

4 Tbsp. Walkerswood Jamaican Jerk Seasoning

1) Place chicken and seasoning in a ziploc bag. Knead the seasoning onto chicken. Marinade at least 1 hour to overnight.

2) Cook on a hot grill for 5-6 minutes on all sides until juices run clear.

Cioppino

Pronounced cho-pee-no, it may sound Italian, but its not. I believe the origin of this dish was Northern or Central California. The fishermen in the area wanted to come up with a dish and they each "chipped in" their catch of seafood for the dish. "Chip in" came out to "chip-pee-no," and the name Cioppino was born.

Well, there's my history lesson on this dish that I learned from the Food Network. lol! I've been meaning to make this dish for a while. I was shopping at Costco last week and found a pack of seafood medley consisting of calamari, shrimp, scallops, and mussels. It inspired me to try to actually make this dish, so I bought the seafood medley and decided to finally make it for dinner tonight. Also, I promised my friend from work, Stacy, that I'd bring some for her once I made it.

I found this recipe from Allrecipes.com and looked pretty easy. But YUMM-O! This seafood stew was delicious. Its definitely a comfort food. So soothing yet delicious to eat. Hubby and daughter really liked it. This is one dish, not a pasta dish, that my daughter actually liked. It may not be real Italian, but it sure tastes like it. The original recipe didn't call for additional seasonings, but I added a teaspoon of salt for more flavor.

3/4 cup butter

2 onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped

2 (14.5 oz) cans stewed tomatoes

2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth

2 bay leaves

1 Tbsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 cup water

1 1/2 cups white wine

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 lbs. large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 1/2 lbs. bay scallops

18 small clams

18 mussels, cleaned and debearded

1 1/2 cups crabmeat or crab legs

1 1/2 lbs. cod fillets, cubed (or any white fish)

1) Over medium-low heat, melt butter in a large stockpot. Add onions, garlic and parsley. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until onions are soft.

2) Add tomatoes, breaking them into chunks. Add chicken broth, bay leaves, basil, thyme, oregano, salt, water and wine. Mix well. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

3) Stir seafood. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer 5 to 7 minutes until clams open up. Ladle into bowls and serve warm with crusty bread.

Deceptively Delicious Mozzarella sticks

For lunch today, I decided to make these. I was so excited when I found this recipe out of my Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Aside from pasta, the next thing my daughter loves to eat is cheese. String cheese, cheese snacks, cheese slices, grilled cheese sandwich without the bread, quesadillas without the tortillas..........you get the point. My dad gave her some frozen mozzarella sticks last week and she seemed to like it. So I thought to give these to her with a healthier twist.

It was pretty tricky to fry the sticks. They ended up melting all over the pan. I think the trick to cooking these is to deep-fry them over super high heat, which is what I did at the end. Aside from that, they came out quite good. My daughter was able to eat a few. They came out pretty gooey, so she pretty much just played with them in the ketchup that I served it with. I'll try to perfect these a little better for the next time.

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 Tbsp. flaxseed meal (optional)

1 tbsp. sesame seeds (optional)

1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella

1/2 cup cauliflower puree

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1) In a bowl, combine breadcrumbs, flaxseed meal and sesame seeds. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, stir together mozzarella, cauliflower puree and cornstarch until well combined. Shape into logs. Gently roll each log in breadcrumb mixture. Wrap in foil or waxed paper and freeze for 20 minutes.

3) Heat oil in high heat. Arrange mozzarella sticks in pan in a single layer, being careful not crowd them. Cook until crumb coating begins to warm. Place on paper towels to drain oil and sprinkle with salt.

Say hello to my little friend

For those who've noticed, I've been out of a grill for almost a year. Yup, a year of using a grill pan. Well, for Mother's Day, hubby bought me this awesome looking grill. He finally got it assembled and I'm so excited to start using it. Just in time for summer grilling. Thank you hubby!

The pursuit is finally over....

The Kogi Korean Taco truck.......

