The Post Flu-Recovery Afternoon Tea

If my quiet blog for the last week and a half has been any indication at all, I was struck by the wretched flu bug. Die you foul virus die! Well, it started off viral; my immune system and lungs took a terrible beating and then it was hello bacterial infection. The uncontrollable bouts of reverberating coughing fits and wheezing left me no choice but to consult Mr. Doc for prescription antibiotics. Urgh..’Twas a most horrible week for me; not being able to function properly. Worst of all was the insomnia which perpetuated a series of psychedelic (sort-of) dreams when I do manage to drift into slumber; the one I remembered was of a menacing neon-orange T-Rex (sharp teeth and all) speaking and beckoning me to enter its belly and within it, a kaleidoscope of limestone caves, then a Triceratops charged at me and I fended it off with my Sea World paw print cushion pillow. Yeah, I hear ya – What in the world!!

But I’m feeling much better now. So, on to more pleasant things; afternoon tea! 😀

My uncle and aunts are in town so I invited them over this afternoon for a tête à tête session whilst munching away on some refreshing curried egg and cucumber sandwiches, crisp caramelised onion tartlets, delightful frangipane tarts and fresh-from-the-oven lavender scones with home-made marmalade, washed down with a pot of tea. I didn’t document any of the recipes (apart from a prior post on the Frangipane Tarts) since I was juggling the simmering marmalade, onion jam, frangipane tarts, scones and the egg filling at the same time but it definitely felt great to be back in the swing of things. Yippee!!

I was inspired to make the marmalade after reading A Table For Two’s Billy Law’s entry on his delectably looking Mandarin Marmalade. This is my first attempt at making marmalade so the notes on using the pectin-rich pips, pith and skin when boiling the jam were all new facts to me. I didn’t want to bottle the marmalade so I divided the recipe by 4 and made just a small amount to go with the scones and had enough leftover to fill a small jar. It was a great way to use up some of the 6kg of oranges I purchased from the market just before I succumbed to the dumb flu!

Afternoon tea went splendidly, made even better by my lovely tea companions; I think the 6 of us were quite stuffed from the bite-size morsels which we then walked off with a short stroll in the park. Anyway, it’s great to be back kneading, whisking, and doing my no-one’s-watching-kitchen song and twirl routine so I’ll leave you with photos from my post-recovery afternoon tea.