Let the Ordinary Be Ordinary So the Special Can Shine

My son and daughter-in-law gave us a generous basket of tea goodies for Christmas. There was tea, coffee, cookies, candies, fig jam, and chocolate-cherry curd. My first thought was to use the cookies as everyday desserts and the tea and jams with morning breakfasts. But then I thought about how special all of these foods are. The tea is a higher quality than what we normally buy, and the spreads are unique and not what we keep on hand. My son and daughter-in-law went all out with these special tea treats. If we ate them along with our ordinary foods, those average foods might be made a bit more special with their addition. But if we used these treats as they were intended, to have a tea party, this sort of special event would be memorable for our family, standing out all the more because tea parties are rare amongst our average meals. 

You've seen our weekly menus. My family eats very humble foods day after day. If my meals were described in color words, our everyday meals would be tan or gray. A tea party, in contrast, would be described as violet, sea green, or magenta. So we happily eat our ordinary meals, knowing that some special treats and meals can really stand out.

So that's what we've been doing this winter. It began just before taking down our Christmas tree (you can see it in the background of the top photo) and has continued every once in a while on a Sunday afternoon. I expand the Christmas tea goodies with homemade scones, egg salad sandwiches, and sometimes small cups of soup.

Who said tea parties are for children and old ladies? My family and I (husband included) have been making memories over cups of tea and plates of finger sandwiches and cookies.

This principle of only having a few special things amongst many that are ordinary can be translated into many other aspects of life. If you have to have the best of the best in everything, I think you begin to forget that what you have is the best, and you begin to take things for granted. If you always let your child choose a toy at the store when out shopping, the experience loses significance. If you travel for leisure every weekend, wouldn't you just long to have a quiet weekend at home for a change? Myself, I think I'd rather have a rare, but special, vacation. I like to believe that I would really savor every moment. 

Our tea treats are now about gone. I'm not sure my son and daughter-in-law had any idea just how much pleasure we'd receive from their gift.

A Trio of Homemade Gifts and Treats for My Daughters

Surprising family members with little treats and gifts is a source of fun for me. I thought I'd share what I made each day of the past weekend for my daughters (in celebration of their birth month), using ingredients that I had on hand.

On Friday I made these little apple pies for my daughters. I used the last of the homegrown apples combined with some dried apples that I rehydrated before combining with spices, sugar, a splash of lemon juice, and flour to thicken. I had saved some mini pie tins from commercial tiny pies a while ago. Perfect size. My daughters loved these, in part because little versions of bigger things are always cute, but also they said these were delicious.

On Saturday I was brainstorming non-food items that I could make. I came up with some fizzy bath salts. I used Epsom salt, baking soda, citric acid, food coloring gel, lavender essential oil, and vanilla fragrance oil. The combination of baking soda and citric acid is what causes the mix to fizz when exposed to water. These cute, almost-matching little jars were found at a free pile last summer. And I made a ribbon out of a scrap of floral purple and lavender fabric, tying tiny sprigs of lavender around the necks of the jars. I think these turned out really pretty. My daughters were both surprised and delighted to receive these on Saturday.

On Sunday I used the other half of the pie pastry (from the mini apple pies) to do homemade raspberry Pop-Tarts. My daughters said these were the best Pop-Tarts they'd ever had. Of course, I don't buy Pop-Tarts very often, so not a lot they can compare the homemade version to. But still, they really enjoyed having these for breakfast. I'll be making these again sometime.

I pressed the dough into a narrow rectangle then rolled it out, trying to get a finished rectangle that was twice as long as it was wide. Once rolled out, I cut the piece in half and squared both pieces by cutting off excess. The Pop-Tarts only used about 1 tablespoon of jam each. I moistened the edges with water, folded the pastry over diagonally, and sealed the edges by pressing the cut sides with a fork. After slashing the tops, I baked them at 400F for 10 minutes, placed small triangles of foil over the narrow points, then reduced the heat to 350F and baked for almost 10 additional minutes, watching carefully so as not to burn them.

I've had a lot of fun with these surprises. My daughters' birthday is later this week, so I only have a couple more surprises to put together.

I hope you had a lovely weekend!