One a penny.

Unbelievably busy for an opening weekend. It felt like high Summer and we even had to get the fans going in the kitchen. They don't usually come out of the cupboard til June.
Almost everyone sat outside and now that big fat twiggy shrub's been taken out you can actually see the full length of the garden. The down side to this is that lots more people chose to sit on the benches further down the garden - further for our aching feet to carry those trays.
A few people clung onto Lent promises despite the temptation of cake. One had a hot cross bun instead. Not really cake. Is it?

A right pane

A big day. Almost everything that would go through the dishwashers did. All the outdoor furniture was cleaned and taken...outdoors. We swept the conservatory and replaced all the tables and chairs in a new formation. Just to keep us interested. I took apart the cake display fridge to give it a good going over and boy did I. I rather cleverly managed to push the large sheet of glass from the top of it. Onto the floor. Into hundreds of pieces.
Just what I needed four days from opening.

Fudging

Ruby from Ruby's Kitchen has offered to supply me with her locally made fudge. I'll have to try it first (of course) but that raises an issue.
For this year's Lent I chose to give up eating between meals.
Which means if I'm going to try it then Ruby's fudge would have to form part of a meal.
Or...if it's as good as I think it's going to be...all of it.

Face It.

In my family we're either in the vanguard of early adopters (a big fat tv in a swish Georgian-style cabinet thing) or it takes us years to catch up with everyone else (a colour tv).
I have resisted Facebook.
Until this week.
The Garden Tea Rooms now has its own page.
So what with the blog/ramble, the FB page and the sudden urge to tweet every incident that happens in the tea rooms I'm not sure I'll have any time to make tea or serve cake.
But I'm going to give it a go....

Three weeks...and counting

We reopen on March 23rd and it's all heating up. I've had a sudden rush of enquiries about bookings for coach parties, baptism gatherings, wedding anniversary celebrations etc. All good.
The newly printed leaflets hit the racks this week.
I've bought more wooden outside furniture.
I've arranged for the gorgeous Apple Cake to make a reappearance this season (courtesy of Angela) but there's still no sign of a replacement fruit cake. I am planning to beg Anna to reconsider - the furniture salesman found out this morning that I'm not averse to a bit of begging.

Currant problem

A blow.
Lovely Anna who has made our astonishingly good fruit cake for many a long year has decided to close her recipe book and put aside her mixing bowls.
The search is on for a replacement but Anna is a hard act to follow.
And she's keeping her recipe secret.

Sandwiched

I am between seasons.
I've done some work towards the reopening in March but am still in the joy of my Winter rest and enjoying sitting and reading during the day - something I see as decadent and almost slovenly especially when my house looks the way it does.
Still, one of the books I'm reading may count as work.
It's called The Dudley Book of Cookery and Household Recipes collected and arranged by Georgiana, Countess of Dudley, who lived at Witley Court. My copy is the third impression from 1909.
In it she details how to make a sandwich. Well more than one. She describes how to make all sorts of different types including "Egg sandwiches for tea or travelling" and "Sandwiches of pounded ham for tea or luncheon baskets". I'm not sure, given what I know of large country houses with staff (see Downton Abbey) that Lady Georgiana would actually have made any of the food herself....
What I have learnt is that they did make a meal out of making a sarnie. Georgiana's lot didn't butter the bread, they mashed up whatever was going in the sandwich with the butter and then spread it. Minimal chewing seems to be the aim. Ham, tongue, shrimps, cheese, game and anchovies are all beaten to a pulp with a pestle and mortar then squished through a sieve. I thought chewing was probably seen as vulgar but someone suggested their teeth couldn't handle it.
So, given that we are the Court tea rooms, in my Lady's own garden, should I get a job lot of pestles and mortars from ebay and radically change the menu?
And what would the regulars say if faced with a special of "Sheep's Trotters Maitre D'Hotel"?
Oh if there's anyone who needs to know how to remove iron stains from white marble mantelpieces, that's in there too.