The Mad Reader's Tea Party

My parents are away for the weekend, so my sister and I are "housesitting" -- if you can call it that when it's your own house. I'm currently sitting by the fire listening to Gregory Alan Isakov and Etta James on Pandora Radio (the first song that came on the station was "Sunday Kind of Love"...how fitting!) and enjoying the quiet of Sunday morning. Even though my apartment isn't in an aggressively urban part of Cambridge, the quiet is very different from the suburbs. There's always a garbage truck, cars honking, dogs barking, people walking by. In the boonies of Lexington, I'm surrounded by tall trees, empty streets, and the stillness of Sunday morning. It would be a perfect morning for a cup of tea, but I'm going to need a day or two sans tea.

For the March meeting of bookgroup, we went to a 3-D screening of Alice in Wonderland, followed by high tea at Upstairs on the Square, a fancy schmancy restaurant in Harvard Square. It is a pricey and indulgent afternoon, but the scrumptious treats and amusingly decadent and ostentatious decor are completely worth it. Just to set the scene for you, the chairs are awesomely gaudy gold with rich pink velvety cushions, the booths are zebra print with pink trim, the walls are pink and green. In short, you walk in and you feel like you've been transported to some thrillingly exotic and luxurious land.

Our books this month (yes, a two-fer! We're an ambitious bunch...) were Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol and Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. Benjamin's book is about the real Alice, Alice Liddell, who inspired Carroll's book. We take bookgroup and our books very seriously, so we all came dressed in theme complete with pearls. One member wore an utterly fabulous flowered pantsuit made with enough fabric to outfit an army, and on her head was a "topper," a miniature hat with a veil. Like this, but green with small spots and a lot more glamorous. Another member wore Wellies, a yellow raincoat, and brought a picnic basket to fit with the theme.

The five of us sat at a purple table and created our own centerpiece with a stack of about 8 or 10 different versions of Alice in Wonderland. For the first or second time in bookgroup history, we spent 95% of the time actually discussing the book (our average is more like 15%...). From the movie to Carroll's book to Benjamin's book, individually and as they related to each other, we had an overwhelming amount of material to cover.

Our three-tiered tray of savory and sweet treats arrived quickly, as did our personal pots of tea (I got rose-scented black tea). We slowly made our way through the savory treats, interrupting our discussion with "mmms" and "you have to try this one!": miniature cheese pastries, chicken salad sandwiches, caprese sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, date nut and cream cheese sandwiches, cheese tarts, and lox sandwiches. Eventually, the top two tiers were empty and we were ready to descend on the sweets. After some debate over how to divide the raspberry cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes, we plunged in.

I have to say that I'm a loyal chocolate girl and often scoff at fruity desserts, but shame on me! The miniature lemon tart had a creamy but light lemony filling, with a plump blueberry popped on top. Next, I had an eclaire, which came with just the right ratio of filling to pastry. Here, I took a break before diving into the remaining treats, and diligently sipped my tea. Over the course of the 2+ hours, I'm fairly certain that I consumed about 7 cups of tea, thus the need to be tea-free for a few days. Finally, I was ready for the mini vanilla cupcake with an elegant dollop of raspberry frosting. (Sidenote: I've realized that cupcakes are always pretty and photograph well, but they're just never quite as moist and satisfying as I wish they were.) The final two sweets made me swoon with pleasure, making everyone around me squirm with discomfort. There was a caramel turtle, filled with an unexpectedly coarse caramel paste. The texture was a little strange, but ultimately had more oomph than a normal caramel filling might have had. The last treat was an almond-infused chocolate cake/brownie. The almond flavor really packed a punch, and the cake's moist and dense consistency was right on the money. I'm going to have to track down some almond extract for my own baking...I think this may be the start of my Chocolate-Almond Baking Era.

I think that's enough food-talk. You can wipe the drool off your mouth and go track down some treat that will satisfy the craving you now have. More on our rockin' bookgroup later...

Happy Sunday!