Tag: TCHO

Celestial High Tea!

“TEA TIME Tradition, Presentation and Recipes” This Miniature Edition, acquired while working at Gump’s, overflowed with fascinating content that guided ChezHelvetica in the creation of a High Tea for the Cava 5 – a group of highly intelligent, creative dear friends. Each one made a wonderful contribution to our gathering!

First Course: Delicious Tea Sandwiches – Egg Salad with Chives, Honey Smoked Salmon, and Pear Pecan Blue Cheese, paired with an assortment of Celestial Seasonings Herbal Teas and J Sparkling Wine. Second Course: Incredible Blueberry and Currant Scones, served with Somerdale Double Devon Cream, English Clotted Cream, Ollalaberry/ Blackberry Jam (made by my friend Priscilla) and Lemon Curd. Third Course: Desserts! Chocolate Crinkles, Orange Cookies, Ginger/TCHO Cocoa Powder Cookies (made by my niece Rachel) and Iced Pound Cake. Now wine, a luscious Twomey Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, donated by The Duncan Family. And then a Fourth Course: Besparkling Angels. Each Cava decorated a wooden angel with Glitter Glue for the perfect ornament to decorate their Chanukah Bush or Christmas Tree.

A lovely, angelic celebration of friendship!

Persimmon Salsa

An adventure in food and Greek mythology! According to Wikipedia, a persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees of the genus Diospyros, in the ebony wood family. The word Diospyros means “the fruit of the gods” in ancient Greek. We feasted on a manifestation of this fruit of the gods — a persimmon salsa. With thanks to Carole for the fruit and Rachael for the recipe, the sweet Fuyu persimmon was transformed with a combination of onion, lime, ginger, parsley and mint. Braving 35 degrees, I found the last sprig of mint in our garden! The salsa topped a grilled chicken breast, served on a bed of whole wheat couscous. Both the kosher chicken and couscous were purchased at Trader Joe’s. Our dessert of dark chocolate disks from TCHO would have delighted the Greek gods too!