My Cup of Tea

Admittedly this blog is a little late, but better late than never right? And even though I was busy enough that I neglected to write about the small tea party I had I figured I'd share with you now anyway cause it's like a dozen recipes all at once!

So yes, I decided to have a tea party. Which I didn't know meant I decided to have a cooking frenzy on a Saturday and a get together the next afternoon, but hey, I was in my element, right? Hope was my consultant on the food fare of traditional tea parties, and as much as I would've liked to stick to an old fashioned menu, I decided I'd rather cater to the taste buds of teenagers and let myself experiment with some really rich recipes :D. I'm not sure where to start... I guess I'll just show you the whole spread!

There were a few things I didn't really make, like carrot sticks and bowls of fresh plums and apricots (by the way, apricots are like my new favorite fruit, SO GOOD), but most of the tier and most of the plates are things that I did whip up myself. Ok, Hope brought along the little chocolate balls, I didn't not venture into the realms of cream puffs.

As I mentioned before, I spend Saturday night in the kitchen. I whipped up the scones that day that are piled high on the platters. First: Triple Chocolate Chip

And then Cinnamon Bun Scones!

Both of these recipes came from my favorite cook book, A Passion for Baking, and were admittedly more like desserts than anything else. Oh well! Who cares as long as they're delicious?

I also managed to crank a few dozen cookies out of the oven. I have a friend who is hypoglycemic, so I wanted to pick at least one sugar free recipe and I settled on a type of oatmeal nut cookie. Now although I really liked these, I think they are an acquired taste and are actually not really my idea of a cookie at all. They were a whole grain oatmeal cookie made with applesauce instead of butter (not only sugar free but also low fat now) and loaded with cinnamon, mixed nuts, and a small handful of raisins. They don't have the same crunch as a typical cookie, courtesy the applesauce, and they have more of a bread flavor since they aren't very sweet. You can kind of see them stacked on the bottom of this tier...

On the top of the tier I put a fleet of banana nut mini muffins. If you like banana bread, these are right up your alley. I wanted finger food, that's the idea of tea parties I'm told, so everything was supposed to be like a bite. I had a bunch of bananas that had seen better days, but banana bread didn't seem to be an ideal finger food to me, so I turned to these instead. Again, I pulled this recipe from A Passion for Baking and I think they are delicious. There were a ton left over and I later found out with a little peanut butter they make a great breakfast :).

There were sandwiches, too. I put together three different kinds on Sunday morning and stacked them all on this cute tier my mom picked up at Marshall's.

The top ones are simply mini tortilla wraps filled with hummus and strips of roasted red pepper, the middle are classic peanut butter and jelly, and the bottom are true to tea party tradition: crust-less cucumber and cream cheese. I think the hummus and roasted red pepper rolls went over the best, surprisingly enough. I ended up eating like two sandwiches worth of leftover peanut butter and jelly because they were neglected and I just couldn't bear to throw the food away...

That about covers the food table, I think. We also had ice water, sparkling water, iced black tea, and watermelon lemonade to wash it all down. I don't think I'll drone on any longer, besides I've got some wheat berries I need to go soak so I can make something delicious tomorrow!