If I had a Native American name, it would be She-Who-Does-Not-Cease-To-Cough. No miracle bounce-back for me yet, but I am straining against my nature and resting a lot. The good news is that my appetite is back and I’m chowing down all the food groups and so far, they’re staying where they should.

Now that I can look at food again without gagging, I remembered that last week, K hosted a mini tea party for her best friend at our house. American Girl dolls included, naturally. I was their “servant” (“Server!” I kept correcting them, but in the end, is there really a difference?), so I was busy attending to the ladies and didn’t have much of a chance to snap photos but I got a few. I do wish I’d photographed how the whole thing looked altogether, but that’s the way things shake out these days. The idea of the party was heavily modeled after this place, where K had gone for a birthday party recently. Ah, the privileged life that my child leads…anyway, she enthusiastically wrote out the “menu” on our kitchen chalkboard wall as you see above.

We didn’t really gussy up the place too much, but did add a felt flower garland that I’d made many, many years ago for a birthday party. It’s held up surprisingly well, and it’s come in handy for these types of impromptu parties.

K has quite a few tea sets, but they get rarely used for some reason so they are in near-pristine condition. Not a chipped teacup nor sugar bowl to be seen.

I already had plans to make apple muffins, but K was insistent on brownies, so I thought it would be sweet to make brownie cookies. The open-faced sandwiches sat forlornly untouched, I should mention.

The star of the party ended up being the brownie cookies. The girls ate a worrying number of them, and I had to nix the Japanese candy and also surreptitiously put away the apple muffins. I think K just wanted to show off the cute tins of the candy, anyway. They’re a gift from my mom from her recent trip to Japan. The bigger one holds green tea, and the smaller one, candy.

So time to share the recipes! Both the muffins and cookies came out fantastic and were so easy to make.

I used this recipe for the apple muffins. For the topping, I simply used a little sprinkling of brown sugar instead of the butter-sugar-cinnamon mix.

As for the coin-sized brownie cookies, these were dangerously addictive! I used this recipe, but I took a chance and mixed it up my own way to save time. Luckily, they turned out perfect. I basically melted chocolate (I used chocolate chunks from Trader Joe’s) with the butter in the microwave, added the sugar, eggs, then the flour-baking-powder mixture. I scooped out small teaspoon fulls on to the baking sheet and baked for approximately 7 to 8 minutes. The result? Crackly and crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, incredibly chocolate-y, with a hint of caramel. Sigh. I think I need to make some more now.

P.S. Still no sewing! I am bummed!!