Scone aux bleuets

Photo que mon père m'a envoyée il y a quelques temps. C'est un scone aux bleuets qu'il a fait, en fait je crois que c'était lui qui a cuisiné ça. Il l'a peut-être acheté dans une pâtisserie. Dans tous les cas, c'est une idée assez inspirée que de mettre des bleuets dans des scones et ça leur donne une touche très Saglac.

Halloween Afternoon Tea

For today's countdown to Halloween, a bit of a treat I'm considering giving to myself and my family. I mentioned in another post a few days ago that Halloween and tea go hand in hand for me. I guess I associate everything I like with Halloween somewhat, come this time of year. But I'm not the only one thinking that, it seems: the small coffe shop chain Strawberry Grove, which I blogged about before, is making an Halloween Afternoon Tea. And a kid's version. It's not cheap, but I am very tempted to order one, just because of its name, even though there nothing intrinsically Halloweeny about it (except a pair of Halloween glasses). And Strawberry Grove always make good products, especially their desserts.

Father's Day's Box

This Sunday will be Father's Day and I don't know how we will celebrate it this year. I do have an idea on how we could have done it though: Bean & Brew in Wallingford has made a special box for Father's Day. You can see it on this picture. It has fancy cheese, artisan bread, cured meat (though I hate ham), scones with clotted cream, other stuff not on the picture (they mention lemon cake and finger sandwiches, but not the brownies) and, according to their promotion: "A Bottle of Beer for the Man Himself ". All this for £32.50, a true bargain. Sadly, I think we might be a bit far for home delivery and apparently they are already sold out. I'm very sad.

Scones for VE Day

Today is VE Day, marking the end of World War II in Europe. Apparently, it is celebrated a lot here and from what I learned, one of the traditions is to have cream tea and eat scones. This is how we will celebrate anyway. We considered making the scones, but in the end we decided to be lazy: one of the local cafés that now delivers grocery shop has a special offer on cream tea: we have tea (four bags from Tea Pigs, a brand I quite like) and scones for two, including clotted cream and jam. So we ordered the cream tea and if everything goes well we should receive it this afternoon, just in time. Of course, it's tea for two and we are three, but I will have all the tea for myself, as my wife does not like tea and my son does not drink it yet. The scones, however, will have to be shared and they should go quickly.

Time for cream tea

It has been a very long time since we've been to Wallingford and I miss it. It has also been a long time since we've been to the Bean & Brew there, one of the best coffee houses I have ever been to. They serve a traditional cream tea, with scones, clotted cream, jam and well, tea (from Tea People) that would be perfect for this time of year. The weather is really nasty outside: cold and wet, or cold and dry. Which means that I need sugar to keep my endorphin level up and hot tea to keep warm. I kid you not: it works. Try a proper cream ta on a cold day, with plenty of tea to accompany the scones, and you will be warm and happy for the day.

Sconeberges

J'ai trouvé cette photo il y a un an ou deux sur la page Facebook de la Panthère Verte.  Je suis d'ailleurs inquiet, car ils ne publient plus grand-chose sur leur page. Mais enfin bref, ce sont des scones aux atocas, donc des sconeberges. J'espères qu'ils en auront encore pour les Fêtes de cette année, car je veux vraiment essayer.

The cream tea and Bean & Brew in Wallingford

As this is (still) the weekend and as a weekend tradition on Vraie Fiction I am plugging a meal from a restaurant. This is the new discovery I made yesterday in Wallingford: Bean & Brew, an independent coffee house. For the record, Wallingford is one of my favorite English towns and one of its appeals is its independent businesses, like this one. And because it is such a pretty town. So I had this classic delicious cream tea yesterday afternoon, with scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam. The tea was from lose leafs, not teabags, from Tea People, a company Bean & Brew advertise a lot. It is the first time I've heard of them, but I will learn more, because this was one of the best teas I had in ages. That means it was the best cream tea I had in ages too, because it needs to start with a good tea. But the food was delicious too. I could have eaten more, greedy as I was. So I intend to go back to Wallingford as soon as possible to enjoy the town and this new place.

