Some new tea party treats

"For our tea selection today, we have two iced teas, a sweetened Mango Tea and an unsweet organic Peppermint Tea. Our hot tea is an Apple and Cinnamon flavored tea. Our menu today begins with a Chicken Salad Scoop with Butterfly Garnish. For our scones, we have Currant Scones served with Lemon Curd and then Chocolate Chip Mini-Scones as well. Our finger sandwiches include the teapot-shaped ones, which are Cucumber Cream on white bread, and then the heart-shaped ones and the pinwheels are homemade Pimiento Cheese on wheat bread. For our sweets, we have Arnold Palmer Cupcakes and, of course, Daddy's Coconut Cake."

That's almost verbatim what I said to everyone yesterday at Aunt Jane's Birthday Tea. I always love giving that little spiel just like I would do at my own tea room. The Pimiento Cheese recipe is from the book Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose, and I like it so much I've been making a batch weekly for sandwiches. I made a loaf of wheat bread in the bread machine Sunday after church, froze it for a couple of hours so it would be stiff enough for slicing, and then I was able to cut off the crusts and get a nice long slice to roll up, spread with the Pimiento Cheese, and cut into pinwheels. I figured I was home free on that idea, but then Monday morning the bread, which I'd thawed, didn't roll up well at all, so I just sliced the bread and cut it into heart shapes. I'd still like to make a pinwheel finger sandwich that is on real bread, not on a tortilla, but I want the bread to be longer than a regular slice of bread. Ideas, anyone?

The Arnold Palmer Cupcake recipe was sent me by my sister, who found it here. I've been drinking my friend Beth's famous Lemonade Tea for years, but only last weekend did I learn (from some Foot Network guy) that an Arnold Palmer is the name of the drink that's half sweet tea, half lemonade. Who knew? (OK, the golfers knew, but I'm not into golf.) I found the teapot cupcake picks on eBay, from this seller and this seller, both of whom had great service and prices. I ordered from two different sources just one week ago, hoping at least one set of picks would arrive in time for the tea. And they both did. No wonder I love eBay.

And following are a few more miscellaneous pictures. One of them is of a silver overlay dish I found the other week (a real bargain at just $2.75) at an antique mall. I didn't realize until polishing it up to use with the pink rose sugar cubes I made that the little dish matches the tea pitcher I found a few weeks back. Love when that happens. And I love hosting tea parties!