As you may remember from my previous post, Maybe as good as the taco truck?, I was in a hot pursuit for the said truck but hadn't caught up to it. Until now.

Well, hubby is finally out of school for the summer and I wanted to figure out what we could do on his first Saturday back with my daughter and me. Most weekends were spent away from hubby during the school year because he either had to study for a quiz, midterm or final. Or he had a paper or presentation to do. So I wanted us to finally go out as a family this weekend.

We had a few errands to run in the morning and then a visit with my mother-in-law after that, so there wasn't much time left to do anything else. Well, out of the blue, I decided to check out the Kogi truck website to see where they were this week. Score! They'll be in the Silverlake area near mother-in-law's place. We'll have lunch there.

Because I knew it would be a while until we catch up to the truck again next time, I decided to order most of what's on their menu. Which isn't much.

We definitely had to order their korean chicken and short rib taco. Its what they were first known for. Hubby and I had one of each.

Additionally, I decided to have the korean short rib burrito. I couldn't finish the entire burrito, so I gave the other half for hubby to try. Delicious! Hubby really liked this one.

Hubby ordered the Blackjack Quesadilla, which we also shared. Its filled with a mix of cheese, meat and seasonings that resemble the flavors of kimchi. This one was my favorite.

The overall rating for our first experience with the Kogi truck is 4 thumbs up from me and hubby. Hubby said it was so worth the pursuit. I made a believer out of him.

Deceptively Delicious Macaroni & Cheese

The next recipe I wanted to try out from my Deceptively Delicious cookbook is Macaroni & Cheese - my daughter's favorite. There were actually 2 Mac & Cheese recipes in the cookbook - one made out of either butternut squash or cauliflower puree and the other one out of beans. I still had some pumpkin puree, so I decided to use the butternut squash/cauliflower recipe.

My daughter loved this one. You can't even tell that there's a vegetable in this dish. Hubby and I had this for dinner as well, and it was deliciously cheesy. I will probably try making this with my own Mac & Cheese recipe by adding the pureed vegetable, because the concept is similar to my recipe.

1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni (or any pasta you like)

nonstick cooking spray

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

1/2 cup nonfat milk

1/2 cup butternut squash or cauliflower puree (I used pumpkin puree)

1 1/2 cups shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese

4 ounces reduced fat cream cheese

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. paprika

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1) Cook pasta according to directions and cook until al dente. Drain.

2) Coat large saucepan with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add oil, then flour, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture resembles a thick paste but has not browned, 1 to 2 minutes.

3) Whisk in mil and cook, stirring occasionally until the mixture begins to thicken, 3 to 4 minutes. Add vegetable puree, cheeses, and seasonings, and stir until the cheese is melted and sauce is smooth. Stir in the macaroni and serve warm.

(Note: you can also place this in a baking dish and top with bread crumbs, then bake at 345 deg F for 30 minutes if you liked the baked version of Mac & Cheese).

Louisiana-Style Shrimp

I've been wanting to try this recipe out from my crock pot cookbook for a while now. I had some time, so I decided to make it for dinner tonight. It only cooks for a little over an hour in the crock pot. The ingredients are real simple and it turned out pretty good. I'd probably try to add a little more of the the liquid to make it more soupy. But otherwise the flavors in this dish turned out well.

1 lb. shrimp, unpeeled, rinsed

1 stick butter, diced

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 tsp. seafood seasoning (like Old Bay seasoning)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel

hot cooked rice

1) Grease crock pot. Place shrimp on bottom. Add butter, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, seafood seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir well to combine. Cook on high for 1 1/4 hours.

2) Turn off crock pot. Stir in lemon peel. Let stand uncovered for 5 minutes. Serve in a shallow soup bowl over rice.

