Time For Tea

We went to the most lovely bridal tea party over the weekend. Such a wonderful day for the two families to get to know each other. And it was surely a day of making memories.

The nieces from the bride's family got to meet the nieces from the groom's family. Between the bride and groom, there are seven nieces, ages 3-16. And they were instant BFFs. (That's "best friends forever" if you don't have younger folks around to keep you up to date on such things.) All of them will be in the wedding party. They are so excited. The grownups were happy to meet each other, too.

There were many questions ahead of time from our little ones. They learned that you dress up to go to a tea party. ("But I want to wear my cow shirt!" The cow shirt had to wait for another time.) And they knew that tea party manners meant sitting still in your chair. And they were instructed on what to do if they didn't like a certain food on their plate.

We had tried to explain to our little girls that a tea party meant small sized foods. And they were relieved to learn that they were not required to drink tea. They had their own little tea pot of lemonade on the table. But they did have real china cups and saucers. Not a styrofoam cup with a lid and a straw in sight! And the smallest girls rose to the occasion and were perfect little ladies.

At bedtime that night, Baby Girl told us, "That was the best tea party I've ever been to in my whole life." She's three. And just as she was being tucked into bed she added proudly, "And I didn't break anything."

I dug back through older posts here on the blog and found a recipe that we used for a bridal shower here at our house several years ago. I love this recipe because it can be made ahead and popped into the freezer for baking later. Make them small and fill them with thinly sliced ham and they would be perfect for a tea party at your house!

SWEET POTATO BISCUITS

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup butter

1 cup cooked mashed sweet potato* 

¾ to 1 cup buttermilk

1.  Combine first 3 ingredients.  Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

2.  Stir together mashed sweet potato and ¾ cup buttermilk; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  (Add remaining ¼ cup buttermilk, if necessary.)

3.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead 3 to 4 times.  Pat to a ½-inch thickness.  Cut dough with a biscuit cutter and place biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet.

4.  Bake at 425º for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden.

Yield:  3-inch cutter makes about 14 biscuits

            2-inch cutter makes about 36 biscuits (this time I got about 48 biscuits)

* 1 (15-oz.) can sweet potatoes, drained and mashed, may be substituted.

Note:  To freeze, place unbaked biscuits on a baking sheet in the freezer.  Once frozen, place biscuits in a zip-top plastic freezer bag, and freeze until ready to use.  Before serving, bake frozen biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet at 425° for 15 to 16 minutes.

Need One More Gift?

Yes, I am sticking to my plan and doing "doing less." (But, it's Christmas—I have to do something!) In fact, I'm taking a break right now to rest for a few minutes this morning. Posting a short blog entry doesn't require much energy, though. I thought you might like to have this easy, easy recipe if you need just one more thing to give, to take to a party, to have for your family to nibble on.

We had enjoyed a pumpkin dip at a couple of baby showers in recent years. I found this recipe on SouthernPlate.com around Thanksgiving and I saved it for Christmas.  The ingredients are things I usually have on hand--except for the cookies. It took five minutes to mix together and put into containers. One recipe filled four half-pint jars. I added a little treat bag with bought gingerbread man cookies.

And this really does taste like pumpkin pie. So if you know your folks won't go near a pumpkin pie, find something else for them!

PUMPKIN PIE DIP

8-oz. cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
15-oz. can pumpkin
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar until creamy. (I used my hand mixer.) Add pumpkin, cinnamon and ginger and beat until well blended. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve with ginger cookies, graham cracker sticks, or apple slices.


Jessica arrives tomorrow. We will see the rest of the family on Saturday. Yeah! 

Shower For A Bride

We are still nibbling on bridal shower leftovers from yesterday's party. It was so nice to have a morning shower. The time seemed to suit everyone. And it was fun to plan a menu with a breakfast focus. Since our menu had a breakfast theme, "Love Muffins" were a fun favor for each guest to take home--just a cute label with the bride & groom's name and the wedding date, with muffin mix inside.

