Tea Party

The tea party was a smashing success. All the frozen desserts defrosted well and tasted great. All the fresh food was yummy and looked beautiful. The guests came dressed in tea attire with flowing skirts and straw hats. It was a lot of fun and several people asked if I did this for a living. No I told them, I work full time. This was just for fun!!

These were the party favors which contained 4 different kinds of tea. They were handmade by a dear frind of my mom's.

A very generous friend lent me the beautiful tea service to use as the center piece and the silver flower vases.

Here is the dessert table all laid out.

These are the Pastel Petits Fours. This was the hardest dessert I made and took the most time. But it was a beautiful show piece for the center of the dessert table.

The Berry Cheesecake Tart was a huge hit. I glued little tea pots on toothpicks and wrote the name of each item so guests knew what they were eating.

Blueberry scones which I served with homemade strawberry jam.

No one touched the blueberry mini muffins. Not sure why. But they looked really cute on this adorable tray.

This table had the tea sandwiches and fresh fruit skewers. We made tuna, egg salad, and cream cheese. The fruit skewers had chocolate strawberries and coconut dipped bananas. I nearly dropped from exhaustion after the party. But it was so much fun. I forgot to take pictures of the tea bar. We had 6 different types of tea with Cinnamon sticks and lemon slices.

I will post the rest of the recipes soon.

Buckeyes

Hello Buckeyes. These are scrumptious little peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate. Yummy.

This is what happens when you have leftover chocolate.

Buckeyes

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups confectioners sugar (that is one entire box)

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used the baking chocolate found at craft stores)

Line 2 baking sheets with wax paper. Beat the peanut butter, butter, and sugar with a mixer until well combined. This takes a while and watch out for flying powered sugar. I draped a towel over my mixer to protect my kitchen. Roll 1 inch balls and place them on the baking sheet. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. I put mine in the fridge for about 45 minutes and it worked just fine. Microwave your chocolate. Pierce each ball with a toothpick and dip in the chocolate. Place on waxed paper. Chill in fridge for 45 minutes until set. Serve and eat. I plan to freeze mine for the tea party. Note: The balls will have an ugly whole in the top where the toothpick was. I couldn't figure out another way to dip them to avoid the tiny hole.

100th Post and Blueberry Picking

First off this is my 100th Post. Thanks to everyone for reading. I love keeping this blog.

We went blueberry picking yesterday. It was so much fun. Everyone had a great time. We picked the biggest ripe blueberries we could find. Then when we got home (at 6:30pm) I started on a baking marathon. Thank goodness the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Here are the berries . We filled up three of these bins. I had so many berries I had to send some next door to the neighbors. I flash froze one entire bin for later use. I made three items with the berries. Lemon Cream Scones, mini muffins, and regular size muffins. The scone recipe is a recipe I got off a C & H sugar box years ago. It is super easy and and always turns out good. I made two batches for the tea party. After they cooled I packed them up tightly and put them in the freezer.

I then made min blueberry muffins. I found these great disposable mini muffins pans which I just covered and put in the freezer for the tea party. These cuties are going to look great on a tiered serving tray. The kids really like mini muffins and they go great in lunches. You can also just pull then out of the freezer in the morning, pack then in a lunch, and by lunchtime they are ready to eat.

I also made regular size blueberry muffins with a sprinkle of sugar on top. Also good for lunch or anytime of day. We had them for breakfast this morning. I am going to post all the recipes I use for the tea party in case you want to create any of these yummies for your family.

Lemon Cream Scone

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tbl baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1 cup whipping cream

2 to 4 tbl spoons water as needed

Heat oven to 375. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in lemon peel. With a fork stir in cream. Add enough water as needed until batter comes together in a rough mass. The key is to add the water in small amounts, 1 tbl spoon at a time. Kneed dough 5/6 times on a lightly floured surface. Place on a greased cookie sheet and form into an 8 inch circle. Use a sharp knife to cut 1/2 way through to mark into 12 pie shaped pieces. Bake 20/30 minutes until golden brown.

To die for Blueberry muffins

Enjoy!