Tea Party

Oh boy, have I been working on this post for awhile! For my mother-in-law's birthday, my sister-in-law came up with the idea to have a tea party and invite some of my mother-in-law's friends. I had the best time planning this party and making and setting up all the food and I'd like to share it with you. I'm going to give you links to the recipes we used so this post is not overly long. If you want any more details, let me know.

At this table we had Citrus Salad, Stuffed Mushrooms (in the chafing dish), Cucumber Carrot Bites, Pimento Cheese on Pumpernickel Tea Sandwiches, Olive-Nut Cheese on Wheat Tea Sandwiches (these are much more tasty then their name implies), and Ham on White and Wheat with Chive Butter Tea Sandwiches which turned out cuter than I could have expected.

I used chives to make "grass" on a tissue and wax paper-covered cake board. Then I cut out bread and ham with a flower cutter (using a small round cutter for the middles), then spread the bread with Chive Butter (1 stick softened butter mixed with 2 Tbls. fresh chives and salt and pepper). I was inspired by this picture I found on Pinterest. All of these tea sandwiches can be made a day ahead. Cover them very tightly with plastic wrap then put a damp paper towel on the top, then wrap in plastic again. Your sandwiches will be nice and moist for the next day.

This table had some cheese and more Olive-Nut Sandwiches, Strawberries Romanoff, Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scone Bites, and Mini Lemon, Blackberry, Mascarpone Puddings. I made the scones a week in advance, cut them very small, then froze them in a ziploc bag until the day of the party. I popped them into a preheated oven, still frozen, and baked for 7-10 minutes.

The puddings I assembled the day of the party in 2 oz. shot glasses, but I made the lemon curd (you could use store bought) three days ahead, toss the berries with the sugar and limoncello the night before, and well, anytime you're feeling a little aggressive, crush the gingersnaps and seal them in a plastic bag. I used store bought gingersnaps but I really wanted to try it with these. I just ran out of time. It is positively nerdy how happy these little puddings make me. I need a 10 step program for my addiction to mini-food.

And, of course, what's a tea party without tea? We had four kinds of delicious tea (selected by the birthday girl) including that lovely flowering tea on the right which I had never used before but was really fun.

Last, but not least, we had these little molded sugars for everyone's tea and it made so many we bagged some up for favors as well. I'm going to explain more about how I made those in another post.

So, that's it! I hope you are inspired and will plan a tea party soon.