Knitter's tea

 It's the second Saturday of the month and the ladies assembled again for tea.I made angel food cake and dressed it up with a vase full of peach rosebuds that matched the peach tablecloth. And even though our glorious Hood berries are not yet available,I made do with ordinary strawberries in a pretty footed compote.  Angelfood cake with fresh strawberries is ambrosial!

For cookies I made macarons with the hazelnut meal left over from the hazelnut rum balls.  Not a good idea.  There may be too much fat in hazelnuts.  Anyway,the macarons did not bake up to light and crispy bites but turned out substantial and hazlenutty.  So I spread Nutella between the cookies to make sandwiches with them. A fail, saved.  Everything is good with Nutella.

I also made some lavender and rosemary shortbread, and shared a few green tea mochi because I've never tried mochi and this seemed like a good time to experiment. They didn't exactlyring my chimes.

For sandwiches, I made a cheese spread with cheddar, parmesan, and a teensy bit of wasabi jack cheese, and paired it with sliced ham on pumpernickel bread.  They were quite tasty.

We were quite a small gathering.  Of the ten guests that had responded to the invitation, three actually showed up.  One called to let me know she had car trouble.  And I guess everyone else just had better things to do.  But those who arrived had a splendid time and we feasted happily.

I know that people in the rest of the country are having summer now.  This is the sky outside at noon.We might get up to 65 degrees today.  It's still raining in Oregon.