so you’d like to host a tea party

Someday, I’d like to host a Mad tea party. But this was just a regular (and very nice) tea party, and in my opinion, tea parties are one of the most underrated of social gatherings.

Much like brunch is an excuse to drink alcohol in the morning, tea is an excuse to eat sweets in the afternoon.

Moreover, as anyone who has seen my bucket/mugs of tea (muckets? Doesn’t that sound like it should be a bad word in England? Maybe it is…) can attest, I love drinking tea.

And my mother and I love to entertain, and overfeed (such is the way of Greek women), the result of which was this quantity of food for what ended up being four people:

 

So it is: the ritual of slathering the mini bread with butter is so pleasurable one wants to repeat it as many times as possible.

And so, a series of tea sandwiches.

My mother’s brainchild: butter whirred up in the food processor with watercress as a base; cucumber atop (those little yummy Persian cucumbers). On white bread. GREAT tea sandwich.

  

A delicious farmer’s market shortcut: smoked bluefish spread (rich- more than a subtle hint of delicious fatty cream cheese!) but celebrating the smoky oily fishy goodness.

On wheat bread, with a toe in the frame. Feet could not stay out of the frame in this post.

 

Also from the farmer’s market, we have tomatoes looking way better than they have any right to in March. Greenhouses and global warming. Go figure.

 

Put together sandwiches by thinly slicing the tomatoes, buttering the bread… but I tried to amp them up the tiniest subtlest bit. Any guesses what’s on that bread?

Curry powder! I love curry and tomato :D

And finally, more white bread, more herby butter (for this round my mom threw in chives, too), and hardboiled eggs.

SO delicious!

 

Sandwiches stacked, semi-artistically. My sister is better at these things, but she’s off studying in England… probably having tea with the queen.

I sort of believe one cannot have tea without scones, or at least some kind of baked good. Traditional scones (the dry crumbly ones) are an amazing vehicle for amazing condiments (devonshire cream and jam, drool!) but I wanted scones with a flavor all their own.

And, uh, might have had crate upon crate of apples to use up. Again!

Thus, Whole Wheat Apple Scones. Made a few tweaks (cardamom!) but more or less stuck to the methodology. They were easy to make, baked all clumped together:

 

And very very very delicious!

Sweet, buttery, flavorful, nicely spiced. I would make these again!

 

And the table was laid!

 

(There is someone waving at you in that picture. Hi, friends!)

Indoor flowers and outdoor flowers, via window. Loving on spring!

 

Apparently sherry is traditional at teatime? I tried a single sip (after all the guests left, no one seemed real interested) and it didn’t do it for me. But adorable glasses!

The highlight for me of this tea party was discovering, just a day after Saint Patrick’s Day, that we have a clover-shaped spoon. This is fantastic.