Being Fancy: The Beehive Tea Room

When I was growing up, my sisters and I never played tea party in the sense most Westerners think of tea parties.

My version of a tea party is yum cha and dim sum, where steaming carts are wheeled around by uniformed Chinese women, serving up round metal trays filled with five or so pieces of shrimp dumplings, short ribs in black bean sauce, or chicken feet (my favorite!).

Patrons would peer into the round steamers as the server lifted the lids to show her wares.  Someone would point, the food is transferred to the table, and the server would pull out a small, round stamp and leave a red mark on the tab card. We would sip hot water (my family didn't ever drink the green tea they offered) from short round cups without handles.

My parents and Chinese tea

I love how raucous it gets sometimes--we Chinese can be loud/eating/pointing people.  You typically don't see any pinkies up.

(Side note: I just had a super funny picture in my head of younger versions of me and my sisters sitting around playing Chinese tea party, chopsticks in hand, and yelling and gesturing loudly at a younger version of my brother, who is wheeling around a makeshift cart with play dim sum.  That just made my day.)

So, when my friend, MiSharona, suggested a girls afternoon-out for tea at the Beehive Tea Room, I wasn't sure if I would feel comfortable there. I've never gone to an English version of tea before, and I was a little afraid that I wouldn't be proper enough.

I'm glad they had an explanation card of what it was all about.

But, I do happen to like late-afternoon snacks and enjoy good friends, so I got ready and met MiSharona and Gem there.

When you first get there, you can't help but settle into the dimly lit, comfortable rooms furnished with old-fashioned and elegant things. We were swooning over the tea settings--fancy!

I loved this tea set!

Our server started us out with the blooming tea--she added hot water to a dried sachet and it bloomed after a few minutes.  It was gorgeous and smelled floral. You could drink it, but we just enjoyed the aroma.

Beautiful blooming tea

We each ordered a tea--I got the Bella Coola, a fruity herbal tea with orange and pineapple hints. MiSharona ordered a Peach tea and Gem got a Raspberry Mint. All of them were lovely! They had a nice variety of black, green, white, and herbal teas--really something for everyone.

Look at my pretty red tea!

Along with the tea, they brought out a tower of finger sandwiches and scones.

MiSharona is considering what to try first.

I've never had a cucumber sandwich before--simple and good.  The cream cheese pesto with crushed pine nuts--hello! I need a recipe.  Anyone?

Finger sandwiches

And English scones!  Lightly sweet with currants throughout and lemon sugar on top.  I couldn't get over the amazing texture of these scones. These were definitely my favorite part of the tea.

Be still my heart!  English scones!

Then they brought a dessert of berries with cream and petit fours.

Side note:  We all agreed that the cream was made of something highly addictive--be careful.

But look at these petit fours--they were made of marzipan and tasted as good as they looked.

The food was marvelous!

Even better than the food was the chance to enjoy the company of good friends.  You can't help but catch up on life and laugh and come up with amazing ideas to save the world and just relax while your tea is cooling.Those couple of hours we chatted and sipped and nibbled were rejuvenating and wonderful. I can now see why tea time is so important to the Brits! 

Thanks for an afternoon well spent, MiSharona and Gem!

You must make advanced reservations for Afternoon Tea at the Beehive Tea Room and it will set you back about $22.00 per person. It might seem a little spendy, but it was definitely worth it!

Beehive Tea Room

12 West Broadway

Salt Lake City, UT

Bacon, Pepper Jack, and Green Onion Biscuits

My dad's name is Kim-Fai Chan.

My dad - KFC

Just imagine his surprise when he and my mom came over from Hong Kong and there was a company in the good ol' US of A that bore his initials AND sold chicken that was finger lickin' good.  Naturally, my dad felt connected to Kentucky Fried Chicken. I remember one 4th of July, he stood up and inched toward the middle of the road, gesturing to us to take his picture with the KFC float as it went by on the parade route.

The glasses almost match too!

As a kid, we would have dinner at the KFC on special occasions. My favorite thing at the KFC then and now are the biscuits.  Fluffy and buttery and absolutely the best with butter and honey. Oh yeah!

