A Tea Party for the Girls

Me (pouring) and Mom

I recently had the LOVE-ly opportunity to host a tea party at my Mom's house.  Very special guests included my mom, sister, a dear friend, my niece and a friend of hers, and the dolls.

I love digging in Mom's china cabinet to find family treasures as serving pieces.  I also brought the fresh Rosemary sprigs with me from Oregon. 

My niece loves cucumber, and so cucumber sandwiches were required.  I used a Rosemary butter base (my favorite cucumber sandwich).  The picture below shows one.  It is supposed to look like a Christmas tree, but my sister thought it looked like a spade.  ;-)

We also enjoyed thick cucumber rounds topped with two types of hummus:  red pepper and chickpea, and mushrooms on toast.  For scones, I made my favorite yeast ones which we ate with raspberry jam from the local Amish market and mock Devonshire cream.  The savories and scones courses were vegan-friendly. 

And for dessert, we had dates stuffed with pecans (vegan) and wonderful cookies brought by my friend.  The girls  had an English Breakfast tea and the grownups enjoyed a delicious tea, new to me, Capricorn Tea.  I very much enjoyed this blend of black and white tea blended with vanilla and rose petal.

I can't tell you how precious these tea times are to me, especially since I live far away. I'm so grateful for tea's presence in my life.  It brings together people I love.