My Island Bistro Kitchen

Archive for the ‘Afternoon Teas’ Category

I love afternoon tea.  It’s such a peaceful, tranquil, and genteel experience.  It’s the perfect way to celebrate Mother’s Day.  Today, I share photos from my Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea.  Enjoy!

On the tea menu:  Cucumber and tomato sandwiches, strawberry custard, shortbread, and rainbow marshmallow square.  Tea Pairing:  New English Teas’ English Afternoon Tea (Coventry, England).

Cucumber and Tomato Sandwiches

Cool and refreshing cucumber sandwiches.

Tomato sandwiches on thinly sliced artisan bread.

Smooth and creamy strawberry custard and fresh fruit skewers.

Strawberry Custard

I love these colorful and tasty treats, particularly when served in these petite dishes!

Dainty spritz shortbread and rainbow marshmallow squares satisfy the sweet tooth!

Love the pastel shades which are suitable for springtime tea events.

I love how these colors blend attractively on the plate.

Teatime treats are typically petite and dainty.

Teacups and teapot are Japanese porcelain.

Tableware does not need to all match perfectly for a tea table.  It just needs to blend well and the pieces compliment each other.  Having different patterns creates interest and doesn’t look so matchy-matchy.

These are marvelously-designed delicate cups on pedestals.  They look very grand, stately, and elegant, don’t you think!

Love the filigree trim on the saucers.

This slim-line teapot looks very stately and in command on the tea table.

A mixed bouquet of roses is a great compromise when I can’t decide on one particular color theme!

Although by no means the only floral option, roses tend to be perennial favorites for tea table accents.

This four-tier stand is a great space saver, particularly for small tea tables.

While my favorite plates are white because the food shows up so splendidly on them, I like the floral on these plates for a tea table.

Beautiful roses!

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse into my Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea.  It was grand fun.

Happy Mother’s Day To All Moms!

By now, you have probably concluded that I like afternoon teas!  So, today, I share photos from my Easter Tea.

Let’s begin with a stylized salad served in a hollowed-out cucumber cup.

And, of course, the most logical tea sandwiches for Easter would be made with egg salad and garnished with carrot sticks.

The little Easter eggs scattered on the table are actually little wooden eggs I hand-painted some years ago when I was doing a lot of decorative painting.

I love the bright, cheerful colors of Easter but what would Easter be without something chocolate!

The bright yellow tulips are from the Vanco Tulip Farm in Mt. Albion, PEI.

Love these little chocolate nests filled with tiny miniature Easter eggs!  The fudge brownies were pretty awesome, too!

Seasonal cookie shapes of pink bunnies and lambs also found their way on to the Easter tea table along with melting moments sandwiched together with bright-colored buttercream icing.

I am always looking for creative uses for my teacup collection.  Here, I have used them to serve brightly-colored Easter cupcakes.

Dainty little Scotch cookies decorated for the Easter season.

Decorating seasonal cookies is one of my passions – can you tell?

 Fun and whimsical!  Certain conversation pieces, for sure!

I realized, too late, that I had forgotten to take a close-up of my Easter teapot on the tea table.  Fortunately, I had another photograph of it so here is photo of my “Little Lamb Teapot”.

And, when it’s all put together, this is what it looked like.

I hope you have enjoyed these photos of my Easter Tea.  Thank you for visiting my blog today.  I hope you are enjoying this Easter season.

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                                                                                                                                                 Barbara

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!  Today, I am sharing photos from my St. Patrick’s Day Afternoon Tea.

St. Patrick’s Day Afternoon Tea Setting

I love this little square tablecloth and matching napkins.  I bought them some years ago at the Blarney Castle on a visit to Ireland.  It has been a tradition since to display this cloth on St. Patrick’s Day and it always evokes great memories of my visit to the Emerald Isle.

Of course, it’s also a time for me to bring out my small collection of Irish-themed dishes.

The tea offering from the teapot was English Afternoon Tea.

