Tea Time Inspiration
12 May, 2020
If you’re a girl, or a cool dude, you know tea time was a part of growing up, whether you forced your siblings to sit down with you or lined your table with barbie doll guests. Now that I am older, I got inspired to do this again, but adult style (adult style of course involves some type of champagne)! My inspiration for this one came on Mother’s Day. My mom and I do a lot of cooking, so I felt like I needed to do something different to mix things up. My mother has inherited some pretty cool tea cups from multiple great aunts, and I decided they needed some love and use. I wanted a cool way to honor my mother and godmother, who were both helicopter pilots in the Navy themselves (they are both way cooler than me). The nice thing about tea time is that it is still fun to do in a small group, and you can stay socially distanced!
This is going to be a post for your own inspiration. For tea time, make smaller versions of the things you love to eat (I did consider making mini pigs in a blanket, but then I though maybe that wasn’t my mother’s favorite…….).
Tea Time Snacks
One piece of advice is, make one of your favorite sandwiches, but have some fun with the shapes you cut them in. I fell in love with cucumber and cream cheese mini sandwhiches at the first tea my mother took me to. One sandwich was made with white bread, cream cheese, cucumbers, dill, and parsley, and one with cream cheese, lox (that mom, Colleen, and I caught ourselves in Canada), cucumbers, radishes, dill, and parsley. Garnish your sandwich tray with some bright colors (we went with cherry tomatoes). I also added some cherry tomato and mozzarella cheese balls on toothpicks for a lighter option.
Like always, when I start designing a menu, I get way too excited, and I end up actually cooking about half of what I intended (which is good of course, because I always make too much food. This story was no different. I originally had the idea of a waffle board, where I would have “Liège” waffles (as Annika would call them - from the town in Belgium), with sausages and a whole bunch of toppings to choose from (this of course was way too ambitious, and will have to be left for its own brunch at another time)! But, because I had this idea, I purchased a handmade cutting board from a good friend who has some amazing wood working skills (check him out at www.gtmwoodworking.com). So, now I had really cool board that I needed something to serve on it. One of my favorite things to make for picnic food is chicken salad, so I designed some chicken salad crostinis with melted cheddar cheese. Annika wasn’t able to get a picture of the board completely full, because mom and Colleen were already digging in by the time we got to the porch!
Tea Time Desserts
Alright guys…… I cheated on this plate. Though we have established I am not bad at baking, there is only so much one can cook in one day. I left the tea sweets to the experts. I will say if you are going to go out and buy some desserts, you have to go with some quality shops. This was somewhat of a challenge, because the Washington DC area is not known for its tea shops, and a lot of those shops are closed during this COVID time. I ended up getting the fancy desserts at Balduccis, a specialty grocer in Alexandria VA, and Harris Teeter had some amazing looking chocolate covered strawberries. The key if your going to go with the store bought stuff, is arranging everything on a plate so that it looks special (I left the plate arranging up to Annika, and I think she did a pretty good Job).
The Tea
Tea is such an amazing thing. There are so many different options, how do you choose just one? I say try them all! This time I went with a tea my friend Laura gave me when I picked up mom’s cutting board. It was a Jasmine Flower tea (which made for some pretty cool pictures when the flower expanded). It was pretty mild, which is the kind of tea I enjoy. I also love earl grey or english breakfast tea for some tea time. Make sure you have appropriate accompaniments, such as cream and sugar or lemon, so people can have what they want in their tea.
The Champagne
So most people like mixers to go with champagne, but I felt like it would be nice to keep the flavors clean for tea. In order to do this though, you should invest in a nice bottle of champagne, especially if it is a small group. I chose a nice pink champagne. Add some kind of creative fruit garnish (I of course had Annika do this as well, I like to give her creative task challenges, and she usually hits it out of the park!). Annika came up with some super cool strawberry heart garnishes, which really was just a matter of slicing the strawberries in the right spot. Don’t forget to cheer when you pop the bottle!
Now it’s time to go out and get inspired with your own tea time! Pull out your coolest glasses, cups and plates. It’s alright to miss match, it makes for a great conversation!
