I have been wanting to host a tea party forever! While I'm not a big fan of tea, I love all the foods served at tea. I had planned on inviting some of my family friends over to see the new house so I thought I would give this tea party thing a shot. Here was my menu:
Quiches - from Costco, they are delicious
Cucumber Sandwiches (Cucumber, Dill, Cream Cheese)
Italian style chicken salad in phyllo cups (my own concoction of chicken, roasted red pepper, artichokes and seasonings)
Tomato Sandwiches
Turkey & Muenster Roll-Up Sandwiches (turkey, muenster, with seasoned spread)
Nutella Sandwiches (for the kids)
Strawberry Cream Sandwiches (for the kids) (cream cheese, fresh strawberries & powdered sugar)
Salad
Deviled Eggs (my own secret recipe)
Orzo Feta Salad (most delicious salad EVER - I will post this separately)
Prosciutto Wrapped Melon
Brie served w/ crackers and apples
Crudite (veggies and dip/hummus)
Apricot Scones
Pioneer Woman Vanilla Bean Scones
Pioneer Woman Sweet Cinnamon Scones
Pioneer Woman Bacon Cheddar Biscuits
Mock Clotted Cream
Mini Cupcakes (Pillsbury Spring Funfetti)
Coffee Cake (Costco)
Strawberries and Watermelon
Tea (of course)
Ambitious right? Well, I was doing really good..I had all the ingredients. I made the scones the day before. I didn't do the Cinnamon Scones since I couldn't find the cinnamon chips. I made a few other things the day before. The day of the tea party I was in good shape. I left the tea sandwiches till last because I wanted them fresh. I had almost everything done. My guests were to arrive at 2pm. At around 1pm I go to slice the cucumbers. I wanted everything 'just so' so I whip out the mandolin. If you don't know what a mandolin is let me educate you - it's a user-friendly guillotine.
(warning...somewhat gory details ahead!)
Using the handy safety guard I start to slice my cucumbers. A little too thick so I adjust the setting making them thinner (I didn't know then that this tiny little twist of the dial may have saved my entire finger). I resume my slicing. I guess I got a little ambitious and sliced with a little too much force and well...yes you guessed it, I sliced my finger. Bad. Real Bad! I couldn't get the bleeding to stop. My darling husband took one look at it and said you are going to the ER.
ER?? I have 20 some odd people coming to my house in an hour! He insisted and told me he'd take care of everything. So, off we go. We load the kids in the car and off we go. He drops me off at the ER (which is less than 10 minutes from us) and heads back home. I get my finger tended to. No stitches since it was sliced. Some glue and steri-strips later and I was on my way.
I come back home to a house full of people and no food. We all chip in and thankfully the tea party was a success. Did I get to make everything 'just so', No. But that is ok. This was very good practice and I know that I had it in me to pull something like this off. There were a few casualties and some dishes that weren't made.
Casualties - Bacon Cheddar Biscuits - they were cooking when 'the incident' happened. We turned off the oven and left..therefore they cooked longer than they needed, Turkey & Muenster Roll-ups - let's say we had turkey for lunch this week, Mock Clotted Cream - no time to make it, Crudités - didn't seem necessary since it already seemed like a lot of food, plus my kids live on carrots and dip, brie - I could have probably set this out..but I love me some brie! and the tomato sandwiches turned into sliced tomatoes drizzled with Olive Oil and Oregano.
The Winners - PW Vanilla Bean Scones, Feta Orzo Salad & Strawberry Cream Cheese Sandwiches
All in all a success owed largely in part to my darling husband who rolled up his sleeves, took control and didn't allow me to cancel this and of course to my guests who didn't mind the delay and helped get it all together!
Update on the finger - it's doing ok, still bandaged. It does hurt to type using it (right ring finger) so I have learned to type without using it...takes some time, but I manage!
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