"Tea Time Entertaining" by Dolores Snyder

It seems my tea book Wish List grows longer, not shorter, each year. I've told myself that when the day comes that I read a tea book and don't learn something new, I'll stop searching them out and reading them—and of course that day never comes! My latest read is a book I've had on the list for a while, a 2004 release called "Tea Time Entertaining" by Dolores Snyder. Now I like most tea books, but I must tell you that I absolutely love this one. Part of the enjoyment is, I just like *her*. Dolores not only loves tea, but she also has been trained at some of the world's best cooking schools and gotten to know some real food luminaries, in addition to becoming a cooking school teacher (and popular speaker) herself. This Texan is a founding member of the James Beard Foundation and even hosted a tea-cooking seminar as a fundraiser for the organization. For all that, she comes across as "just another tea lover" who happens to have done some pretty amazing things, and I absolutely love that about her.

The book includes a section on tea history, where I learned that "Queen Victoria enthusiastically endorsed this new ritual of afternoon tea with a passion and often baked the sweets herself for her Prince Consort." Don't think I've ever heard that before! There were some fun accounts of memorable teas Dolores herself has enjoyed (with Greer Garson, for heaven's sake!), and she also gives a brief listing of some teatime customs around the world—including a list of places very helpful for adding to one's teatime Bucket List.

She does a nice, thorough job of covering all the teatime basics, which makes this a terrific book for a tea newbie, though there's also plenty to entertain those of us who've been to this rodeo before. The 120+ recipes in the book are divided by theme, such as Garden Party, Queen Victoria's Birthday, Corporate Tea, Picnic in the Vineyard, Valentine Tea for Lovers and, appropriately enough for a Texan, a Queen's Tea Southwest Style (Smoked Texas Turkey Triangles, Cinnamon Basil Scones). Among the recipes I'd most like to try are the Queen Mother's Favourite Tea Cake, Dilled Scones with Smoked Salmon and the Queen of Sheba Chocolate Cake. This book was great fun to read, and because of the quality of the information and recipes I know I'll be turning to it again and again!