Some (much-needed) pleasure reading: "Tea at the Palace"

Happy Monday, friends! It's a much happier Monday for me than it has been lately. My husband, Alex, has had heart challenges he's been managing well for years, but he had a scary heart-related episode two weeks ago that landed him (and thus me) in our local hospital, where the doctors did a great job of adjusting his medicines so that we could finally come home. One of the most bizarre things was that he had hiccups for five straight days! That was incredibly frustrating for him, and we finally sent an email asking our prayer warriors at church and our Sunday School class to pray about this. He also got some new medicine shortly after this, and the hiccups stopped the next day. I jokingly (I thought) asked the doctor whether she thought it was the medicine or the prayer, and she pointed both hands upward and said, "Hey, I give all the glory to Him!" So if any of you would feel led to include Alex in your prayers in the days ahead, I would be grateful. He's home now and feeling well, and my greatest prayer is that this will continue. Now as any of you who've "lived" at a hospital for any length of time will recall, it's easy to lose track of the days there. Only when Alex turned the news on from his hospital bed one morning did I realize that it was the week of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and I nearly missed it. It was so lovely for both of us to just watch the celebration coverage for a bit and get our minds off hiccups and hearts! Not surprisingly, I came home determined to catch up on all things royal, and that's one reason I ended up ordering this lovely new book, Tea at the Palace by Carolyn Robb, who once served as personal chef to the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Because Robb cooked for TRH The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales at many grand palaces and castles, she organized her book into chapters based on the teatime treats that would have been served at each royal residence. I particularly enjoyed the aerial views like this one of Kensington Palace.

The food photography is wonderful, and I loved the floral-themed treats in the chapter on Kew Palace, which is known for its Kew Gardens. These miniature Rose and White Chocolate Cupcakes are definitely the sort of thing I would enjoy serving at teatime.

And now that Georgia is seeing temperatures in the nineties, I am naturally thinking ahead to fall, one of my favorite times of year and definitely my favorite *baking* time of year. These Caramel Apple Turnovers are going on my fall baking list.

While most of these recipes would be suitable for any tea, I was pleased to find this charmingly British recipe for Gingerbread Soldiers with Sentry Boxes. What clever treats! Robb's tidbits about cooking for the royals are quite fun to read as well, and if you, too, like teatime and the royal family, this is definitely a cookbook you'll enjoy!