And Then There Was Food and Seals

Ah, what a lovely time in New York and with Marissa’s family. One of the highlights of the Romance Writers of America Conference for me is the Beau Monde (Regency) Chapter conference the day before, which Marissa covered. Another is when I am invited to tea with book reviewer extraordinaire John Charles. This year was no exception, with the fabulous tea being held at The Plaza. Marissa told me I must look for Eloise, but alas, she wasn’t in evidence in the Palm Court.

But the most wonderful tea was! Sandwiches included smoked salmon on pumpernickel with dill and chive whipped cream cheese; deviled organic egg salad on white bread; oven-roasted turkey with Granny Smith cream cheese on sourdough; English cucumber and minted goat cheese on rye; country ham with spicy mustard on a pretzel bun; and herb-roasted prime rib with horseradish and watercress on a brioche slider. Of course plain and currant scones were on hand with Devonshire cream, lemon curd, and blackberry preserves. For pastries, we had passion fruit and mango s’mores, strawberry and rhubarb fool, and Mogador cake, but my two favorites were carrot cake macarons with golden raisin filling and blackcurrant and violet eclairs. Oh, heaven!

But The Plaza wasn’t the only place with interesting food. The restaurants in the Marriott Marquis hotel where we stayed raise their own greens hydroponically. Fresh herbs and various types of lettuce and edible flowers are picked daily. So cool and so delicious.

Now, just so you don’t think I spent all my time eating, I was also delighted to be treated to an afternoon on the water with my favorite Captain. We saw many fine homes, some historic, and a curious pile on the horizon. It proved to be seals all cuddled together. I had never seen so many in the wild before. Makes me think of Marissa’s Skin Deep again. 😊

All in all, a lovely trip with one of my favorite people on the planet, my dear Marissa. Here’s hoping for 2020 in San Francisco!

Dateline: Denver, Part 2

Oh, what a lovely time we had at the conference! I quite agree with Marissa that the best part of conference is spending time together. Sometimes we attended workshops as a pair; sometimes we divided and conquered, sharing notes with each other afterward.

Two special moments involved tea.

The first was the Beau Monde mini-conference. As we have mentioned, the Beau Monde Chapter of Romance Writers of America^TM  promotes excellence in romantic fiction set primarily in the Regency period (1811-1820). Marissa and I are both members. The workshops on travel, Bow Street, rebellious ladies, and inheritances were excellent, as was the keynote by fabulous author Cheryl Bolen. And after all that information and inspiration, we were treated to tea, followed by an elegant soiree in the evening crowned by the announcement of the winners of the Royal Ascot contest. This contest highlights up-and-coming authors. Remember the name of Lesli Lent. I predict you’ll be reading great books from her soon.

Friday, Marissa and I had the honor of being invited to tea by the incomparable John Charles, reviewer extraordinaire. We joined the likes of Kristan Higgins, Jane Porter, Evelyn Richardson, and Elizabeth Boyle for a splendid tea at the Brown Palace Hotel. This Italian Renaissance-style hotel in downtown Denver opened in 1892 and was one of the most expensive and luxurious hotels then and now. Tea was served with delicious treats, on the traditional three-tiered tray. Because I have food allergies, the hostess brought me my own plate. The conversation, my dears, was as delightful as the company and the fare.

And then we returned to the less rarefied but much beloved air of our homes, our families, and our books. Stay tuned next week for a very special announcement on the last from Marissa. Two words: awesome story!

Retreating to the 19th Century

I had the pleasure of attending a Historical Fiction Writers retreat this past weekend given by Moments in Time, a vintage dance group, at the amazing Senexet House in Woodstock, CT. While the high Victorian era is not a period I’ve written within at this time, I certainly had a wonderful, productive weekend. And ate a lot of delicious Victorian food!

Senexet House was built around 1886. It was interesting archi-tecturally in that while it was rather oblong and plain-looking from the outside (aside from the charming carving at the front door you can see in the photo above), inside it’s exactly what one thinks of as a Victorian dwelling: fun architectural details, fireplaces, oddly shaped rooms, and a sense of spaciousness and repose.

Not that the house saw a lot of repose, once everyone descended on it!

Dinner Friday night was lively as we got to know each other, which continued at breakfast the following morning. I fled to my room after breakfast to, you know, write...but others gathered in the living room to try on Victorian clothes and under-garments brought by the retreat’s organizers. Check out the bustle along with the corsets in the second photo at right!

After lunch, I felt virtuous enough after writing all morning to go on an expedition to an antiques mall with two other retreat-goers, and found an awesome designer purse...but otherwise showed admirable restraint. Four o’clock had us in tea gowns and some splendid hats for a delightful tea featuring gargantuan amounts of cakes, cookies, tiny scones with clotted cream, and other goodies, all from 19th century recipes (my favorites: the seed cake and the rout biscuits) Dancing followed (a good thing, after all that food!) and we learned the steps of a quadrille danced in the old resort town of Nahant, MA in the 1830s.

Dinner that evening was an elegant affair (our table at left, pre-dinner), served by candlelight and also featuring 19th century recipes...and then a talk on Victorian spiritualism, followed by some curious unexplained incidents (not joking!) while a few retreaters played with a Ouija board.