However, all my attempts as a teenager to make fluffy, light, buttery biscuits resulted in dry lumps of lead dough. Not awesome.

After all these years, I've gotten braver and tried a few different biscuit recipe, and I'm happy to announce that I have gotten better.

These biscuits are reminiscent of KFC biscuits.  Okay, they're better.

First of all, they're homemade. Second of all, there's cheese in them!  Third of all, they actually taste better the second day.  It's like all the flavors--the bacon, the green onions--get a chance to infuse into that light, buttery bread.

Let's do this!

Bacon first:  I cut off a couple inches of bacon off a pack of 12 and cooked them up.  It's easier this way--the pieces are already pieces!

Cut up your bacon with kitchen shears

Cut up your green onions and the pepper jack.

Chop chop!  Cube cube!

Then get your other ingredients together. If you don't, it's a mess! Mise enplace!

Just a handful of ingredients!

Dry ingredients (flour, corn meal, baking powder, and salt)--mix them together.

The cornmeal makes the dough nice and tender!

Then your wet ingredients (cream and eggs)--whisk!

Cream and eggs...two very good things.

Now this step is the key.

1. Butter should be cold.
2. Cut up butter into small pieces to help yourself out.
3. Use your fingers to incorporate the butter. Those dough cutter things don't seem to work for me--my fingers do though!  
4. I don't want to rush you, but try to do this step quickly.  You don't want to warm up the butter too much.

Remember, cold butter!

Then add your drys and your wets together and incorporate with a fork.  It doesn't have to be completely incorporated--the dough will look shaggy is how Joy the Baker puts it. Once again, I have found the less I play with the dough, the fluffier they come out.

Looks kind of lumpy, but it's perfect.

Then I add my extras in and sort of stir those in. I say sort of because, once again, I don't want to mess with it too much.

I pour the dough onto a floured surface and sort of incorporate them a little better into the dough. Form into a disk, about 2 inches thick.

Easy peasy!

Then cut them into 6 or 8 pieces with a knife.

How many people are you having over tonight?

Transfer each piece (picking up any "extras" that happen to fall onto  your work surface and stuffing them back into the dough) to a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Brush the tops with some cream and sprinkle some kosher salt on top if you prefer.

Mmmm!

Then wait while it bakes.

Voila!

Cheesy goodness!

Oh, look at that cheese! Yum-O!

Tender, cheesy biscuit for you!

I would highly encourage serving these with a jam.  The sweet + savory just floats my boat!

If you have any biscuits left over the next day, good job you (it really is so easy to polish them all off on Day 1)!  Re-heat for 30 seconds in the microwave and enjoy!


Bacon, Pepper Jack, and Green Onion Biscuits
Adapted from a Joy the Baker recipe here

Ingredients:


2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornmeal
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
2 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream (plus more for brushing the tops of the biscuits)
2 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped
1/4 cup diced green onions
1/4 pound pepper jack cheese, cut into small cubes
Kosher salt

Directions:


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Incorporate cold butter into flour mixture with your fingers--you want smaller pieces of butter/flour throughout.

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and heavy cream.  Add this to your flour/butter mixture.  Mix with fork until most of the flour is moist.  The dough will be shaggy.

Add bacon bits, green onions and pepper jack cheese and work together briefly.  Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and form into a disk, about 2 inches thick. Cut disk into 6 to 8 pieces and place onto parchment paper on baking sheet.  Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove from fridge and brush tops of biscuits with cream and sprinkle kosher salt if desired.

Bake on the middle rack for 24 to 27 minutes till golden brown.

Pastry Wednesday: Les Madelines - An Assortment

Sugaraholic was in charge of Pastry Wednesday this go around.

She fretted about it.

Sugaraholic trying the assortment

I don't know if you've noticed yet, but Pastry Wednesday has turned into more of Pastry Monthly.  It's a little harder to coordinate six people's schedules nowadays, plus a few of us are really trying to get in shape!

Because of this, I feel like the adage "absence makes the heart grow fonder" fits our situation perfectly--there is anticipation and expectation for our monthly meeting now.