Deceptively Delicious Buttered Pasta

Lately, my daughter has only been eating pasta, rice, and bread. If she won't eat what we're eating, I usually have to whip up a buttered pasta dish with parmesan. Just so she has something in her stomach. But I always feel bad that she's just pretty much eating empty calories. So I was so excited to see a healthy buttered pasta in my new Deceptively Delicious cookbook. I decided that this would be the recipe I'd start with out of this new cookbook.

Its super duper easy and quite good. Hubby and I liked it. And what was even more exciting was that my daughter liked it too. It was so exciting to know that my daughter actually ate veggies without even knowing it. The recipe called for butternut squash, but I had some frozen pureed pumpkin that I had leftover from the holidays that I needed to use up. The pumpkin added a slight sweetness to it, but you can't really tell that there was pumpkin in the dish.

8 oz elbow macaroni
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pureed butternut squash (or pumpkin)

1) Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and return to warm pot.

2) Add milk, buter, parmesan cheese and butternut squash. Mix until well incorporated.

Strawberry Jam

You know that summer is on its way when you head to the grocery store and you find that they start selling a lot of fruits. Watermelons, peaches, mangos, and STRAWBERRIES! I bought a huge box of strawberries at my favorite store, Costco, hoping that my daughter would love eating them as much as I do. Well, she didn't quite fancy them. Yet. But I'm working on that. In the meantime, I had a huge supply of unused strawberries that were beginning to over-ripen. So I had to find ways to use them up. I froze some of the good ones for use later on. The rest that were too soft to freeze, I decided to make jam with them.

I searched for ways to make them, and they were all pretty much the same. The hardest part of this recipe is finding fruit pectin. Where the heck am I going to find that??? Well, I did find it in the most unlikely places in the supermarket. Next to the fire logs, at the front of the supermarket, where I would never look. They also had the mason jars that you would use to store the jams. Perfect.

The recipe is a 1:1 ratio of sugar and fruit. If you don't like it too sweet, I suggest you lessen the sugar. Which is what I did.

4 cups whole strawberries (cleaned and stems removed)

4 cups sugar

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp. (powdered) fruit pectin

1) In a food processor or blender, puree strawberries to your desired consistency. Place in a medium saucepan. Add sugar, lemon juice, and fruit pectin. Stir until well incorporated. Simmer on medium heat for 5-10 minutes.

2) Remove the whitish foam that forms on the top. Pour into warm, sterilized jars all the way to the top. Cover for 10 minutes. Invert the bottle on its lid until cooled. Store upright.

Deceptively Delicious

My new best friend.....

Aside from my Crock Pot, I've decided that this new cookbook has become one of my favorites.

On Mother's day, I was complaining to my sister-in-law, Deby, how my daughter doesn't eat too much vegetables and I was concerned that she may not have enough of nutrients in her. And so she gave me this great cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld's - the comedian - wife). I had heard so much about this cookbook before and so I was really excited that she gave it to me. Its a cookbook dedicated to sneaking in a little bit of vegetables in kid-favorite dishes. It was actually given to her as well. But her son eats his veggies. And she thought it might be useful for me. Thanks Deby!

I sifted through all the recipes in the book, and already I've found really great ideas that I'm going to share here. I sure hope it works!

Mother's Day celebrations

Every year, we have 2 celebrations of Mother's day. Mother's day brunch/lunch is spent with my mom and immediately after that, we spend the afternoon with hubby's mom.

"Aloha" from Roy's Hawaiian fusion. It seems to be tradition for us to visit Roy's for Mother's Day, because last year, we visited another Roy's. Normally, Roy's is a "dinner only" type of establishment. But for occasions like Mother's day or Father's day, they always open for brunch to celebrate these type of special occasions. So this year, to celebrate my mom and I (since I'm now a mom ♥), we had brunch at Roy's.

I love eating at Roy's. Perhaps its because of their Hawaiian hospitality and the Aloha spirit in all the staff that reminds us of the islands. Or maybe I just love their food.

We first started with appetizers. My mom had French toast to start. My daughter had a yogurt and granola mix. The rest of us each had a plate of this sushi, Sunrise at Haleakala. It consisted of tuna, salmon and yellowtail with avocado and asparagus, then deep fried. What an awesome start.

