A Mad Tea Party By Moonlight

Please don your heart-shaped sunglasses and very most daringly Victorian bathing costume and join us at the Moonlight Mad Tea Party!


Do any of you dear friends remember when Mr. Mad Hatter sang this at the Original Mad Tea Party?

“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat
How I wonder what you’re at
Up above the world you fly
Like a teatray in the sky...”

Our special Guest of Honor is Mr. Clafouti, the wonderously rare and adorable Teddy Bear Bat. Everyone runs to greet him and pet his furry tummy! Oh! So much petting all at once is very tickle-y!

You will find Alice is taking a lovely swim in the teacup pool with The Mouse but this time isn’t talking about any (ahem) dogs and cats. Please take a dip! You will find that Iced Darjeeling is refreshing to drink and even more refreshing to swim in! Also, please notice that the Firefly Cotillion is being attended by many happy fireflies over the pool!

Moonbathing is de rigeur. Please indulge yourself! Our friend Mademoiselle Moon is full and her light is particularly luscious and lavenderly tonight!

And what could possibly be on that teatray in the sky for us to munch on while lounging in the moonlight? It’s a decadent and delicious black and white tea party menu:

*Three Kinds of Crescent Moon Shaped Crostini (black olive tapenade; baked brie and truffle oil; creme fraiche and caviar)
*Scones with clotted cream and blackberry jam
*Slices of fresh white peach tart
*Bittersweet chocolate and vanilla bean checkerboard cookies
*Madagascar vanilla and black pepper ice cream
*Glasses of Iced Fig de Blanc tea (white tea scented with black figs)

The table is set with black pansies and white lilacs (with just a few sprigs of purple thrown in, of course! After all, it is a tea at The Gossamer Tearoom, isn’t it?)

And as for music, we will be listening to something dark and fun: the newly released compilation, Factory Records-Communications 1978-92. Dance throughout the night to the gloom and endless beats of Joy Division, New Order, Electronic, Durutti Column and more.

(P.S. - The face of the teddy bear bat is actually that of my oldest and dearest friend Teddy, who has known me since I was born! The picture of his face and the picture of his tummy fur, which is actually his ear, is from a photo taken by my super sweet husband Victor! I had to take the picture of his ear instead of his tummy because I loved most of his fur off years ago! I mean Teddy's, not Victor's!)

Thank you so much to Miss Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist for hosting this extra fun event!!

Happy Tea Party to You All!

Betty

Don't Forget . . .

Check back here this Saturday, June 27th for my contribution to the Mad Tea Party, hosted by the magical Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist!

And check back later today for even more for news from The Gossamer Tearoom!

Wings of Desire

I watched "Wings of Desire" for the first time last night. I loved the whole movie, but the scenes in the club in Berlin made me want to go back in time to when music used to give me the chills the first time I heard it. This performance by Crime and the City Solution gave me that experience. If you haven't seen this movie, see it. If you have seen this movie, see it again.

Something for Everyone . . .

The delectable Miss Gla'Gla Montebello (pistachio ice cream swirled with strawberries on pistachio macaron biscuits)


This is a special post for my friend LuLu. If you will look at yesterday's post, you will see that I had posted about an intrieging new dessert from Pierre Hermé that contains tomatoes. LuLu commented that she would have to have something else as tomatoes give her hives (Yikes!). So, hopefully there will be something to appeal to you from this list, Miss LuLu!

In my Montebello Mystery post, I mentioned something that I wanted to talk about a bit more, and so tonight I bring you another wonderful treat that can be found at the endless world of endless treats at Pierre Hermé: his version of an ice cream sandwich (with, of course, ever-so-much more class!). He calls them Miss Gla’Gla and they are made with sorbets and ice creams in his fetish flavors and most have a macaron shell instead of a cookie.

I’m afraid the next time we are in Paris, if it is in the warm weather months, we will have a hard time deciding which of these to try!


