Tea Time

[hopeallgoeswell]

I am planning Tea Time Fridays with my daughters (3, 6, and 9). Ideally, it will include menu planning, shopping, cooking, etiquette, poetry, and, most importantly, bring us all closer together.

 

We have a tea set donated by great-grandma. There is a tea place nearby. Poetry has been selected, more or less. My questions are concerning etiquette books and tea time recipes. Can anyone comment on these:

 

Emily Post for Kids

American Girl's Manners

Everyday Graces

 

I am completely at a loss on the tea time food recipe book. I saw several on Amazon that looked interesting (lots of pictures!).

[MrsMommy]

I like Afternoon Tea and The Perfect Afternoon Tea Recipe Book the best.

 

Also, if you have specific recipes in mind, you might find some on All Recipes. I do tea parties occasionally, and I found a great chocolate chip scone recipe, as well as one for "Devonshire Cream." Not sure about the authenticity, but they were delicious, and certainly worked for our purposes!

[inherownwrite]

I adore afternoon tea. One of my favorite books written on the subject is The Afternoon Tea Book by Michael Smith. It was written in the 80s, but it is a great resource. The first half of the book is a history of all things tea and the second half is filled with recipes. It really is an amazing book and worth tracking down.

 

For menu planning help, check the afternoon tea menus at hotels & tea houses. Here are a few to get you started:

 

The Ritz London

The Plaza, NYC

Alice's Tea Cup

The Grand Floridian, Disney World

American Girl Afternoon Tea

 

With the ages of your children, however, the key is to keep it simple but cute. You can put together a beautiful tea with simple tea sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ham and cheese/turkey and cheese, cucumber sandwiches...), scones and cream, and sweets. The sandwiches can be made special by just using cookie cutters to cut them out. For sweets, you could make mini cupcakes, shortbread cookies, chocolate covered strawberries or chocolate covered marshmallows dipped is sparkly sugars, fruit cabobs, fairy bread....I could go on and on (can you tell I love afternoon tea!) I guess it is really all about presentation...make it small and cute :)

 

For the tea itself, you could do a traditional black (Twining's Afternoon Tea is a favorite of mine) or an herbal tea (my 4 year old love's Stash's Wild Raspberry Hibiscus). Pink lemonade, hot chocolate, or apple cider also work really well.

 

I've went on too long...I hope this helps out a bit. Have fun with your tea parties!

Edited July 14, 2012 by inherownwrite

[inherownwrite]

Tea for Ruby by Sarah Ferguson is a great little picture book about a little girl who has been invited to have tea with the queen. Throughout the book, she is reminded to use her manners when having tea with the queen. My kids really enjoyed the pictures (it is illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser, who does the Fancy Nancy series) and didn't realize they were learning basic etiquette. The book is recommended for ages 4-8.

[Ellie]

My favorite book for the proper etiquette for serving tea is Miss Manners' Guide to Excricuatingly Correct Behavior. You can probably find it in your local library. :-)

 

I'm sure you can find recipes for tea sandwiches and whatnot at the library, as well.

[hands-on-mama]

Just wanted to say thisis an awesome idea! I may have to try this with my girls!

[Eileen Aroon]

I love this. So glad I have 3 girls (and a compliant boy)!

 

I am connecting our tea parties to our read-alouds. When we finish one we have a tea party and we talk about it. I was thinking of matching the party to the book, but then you get books like Island of theBlue Dolphins and I can't think of how to work that. I would rather just have delicious traditional treats and a good subject for conversation.

[A.Balaban]

This is such a neat idea!! I will have to try this out when my kiddos get older. I wish I had more girls!!!