Sugaraholic actually "auditioned" one other bakery, The Avenues Bakery, to see if that would be Pastry-Wednesday-worthy. It didn't make the cut.  She said it was good and I agreed (she brought me a sample), but she said the cost to benefit ratio was too great.

So she chose a place we've seen once before on Pastry Wednesday, Les Madeleines, though Sugaraholic didn't get a chance to partake originally.

A good choice, Sugaraholic!

She brought an assortment of pastries.

Oh, this looks so good!

She got the kouing-aman again.  Yes!

(I may or may not have highly suggested she get one if she happened to go to Les Madeleines--she, of all people, needed to try it!  Lucky for us, she got a few to share.)

Kouing Aman...amen!

Look at that crusty, sugary, layered goodness--to die for!  Thankfully, she loved it.  I don't know if I could've been her friend anymore if she didn't.  Just saying.

She also got these simple Black and White Cookies.  When you get one, taste the white portion by itself. It's lemon-y! It wasn't particularly extraordinary, but it was good.

Black and white cookies

These are what we had last.  Aren't they as cute as a button?

Cute cannele!

I called Les Madeleines to figure out the name of this next pastry, because Sugaraholic couldn't remember what they were called.  I described it to the staff--looks like a cork, crusty on the outside, but egg-y on the inside.  They had no idea what I was talking about.  I ended up sending a phone picture of it to one of the employees there.  They finally understood what I was talking about. 

It's a cannele. 

Look at that crust and the bubbles!

I am not sure how they are made, but the outside is crusty and caramelized on the edges and is chewy and egg-y on the inside, almost custard-like. Look at those bubbles!  The employee at Les Madeleines mentioned that they didn't have any this month because they like to mix up their selection and try baking new things.

Les Madeleines pastries--they are reliably amazing!  We will need to continue to eat our way through this bakery and all their monthly pastries they want to try out.


Les Madeleines
216 East 500 South
Salt Lake City, UT

Duh! Winning!

I had a Charlie Sheen kind-of-a-day last Saturday.

As you know, Lee just started culinary school last week.  In order to get more experience, he got a new job at Plates and Palates.  It's this fun bistro and kitchen store in Bountiful and we love the food there.  If you get a chance, try their Reuben sandwich.  Two words: herbed mayonnaise. It's seriously the best Reuben ever!

But with this new job, Lee is gone on Saturdays, so I'm left up to my own devices.

[Bwahahahaha!]

I found something to do last Saturday. We have a couple of married friends--we'll call them The Giggling G's.  The GGs are delightfully fun and happy people.  We were having dinner with them a few weeks ago and Mrs. Giggling G mentioned that her neighbor, Lindsay Joy Smith of FUD: Feast Upon Delights, was once again hosting the Fud Feud at Orson Gygi.

Fud Feud swag!

The Fud Feud is a contest for amateur cooks. Mrs. Giggling G entered in the Side Dish category to support her neighbor and she encouraged me to enter too--she thought we'd have fun cause we're "into food".

I thought about it--I could enter my Lemon Basil Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Frosting.  I've made it a time or two (or twelve) before.

Lemon Basil Layer Cake...the way it should look

So I entered in the Dessert category, because I did think it WOULD be fun.  Plus, Lee was working that Saturday.

The morning of the contest, I dropped Lee off at work and started making my cake.  I had a little over 4 hours to get ready and get to Orson Gygi--plenty of time, right?

Let's just say that everything that could have gone wrong with my cake went wrong.

• My cake didn't rise; in fact, I had crater cakes.  My cake was 2 full inches shorter than usual!
• It was also starting to fall apart when I removed each layer from the pans.
• When I was whipping up my frosting, the cream wasn't light enough--it was like it was being weighed down.
• A piece of wax paper I placed under the cake during frosting wouldn't come out. The cake started breaking apart as I was pulling it out and so I left that piece and covered it up with frosting, hoping no one would accidentally eat a piece of it.
• I was running so late that I didn't get to shower or do my hair or makeup. Not cute.

I actually considered not bringing it because it was just bad and I was extremely discouraged.