My choice of tea table flowers centered around the colors in the Irish flag – the green mums and Bells of Ireland, the orange roses, and the white tulips which, of course, came from our local PEI tulip growers – Vanco Tulip Farm in Mt. Albion, PEI.

I love these Canadian “loonie” chocolate coins!

On the tea tray menu – Currant scones with homemade raspberry jam, chocolate cupcakes (flavored with a bit of Irish stout, filled with whiskey-flavored chocolate ganache, and frosted with Bailey’s Irish Cream-flavoured icing), and chocolate drop cookies.  The cookies are my March 2013 Cookie of the Month.

These scones are delicately rich!

And, my seedless raspberry jam only makes them that much more delectable!

And, of course, there would have to be a green beverage on the table.

The scones may have been good but the cupcakes were the “icing on the cake”, so to speak!

I like the white and milk chocolate swirled chips in these chocolate drop cookies.

The green color always makes for a bright, colorful, and cheery table!

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse into my version of an afternoon tea to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.   I’ll leave you with this Irish blessing:

May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire.

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For the past few weeks, I have been sharing some of my tablescapes as well as table and afternoon tea settings.  I will share one more afternoon tea setting before I return to my usual food stories and recipes.

What better way to spend a snowy afternoon than having tea with friends.  Living in northeastern Canada, snow is common so I drew my inspiration for this tea from the snowflakes that were gently fluttering and falling outside my window just before the sun came out on this late afternoon.

For this tea, I have opted to host it buffet style and all in a winter white theme accented with gold.

Buffet Afternoon Tea

Lots of shortbread accompanied by coconut macaroons and divinity fudge, some made into wee snowballs.

Winter White Sweets

A light dusting of confectioner’s sugar gives the illusion of snow on these sugar cookie snowflakes!

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Dainty French macaroons sandwiched together with buttercream icing are light and airy.  They make a fine addition to any tea table.

Eggnog, always a seasonal beverage, goes well with vanilla cupcakes which are decorated with edible snowflakes.

These cupcakes, frosted with almond buttercream icing and presented in their white and gold snowflake wrappers, were the stars of the afternoon tea!

I love these elegant and delicate gold and white teacups.

Mini white carnations blend well with the winter white setting.

Dining Room Fireplace Mantle Backdrop for Snowflake Buffet Afternoon Tea

I found these candles at our local Winners store and I knew immediately what they would be used for!  They added glow and ambiance to a late afternoon tea.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.  I hope you have enjoyed this soft white winter tea.  Please be sure to drop back to my food blog soon for new food stories and recipes in 2013.

If you enjoyed this post, why not subscribe to my feed by entering your email address in the subscribe box in the upper corner of the left-hand sidebar.  That way, you will receive an email notification whenever I add a new posting to this blog.

Barbara

One of the most relaxing ways to spend an afternoon over the Christmas holiday season is with an afternoon tea.  As someone who loves to bake, I always seem to “over-do” it on the baking front at Christmas!

Holiday Afternoon Tea Setting

Living on an Island on Canada’s East Coast, we have ready access to lobster.  I maintain there is no comparison to our fine quality lobster that comes out of the cold Atlantic waters.  Lobster at Christmas is one of our traditions.  This year, the prices have been particularly good for consumers (CD$4.99/lb, uncooked; $5.99/lb, cooked) but not so much for the lobster fishers.  Naturally, I chose lobster sandwiches for my holiday tea!

Lobster Sandwiches

The filling for the lobster sandwiches was nothing more than the lobster, finely chopped celery, mayonnaise, a squirt or two of lemon juice, and a bit of Dijon mustard.  I don’t like to add any ingredients that will detract from the fresh taste of the lobster itself.

I served locally-made Eggnog from Charlottetown’s Purity Dairy.  With a sprinkle of nutmeg, this seasonal beverage was very tasty!  And, of course, freshly brewed tea served in my newly-acquired Sadler Christmas teapot and matching cups and saucers, rounded out the beverage menu.

Sadler Christmas Teapot

I also included my new miniature teaspoons adorned with little teapots.

