Blues Tea

Every year my BFF holds a Blue Tea in January.You know, after Christmas there's kind of a let down.
We call it the blues.So everything is blue. The clotted cream and blueberry scones.

Arn't these the cutest name holders?The tablecloth had blue teacups. Some pretty fabric stashed for years until one fine day she turned it into this delightful tablecloth just for us!Teeny tiny teapots.

Last year we were all given blue teacups to take home. Don't you know that I couldn't find mine this year so I grabbed a blue mug from the cupboard and look! It said Earl Grey on it! My favorite tea!

After we ate we all sat down to chat with a little redwork. Beautiful hearts for the Valentines coming up. I finished mine and will be framing it as soon as I find a frame that suites it.

Laurie is very neat about her redwork
Karen is an accomplished embroiderer and BFF tries to help me in my akwardness. I haven't embroiderd in years.

Afterwards we gathered under the gazebo. It was a little chilly

We potted flowers.

I think this one is mine.

In the dead of winter we can still find flowers at our local nursery.

Don't you just love California!

We tied it up with some blue tuille.

And I'm inspired to work in my miserable garden.

Tea Party Recipes

I really need to post my BPOH pictures but I don't feel like it today.

Today I want to share my recipes from the tea party.

I know you want to know.

I can feel it.

Here goes.

Cucumber sandwiches
Really, for sure, the quintessential tea sandwich. They are easy peasy japanesey and you will never make them unless you are having guests. I don't know why that is. Some unwritten cosmic law I'm sure.

1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced very thin. Use a mandolin if you have one. I got mine at a discount something or other for about 5 bucks. I want to and will get a much better one. Pic to follow.
salt
3/4 cup soft butter
2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic, I used an heirloom variety I found at the farmers market. Awesome.
minced fresh dill
20 slices of bread. Use thin sliced. I couldn't find it therefore did not.
1 tablespoon lemon juice, my tree had the saddest lemons therefore I used less. You could use more.
1 tablespoon nice olive oil. Not extra virgin, too strong.
pepper to taste. I forgot to add and didn't miss.

Lightly salt cucumber slices and place them in a colander to drain for 1-2 hours. Then combine the butter, dill and garlic and apply to l side of each slice of bread. In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice, olive oil and pepper. Add the cuceumber slices, coating them well. Arrange the cucumber on 10 of the bread slices. Top with other ten. Cut off crusts and quarter.

NOTE: I have made these with just butter, cukes and bread. Lightly salt. It is good and even easier. Especially if you have home grown cukes. OOOOH Yeah Baby!

Here is a nice mandolin. Much better than mine. It's about 30 bucks. I found an awesome one for 100 bucks but that will have to wait. A long time.


I'm confused about the comb looking things. Hmmmm.

Cream cheese and jam
Do you really need a recipe? I think not. Just spread ingredients thin and cut off crusts. No kidding! That is all you do!

Tuna wanna be chicken salad

I was so deeply disappointed about bringing home tuna instead of chicken. Deep I tell you. So there I am, facing tuna and not wanting it to be too boring but not planning the darn thing.

I added mayo and made sure the tuna was finely separated. I seasoned with lemon pepper and cracked pepper. I found some wonderfully grainy wheat bread in the freezer, spread the slices with the leftover garlic dill butter from the cuke sandwiches and then cut the crusts off. I sliced the oversided bread into 3rds.

This is what I had planned to make.
Almond Chicken Sandwiches
Spread:
3/4 cup butter
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup fresh basil, minced (I would have used dill I think)
Mix together.

Filling:
1 cup finely chopped chicken (canned)
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup slivered almonds
salt and pepper to taste
Mix together.

20 slices of bread

Spread bread with spread. Thin layer of filling. Top. Cut off crusts and quarter.

Ginger Snaps

This was taken from a copy cat website or top secret recipe. This is by far the best Ginger Snap I've ever had. And I've had many. This is a great fall cookie and will make you house smell great. Dunk in coffee or tea. See, arn't you glad you read to the bottom?

1 cup packed drak brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup shortenening
1 TBS butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
12 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. Cream together sugars, molasses, shortening, butter, egg and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
3. In another large bowl combine the flour baking soda, ginger, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.
4. Pour the dry mixture into the wet mixture and beat while adding the water. Continue to mix until ingredients are incorporated.
5. Measure a heaping teaspoon of dough at a time. Roll the dough into a sphere between the palms of your hand then press the dough onto the cookie sheet. Flatten to about 1/8. Note: I sugar the bottom of a glass and press on cookie.
6. Bake cookies for 10-14 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cookies are crisp when cool.

