Fruits of August Tea Party

It's that time of year, when every teacher's thoughts turn to a mixture of excitement and dread. It's also the time of year when my teacher best friend and I have only a few weeks left before our schedules no longer line up, so I thought it was high time to have another tea party. 

This year has been busy, and I've been focusing on my book, but I thought it would be fun to carve out some time for a pretty tea party and accompanying blog posts. So, dear reader, here is my beautiful little Fruits of August Tea Party, celebrating the liminal space between summer and fall, when garden produce is abundant, and the weather still hot, but the leaves are starting to turn to gold and fall. 

When I first conceived of this idea, I knew I wanted to use my new Hazel Atlas Moroccan Amethyst dishes I picked up for a song at a thrift store months ago, featuring a set of four each of teacups and saucers, fruit bowls, and luncheon plates. They do also make dinner plates in this pattern, so now I'm on the hunt for four to make up the set! The beautiful octagon shape of the set was produced in the 1960s and has a distinct mid-century modern vibe, even though I always associate the colorful glass with the 1930s. 

The translucent glass is a plummy purple with a hint of red in it, rather than a more royal purple. To me it said plums and blackberries, so both feature in the menu. I also knew I wanted to use summer squash and tomatoes, and if we went with a purple and gold theme, who could resist purple potatoes and peaches, too? 

Fruits of August Tea Party Menu

Summer Squash and Corn Frittata
Adapted from the Yellow Corn and Squash Frittata recipe in Lois Burpee's Gardener's Companion and Cookbook (1968)

Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Smoky Tomato Salsa

Fruits of August Salad
With blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and local black plums

Blackberry Cornmeal Scones with Honey Butter
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Zucchini Cake with Plums
Adapted from the Zucchini Loaf recipe in Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland (1994) and featuring local Italian prune plums
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Peach Pie
My teacher friend is learning to make pie and made this delicious one with almond spice crumble!

Peach Raspberry Tea
We combined Harney & Son's Raspberry and Bigelow's Perfectly Peach teas in one pot

This tea party came together fairly easily. I shopped at a local farmstand and got locally produced zucchini, yellow squash, Italian prune plums, little purple plums, and yellow and red cherry tomatoes. I picked up some scallions, blueberries and raspberries, and purple potatoes at a local grocery store. I forgot to get fresh sweet corn, which affected the frittata - the only recipe fail in the lot, which I'll explain below. Stay tuned for the rest of the recipes this week. 

Recipe Fail: Yellow Squash & Corn Frittata (1968)

When bringing this tea party together, my friend complimented me for my fearlessness in adapting recipes I've never tried before, but as she soon found out, the adaptations don't always work. That was the case with this recipe, which I had high hopes for.

Beautifully illustrated black and white cover pages of "Lois Burpee's Gardeners' Companion and Cookbook." I am sadly missing the beautiful watercolor dust jacket to this book.

I had gone looking in my cookbook collection for recipes using common late summer fruits and vegetables, and picked up Lois Burpee's Gardener's Companion and Cookbook, published in 1968. Burpee was born Lois Torrance in 1912 in Palestine, the daughter of a Scottish doctor and a Connecticut mother. During the First World War she was evacuated from Palestine to Glasgow Scotland, and endured the privations of WWI rationing. When her family returned to Palestine in 1919, she was shocked at the strong flavors, and the prevalence of vegetable dishes. Her father died in 1924, and the family moved to her grandparents' Connecticut farm, where fresh vegetables played a daily role in mealtimes. She studied botany in college, and landed a job with the W. H. Burpee seed company. Apparently David Burpee was smitten with the young scientist, and in 1938 they married. 

Lois' experimentations in the family vegetable garden and the kitchen soon began to influence the seed catalog, as varieties whose selling points were flavor more than looks began to be described as such, at her direction. 

Her cookbook and gardening advice book is chatty and a fun read. It includes advice on everything from garden size to which herbs go well with which vegetables, and Lois' favorite tools. The recipes are organized by growing season and ingredient. 

I thought the "Yellow Corn and Squash Frittata" recipe seemed simple enough and would be both seasonal and colorful. Here's Lois' original recipe:

The recipe as printed in Lois' cookbook.

Yellow Corn and Squash Frittata

This is a basic recipe that can be varied with the addition of other flavors from the garden. I prefer it made with crookneck squash or yellow zucchini. It makes a nice luncheon dish for two or three people. It is like a firm omelet. 

2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs, beaten
1 summer squash (5-6 inches long) coarsely grated
1 cup scraped corn
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder together, then mix with eggs, squash, corn, and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Heat 1/2 tablespoon butter in a heavy 8-inch fry pan. Add mixture and cook, covered, over medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes. You can also bake the mix in a buttered casserole. Cook, uncovered, in a 325 F oven for about 20 minutes or until firm. 

The finished frittata - at least it looked pretty!

The recipe seemed easy enough - grated yellow squash with "scraped" corn held together with a little flour, butter, and eggs. But I made several crucial errors with this recipe; first, I did not use fresh sweet corn, because I forgot to buy some, but made do with frozen which I ran through my crank grater to mimic "scraped" fresh sweet corn. Second, I did not follow the original cooking instructions, but rather the suggested alternate, which was to bake. Finally, my gut said to add another egg, more salt, and to cook it at a higher temperature, but I ignored my gut and followed the recipe. Which was a mistake. 

Because I already had the oven going for cake and scones and roasting potatoes, I figured I might as well bake the frittata, too! So I buttered a 10-inch pie plate well and followed the baking instructions of 20 minutes at 325 F, figuring that a thinner mixture would bake faster. But that was a mistake. 325 was too low and after 20 minutes the frittata was still raw. Even after 30 minutes it wasn't fully cooked in the center.

Lois, you seem awesome, but your baking recommendations suck. Next time I'll follow both my gut and your stovetop instructions. 

If I were to make this again, I would use fresh corn, try frying the mixture in a skillet, and also add an extra egg. I might also try skipping the flour and baking powder, but more experimentation is in order, methinks. I did add some chopped scallions, since I had them on hand and I thought the eggs and squash would be too bland. I also think the recipe could have used a little more salt, some pepper, and maybe some other herbs. Lois Burpee apparently liked to emphasize the "pure" taste of vegetables, but while my husband and friend thought the frittata was decent enough, and even had seconds, it was not for me.

Have you ever had a recipe that seemed simple, but ended up being a bust? Let me know in the comments! And stay tuned for the other recipes, which unlike this one turned out fabulously. I'll link them back to this page once they're live.

​Until next time, dear reader!

Sad frittata livened up with crispy potatoes and smoky tomato "salsa," on my pretty Moroccan amethyst luncheon plate.