Vintage High Tea and a Bon Voyage!
It’s been kind of quiet here on the Sustarian Living front for the last few months. This is not down to laziness or lack of interest, the inactivity can be attributed to my total preoccupation with relocating!
Yes, a head bending phenomenon of picking up one’s life, boxing it and opening it up again on the other side. Whilst I’m optimistic about the future move, everything else in my life at the moment is in turmoil.
The boxes, the bank accounts, the kids….did I mention the boxes?!
The hardest part of leaving the life you’ve built behind is saying goodbye to all the friends you’ve made along the way. Even though those goodbyes are not forever, the ease of dropping by for a cuppa will no longer be possible – and so it remains painful to contemplate this life changing decision.
To celebrate long friendships and new beginnings, my lovely girlfriends treated me to a Vintage Bon Voyage with High tea at the beautiful Biodynamic gardens here at http://deserresgraveland.nl/home.html in Hilversum.
And a high tea it was! With tiers of crustless sandwiches, savory nibbles and the obligatory sweet treats. Traditionally it’s all about the cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream & strawberry jam, this one however had a more sophisticated earthy feel to it, as nearly everything that was presented on the pretty porcelain platters had been grown in the very gardens that surrounded us.
We had caramelized carrot cake, the shortest of shortbread tartlets filled with freshly plucked berries and topped with the most delicate of toppings. Ricotta & spinach scones, cheeses, artisan breads and buckets of tea to wash it all down. For me it was the Courgette, Toasted Pine Nut and Cream Cheese Rolls that stole the show. These veggie rolls were a revelation! So perfectly in balance and deliciously moorish and very easy to make as no cooking is required.
I tried them at home and thought I’d share the joy – best eaten when contemplating life changing decisions accompanied with a chilled glass of Sauvignon blanc!
- 2 x large courgettes
- 150 g cream cheese
- 50g Toasted pine nuts
- 1 teaspoon of lemon olive oil
- Using a flat edged slicer, slice the courgette into as many 2-3cm slices as possible
- Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan
- Mix the cream cheese, pine nuts and oil together
- Spoon a blob onto a courgette strip
- Carefully roll
- Eat & Enjoy!
