HAMO Fundraising Tea

Help A Mother Out is a wonderful organization that provides diapers to families in need. Diapers, which are so essential, are not provided by other agencies, governmental or private, that help the needy. In addition to other fundraising efforts, HAMO hosts a fundraising tea every year.

This year's tea was held at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in downtown San Francisco. We arrived at 10:00 to pick up our name tags, and were treated to bottomless mimosas, which continued to be poured during the tea, which began at 10:30. Afternoon tea makes an intriguing brunch.  Dan Kelly, Director of Planning of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, was presented with the Community Impact Award, and a video was shown, presenting three mothers whose lives were changed by the gift of diapers.

Seating was assigned, but the Eventbrite registration form asked who invited us, so Mel (remember Mel's Daily Cuppa?) and I, and our two guests, all sat together. The tables were set with a three-tier tea tray, with sandwiches, fruit and scones, so there were no growling stomachs waiting for the waiters to get to their table.

The program was emceed, as usual, by Kristen Sze of ABC News. She did something a little different this year: She held a live auction of a behind-the-scenes tour of her workplace, which raised $1,000 for HAMO.

Condiments were on the table. There were three sets of everything on the table, so no one had to resort to a "boardinghouse reach."

Close-up of the food

Close-up of the condiments

There was an assortment of teabags on the table. Waiters came around frequently to pour hot water.

And refill the mimosa pitchers when necessary.

The mimosas kept flowing throughout the tea

A generous assortment of desserts followed the savories. The whole service was generous. Despite the fact that our table included two men, there were a few sandwiches and desserts left over.

 

The format of this tea varies from year to year, but it is always elegant, and supports a good cause.

On my way to the bus after the tea, I was offered a t-shirt in return for having my picture taken with a pair of Beats by Dre headphones. They were draped around my neck, so they didn't have to be sanitized after each wearer, but it wasn't a very popular promotion. I checked their Facebook feed later and discovered that I appeared to be their only taker for the day.

#beatsbyDre

Lunch With Beth at Buckhorn Grill

Beth had a BOGO for the Krispy Chicken & Avocado Salad (crisp romaine tossed with honey lime dressing, topped with crispy chicken, avocado, tomatoes and bleu cheese crumbles) at Buckhorn Grill so we decided to give it a try. These salads are currently $10.99, so this was a great opportunity to check it out at a reduced price.

As you can see, these salads are well worth the price.  Everything was very fresh, and there was a lot of everything. The tomatoes are minis, so if you can't finish the whole salad, they won't make the leftover salad soggy.

Buckhorn has several locations that you can check out, including the basement of Westfield Mall. We went to location on Drumm Street.

Beth's Salad With Dressing

J.K.'s salad with dressing on the side

Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day 2016

Ben & Jerry's free cone day is a long-standing tradition with Tea Time. Unfortunately, this year Angela couldn't get there in time, so she asked J.K. to eat one for her. Being the excellent friend that she is, J.K. finished her own cup of ice cream and rejoined the line to get one to eat for Angela.

Chocolate Fudge Brownie
Chocolate Ice Cream With Fudge Brownies.

The Chocolate Fudge Brownie was very filling, so she decided to get something a little lighter and chose the Greek Frozen Yogurt. Yes, the sorbet would have been lighter still, but we can make that ourselves in J.K.'s vintage Salton Ice Cream Machine.

Greek Frozen Yogurt
Banana Peanut Butter
Banana Greek Frozen Yogurt with Peanut Buttery Swirls

After all that, J.K. waddled home and made sure to finish her 10,000 steps for the day feeling thankful for the generosity of Ben and Jerry. Maybe Tea Time will have to try out some of the recipes for B&J classics in their ice cream cookbook! Hurry summer, hurry.

Moringa

After we visited the KuliKuli Foods booth at the Winter Fancy Food Show, they offered to send us some samples of their Moringa products to review.

The Moringa Tea is our favorite. Tasty, caffeine-free and good for you. What more can you ask for?

These teabags are exceptionally buoyant!

