Teatime, outside, first of the year, with Barbara

Wonderful afternoon, warm and just right for afternoon tea outside, first of the year, accompanied by Barbara Pym.

Tea laid out -- gingerbread with a lemon sauce made from mayo and lemon juice, then lemon zest sprinkled on -- tea being English Breakfast with a slice of lemon.  This is from the same old batch of lemons I froze eons ago, and still going.  All very Pym!

And the reader's view.

Gingerbread footnote: it was in fact a whole lot better after a day of being kept airtight.  So there's that.

And sauce footnotes:  the corn, crab, cilantro fritters were great yesterday with the sauce I made with the cucumbers, so today I tested them with the tamarind sauce and with the plum sauce.  Tamarind okay, but the plum overwhelmed them.  So probably the creamier sauce is better for this purpose.  Just fyi from your Test Kitchen Chez Liz.