As we were planning this shower, the co-host made a comment about me being the "hostess-with-the-mostest" and I told her, "No, that's not me. I go to church with her." And I do. I asked my good friend Joanne (the best hostess ever) if she had any brunch/breakfast recipes I might make for this party. She gladly shared the following recipe and said I could pass it on to you. These tarts were the hit of the party. There were exactly TWO tarts left from a double batch.

BREAKFAST TARTS

1 (16-oz) can buttermilk biscuits (any kind will be fine)

8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 tomato, seeded and chopped

1/2 onion, finely chopped

3 oz. shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp. dried basil, optional (fresh would be better. I am sure.)

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the ingredients. Cut biscuits horizonally and press into mini muffin pans that are lightly greased.  Fill with the mixture and bake  until biscuits are golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Yield: 16-20 tarts, depending on number of biscuits in can

I wish I had bought an extra can of biscuits because I had some filling left and could have made more tarts. 

Several people have asked what I served. This was our menu: 

Breakfast Tarts (recipe above)
Sausage Balls 
Sweet Potato Biscuits w/Ham
Pumpkin Bread 
Assorted Mini-Muffins 
Fresh Fruit 
Coffee 
Blushing Apple Juleps

The underlined ones are links that will take you to the recipe. I learned years ago to write my menu down and save it. Saves much thinking the next time you have a similar event.

Over The River And Through The Woods

How much fun it is to get together to celebrate family events. This morning we almost didn't get together. We were hosting a coffee for a bride-to-be. The first people arrived here at the farm right on time. But then we waited and waited on more folks to come. The phone rang. And then someone else's cell phone went off. 

Two cars were lost. Yes, we are completely off the grid. Google, Mapquest, GPS, and whatever other directional tools are out there do not know where the farm is. I gave them new directions. Ten minutes passed and the phone rang again. They were still lost and had encountered another car also trying to find us. 

Daddy-O to the rescue! I had called him after the first "we're lost" phone call and asked him to come back to the house to help figure out where these cars were calling from. But after the third phone call, he told them to stay put and he would go find them. He did and then led all three cars to the farm. Thank you, Daddy-O. We only live six miles from town and we're about five miles from the interstate in the other direction. But in between are a gazillion little roads, one lane roads, and gravel roads--easy to get lost when you don't know the area.

When they finally got here, one cousin said, "We will just have to live here now. We are not leaving your house. Ever." They really think we live on the edge of civilization. Once they got here, I think they all had fun. Here are a couple of the recipes I made for today:

BLUSHING APPLE JULEPS
--recipe from SouthernPlate.com

4 cups apple juice

1 cup orange juice

1 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 jar Maraschino cherries

Place all juices in a 2-qt. pitcher and stir well.

Add in 3-4 tablespoons juice from jar of cherries and stir again. Chill until ready to serve.

Serve over ice, with a cherry in each glass. Garnish with mint or lemon balm.

SWEET POTATO BISCUITS

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup butter

1 cup cooked mashed sweet potato*

¾ to 1 cup buttermilk

1.  Combine first 3 ingredients.  Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

2.  Stir together mashed sweet potato and ¾ cup buttermilk; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  (Add remaining ¼ cup buttermilk, if necessary.)

3.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead 3 to 4 times.  Pat to a ½-inch thickness.  Cut dough with a biscuit cutter and place biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet.

4.  Bake at 425º for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden.

Yield:  3-inch cutter makes about 14 biscuits

            2-inch cutter makes about 36 biscuits (this time I got about 48 biscuits)

* 1 (15-oz.) can sweet potatoes, drained and mashed, may be substituted.

Note:  To freeze, place unbaked biscuits on a baking sheet in the freezer.  Once frozen, place biscuits in a zip-top plastic freezer bag, and freeze until ready to use.  Before serving, bake frozen biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet at 425° for 15 to 16 minutes.

This recipe is featured on the Meal Plan Monday Recipes linkup at SouthernPlate.com