March 18, 2015

• Tea Party

  I invited a friend over for lunch and decided to try out some new recipes and have a tea party.  I made an easy tomato basil bisque, made even easier by the lack of fresh basil in our local grocery stores. I just used the dry stuff in my spice cupboard. I also substituted lactose free milk for the buttermilk.

  

  To go with the soup, I made orange and cranberry tea sandwiches. The "orange and cranberry" part was in the spread that I made last night. I bought a small loaf of thinly sliced white bread - possibly the first time I've ever bought white bread - for the sandwiches, spread the bread with the orange and cranberry spread, and added smoked turkey and a cheese made with bits of black pepper. Of course I cut the sandwiches into triangles. They were delicious. A few sweet, seedless red grapes completed the main course.

  

  For dessert I made Chocolate-Espresso Pots de Creme. I had to make a couple of substitutions to this recipe. The half-and-half was substituted with lactose free milk. I couldn't find instant espresso, and not sure I would have been willing to pay for it if I'd found it since I only needed a half-tablespoonful. I substituted what we had in the cupboard - vanilla flavored instant coffee. I had all the other ingredients on hand and made the dessert last night. I poured it into three mismatched antique teacups I've had for years and never found a good reason to use.

  

  At nearly the last second, I realized I hadn't thought about what to drink with our 'tea' and had a moment of panic until I remembered the little tubes of Crystal Light in the cupboard. Each tube contains just enough powder to flavor a 20 oz. bottle of water. I mixed three bottles of raspberry-lemonade Crystal Light and poured them into my glass pitcher. Voila!

  

  Since there were only two of us, I cut all the recipes in half, but there was plenty of sandwich spread leftover, along with a small bowl of the bisque, a handful of grapes, and the last teacup I filled last night which was only about 2/3 full. So I made an extra sandwich and cut it into triangles, reheated the bisque and my husband was able to enjoy 'tea' when he arrived home from work. It was a fun and different thing to do and I plan to keep a couple of those recipes in my repertoire.

  • 5:45 pm
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