Tea Party

Frankly I have so many ideas in my brain for posts, I do not know where to start. I quickly uploaded all my tea party photos to take advantage of Shutterfly's $10 book deal so I guess I will start there. 

We served a chilled strawberry soup on my collection of milk glass luncheon set tea cups with a blueberry scone on the plate. There are no pictures of these foods, lol. 

I think it was only a week ago, but I am so tired that I can't really guarantee that.  A few weeks before my oldest granddaughter had asked me if I would help her with a tea party for her friends. This is something I have waited my whole life for. I quickly sent her a suggested menu, pictures of the insides of all my china cabinets and other ideas. 

This was a submitted sample of the glassware for the Iced Strawberry Raspberry tea. Unfortunately one of the bases broke from the glass as I was packing them.  I have had them for decades and was too scared to risk serving with them. 

These pictures prove that her mother (my oldest daughter) is as crazy as I am. I guess I will just add the photos and do commentary in comments, lol. 

In the cupboard under one of my four china cabinets was this unopened box of "Guest" glasses. I used these instead, but there was one casualty. The guest was mortified but I showed her the $1.99 price tag on the box, what I paid for them at a flea market.

I chose 4 teas for the menu, two hot and two iced. The hot teas were two Harney and Sons black teas,  Paris and Chocolate Mint. The iced teas were Lipton's Strawberry Raspberry and Harney and Sons Pear and Ginger.  I used some paper spout drip guards on the tea pots and wrote the flavor; the carafe's had little hanging tags identifying their flavors. 

The pink Hall Pottery tea pot came from the tippy top cupboard at my church and was going to be put in a rummage sale.  I made a small donation prior to the sale and brought it home with me. Sugar cubes were a big hit. 

We served the sandwiches and salads (and desserts) buffet style. 

Chicken Salad on Croissants. 

Ham and Swiss on Hawaiian Rolls with Bacon Jam. 

On the right, Cucumber on Bread and Butter and upper right, Carrot Cake Sandwiches (recipe tomorrow's post). 

Salads included Pea Salad, Tiny Seashell Macaroni Salad, Italian Pasta Salad and Fruit Salad in heart shaped foil tins. (She saw those in my box of stuff and wanted to use them). 

I baked Strawberry Cupcakes, decorated with strawberries and Lemon Cupcakes decorated with lemon slices. 

I baked and decorated the heart shaped cookies with gold sugar. The kind people at Aldi provided the macaroons.  And on the top right it turns out we do have a photo of the scones! 

They tempted me and said they were picking up Petit Fours but got a box of assorted tea pastries at whatever store they have in the big city.  

I think I forgot to mention that they live almost 2 hours away. I had to get up at 5 am to leave by 6 am to get to their house to plug in my coffee urn of water and finish preparing all the food for the 11 am party. 

Too pretty to eat! These lovely cupcakes with fondant tea pots were made by a friend of hers - a high school student!  I got a preview and brought individual cupcake boxes if they would like to take them home to admire! Aren't they gorgeous!!!

The guests (and a peek at the pink soup). Everyone was so polite and lovely and had such good manners. 

We overheard some of the guests saying the party was the summer event of the year! I am so happy for my granddaughter who was so nervous. 

She even had a selfie station (she is on the left) for photo opportunities. There are no photos of gramma.  

I am going to try to schedule the prep photos for tomorrow!  I had such a good time.  I love cooking and I love all my dishes and glass and tea cup collections. 

I want to mention my daughter went to Meijers and bought all the flowers in bouquets that she took apart. She created all those AMAZING centerpieces! And she was the one who ordered the tables, chairs and tablecloths.  
 

Still Here

 Busy. Very Busy.  Lots to share when I get time. 

This morning I got up extra early so Mr Merry and I could go explore our county fair for 1 cent each on senior citizen day.  We entered the grounds around 7:30 so we could see the sites and leave. 

The fairboard used 600,000 of Biden Bucks from the state and a family donated about 100,000 and got naming rights to build a new barn which displaced the rabbits and chickens. We wanted to see what a 700,000 barn looks like and what they did with the rabbits and chickens. The barn is unimpressive and the rabbits and chickens,  which used to be in well preserved little barns with active superintendents and 4H workers taking pride in their care, are now in the goat barn. 

Mr Merry had agreed to buy me a breakfast sandwich from the grange.  We were blown away by food prices at the booths. $16 for chicken tenders and fries, $10 for fancy hot dogs. I could not have afforded to feed my family of five children anywhere at the fair.  Entry fee is $10 per person so it would have been $60 just to enter (Mr Merry worked weekends).  

We made it home by 8:30 and I am off to the charity office for the day.  Last Monday we had a record number of applications and our board meeting ran very long.  I am hoping this week might have less clients.  We did receive a bequest in a will so that money will help carry us for a while. 

Last night my dear husband picked a bucket of tomatoes, a bucket of green peppers, and zucchini and eggplant.  I made another pot of salsa, an eggplant casserole and cucumber salad from one of the 10 cucumbers he picked (no more pickles!).  This was after hosting five grandchildren for an overnight.

Eggplant Casserole