For my meal, I ordered the Crab Cakes Benedict. yummy! The "hollandaise" sauce had a tad of a kick, but it definitely complimented the entire dish.

Hubby had the Braised short rib topped with poached egg. I was contemplating on ordering this or the crab cakes. But since hubby wanted to order this, I went for the crab cakes instead. This way, I can try both ;)

My daughter, the only keiki at the table, had this plate of french toast for her main course that she really liked. We all liked it too ;)

Our brunch meal also included dessert. Hubby had this Triple Chocolate cheesecake. It was quite rich for my taste. My daughter had a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of a cookie. (The picture of it is used as the first photo)

And I had this Pineapple upside down cake. Warm cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A perfect end to an awesome meal.

Immediately after brunch, we headed off to my sister-in-law's place to celebrate hubby's side of mothers. They had a huge spread of food as well. Unfortunately, I was completely stuffed. But that doesn't mean we couldn't take home some of the food to eat later ;) I have my lunch set for tomorrow.

Oatmeal Creme Brulee

Its a beautiful Saturday morning. Hubby, daughter and I were finally able to sleep in a little bit and FINALLY have nothing to do but stay home and relax. Well, actually I have nothing to do. Hubby has a paper to write. But he promises it'll only take a bit and he'll finally be done and he'll be able to spend the rest of the weekend with us. I hope so, 'coz its Mother's Day weekend.

Whenever we're home on a weekend. I like to make a nice breakfast for us to enjoy together at the table. I found this recipe from my good 'ol crockpot cookbook. Suprisingly, its found under the Light Recipes section of the cookbook. I can see the oatmeal part as being "light."But the "creme brulee" part is far from being light. We all know that creme brulee is made of heavy cream, egg yolks and sugar. I love creme brulee, and since hubby and I were on a diet, I figured oatmeal would be good for us. But I think the health benefits of the oatmeal might be negated by the fattiness of the creme brulee. Oh well.

This recipe requires a lot of steps. And it cooks for 3 hours in the crockpot. So I don't think this would work if you wake up late in the morning to try to make this. Three hours will take up your entire morning, and it'll be lunch time by the time you get to eat this. But we have all day at home, so we'll just eat lunch late today. This dish is really yummy. Its more like a dessert rather than a breakfast dish.

4 cups water

3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal

1/2 tsp. salt

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

fresh berries (optional)

1) Coat crockpot with nonstick cooking spray. Cover and preheat on High. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil. Immediately pour into preheated crockpot. Stir in oatmeal and salt. Cover.

2) Combine egg yolks and sugar in small bowl. Mix well and set aside.

3) Heat cream and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat until mixture begins to simmer (small bubbles begin to form at edge of pan). Do not boil. Remove from heat.

4) Whisk 1/2 cup of hot cream into yolks, stirring rapidly so yolks don't cook. Whisk warmed egg mixture into remaining cream, stirring rapidly to blend. Spoon mixture over oatmeal. Do not stir.

5) Turn crockpot to Low. Line lid with 2 paper towels. Cover tightly and cook on low for 3-3 1/2 hours or until custard has set.

6) Uncover and sprinkle brown sugar over surface of custard. Line with 2 dry paper towels. Cover tightly and continue cooking on low for 10-15 minutes or until brown sugar has melted. Serve with fresh berries if desired.

Crockpot Turkey Chili

I've been wanting to make chili from my crockpot for a while now. I know chili is supposed to simmer in the pot for a long time and so I thought the crockpot would be perfect to use. There are close to 20 different chili recipes from my crockpot cookbook, but this one , for some reason, stood out most. The original recipe was called a Three-Bean Turkey Chili. But I'm not a huge fan of beans. So I omitted the garbanzo beans it asked for and replaced it with a cup of fresh corn kernels since I had an abundant supply of fresh corn from the supermarket.