In addition to my fruit cake, I always try to ensure my Christmas baking includes a mix of squares, cookies, balls, and shortbread.  I also try to ensure a mix of colors and textures on my sweet trays.

Christmas Sweets!

I shaped the macaroons into miniature tree shapes and presented them on their own separate tray.

Macaroon Trees

My tea table is not large so I chose a small floral centerpiece of red and white miniature carnations mixed with seasonal greenery and accented with frothy baby’s breath.

The Tea Table

I love winter afternoon teas by the fireplace!

These tea plates are new this year, too.

Place Setting

Fireside Tea

Must eat these up before they melt by the fire!

I hope you took some well-earned relaxation time over this holiday season and that a nice cuppa tea with some delectable sweet treats were part of your celebration.

Best wishes for a wonderful new year!

Barbara

As we draw near to the end of harvest season, and before we embark on the busy Christmas season, I thought I would share some photographs from my Harvest Afternoon Tea.  Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbors to the South who are celebrating the American Thanksgiving today (November 22, 2012).

The Tea Table

I like the rich colors and tones of autumn – the deep shades of greens, oranges, golds, reds, and rusts.

I love these little matching individual-sized white teapots (photo below)!  I don’t have a large collection of china teacups and saucers but do have some seasonal ones like these fall-themed ones.

My harvest tea table has a distinctive fall theme to it, mostly centered around pumpkin!

The cooler autumn days often sees us drawn closer to the warmth of the fireplace.

Harvest Afternoon Tea Setting

As much as I love the colors of fall, I love the flavours of the season equally well.  One of the least common jams is pumpkin jam and I don’t think I have ever seen it on a store shelf yet it is so tasty and simple to make.  I will soon be publishing a separate posting with the recipe for this jam on my blog so don’t throw out those pumpkins just yet as I will have a use to which you can put them!

For my tea table, I chose a fall-themed menu of homemade biscuits served with the pumpkin jam, petite pumpkin muffins perfectly sized for tea-time, shortbread (which you may know by the name “Scotch cookies”), pumpkin tarts, and thumbprint cookies filled with the pumpkin jam.

These are some of my foods of autumn.

I like the tiered stands and use them frequently on tea tables.  They are convenient, take up less space on the table, and look impressive.

I was able to find these great peach and yellow-colored tea roses which I think really enhanced the tea table.

My living room mantle dressed for autumn makes a great backdrop for the tea table.

The days are starting to get a bit shorter and, here on the Island, we have a saying that when Old Home Week (the Provincial Exhibition) is over the middle of August, so is Summer!  That’s when the daytime temperatures and humidity have historically dropped.  Well, Old Home Week ended last weekend and we have kept our warmer temperatures (25-27C) all week with the exception of today when the high was 21-22C and there was a noticeable drop in humidity levels.  However, I have been reluctant to let go of Summer so took advantage of this week’s warm sunshine to have afternoon tea on the verandah.

Afternoon Tea on the Verandah

As you can see, I chose a yellow theme for my afternoon tea, opting to use some of the new cups and saucers I have added to my collection over the Summer.

My Favorite Yellow Rose Teacup

Yellow always makes me think of summer and lemonade!  I love the bright yellow glads from the garden and I think they made a fine addition to my tea table!!!

Lemonade

Afternoon tea in the soft summer breeze is a great way to have a light meal, particularly in the heat of the summer.

Sandwiches for a Summer Afternoon Tea

And, of course, for Summer sandwiches, there is nothing more refreshing than cool cucumber tea sandwiches along with some garden-fresh tomato sandwiches to accompany them.  And, what would an afternoon tea be without the quintessential egg salad sandwiches!  Here I chose to put a dollop of egg salad atop a toasted bread cube and garnish it with fresh parsley from the cottage herb garden.  I love to step outside the door and be able to pick fresh herbs for anything I am cooking…fresh, as we all know, is always best!  I like to add different shapes and textures to my sandwich tray!

Tea Sandwiches

Tea-time Delectables

Some tasty sweets are always a necessity on any tea table!

The Tea-time Menu!

