Getting ready for the Royal Wedding

 I have been baking all day in preparation for the Wedding tomorrow morning,  I have had several people RSVP that they are coming.  Maybe in their pajamas!  Here are the bagels, simmering in sugar water before being baked

 They are drained on a towel before being put on the baking sheet.

 And here they are.  The very toasted black things are dehydrated onions, I didn't know they would burn.

 Here is the bread sponge.  Eliyah mixed it up yesterday and took the photo.

 He also put the Pinto beans to soak,  now that they are cooked, we'll put them up in sandwich bags to freeze for later.

 He took these photos too.

 This afternoon we made the Crumpets, using canning rings for the support.

Here is  the menu:

  Scones with Rosewater flavored icing
  Crumpets with Strawberry Jam and Clotted cream
   Bagels and toast with butter and Orange Marmelade
   Scrambled eggs for a crowd
   Rashers (Bacon)
   Tea and coffee
 
 I've got my dress and hat ready.  Now if I can just wake up at 3:30 in the morning

Preparing for the Royal Wedding, as well as Easter

I have become very interested in the Royal Wedding next Friday.  I am somewhat of an Anglophile anyway, preferring my murder mysteries to be set in England.  Since I won't be flying to London to see the Wedding, I have decided to celebrate it here, starting at 4 am and enjoying the English  foods associated with High Tea  with it.   I have invited friends, who were enthused but I wonder how many will be able to get themselves up at 4 in the morning.  Never-the-less, I will be prepared.  I had seen these candied violets in Victoria Bliss magazine this month and was delighted with the idea because of it's novelty and elegance and the fact that it cost next to nothing to prepare.  I have rather an attitude about that!  So here are the fixings, the violets picked from the driveway, where the only earth is the fallen leaves of last Autumn, so "clean dirt".  Here I am painting them with egg white and sprinkling them with sugar.  Of course I washed them first!

You can see that I put rather too much sugar on on the ones on the left side.  In the middle are white violets and on the right some more purple ones with less sugar.  We tested them yesterday at a family Easter dinner and my Daughter-in-law says cheerfully "they taste good, they taste like sugar"!

 My friend Eliyah, who comes to visit me after school some days, very kindly volunteered to help with the Easter eggs.  These raw eggs have leaves and flowers plastered to them and are encased in an old stocking.  We laughed at how funny they look!

 Here they are in the pans.

 Now they are simmering in food coloring water.

And here they are, along with some others Elyah has decorated with some store dye.

We had our Easter family meal yesterday and I was having so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures.  I did make the menu that I had planned, Tien Momo which are steamed bread rolls, (with two dipping sauces, Aioli, and sour cream with dill and onion),   African pumpkin and peanut soup, Pork sesame noodles, corn on the cob,  my Daughter-in-law's delicious salad and then Baklava and also Cupcakes with violets on them, made by my Daughter.  Today there is no cooking, as there is plenty left as well as eggs and candy.  I loll on the Sofa with a good (English-setting) book and receive phone calls from my seven adult children.  Happy Easter to you all!