Pre-Birthday treat....

Hubby took me out for Afternoon Tea on Friday.  I knew all about it and it was at a British Store/Restaurant close to where we live.  We went for breakfast there the other week, and I wrote about it here.

The cost per person was $42.50 plus taxes, which worked out too around $48 each, with tip we paid a total of $110.  There was a lot of food!  The top tier included a shortbread cookie with jam in the middle, dark chocolate mousse, and Eton Mess.

Middle tier one plain and one cheese scone each.  It came with jam and clotted cream which was homemade.  We had to ask for butter for the plain scone, and she brought a container of margarine 😐

Bottom tier there were 3 Coronation chicken (cooked chicken, mayo and curry powder) sandwiches each, 3 cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches each, and 3 egg mayo and spring onion (salad onions) each. A mini broccoli and cheese quiche, and a mini bacon, egg and cheese quiche each.

Drinks was unlimited tea or coffee, we chose coffee.

As the scones and quiche's were warm we ate those.  Due to having different flour over here in Canada, the scone's were very dense, but putting the clotted cream and jam on the plain one, made that taste better.  Putting marg on the cheese scone didn't help; I suggested they supply butter in future as it had a better taste than cheap margarine.  The lady was surprised we asked for butter as she thought we would put the clotted cream and jam on the cheese scone????

The quiches were just the standard store bought quiches, or at least the pastry cases were store bought.

We had to eat the Eton Mess and the Chocolate Mousse as we couldn't take those home with us.  The Eton Mess was good, the chocolate mousse was nasty.  I love chocolate but this mousse was again very dense and bitter,  and I could taste the cocoa powder in the teaspoon I tried.  The lady said that the mousse seemed to be left most of the time.  I suggested a light lemon mousse as by the time you have worked your way through the bottom two tiers you are looking for a lighter finish.

We tried a sandwich each and they were fine.  The bread they used was really nice.

We took home the rest of the sandwiches and the cookie and had them for supper.

So all in all it covered both our lunch and supper.  The sandwiches wouldn't have lasted any longer as they were already drying out by supper time.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed it.  It made a super nice treat and the coffee as I said before is really good.

Overall well worth the price for the amount of food we got, they just need to make a couple of adjustments in my opinion to make it even better.

P.S. I just wanted to say I loved all your comments you made about the sugar sandwiches.💖

Afternoon Tea

When we were in the UK last year we went for afternoon tea to The Inn on The Lake, in Glenridding (click on the name of the hotel to go to their site), in the Lake District.  We went on the day of the Queen's funeral.  Most places were closed, but they were open.  It was a once in a lifetime treat for us.  It was such a lovely place.  A place we will probably never ever stay at.  We had a wander around the grounds before we ate.  It's all very lovely.

 As the name suggests it's right beside Lake Ullswater.

Everything was so green and lush.

My mam and the kids (grown adults by the way!! but will always be "the kids") decided they wanted Pimms first.  Hubby was driving and I don't like Pimms.  Everything was lovely, I think the Scotch Egg was the favourite in the savory section, although that cheese thing beside the sandwich was really good.

Now on the sweet side, the scones were the best ones I had all through the trip.  Every one of the desserts were good, though we ended up taking most of them home as we were full.

There was unlimited tea and coffee as well. When I booked it they asked about dietary restrictions; now although we had none, we don't like dried fruit (sultanas, currents, raisins etc), so nothing like that was included. It was served in the Orangery and we did all dress up.  However, everyone else there was in regular everyday clothing!

As we all said we were there for the whole experience and it was a super experience.  Next time we go to the UK we will do it again at another hotel as we thoroughly enjoyed it and we waddled out of the hotel, stuffed full.

Grocery shopping.........

I went grocery shopping on Friday, and thought I'd share with you some of the deals with you.

My first stop was Bulk Barn.  They had a $3 off coupon when you spent $10.  I have been wanting a tea ball for a while and at $2.99 that's the cheapest I have seen one yet.  Also bought some of their loose leaf tea and it was good.  I bought the black mixed berry Rhodiola and really enjoyed it.  So after the $3 coupon I paid $9.55 for what's in the photo.

I then popped into Zehrs.  Must admit I got a few good deals there.  The bread was 25 cents a loaf after coupons.  The box of PG Tips tea was free with a free product coupon.  The small tin of Tetley tea was 25 cents.  The box of Presidents Choice tea was $3.50 for 216 bags.  All in all I spent $53.24 and used $16.69 in coupons and $4.40 in 50% sticker savings.

Finally I popped into Sobeys as they had the "good" milk on for $3.99 a 4 litre bag.  They have a February 22nd expiry date on them.  The buns were day olds and I got the bag for $1.99, so spent $9.97 there.

All in all I spent $72.76 on Friday and I spent another $7.15 on Wednesday when I bought a bag of milk and 2 dozen eggs.  So my totals for this week was $79.91 spent and $25.06 in savings.

If you can check back in with me on Tuesday as I will have something very good to share with you!!!

Royal Albert Festoon for afternoon tea and the bloody weather!

On Thursday I had a friend over for a tea.  She enjoys the finer things in life, so I decided to hunt out my Nana and Pop's tea set my mother gave me.  They got it as a wedding gift in 1934.  On further examination it turns out they are Royal Albert, the Festoon pattern which was introduced between 1905 - 1907.  Now I know this set is probably not as old as that, but I would love to know more about it, however I wasn't able to find anything on the Internet.  I have six cups, six saucers, six side plates and one larger round plate.

I never got you told about what happened on Wednesday.  It's been freezing cold and it has been blowing a gale force wind, which means it blows over the driveway and blocks us in.  Due to it being so cold it has turned the snow rock hard and made it feel like ice.

As my right arm had been giving me a lot of problems, dh told me to leave the snow blowing until he came home.  Well by the time he got home it was even worse, so bad he got the truck stuck halfway up the driveway.  So I went out with him, as there was at least a two foot high drift in front of the garage door, which we had to dig out first before we could get to the snow blower.  The wind was just howling and it was bitter, bitter cold.  We fought on for a bit and then I told dh this was crazy.  We were both exhausted and frozen, so I insisted on calling a friend and seeing if she knew of someone who could come and plow out the driveway.

She gave me the number of a local farmer and to cut a long story short he came over with his tractor and snow blower and had the whole driveway cleared out within half an hour.  He also cleared out by the mail box, as the mail lady had stopped delivering to us as she couldn't access the mail box easily.  Now all she had to do was open her truck door and lean out, but as per the Post Office she is not allowed to open her door to deliver mail as it would violate her insurance if she is injured...........I could go on a rant for another hour about the post office and our dear mail lady, but it isn't worth my energy or my time.

I must say I could have kissed the farmer for clearing everything out though, as I was close to tears with the cold and the wind trying to clean out the driveway.  The farmer wouldn't take any money for clearing out the driveway.  As he is a widower I thought I would make him a couple of meals that he can freeze and eat at a later date, and we'll have him over for supper when the weather gets better as well.

So just in case you haven't figured it out,

I AM FED UP TO THE BACK TEETH OF THIS BLOODY WEATHER!!!!!