A Tea Party Picnic {and recipes}

 

A couple of weeks ago, when Susannah and Cassia were at their orchestra camp, the rest of us girls had a tea party picnic 😀  It was actually more of a “chocolate milk” picnic, since it was hot outside, and some of the Littles don’t like tea!

We got out our fancy teapots, teacups, and china plates.  There is just something so neat about having a picnic with your nice dishes!  I had so much fun decorating the food with flowers, too.  Usually when I cook I  just like to “get it done”, but every once in a while it is fun to add little extras 😀

I was so grateful that the weather was nice that day, because we had had cloudy skies earlier that morning and I was a little worried it would rain.  By lunch-time though, we had sunshine, and the weather was perfect. 

We had been working on 4H projects, and more 4H projects, and MORE projects, and I almost decided to just skip the whole idea because it would take some time away from their projects.  I’m so glad we went ahead with the tea party, though!  It was a nice relaxing break!

 

Here’s an overview of the yummies we had…

 

 

*Summer Tea Party Picnic Menu*

 

-cold chocolate milk

-cold hard-boiled eggs, salted (I was going to make deviled eggs, but we were out of mayonaisse and I was out of time!)

-chocolate chip scones with mock devonshire cream

-hot artichoke dip with crackers

-small pineapple cream cheese sandwiches

 

 

Chocolate Chip Scones

2 c. flour

1/4 c. sugar

2 t. baking powder

1/8 t. salt

1/3 c. butter, chilled

1/2 c. heavy whipping cream (we always just use milk)

1 egg

1-1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 or 1  c. chocolate chips

1 egg mixed with 1 t. water for glaze

   Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Lightly grease a baking sheet or stone.  Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Cut butter into chunks, and then blend into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender until the butter is the size of small peas.  In a small bowl, combine egg, cream and vanilla.  Stir into the flour mixture until just combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Pat dough into a 1/2-inch thickness.  Cut out like for biscuits and brush with the egg glaze.  Bake at 12-15 minutes.  Note: these scones are very good even without the chocolate chips. I just wanted something a little sweet for our tea party 😀

 

 

Mock Devonshire Cream

1/2 c. heavy cream or 8 oz. softened cream cheese

2 T. powdered sugar

1/2 c. sour cream

   In a chilled bowl, beat the cream on high speed until medium stiff peaks form.  Add the sugar during the last few minutes of beating.  (If you use cream cheese, just stir it and the sugar together.) Fold in the sour cram and blend.  Serve on top of scones.

 

 

Hard-Boiled {or Deviled} Eggs

5 eggs

salt

mayonaisse

mustard

  Place your eggs in a small saucepan and cover with water.  Bring water to a boil.  Cover with a lid and remove from heat.  Let set for 20 minutes.  Drain eggs and cool in ice water.  Peel and cut them in half.  If you just want hard boiled eggs, and not the deviled eggs, arrange them on a pretty plate and salt them lightly.  For deviled eggs, scoop out the yokes and mix in a separate bowl with {about} 3-5 T. mayo and 1 t. mustard and 1/8 t. salt.   Blend together well until it is smooth. If it still looks dry, add more mayo.  Add more salt if it needs it 😀

I’m sure there are fancier recipes out there, so experiment!

 

Hot Artichoke Dip {with crackers}

I admit, I wouldn’t have originally thought of this as tea party food, but we had part of it made up already and we needed to use it up!  It worked out well.

1 can artichoke hearts, chopped fine

2 T. artichoke juice from can

1 cup real mayonnaise

1 c. Parmesan cheese

8 oz. cream cheese

1/4 t. dill weed

1/4 t. garlic powder

    Beat all ingredients until smooth and creamy.  Pour into a small casserole dish (8″x8″) and bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for 30 minutes or until hot.  Serve with Wheat Thins or any other cracker.

 

 

Pineapple Cream Cheese Sandwiches

1 loaf of bread, sliced

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1-2 T. sugar

2-4 T. pineapple bits

  Beat the cream cheese, sugar and pineapple together.  Spread onto a piece of bread and top with another slice.  Cut sandwiches diagonally, or into little wedges.  Serve cold.

 

 

Chocolate Milk

This is easy, of course!  I just kept pouring chocolate syrup into the milk and shaking it up until it looked (and tasted!) how we liked it 😀

 

 

 

 

 

The boys were happy to be a part of our tea party 😀  I think they came for the food…

 

…because shortly after they finished, they were chasing each other around the yard with branches that had fallen down during the storm we’d had the night before!  Hardly what you would call tea party behavior 😀

 

 

 

 

I guess you can’t say that we girls were being so proper…when we were all done, we wanted some cute pictures of the kittens and Shachor (one of our mama cats) with the tea cups.  Normally we wouldn’t dare let any animal near our dishes, but we made this one exception 😀

 

You probably remember this one from Seven Sisters Treasures #42…

 

{Shachor}

 

I love her pink tongue in this picture!

 

Cats are not my favorite, but I ? Shachor 😀  She’s a sweetie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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