Tag Archives: afternoon tea

Afternoon Teas, General, Summer

Old Country Rose Afternoon Tea

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I love afternoon tea any time of the year.  However, I especially like a good cup of tea, dainty sandwiches, and of course, a sweet or two, outside on a warm and calm day in the summer.  Here on PEI, where we are surrounded by water, it is hard to find a day where there is not a breeze blowing.  However, last Saturday was such a day when the temperatures were soaring slightly past the 30C mark with hardly a breeze!   It was a good day for a summer tea under the shade of some big old trees.

My inspiration for my teascapes comes from many sources, often from the season of the year, flowers in bloom, or a particular food item that I envision on a tea table.  My Old Country Rose Tea was inspired by an old rose tree we planted at the back door of the cottage 20 years ago.  It blooms profusely and every year we think it may just break apart or stop blooming but each year, it produces a bountiful profusion of beautiful deep rose-colored roses.  These roses are the kind that the blooms only last a day or two.  Our Atlantic winters are not kind and, being so close to the Northumberland Strait, salt spray is also an element our trees, shrubs, and bushes must contend with.  So, today’s teascape began with a small bouquet of roses from outside the back door.

I looked through my collection of teapots to find one that would be suitable and selected this Sadler that seems very summery.

The teacups I chose featured roses as well.

Why does tea always seem to taste better in a china cup and saucer?

Teacups are too pretty not to be used.  I look for ways and opportunities to use and enjoy them rather than storing them away.

Because it was so hot, I chose to serve cool and refreshing cucumber sandwiches.

I love to decorate food with flowers….just make sure they are the edible kind!

Add cubes of melon, cheese, and some grapes.

This year, I made several bottles of Rhubarb Cordial so served some of this refreshing drink as well as Assam tea.

Naturally, there had to be something for the sweet tooth.  I made another batch of my Lemon Spritz Shortbread Cookies (my April 2013 “Cookie of the Month”) because they remind me so much of summer and are so light tasting.

And, for the finale, vanilla cupcakes iced in rich buttercream icing.

Cupcakes are a simple and more informal way to serve cake at an event.

And, when it was all assembled, this is what the tiered tea tray looked like.

And, here is an overview of the tea table.

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse into my early summer tea.

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Afternoon Teas, General, Winter

Snowflake Afternoon Tea

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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 “the Bistro” today. There are lots of ways to connect with “the Bistro” through social media:

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Barbara

Afternoon Teas, Fall, General

Harvest Afternoon Tea

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.

Thank you for visiting “the Bistro” today. There are lots of ways to connect with “the Bistro” through social media:

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Afternoon Teas, General, Summer

Summer Sunshine Afternoon Tea

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!

Afternoon Teas, General, Summer

Lady Lilac Afternoon Tea

Tea table set in front of a blooming lilac tree
Lady Lilac Afternoon Tea

 

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.

Tea Table set in front of a lilac tree
Afternoon Tea by the Lilac Tree

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!

Cup of tea in front of the lilac tree
Tea Time by the Lilac Tree

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.

Tea cake for afternoon tea in front of the lilac tree
Tea Time Treats by the Lilac Tree
Afternoon Teas, General, Mother's Day

Mother’s Day 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!

 

Thank you for visiting “the Bistro” today. There are lots of ways to connect with “the Bistro” through social media:

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Afternoon Teas, General, Valentines

“Sweetheart and Roses” Valentine Tea

So, it’s Valentine’s Day – the day of all things sweet.  This year, I decided to host an afternoon tea to commemorate the special day.  As I soon discovered after just a wee bit of research, there is more than one kind of afternoon tea.  There are Cream Teas where tea, scones, jam, and cream are served.  There are Light Teas where you are likely to find sweets served along with tea and scones.  Then, there are Savory Teas where you might find such tasty temptations as tiny sandwiches (crusts removed, of course), small quiches, or appetizers on the menu….and you get the idea.  Teas can be relatively simplistic or they can be lavishly elaborate.

To my knowledge, on PEI in winter, we don’t have any hotels or restaurants that offer a traditional full-scale formal afternoon tea.  In the summer season, the Dalvay-By-The-Sea Hotel on PEI’s North Shore, Mrs. Profitt’s Tea Room in the Orient Hotel in Victoria-By-The-Sea on the Island’s South Shore, and the Blue Winds Tea Room in Clinton, near New London, offer tea service.  I’m not sure why this niche has largely escaped the Island but, from my afternoon tea experiences elsewhere while travelling – most notably at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, at different hotels in London, England, and on several cruise ships, it’s a very charming and relaxing way to while away an afternoon.

For my “Sweetheart and Roses Valentine’s Tea”, I chose a pink theme (still a little tired of all the red from Christmas!) and I sort of crossed a Light Tea with a Savory Tea.  The appointed hour was 4:30pm.

Valentine’s Afternoon Tea

On the Menu:  Currant scones and tea biscuits with raspberry jam, small quiches followed by a selection of dainty sweets that included French macaroons, melting moments, shortbread, squares, decorated sugar cookies, and Linzer cookies.  For dessert, I served a vanilla layer cake covered in buttercream icing swirled in a rose design.  For my tea selection, I chose Stash English Breakfast.  While that may sound odd to have a “breakfast” tea in the afternoon, it is my favourite kind of tea so that’s what I went with.  I set the table with a white Irish linen tablecloth and my finest China (including lots of tiered and pedestal plates) and we were off to enjoy our Valentine’s Day Afternoon Tea.

“Sweetheart and Roses Valentine’s Tea”

Valentine’s Day is all about spending time with the people who mean the most to you.  It’s less important the big bouquets of red roses, the Valentine-themed boxes of chocolates, or teddy bears carrying hearts or any of a myriad of other commercial and material gifts than it is spending time together.  So, whatever your Valentine’s Day carries for you, I wish you the time well spent and enjoyed with your favourite people.  Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!