A Tea Party

My mother extended a gracious invitation to "all the girls", my sister, my daughters and myself, to join her at a tea party given by one of the local Red Hat Chapters. 

We had a lovely time and enjoyed some very different items on the menu.  It was simply not "run of the mill" and I knew I had to do a picture essay on the event.  So please enjoy!

The event was sponsored by the Red Hat Chapter of "Queen Mum Kay", shown below.  She did a great job of hiring an excellent and well known lady who produces some very lovely tea events.

As we took our seats, the tables were a spectacle in themselves. Adorned with beautiful china in various patterns and styles, you could spend a day alone admiring the beauty of the table itself.

We started the tea with scones and a cherry cream cheese spread that was awaiting at each setting.

In the middle of each table was a three tier dessert tray. 

Each tray had 6 of each desserts served. There were lemon lime curt tartlets, Bavarian cream chocolate cups, butterfly shortbread, stuffed apricots and Oreo truffles.  All of the items were handmade by Kathy & Jayne, the Tea-Lightful catering service that specializes in teas.

We were served our first pot of tea to drink with our scones in a delightful and quite ornamental teapot.  Each time we were served a new pot of tea, the teapot was different.  It added to the appreciation of the beautiful china that Kathy has collected throughout her years. Nary any two of them the same, the cups, saucers, plates and teapots have been collected for years and years. What I loved most was that these things were collected with such pride, yet given out so freely to use - serving their purpose as they were designed to do, many years ago.

For our second course, after the delightful cherry scones with dried cherry cream cheese spread, we were served a chilled ginger pear soup. Presentation alone was worth the trip, as the chilled soups were served in beautiful tea cups of various types. My favorite was the footed aqua marine and gold cup that my daughter received.

As chatter filled the room you began to truly feel a sense of festiveness and change in time.  While dressed in our definite 21st Century garb, you could almost feel your simple and plain shorts turn into a long and flowing dress of the Victorian age. With lace tablecloth, linen napkins and exquisite china you couldn't resist feeling the special aura of the era and begin to be lost in "lady-like" aspirations.

The ladies of Tea-Lightful served tea sandwiches to the guests. Adorning our plates were a blueberry chicken salad in cream puffs, pineapple nut tea sandwiches on banana bread, egg salad and watercress squares, strawberry herb toast fingers and cheddar chutney rounds.  Again, each of the sandwiches were prepared by the caterer and all were quite delightful. My favorite was the cheddar chutney round, created with a wonderful white cheddar. The blueberry chicken salad was quite different, simply by being served inside a cream puff pastry shell instead of a typical bread. Very enjoyable.  Using banana bread as the base of the pineapple nut tea sandwich made it a very enjoyable sweet ending to the plate of sandwiches.

Our second pot of tea was delivered in this beautiful pink pot. The teas were plain black leaf tea, served with real cream and sugar cubes if desired. Silver tongs for the cubes of sugar, helped put an air of class into each cup!

Of course, no luncheon would be complete without the desserts! These delightful treats were above and beyond typical dessert time treats, boasting one of my favorite ways to serve dessert...  in a chocolate cup! I didn't try the stuffed apricot as I'm not a big apricot fan but my mother said they were excellent.

So that was our beautiful Sunday afternoon tea.  A delightful event, it gave us all a little taste of days gone by and a beautiful era we were never truly privy to.

If you get a chance to be "fluffy" for the day and enjoy such a beautiful event, take it! It will not only serve as a reminder of how special we ladies are but remind us of how much work and effort was put into every day living back in the Victorian days!