Pretty color, and doesn't need sweetener

The Dark Chocolate bar has 4 grams of protein, and the Black Cherry and Crunchy Almond have 5. The Black Cherry is our favorite.

The bars are vegan, too!

We were going to make a smoothie with the powder, but we prefer to chew our fruit, so we made a fruit salad and stirred the powder into our yoghurt for a tasty dressing.

The single serving packets are very handy.

Tea Time cannot resist making marshmallows from tea. These came out very white, so nobody would guess that they're slightly healthy as well as delicious. Just remember to coat everything you use (mixer bowl, whisk attachment, the foil lining the pan and all tools) with cooking spray or your marshmallow will be like Tar Baby!

There are lots of yummy-looking recipes on the Kuli-Kuli website, but we are also partial to madeleines, so we added a 30-gram packet of moringa powder to the flour for our orange flower water madeleines and we were not disappointed.

The batter was very green.

Nice big bumps, and crunchy edges, but the madeleines were very moist a perfect treat for anyone who loves green desserts (both for color and helath).

We were so happy with all our Moringa results that we're now scouring the farmer's markets for the raw Moringa  leaves. We'll let you know what we do with them.

UPDATE:

The nice folks at Kuli Kuli sent us a copy of their Moringa Inspired cook booklet, and we had a packet of Moringa Powder left, so J.K. made these tasty brownies.  There was a slight glitch--the recipe called for salt, but the directions said add the baking soda but didn't mention salt. So she kept the salt and added ½ teaspoon of baking soda.

You can order your own copy of the cookbook at KuliKuli.com, but there are lots of free recipes on the site so you don't need to invest in the cookbook to find out whether you like moringa powder in your food. The powder itself is not cheap, but if you're not a vegetable eater, this might be something you'll like.

The batter barely filled the specified 9" x 13" pan.

It didn't rise much, but then brownies are usually flat. However, we would use a smaller pan if we make these again.

Lunch With Beth At Chipotle

Due to their recent problems, Chipotle has mailed out coupons for one free burrito, burrito bowl, salad or order of tacos. They come with another coupon good for a free order of chips and salsa with purchase of another item. The coupons are good through May 15, but we decided to use them before we forget about them.

I ordered the salad, which is a bed of lettuce with a choice of meat. Then there are the toppings. I declined beans and chose mild salsa, corn salsa, cheese and guacamole.

J.K.'s Salad

 Beth's burrito came in the usual foil, which makes it easier to eat. In addition to rice and beans, she loaded it with barbacoa (marinated and slowly braised beef) and guacamole.

Beth's Burrito Before Unwrapping.

However, she cut it in half so you can see how substantial it is, and had to start eating with a fork before being able to pick it up.

Once, Angela froze Chipotle barbacoa burritos and took them as payment (bribe) to Hawaii when a friend let her stay with him on Oahu. So you know it's good when a person is willing to accept frozen, well-travelled food instead of waiting years longer to get back to the mainland. What are your crazy Chipotle stories?

Lunch With Beth at Onigilly Express

It was a nice day, and Beth needed to get back to work quickly after lunch, so we took a walk over to 4 Embarcadero Center,  picked up a quick lunch at Onigilly Express and ate at a table outside.

Tea Time Adventures has had a long love affair with Onigilly, from Street Food Festival Booth to their pop-ups and then on to their brick and mortar store on Kearney street. They always come through with delicious onigiri and yummy side dishes. Try them out and you'll love them too.

J.K. chose the Edamame Set with
salmon, hijiki and unagi rice balls

Beth's choice was the Miso Soup Set
with an Unagi rice ball

Divine Delights at the 2016 Fancy Food Show

What's that noise? Oh, it's just Angela screaming with Divine Delights because we've found the source for our favorite petit fours. Yes! The ones they serve at Lovejoys and Diandas. Scrumptious melt in your mouth bites of cake and fondant. Who could resist? J.K. suggested standing and sampling our fill, stuffing our faces until we could never look at another petit four again. Angela was afraid that could never happen. So we just took one each and savored them as we walked away. These are always a Taste of Heaven.