Devon cream tea at Fat Lemons

It is Saturday and as a tradition I am going to plug some food from a restaurant, a café or a pub. This is the third time, no less, that I plug something from Fat Lemons in Totnes. But they do make delicious food. And among the many items on their menu, a Devon cream tea, which can be eaten as breakfast or dessert. You can see it on the picture: lemon zested scones (heart shaped) with clotted cream and jam, accompanied with breakfast tea. I had the tea, my wife had the scones as a late breakfast. Then I ordered some more scones for myself, to go with the tea and a sort of dessert. I would have loved to have this today.

Cream tea for brekafast

This was the first breakfast we had, my wife and I, during our time in Devon. Basically, we kept the scones, clotthed cream and jam we received in our welcome basket for our first afternoon tea (as we arrived late afternoon/early evening) for breakfast the next morning. My wife does not like tea (how un-English of her) so she had coffee instead. I had the real thing, albeit with no milk in my tea. I find tea better without milk. There is already dairy with the clotted cream, so the milk would be superfluous. Otherwise, I put the cream before the jam, as I have read this is what they do in Devon, so I respect cream tea orthodoxy.

Anyway, I was looking at the pictures this morning and thought it would have made for a nice Sunday breakfast today.

Cream Tea

I had this yesterday, in a local café. Cream tea an English tradition that is lovely in itself (a specialty from Devon and Cornwall, according to Wikipedia), but also made me survived starvation quite a few times, when I had a very late breakfast (say around lunchtime) and did not bother eating anything before going out. So I ended up having something sweet in the middle or late afternoon. But tea has energizing virtues, so it is fine.

So in the café, they were offering Yorkshire tea with a home-made scone, with some jam (strawberry jam) and clotted cream. It fills you enough for a few hours and it is delicious. That said maybe one scone was not enough as I was still hungry after it. I think I would have had two. There were other offers, with much larger plates with either sandwiches or an array of cakes, but I did not want to fill myself until bedtime. I know it is an afternoon snack, but cream tea makes for a perfect breakfast. Anyway, this was my little venture in an old English tradition. I should do it more often.

Monday survival guide

I was wondering last Monday how to survive it and the 9 to 5 job I have. I experienced it today first hand, and in the borderline worst case scenario: at the end of a month. Ends of months are usually busier and often nastier. Surprisingly, or maybe not, I survived this Monday better than I did the last one. Maybe because I was better prepared. I drank tea (Earl Grey), I had a breakfast that was high in sugar: a scone and a donut, the donut being offered by the employer as it was the end of the month. It gave me plenty of energy to get through the day. I also had pizza for lunch, again that was given by the employer which allowed me 1)to save myself a meal, 2)gain some protein through all the salt and saturated fat and 3)to make the usual gloomy Monday lunch a bit different. The pizza was pure junk food, but still enjoyable. And, as one of my readers had suggested, I took plenty of breaks. My waistline is worse for wear, but I survived Monday.

Tea, cake, scones and Mozart

Well, blogging certainly has its benefits, like my wife and I had the pleasure to discover recently: because we were passing by where Mozart's Girl lives we stopped there for tea. I ate among the best scones I had in life, drank lots of tea, with Mozart in the background. You cannot be better received than this and it is pretty much my idea of a great Sunday afternoon.

Since the cake was not ready when we arrived she was generous enough to give it to us. I hope she does not mind that I put the picture here. She was embarrassed by its appearance, I still haven't figured out why. Probably because she never saw any of mine. Artists are perfectionist with their work. I thought the frosting on the top was such a nice touch.

It was strange to meet for the first time in the flesh people whom I have known online for quite a while now. The idea of an online community takes its full meaning. We spend months, sometimes years in their company. Meeting them enhances the experience. It is the icing on the cake, so to speak. I cannot thank her enough for her hospitality, so this post is the least I can do to show my gratitude.