It’s a little unconventional, but we did a tea party on Labor Day. I was in charge of the tea and scones and John made the sandwiches.
I should note that John hasn’t always liked high tea stuff. I think it started when we went on the Queen Mary 2 crossing. There was nothing better than another meal he could enjoy midday! For me, it just doesn’t get better than scones and little sandwiches.Chef John’s Scones (not Hubby, another chef)
The trick with scones is to not over mix, which I didn’t do, but then I flattened the dough out a little too much. They were still good, but it was a little like the scones version of flatbread pizza.
Gotta have both jam and clotted cream with scones. Usually specialty stores carry clotted cream – we got this from Whole Foods.
John made two types of sandwiches: Egg Salad and Cucumber and Lemony Dill Cream Cheese Tea Sandwiches. For the egg salad he added a 1/4 of sweet relish and he skipped the dill part in the cucumber sandwiches.
I know, it’s a waste to cut off the crusts, but it’s a tea tradition.
I asked him to use lots of cucumbers so he stacked both sides, but then he had to do another layer of cream cheese mix in between so the cucumbers didn’t slide around.
For the tea, we went with Darjeeling from a tea house down the street and one of my faves: Cream of Earl Grey from The Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano, Ca.
I collect tea cups and tea accessories. This one is a Schaefer heirloom and the one below is from Victoria, Canada.
All ready for the tea party!
Our adventurous eater joined us for some tea sandwiches. He really wanted some tea, but settled on being able to have some when he is 12.
I love tea parties for showers as well. My friends hosted two for me for my bridal and baby showers, and I enjoyed hosting Rachel’s tea party baby shower last year.
Later, (it was quite the food day), we had Florida Stone Crabs (who knew Whole Foods carried them?!), and John even made the Joe’s Stone Crabs special sauce. Delicious.
And dinner, made by John: Grilled Halibut and veggies, and potato salad. It was a lot of eating, but we did get some pool time in after dinner at least.
Hope you had a nice Labor Day! Oh, in other news, I just joined Instagram (here’s a post). Click here if you want to follow me.
Thanks for stopping by Time to DIY!
YUM! You guys are ambitious foodies! Where'd you get that adorable tea pot?
Thanks, Amanda! That was a wedding gift from Pottery Barn, but we pretty much decided we won't be using it for actual tea anymore. The spout is too thick – "all show and no go" haha. I will put it on display, though!