Tea Party for six!
during my study break i decided to study up on tea parties! first let me lay out the essentials!
1. (Kenzie) obviously, tea sandwiches. perfectly delicious and perfectly bite size!
here's some great recipes for simple tea cakes:
Cucumber Tea Sandwich Recipe
Cucumber sandwiches are still the quintessential tea sandwich recipe. No tea party recipe page would be complete without them.
1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced very thinlySalt3/4 cup soft butter2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic20 slices bread1 tablespoon lemon juice1 tablespoon olive oilPepper to taste
Lightly salt the cucumber slices and place them in a colander to drain for 1 to 2 hours. Then combine the butter and garlic and apply to one side of each slice of bread. In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper. Add the cucumber slices, coating them well. Arrange the cucumber on 10 of the bread slices, top with the other 10 slices, remove the crusts, and quarter. Serve immediately. Makes 40 tea sandwiches.
Almond Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Spread: Combine 3/4 cup butter, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, a pinch of salt, and 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves or 2 tablespoons dried basil.
Filling: 1 cup finely chopped cooked chicken meat1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup slivered almondsSalt and pepper to taste20 slices bread, your choice
Combine the filling ingredients. Spread each slice of bread with a thin layer of the butter mixture. Add the filling to half the bread slices and top with the other half, buttered sides in. Remove the crusts and cut the sandwiches as desired. Makes 40 tea sandwiches.
2. (Katie) Scones!! yes those delicious flavors from heaven better be at our tea party tomorrow! if we want to stick to the tradition way of doing scones, which is eating a light and flaky but not sweet scone with clotted cream and jam, use these recipes. The way to eat them however remains in question. we'll experiment tomorrow! :
Basic Scone Recipe:2 cups all-purpose flour1 tablespoon baking powder2 tablespoons sugar1/2 teaspoon salt3 tablespoons butter1 egg, beaten3/4 cup milk (approx.)
Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in the egg. (If you are using one of the variations below, this is a good point to add nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, cheese, etc.)
Gradually add the milk until a thick dough is formed. (It may take more or less than 3/4 cup.)
Turn out the mixture onto a floured board and knead lightly. Roll out the dough to 3/4" thickness and cut into rounds with a 2" cookie cutter. Gather the trimmings and lightly knead, roll, and cut them as well.
Place the rounds about 1" apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with a little beaten egg or milk. Bake in a preheated 450° oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm.
Makes 12 to 16 scones, depending on the recipe version used.
Devonshire Clotted Cream (substitute) recipes
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar1 teaspoon vanilla extract
OR
1 cup heavy whipping cream1/2 cup mascarpone or 1/4 cup softened cream cheese 1 heaping tablespoon sugar1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The directions are the same for both cream recipes: Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with a mixer until stiff. Refrigerate until ready to use. Best when prepared and served the same day. Makes 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups.
3. (Sarah S.)Tea Cakes: Basically any type of bite size dessert suffices for this essential! Lemon bars anyone?
4. (Mallory) Tea...or punch:) by looking up recipes i learned some cool facts about it! let me educate you on the interesting history of punch:
" Today's party punch recipes are said to stem from an ancient East Indian recipe of five ingredients, the term punch being derived from panch, the Hindi word for 'five'. The notion is only mildly debated and, sure enough, arrack (mostly fermented palm sap), tea or spices, sugar, water, and lemon, the five ingredients, are found in most punch recipes. "
5. (Kim) Tea Room! Whats a tea party without a tea room? people say in england tea rooms spread like starbucks in seattle! although tea rooms have slowly diminished, the tradition of tea parties is slowly coming back. Way to keep up traditions girls!
6. (Sarah F.) Cheese, fruit, veggies, or crackers with dip are an essential to any party especially to tea parties and they can be easily made!
fruit dip: 1 package of cream cheese whipped with 1 marshmellow fluff jar...and add some lemon zest for flavor!
veggie dip: 1 bottle of ranch!
chocolate fondue: chocolate melted and mixed with oil!
Party details:
When: 11:30 am
Where: Kim's backyard
Come: with item, and what ever you can if kim doesn't have it(ie. tea cups, eating utensils etc.)
See you all there! its going to be a blast!
-Mal
On our wednesday off, we decided to shake things up and have a lovely little tea party! it was super duper fun. So, for this event mallory helped us out by avoiding the hassle of deciding who is bringing what by just deciding for us. Thx Mal! I (Kenzie) was assigned to bring tea cakes (AKA chicken salad sandwiches). Next Katie who's had past catastrophies with her oven, was to BAKE some scones. And dang were they good! She made both chocolate chip or cinnamon scones. Yummm. Sarah brought the amazing lemon bars, which turned into lemonADE bars towards the end. Haha. And Mallory, well she assigned herself to bring the "tea". ha. We had the choice of Lemonade, or Chai tea. Although the chai tea didn't quite work out... so we settled on lemonade. Which was just as good. And then our wonderful hostess Kim! She did a beaUtiful job setting up our little party. And she of course provided us with the gurgle pot, as seen above, or whereever. And lets not forget the adorable teacups that we used for our lemonade! haha. We had just an awesome time, and I can't wait for what off-the-beaten-path thing we do next. TaTa for now, I am off for some tea. 
yes, mallory, we asked IAN SMITH to winter for you! yay! we are so excited for you, it's going to be a blast! yahoooo