On Sunday I again holed up in my room to write all morning, and after lunch took a walk around Senexet House’s grounds in beautiful sunny October weather. The party broke up in mid-afternoon as we all said good-bye to each other... and to the manager Kit’s adorable Pomeranian, appropriately named Bear, who had kept us company all weekend.

I’ve been to a few writing retreats over the years, but this one probably tops the list for fun. If there’s another one in the spring as organizer Nicole Carlson has threatened, I will totally be there!

There's Tea, and Then There's Tea

Boy, has it been hot! We love unsweetened ice tea with mint in my house, and brew our own from loose tea because it tastes better (especially with mint from the garden)...and have been consuming nearly two gallons every day among us! So I thought a little background on tea, both the beverage and the meal, might be fun. This post first ran in April 2009.

Don't forget that next week the Young Bluestockings will be visiting the cinema (preferably air-conditioned!) and discussing the movie Bright Star. Have you had a chance to watch it yet?

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Ah, tea…that most English of meals...but which meal is it?

Well, that kind of depends.

Tea was introduced in England as early as 1635, but didn’t become fashionable until the 1660s, when King Charles II married the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza. Tea drinking was already established in Portugal, and Catherine brought tea and her beautiful porcelain tea services to enjoy in her new home…and soon, drinking tea was the height of fashion. It remained an extremely expensive luxury item for several decades, but by 1725 a quarter of a million pounds was being imported annually, and tea shops had begun to make their appearance. Tea also began to replace beer and ale as the usual drink of the poor; the abolition of import duties helped this, so that by the beginning of the 19th century, tea was well on its way to becoming the national beverage.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries among the upper classes, tea was often drunk in the evening after dinner, around 9 pm, and served with light refreshments like cakes and sandwiches. When you were eating your dinner at 4 pm, this made some sense…but as hours changed for meals and dinner moved later and later, this habit made a switch…and at some point around the 1830s or so, it started to become fashionable to have tea and light refreshments in the afternoon instead, to sustain one between luncheon at one or two and dinner at 8:30 or 9. At first it was simply something one did as a quick, informal pick-me-up, but gradually sociable ladies figured out that drinking tea and nibbling delicate cakes with friends in the late afternoon was the perfect opportunity for reviewing the gossip of the day and preparing for the gossip of whatever party or ball would be taking place that night. And thus was born the afternoon tea.

That’s one kind of tea…but there is another—namely, high tea. Most Americans hear this term and assume it means an especially fancy, formal kind of afternoon tea, perhaps with extra-elaborate munchies, but in fact it means the exact opposite. High tea was and is more or less a supper-ish kind of meal consumed by working class families. Tea was certainly drunk, but the food was of a hearty, filling nature like toasted bread and cheese, or kippered herrings, or bacon and eggs, or sausages, all served with copious amounts of bread and butter—no tiny delicate pastries here!

So if you were a young lady in London for the season, your tea would probably be drunk at a friend's house some time around four, while you nibbled seed cake and planned the evening's fun...and if you were an apprentice seamstress, you'd have your tea when you got home from work at around six, while you rested your tired feet and enjoying something warm and nourishing.

And that's tea!

There's Tea, and Then There's Tea

Ah, tea…that most English of meals...but which meal is it?

Well, that kind of depends.

Tea was introduced in England as early as 1635, but didn’t become fashionable until the 1660s, when King Charles II married the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza. Tea drinking was already established in Portugal, and Catherine brought tea and her beautiful porcelain tea services to enjoy in her new home…and soon, drinking tea was the height of fashion. It remained an extremely expensive luxury item for several decades, but by 1725 a quarter of a million pounds was being imported annually, and tea shops had begun to make their appearance. Tea also began to replace beer and ale as the usual drink of the poor; the abolition of import duties helped this, so that by the beginning of the 19th century, tea was well on its way to becoming the national beverage.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries among the upper classes, tea was often drunk in the evening after dinner, around 9 pm, and served with light refreshments like cakes and sandwiches. When you were eating your dinner at 4 pm, this made some sense…but as hours changed for meals and dinner moved later and later, this habit made a switch…and at some point around the 1830s or so, it started to become fashionable to have tea and light refreshments in the afternoon instead, to sustain one between luncheon at one or two and dinner at 8:30 or 9. At first it was simply something one did as a quick, informal pick-me-up, but gradually sociable ladies figured out that drinking tea and nibbling delicate cakes with friends in the late afternoon was the perfect opportunity for reviewing the gossip of the day and preparing for the gossip of whatever party or ball would be taking place that night. And thus was born the afternoon tea.

That’s one kind of tea…but there is another—namely, high tea. Most Americans hear this term and assume it means an especially fancy, formal kind of afternoon tea, perhaps with extra-elaborate munchies, but in fact it means the exact opposite. High tea was and is more or less a supper-ish kind of meal consumed by working class families. Tea was certainly drunk, but the food was of a hearty, filling nature like toasted bread and cheese, or kippered herrings, or bacon and eggs, or sausages, all served with copious amounts of bread and butter—no tiny delicate pastries here!

So if you were a young lady in London for the season, your tea would probably be drunk at a friend's house some time around four, while you nibbled seed cake and planned the evening's fun...and if you were an apprentice seamstress, you'd have your tea when you got home from work at around six, while you rested your tired feet and enjoying something warm and nourishing.

And that's tea!