It turned out real well. Not being a huge fan of beans, I was surprised at how easily I ate my bowl of chili. It was quite tasty with tortilla chips.

1 lb. lean ground turkey

1 small onion, chopped

1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (15 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can tomato soup concentrate

1 can (4 ounces) diced mild green chiles

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1) Cook and stir turkey and onion in a skillet until turkey is no longer pink. Drain and discard fat. Place in crockpot.

2) Add remaining ingredients in crockpot. Mix well. Cook on high for 6-8 hours.

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I was sifting through my crockpot cookbook and found this recipe the other day. Its super yummy. A whole meal in itself. Having the creamy avocado on top makes it even more special. The original recipe didn't call for corn, but I bought a lot of fresh corn the other day from the supermarket so I decided to add some in the soup. Besides, I love corn in anything. I also added more broth than the original recipe because I wanted it more soupy.

This particular crockpot recipe doesn't require a whole day to cook. So I wouldn't use this recipe if I plan on being out all day like my other crockpot recipes. But here is my modified recipe:

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 cans (15 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained

2 cups chicken broth

1 can (4 ounces) chopped mild green chiles, drained

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

For garnish:

crushed tortilla chips

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 avocado, peeled, diced and tossed with lime juice to prevent from browning

1) Place chicken in crockpot. Combine tomatoes with juice, 1/2 cup chicken broth, chiles, onion, garlic and cumin in a medium bowl. Pour mixture over chicken. Cook on high for 3 hours.

2) Remove chicken from crockpot. Shred with 2 forks. Return chicken to liquid. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add remaining chicken broth and cook for another 30 minutes.

3) Divide soup in bowls. Top with crushed tortilla chips, cheese, avocado and cilantro.

Afternoon Tea

Having afternoon tea is one of those refined things I like to do every now and then. Especially when I want to go some place and hang out and chat for a while. This is one of those days. Its my sister-in-law, Deby's, big 4-0. So the other sisters-in-law and I decided to have a girl's day out in honor of her birthday. We decided to have afternoon tea and head out to the spa afterwards to get massages. Our husbands, luckily, were more than happy to hang out at my brother-in-law's house to watch the kids for the next few hours.

Afternoon tea was held at The Gilded Rose Manor, not too far from my house. Its a quaint little building, built to look like an old purple Victorian House. When you walk in, its reminiscent of a grandmother's house. Complete with rose-themed wallpapers, and doilies with mismatched china on the tables. We each ordered the Royal Tea, which included a small pot of your choice of tea. I ordered my usual French Vanilla Creme Brulee tea:

It also included an assortment of tea sandwiches that one of my sisters-in-law really liked. Cucumber, egg salad, and chicken salad tea sandwiches.

The next course was a savory pastry that contained either chicken and mushroom, spinach and cheese, sausage or beef. I've ordered both the Spinach and Cheese pastry and the chicken and mushroom pastry before. But today, I decided to try the beef pastry. I expected it to taste somewhat like an empanada. But the beef tasted a little too "gamey" as Andrew Zimmern would describe it. It didn't have too much flavor. I'll probably stick to Spinach and Cheese next time.

The next course was our salad. Which I found quite odd to have salad in the middle of our meal. Salads usually came in the beginning of the meal. The salad was delicious, nonetheless. It was a mix of lettuce, strawberries, and sweetened nuts, drizzled with some kind of balsamic vinaigrette.

Vanilla and cranberry scones were next

accompanied by the Devonshire cream with lemon custard and strawberry preserves.

My sisters-in-law were shocked at all the food that kept coming to our table. Very unexpected for them at a tea house. But when the dessert came, they knew the arrival of food had reached its end.
We were all stuffed at the end, that when the plate of desserts came, we decided to each pick one and split it to 4. That way, we were able to try each dessert without being too full. We had just enough dessert to satisfy us until our massages afterwards. Deby said she had a very memorable birthday. That makes me happy. The remaining dessert was boxed up for our patient husbands waiting for us at home.