A pot of freshly brewed tea, some savory sandwiches, tasty sweet treats, comfy wicker chairs, and warm sunshine make a combination that is hard to beat for a Summer afternoon tea on the verandah.

Tea Table

Tea with Lemon

Thanks for visiting my blog today and be sure to drop back soon as I have been working on some upcoming feature stories that will be posted over the next short while.  Enjoy your day!

We have always had this old lilac tree in the front yard of the home in which I grew up.  Some years, only one side of the tree will have blooms but this year, it is pretty well covered in beautiful mauve lilacs.  It was always a sign of Summer when the fragrant lilacs began to bloom and a big yellow monarch butterfly paid a visit.  I love lilacs.  In fact, they are one of my favorite flowers – I love their color (purple and mauve are my favorite colors) , their shape and flow, the delicate small petals, and yes, even the strong scent of them.  They are not, however, generally well accepted as an indoor flower by anyone who is superstitious, probably because of the flower’s association with death or broken engagements.

But there is certainly nothing wrong with enjoying lilacs in the great outdoors.  And, there is no better way than to sit amidst the color and fragrance enjoying a tranquil and relaxing afternoon tea beside the lilacs.  No monarch butterfly visited on this sunny afternoon but several birds, including a hummingbird, hovered around and some of them twittered and tweeted.  They probably wondered why the humans were invading their private habitat that they were not accustomed to sharing!

Today, I visited a local garden center and purchased two French lilac trees.  They are very small but, hopefully, in time, they will grow and provide wonderful blooms and fragrance in the backyard of my own home.  It will be a long time before they reach the size of our big old family lilac tree but maybe at some point in the future they, too, could form a backdrop for a lovely early summer afternoon tea.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers.  I hope you were wonderfully spoiled today.

There are so many ways to celebrate Mom on Mother’s Day.   Some years we have been travelling, other years we have gone to brunches at a favorite hotel restaurant, and other years we have stayed home and had our first lobster “feed” of the season (which is part of what we did this year, too).  However, I decided to host a Mother’s Day Tea this year, also.

I love afternoon teas – they harken back to the genteel days where life moved at a slower pace and times seemed gentler.  Hosting a tea is a wonderful, relaxing way to savour a light meal.  Afternoon teas need not be extravagant (although they are wonderful when they are!).  They can be very simple but, for Mother’s Day, the special day to celebrate mothers, it is nice to dress up the event.  Do set a lovely table complete with pristine linens and your finest china (we all know that tea, for some reason, always tastes best when served in a china cup, right?)

Of course, Mother’s Day in Canada, falling on the second Sunday in May, always coincides closely with the opening of the Spring lobster fishing season in Prince Edward Island.   The first traps were set on May 1st this year with the first catches being landed on the following day.  Many families celebrate Mother’s Day along with their first official “feed” of lobster of the season.  Many a lobster are cracked open and savoured on Mother’s Day weekend in PEI!

For my tea, I opted to make lobster the star attraction.  I made lobster sandwiches and also tried a new recipe for lobster salad in puff pastry from the Spring 2012 issue of Victoria Classic “Teatime Bliss“.  I was not disappointed.  The delicate, flaky pastries filled with lobster salad were a tasty savory addition to my tea.  For those not liking lobster, I included the quintessential cucumber sandwiches as well.

On the beverage front, I served Yellow Tail “Bubbles Rosé” followed, of course, with tea.  My tea offering was “Traditional Afternoon” from Williamson Tea.

For the Mother’s Day cake, I chose a traditional teatime cake – the Battenburg cake.  This is a sponge cake of two colors, assembled in checkerboard fashion, then covered in marzipan and iced with fondant icing.  This made a colorful finale to a wonderful afternoon tea.

Sweets included an assortment of tiny cookies, French Macaroons, coconut macaroons, squares, Scotch cakes, and lemon Madeleines.

I highly encourage afternoon tea any time of the year as a relaxing way to spend some quality time and have some great conversation with those who mean the most to you.  What a grand afternoon!