But I went anyway, bringing my pathetic, short cake that was collapsing upon itself under the frosting.

Dessert #212

MiSharona, my friend who came out to support me, saw the cake and said, "Oh honey, I'm so sorry.  What happened?"

When she said that, I knew I had little chance of winning.  So I just plated a piece of cake (it was like half a piece because the center was nonexistent--it HAD collapsed upon itself in the middle, so there was literally no cake in the middle!) and submitted it to the judges.

I got even more bummed when I saw all the other entries in my category.  Like Caroline of Caroline's Bakeshop and her beautiful Cinnamon Chocolate Mousse Pie. Or the gorgeous fondant Beehive Cake. Or the a delicious chocolate raspberry mousse!

So I stopped worrying and decided to have fun with MiSharona and the Giggling Gs.  Gem also ended up coming a little later.  We all wandered around, sampling the many entries. Man, everyone did an amazing job!

The judging was finally done and they started announcing the winners.

Ooo!  The prize table!

We stood in the back as they announced the different winners. Mrs Giggling G won 3rd place with her Oriental Balsamic Salad in the Side Dish category!  Yay!

They finally announced the 3rd and 2nd places for the Desserts. They were about to announce the 1st place winner and I was sure that Caroline would win with her pie.

But they announced #212.

That's my number!  For my cake!

For THAT cake??  What were they thinking?!?

MiSharona and Gem were laughing their heads off, looking at me incredulously.  I couldn't believe I won!

I went up and gathered my prize: A $50.00 gift card to Orson Gygi, a cooking class at Orson Gygi, sparkling cider, and a 1st Place medal and plate.  So cool!

Wow!  I can't believe I won 1st Place!

Seriously, what a fun and well-organized event--thanks, Lindsay and FUD!  I'm definitely entering again next year!

(We had such a good time shopping afterwards too--I had just won a $50.00 OG gift card!)

MiSharona--put a bird on it! 

Later that day, MiSharano, still a little surprised that I had won, texted me this:

I've decided to call today Charlie Sheen Day.   

So if someone says to you, "Hey Winter!  Why didn't you shower today?"  You can reply, "I was busy WINNING."  

When a schmuck friend says, "Oh man! Your cake looks terrible!  I have never seen such a wretched looking cake!"  You can say, "Uh-uh, I'm winning."   

And when your husband comes home and says, "Look at this messy kitchen!"  You just say, "Winning!"   

It's just a winning day all around.

I don't know why I won--I must have been channeling Charlie's winning attitude!

Changes

We've had big changes in the ReddParty household this week.

First of all, Lee started his first semester of culinary school at Salt Lake Community College.

Exciting!  More on this in later posts.

Lee trying on his new duds--handsome!

Second, Lee had to shave for culinary school.

Beards aren't allowed in the Basic Food Preparation class he's in.  He can't even wear one of those tacky beard net thingees.  We were both bummed (see movie below).

Lastly, I actually recognized Lee when he shaved!  This is major for me! 

You see, in the four and a half years I've known Lee, I've seen him without any facial hair a total of 3 times. Three times!

One time, we met for dinner at a restaurant before going to a baseball game with friends. We were both getting off work late, so we decided to meet at the restaurant.

He had just shaved off his beard and buzzed his hair super short.

At the Bee's Game years ago!

When I entered the restaurant, I walked right past him.

I didn't recognize my own husband--how embarrassing!  (I didn't feel so bad when my friends tagged this photo of us and commented "We couldn't figure out for the longest time who that guy was that kept kissing Winter. Then we realized it was Lee.") 

Like I said, it's been an eventful week for us. 

Though Lee isn't feeling himself without his glorious beard (and I miss it too!), Lee is quite excited to be starting something that he is passionate about!

Here's a little video of part of our week.  Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

We have a friend.  Let's call her Gem.

Gem is that friend who can wear any outfit and make it look good...and she's not even Asian!  Gem is that friend who has got her act so together that she pulls off the junior high school play every year with gusto. And Gem is that friend that introduced me to bacon. Bacon and chocolate.

