Tragic Sandwich

Babies need a lot of stuff. A lot. Of stuff. Fortunately, custom allows us to ask our friends for that stuff. And even more fortunately, I have very generous friends.

However, rather than detail the stuff, let’s assume that there are some standard elements of baby showers: people you know, and gifts. Rather than detail them in a manner that can sound nothing but familiar, I’ll focus on the food.

If you’re looking for a place for a women-only event, you might try High Tea Cottage. Just south of Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, it must have started life as a house. Now it’s home to a wide selection of brewed teas, tiny sandwiches, and pastries. (Why “women-only”? Oh, come on. Not that many guys are into high tea. Admit it. They will.)

Lest that sound snarky, it was all delicious. We had “Windsor Castle” (a black tea so good that Queen Elizabeth serves it) and some other tea that I have to admit that I didn’t drink, but that everyone who did liked a lot.

Sandwiches: chicken-cranberry, curried egg, cucumber (my favorite). Scones: served with Devonshire cream and lime curd. Tiny pastries: delicate and excellent, with rich chocolate and flavorful fruit fillings.

My next shower was a surprise: I had to stop work unexpectedly, so I figured that the shower my boss had talked about was unlikely to happen. After all, who can pull something like that together in–literally–24 hours?

Answer: My colleagues. These are some seriously efficient people. And they don’t just get things done, they get them done well. I’m lucky enough (well, not when dieting) to work with a number of gifted bakers.

Shower number three featured some truly excellent pizza, although I don’t know where it came from. However, I do know where the cake came from: Porto’s. This place is seriously good. I haven’t been there myself, but I have been lucky enough to be at events featuring food someone else picked up. This cake was no exception. It was so good that I’ve been eating it all week. Good thing I don’t have gestational diabetes, because that would really have put a cramp in my snacks over the past few days.

So thanks, everyone! The generosity has been pretty overwhelming, and the food was great. But I have to admit that what’s going to stay with me the most is the time I got to spend with family and friends. You really can’t beat that.