PLÉNITUDE - (chocolate ice cream with bits of salted chocolate, swirled with caramel ice cream with bits of salted caramel, two macaron biscuits) An intensely-flavored ice cream trapped between two macaroon cookies... A creation where the crunchy and salty are revealed in the smoothness of a bittersweet chocolate ice cream and caramel.


INFINIMENT CARAMEL - (salted butter caramel ice cream and bits of crunchy caramel, two crunchy, sugary biscuits) All the power of caramel is underscored by its delicious saltiness. The whole is an agreement where the crunchy pieces of caramel and crisp sugar biscuit contrast with the ice cream.


CELESTE - (passionfruit ice cream, strawberry sorbet, rhubarb compote with strawberries, two macaron biscuits) A subtle blend this gourmet ice cream returns to sour notes in an original fruity combination of the Céleste flavors: Passionfruit, Strawberry and Rhubarb. An arrangement of fruit in all its sandwiched simplicity between two macaron biscuits.


SATINE - (cream-cheese sorbet, orange sauce, passionfruit sorbet, two passionfruit macaron biscuits) An ice in the Satine flavor, which plays on the association between the soft macaroon, the creaminess of the cheese sorbet and sherbet acidity of the passion fruit and orange sauce.


ISPAHAN - (Litchi sorbet with rose, raspberry sorbet, two rose-scented macaron biscuits) Miss Gla'Gla in Ispahan flavor returns in the flagship House of Pierre Hermé combination of flavors A subtle blend of litchi sorbet flavored with rose and raspberry sorbet, all between two rose-scented macaron biscuits.

A ha! The solution! Why choose when we can just plan to return again and again until we have tried them all?

And also tonight. . .

A new item in The Gossamer Tearoom Gift Shop, the second set of Women in the Moon notecards. This is an all new set, with completely different images from the first set. But like the first set, a very nice quality silver pen is included in your order, for writing on your cards and envelopes in suitable, ethereal fashion.

Tomato = Dessert ?

If you are like me, you really miss some of the fresh flavors of summer when the snow is flying past your window in the dead of winter. And when you think of the flavors of summer, one that you might miss is fresh strawberries. But another might be that quintessential flavor of summer: fresh tomato. I love tomatoes! I even love the smell of the plants themselves, all green and fresh, but somehow astringent in the nicest way. From the innovative minds of the House of Pierre Hermé comes something to challenge all of us. One of his newest summer offerings is his Tarte Intuition, made of a baked lemon cream custard, candied cherry tomatoes, tartare of fresh strawberries and tomatoes (I have to assume it is described that way because it is a spiced and chopped combination of the strawberries and tomatoes, like beef tartare is chopped and spiced beef, served raw) and a crunchy, sugary tart crust. And yes, you did read that right...tomato. Sound unusual? On warm summer evenings, my mother would take one of our freshly-picked tomatoes from the little garden in our backyard, slice it and we would eat it with sugar!! She told me that her father had done this, but she says she doesn't know where he would have gotten the idea, except that he hated anything tart or sour!
So, to my mind, this is not such a far-fetched combination of flavors. I have seen recipes listing vanilla as an enhancement for tomato and remember, a tomato is a fruit!

Here is how he describes his new creation:
“Jammy and sweet, slightly peppery to enhance the fruity flavor, the tomato is thus emerging in concentrated flavors with subtle acidity...revealed through the support of the baked lemon cream,a consistency which recalls the texture of a crème brûlée. The whole is complemented by a strawberry tartare and fresh tomatoes that enhance the taste of a fresh note of spring. An explosion of Mediterranean flavors.”

Is this for everyone? Probably not. Would I be trying it if we were in Paris this summer? Absolutely!!

Again, Thank You

I cannot tell you how happy and honored I am to have won the drawing this week on French Blue. I have won three months of advertising on The Paris Apartment blog!!! Thank you again to Miss Claudia of The Paris Apartment and Miss Janet of French Blue for giving me the opportunity to let more people see my artwork! Words can't express my gratitude for your generosity.

(Image from The Paris Apartment. Claudia: We loved the Hôtel Soubise. too!!)

(Image from French Blue. Janet: How can anyone resist going to Giverny?

Betty