She's cutting edge, I'm just saying.

She offered me a piece of Vosges Mo's Bacon Bar years ago. She didn't tell me what it was.

I was expecting grasshoppers or banana slugs or something.  But it wasn't.

It was bacon.  Salty bacon set in a dark chocolate.  It was strangely good and I was in love with that salty sweet combination.

So I jumped on the bacon band wagon, taking Lee with me, and we haven't gotten off.

We made bacon truffle chocolates one year for Christmas.

We try stuff with bacon on it.

And we recently made these Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies.

One of my favorite food bloggers, Joy the Baker, recently came out with her first cookbook, Joy the Baker Cookbook: 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes, and this recipe was in it.

The new Joy the Baker cookbook!

I looked at the ingredients and I couldn't find a trace of flour anywhere; I was sure it was a typo. It happens, right?

So I tweeted Joy.  And she tweeted back!  Excitement!

She confirmed that, indeed, there is not a single gram of flour in this recipe.  Oh dear.  I was a little concerned.  I just couldn't imagine it working.

But I gave it a go anyway!

Here are your basic ingredients--not too many.

Just a handful of ingredients are needed

Don't forget the bacon!  I had gotten a hickory-smoked bacon variety. Mmm...

Nice crispy bacon baked in the oven

The dough is fast and easy to throw together. You will see that your dough is sticky and crumbly at the same time.  Sticky, because you're dealing with sticky ingredients and no flour.  Crumbly, because of the bacon and peanuts.  You'll then be dipping the balls into sugar and flattening them down with a fork into the traditional crisscross pattern, then baking them.

And what you get is a lovely cookie.  Crispy on the edges, soft at its core, and very crumbly.  That's my favorite part, how crumbly it is. It's like the cookie has gotten caramelized because of the sugar and no flour.  You can break off a small piece of cookie and all of it's crispy--my fave!

Look at the bacon...and the nuts!

And the molasses--it brought out the richness of the bacon and the peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

I want to try changing up the bacon to maybe a maple bacon next time. Maybe the maple flavor and molasses will work.  Maybe not.  We'll see!

Anyway, I highly recommend you jump on the bacon bandwagon too and give these a try--see if people can guess the secret ingredient! 


Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies
from Joy the Baker: 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes

Ingredients:

8 slices of bacon

1 c all-natural peanut butter

1/2 c granulated sugar

2 tsp molasses

1 large egg

1 tsp baking soda

Generous pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 c coarsely chopped roasted, salted peanuts

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Line a sided baking sheet with foil and place bacon slices in a single layer. Bake bacon until crispy, about 15 to 17 minutes. Remove from the oven (leaving it on), let cool slightly, then transfer to paper towels to cool completely. When cool enough to handle, coarsely chop the bacon and set aside.

Line a clean cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the peanut butter, 1 cup of sugar, and the molasses until thoroughly combined, about 3 minutes.  Add the egg, baking soda, and nutmeg, and mix on medium speed for another 2 minutes.

Remove the paddle attachment and the bowl and use a wooden spoon to fold in the bacon and peanuts. Roll the dough into large walnut-sized balls and roll in the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Place on lined cookie sheet, and use a fork to make that distinctive peanut butter cookie crisscross pattern.  If the cookie dough begins to stick to the fork, dip it in sugar before pressing into cookie.  Dough will be crumbly--I just reshaped them as needed.

Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies will be really crumbly and delicious! Cookies will last up to 5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

A May Day Play List

I've had these songs stuck in my head the last few days.

They're perfect for this fine May Day, so I thought I'd share so you could get them stuck in your head too!

This first song is Home from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.  Favorite line: Home is wherever I'm with you.

Second song is called Ho Hey by The Lumineers.  I love, love the mandolin in this!

Lastly, I absolutely love Life's a Happy Song from the most recent Muppet movie.  But even better is this rendition sung by Kermit the Frog and Bret McKenzie (of Flight of the Conchords fame), who wrote the song.  It's funny to see how bad AND good their version comes off!

Have you been introduced to any new get-stuck-in-your-head tunes?  If so, please share!