Downton Abbey party

I hosted a party for the season 3 premiere of Downton Abbey, a show that Dave and I love very much.  I made a variety of dishes that would be served upstairs or downstairs in the show, and I had a lot of fun making them all!

First up were Giada's lemon ricotta cookies, which I served because I thought they were very reminiscent of tea cakes.

They have been on the Food Network's 12 Days of Cookies e-mail for two years in a running now, so I thought it was time to make them.  They were easy and pretty delicious!

The other dessert I made was an apple charlotte, which is specifically referred to during the show.  You have to dip a bunch of bread slices in clarified butter, then line a mold with them:

While you are doing that, you're cooking down a huge amount of what is essentially apple pie filling - apples, rum, fruit preserves, and sugar.  The recipe is from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1.  (You'll see the final result in a photo below.)

For my meats, I broiled two beef round steaks (from my quarter cow, of course) and two small venison steaks, because at Downton they always have two kinds of meat with upstairs dinner, and one of them is a game meat.

I also made meat hand pies, because that's the type of thing they would have had with downstairs dinner.  The pies were my favorite thing of the whole meal:

Those were a recipe from Hoosier Mama Pie Company, included in The Chicago Homegrown Cookbook.  The dough was a rich concoction of cream cheese, butter, and flour, and the filling was turkey breakfast sausage, onions, cheese, and herbs.  They were quite delicious, and even reheat well!

The final lineup included cucumber sandwiches and pumpkin-cranberry scones from a friend...

Yes, that's the charlotte at lower right!  I also served red Bordeaux (a.k.a. claret!) with the meal, and a white port with dessert.

Another friend made a beautiful Ina Garten trifle, which included pound cake, berries, homemade whipped cream, and cognac cream.  She served huge chunks of it so that she wouldn't have to take any home, and we did her proud by eating as much as we could.  I can't believe how much dessert I ate after such a filling meal!

So, the Downton party was a success, and everyone had a fun time watching the episodes.  I am not sure I'm going to like Season 3 as much as the others, but I will give it a try.  Anything that gets me and my friends to cook this delicious food is worth it!