Tea Party

My tea party Saturday went fantastic. It was wonderful to have all my friends get together and chat and have a good time.

My friend Christie is starting a new business. Tea Parties! Doesn't that sound like a fun job? She has hooked up with this company called Tealightful Treasures. It is kind of like Tupperware only with tea. They sell all kinds of tea and scone mixes. They have some tea sets you can buy as well as other fun girlie type stuff.

Now I am not a foo foo type girl but I do enjoy dressing up and hanging with the gals. Yes I wore a dress and did my hair and make up. It was so much fun.

Even though BH said I could have the cleaners come I decided I wanted to do it myself. I wanted to dust and wash all the crystal and stuff. I never did get around to the ceiling fan and globes but I will before T-day.

Even though scones and tea would be provided I decided to make some sandwiches. You gotta have tea sandwiches. Really, you do. So I set about gathering recipes.

Here's what I made.

Cucumber Sandwiches.

Must have for any tea party. I love cucumber sandwiches.












Cream cheese and jam. This jam is the habranero plum jam that I made this summer. It has a little kick to it if you eat enough of it. Otherwise it is just plain yummy.










Tuna.

I didn't plan to have tuna. I thought that tuna might be a little 'fragrant' for a tea party. What I wanted to make was this new recipe for chicken salad. It had almonds and dill and sounded so wonderful. I didn't have any canned chicken in the house so I went last minute shopping for the tea and picked up a can of chicken. Except when I opened up the chicken I realized that either the chicken was very bad or I had bought tuna. I did. Now I would understand if I had picked up Chicken of the Sea, seeing the word chicken and all. No. It was Bumble Bee. Seeing as how it was late and I was already in my jammies, I decided that it was going to be fine to serve tuna after all.


And cookies!

These are ginger snaps that I cut into fall shapes using these adorable mini cutters that I bought several years ago and never got around to using.
Beautiful and delish.

I love ginger snaps. I think I ate most of them.





This is Christie's oldest daughter Chloe. She is a wonderful young lady with excellent manners and a sweet disposition. I love her dearly.

And the back of Miss Shelly's head. Nice blouse though. She always dresses so feminine and pretty.









Our younges tea guest.



BH's granddaughter came and was delightful.












The front of Miss Shelly. She is a little pixie. Tiny and adorable. We have known each other for longer than we can remember.












BH's Daughter in law Kim and her mother Clair.














Miss Shelly and Miss Christie.

I had a lot of guests but once things got rolling I forgot to take pics.









What these girls did was amazing. They came in with a couple of large tubs and went to work setting up the displays.
They brought this beautiful tea set with demitasse tea cups. Little tiny cups. So cute. You thought that you could finish it off in a sip. You got maybe 2/3 sips. Perfect for trying the different teas. We had two kinds. They served Warm Heart and Spice is Nice Chai. I was allowed to pick these ahead of time.




They arranged all the food and got the hot water for tea going. While Shelly was preparing the tea Christie gave the presentation. Then we went into the kitchen where we were given a cooking demonstration on one of the scones. I chose Cranberry Orange and Lemon Poppy. The Cranberry Orange was prepared ahead of time and Christie made the Lemon Poppy in minutes. It was so easy. We used applesauce as the wet ingredient. No eggs or cream. They were so moist and wonderful. While we waited for the scones to cook we were served tea and got to try the two teas and had sandwiches.

I usually go to a tea party once a year. My dear friend Gwen has a huge, huge fall tea. She sends out invitaions. They last 2 days. She has crazy lots of people that come. I look forward to the two sisters. I can never remember their names. They are Red Hat ladies and then some. They wear authentic Victorian attire right down to the unmentionables (which they do mention and show!). Her friend Corina sells tea and tea accessories. Craft items are sold, seeding plants, quilts, homemade things. Everyone looks forward to Gwens teas. Last year and this year her life has gotten so busy that she is not doing the teas. She won't say forever, but for now she just can't manage it.

I miss them.

I would really like to do another tea. Maybe in the spring. Sounds like fun huh?

Now it is time for me to clean my gun. We go shootin tomorrow. Whoo-hoo.

In other news:

Tom again. Seriously!

He and Moe had to stay inside. With all the people I was afraid someone would leave a gate open. He tipped his box over three times. The second time I secured the box with something heavy. Not heavy enough apparently. I was sipping some tea when Tom comes cruising into the kitchen. I decided to put the bugger out.

After everyone was gone he was clamouring to get back in. He will scratch at the door like a dog, only slower, until you let him in.

So I did.

Then he makes a whole nuther ruckus to get out again. We put both Tom and Moe out and they were happy as clams.