Grand Prix Final Watching Tea Party

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Last weekend I had a Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final watching tea party at my house. I’d gotten it in my mind that I wanted to use the china my mother-in-law left us and a tea party would provide the occasion. And I wanted to make a Bakewell tart. I’d had the tart at a friend’s house this spring and loved it. I’m a sucker for almond-flavored desserts and this has almond meal, almond extract and sliced almonds.

Getting ready was a lot of work but worth it. An early December party forced us to clean up, get the tree up, and unpack grandma’s china which had been sitting in boxes for way too long. One fun part was a mini-date with my husband to Experience Tea where we picked out their house English breakfast tea and Assam-Kanoka estate tea. I’m not usually much of a tea drinker, but the Assam especially was really good.

It got a little crazy: my husband and sons were decorating the tree in the last hour before guests arrived while I assembled sandwiches. One of my friends came early and helped me finish up. And my wonderful husband made the tea after my guests had already arrived and we’d begun to watch skating.

I didn’t manage to take any picture of the spread, but I had the teas, a variety of tea sandwiches, purchased stollen, and cookies, veggies, and shrimp brought by my friends. Once I put icenetwork onto our big screen we were all absorbed in that for hours.

The sandwiches weren’t that hard to make, looked nice, and were more nutritious than a bunch of desserts. It’s basically making sandwich, cutting off the crusts, and cutting the square of bread into four triangles. You then line up the little triangles on a platter and it looks fancy. I made myself eat the crusts the next day, I don’t really agree with cutting off crusts (never did that for my kids). I made:

watercress/goat cheese on white bread

chives/cream cheese with sliced cucumbers on raisin brioche bread

cream cheese/red pepper jelly on raisin brioche bread (this one was my friend’s idea, we had to use that red pepper jelly somehow)

smoked salmon/mashed avocado with lemon juice on partially whole grain bread.

Here are some links I found useful on a tea party brunch, tea party menus, a smoked salmon and avocado on rye sandwich, and a smoked salmon club sandwich.

Wish you all could have been here! The only thing left for a photo was the hibiscus arrangement my friend brought. She grows these plants indoors and they bloom in the winter. Isn’t it pretty?