Laurie’s Cobalt World Blog

I really thought that I would sleep until noon today after the fun, but very exhausting weekend.  But no, I woke up the regular time.  I think a nap is in my future!

My husband says that I’m great at estimating how much time a task takes - and terrible at factoring in all of the things that will happen to prevent me from being on task.  This weekend was a prime example.

I decided to go to a church sale on Saturday morning.  I’d heard about it last year and mentally planned on it for this year, not thinking that I’d be hosting a tea party on Sunday afternoon. 

I called my mom to see if she wanted to go.  She asked my dad and then we decided to invite my sister, who turned out to be babysitting her two infant grandchildren. 

We planned to be there by 7:30 and got there at a quarter of 9:00 instead.  It seemed a waste to go to just one sale since we were by then all assembled, so we took in a few more.

Then we had a flat tire.  Then we visited a few more. 

After several more sales, we were starving, so of course we had to have lunch.

The long and the short of it is that we got home at 3:00 p.m. on the day I was supposed to be cooking up a storm!

So, I got home and got to work - in a bit of a frenzy.  Andrew put the turkey roast into the oven and tended to that so I didn’t have to think about it again.

I started to zest limes for the lime cooler cookies, but couldn’t find the zester.  My zester is one of my all-time favorite kitchen tools.  Where would something like that wander off to?  We looked and looked and then decided to go with an alternate plan.

I don’t have a grater with a zester side to it.  I’ve always used my zester that does such a wonderful job.  So, I finally used a potato peeler using a lot of outward pressure to leave the pith behind.  Then I diced and diced and diced.  It took longer, but the end product was successful.

Then I juiced 12 limes and made the dough and glaze.

We got two sheets of cookies finished and glazed before it was time to stop and get ready for a dance.  We couldn’t skip it because the club was a little low on help and we needed to be there to help break things down at the end.  (I wouldn’t want to skip it anyway.)

Not having had time to think about what kind of refreshment we could take to the dance, we decided to take the cookies displayed on the inverted thistle large pedsetal cake stand.  They were very popular.

The dance was great.  I sat out very few numbers and was exhausted at the end.  So when our friends asked if we had the time and energy to go out after the dance, which is our usual custom, we were level-headed and said that we had to go to bed and get some rest for the next day - NOT!  We went out and stayed at the restaurant until ten minutes before 1:00 a.m.  We had a great time.

However, in the morning, I had a hard time thinking, walking, and keeping my balance (no, we didn’t drink).  After a cup of coffee, which I rarely drink, I was finally able to get my act together and get on with the crazy, busy, fun day ahead.

So now, all of my great plans to make ahead, cook ahead, and have a restful Mother’s Day just attending to the last minute details turned into a cooking circus.

Thank goodness my children are older and capable - and that my husband cooks!

I started on the petits fours.  Never, ever, ever make petits fours on the day you are going to serve them.  They will devour time.  And, it ended up that they were one of the less popular items.  With a double layer of poured fondant, they are pretty but so sweet that you can enjoy just one.

My middle daughter was in charge of buttering bread.  We had a grainy, nutty bread for turkey sandwiches with cranberry mustard.  We used a marble rye/pumpernickel swirl for my favorite tea sandwiches, and we used a gourmet white bread for the cucumber sandwiches.

With the turkey, we sliced the boneless turkey roast moderately thin.  Then I mixed 1/4 cup cranberry sauce with 1/4 cup coarse ground prepared mustard.  A thin coat of the mustard on each side of the bread plus the turkey worked out nicely.

I’m a fanatic about keeping sandwiches moist, so everything was kept in bags or under plastic wrap except when it was actually being buttered or assembled.

The favorite tea sandwiches helped me find an error on my blog!  I had left out the bleu cheese from the recipe.  Luckily, I generally go to my own website and print out recipes when I cook and had done so for the tea sandwiches.  My apologies to anyone who tried them before and wondered why in the world I had suggested the recipe.  It is repaired now.  They were the favorite sandwiches at the tea, too, and not just my personal favorite.  Try them out next time you need a party sandwich.

The cucumber standwiches were a hit, too.  They were simple to make.  My daughter peeled the cucumbers, sliced them thinly and then placed a thin, but overlapping layer on the buttered bread.  Then she cut off the crusts and sliced them into dainty triangles.

We made more cookies, and began scrambling to get china and serving dishes assembled. I had used our sugar and creamer for the tea and was fretting that I didn’t have a creamer for the coffee.  My husband Andrew replied, “Yes, you do,” and pointed at the Laurie’s Cobalt World door in our home.  So I now have an Inverted Thistle pattern coffee creamer and sugar bowl.  I wonder if he had noticed that I also have a Nicole glass serving plate with handles.  I had to have something for the third plate of sandwiches, didn’t I?

So much for the rule against Laurie’s Cobalt World glass not ending up in my kitchen.  Hee hee hee.

As the hour drew near, the kitchen sounded and looked more like a kitchen in a greasy spoon during lunchtime.  We were wiping, moving, dancing around each other, and getting it all together, maybe just a few minutes late, but it seemed to work out okay.

The number one rule for a tea party is to have plenty of boiling water.  I set a large pot to boil and found it cold ten minutes later.  The kids said that sometimes you have to turn it off and on again, if the knob doesn’t click into the “hi” position right the first time.  So we tried again.  Again, it didn’t get hot.  I found that the cassette had wiggled slightly out of the socket, so it took the third time, I suppose as a charm, to get the water to boil.

Luckily, I had arranged my flowers for the centerpiece on Tuesday (I’ll be writing about how I did that pretty soon).  I had made the corsage of silk flowers on Thursday.  We beaded the napkin rings beginning on Saturday, but then I forgot that I had six not yet completed in my craft room - and remembered about 15 mintues before our guests were to arrive.  [Sign up for our newsletter to find out how to bead the napkin rings- they'll be in June's edition.]  Luckily, I had passed by the table where my husband had the napkins folded or I would not have noticed in time.

Twenty minutes before the guests arrived, I popped the apricot-cream cheese scones into the oven (seemed they could have used a touch more milk in them).  It turns out that if we had had only tea and scones, everyone would have still been most pleased.  They were by far the most popular item.  I had made the lemon curd on Saturday, woven in around making the lime cookies.  And I had purchased the double cream on Friday. 

I also served black raspberry jam and orange marmelade, but I think we could have easily skipped those.  The double cream and the lemon curd were much, much more popular.

Lemon Curd Recipe

1/2 cup butter (not margaine)
grated peel of 1 lemon
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg

In the top of a double boiler over medium high heat, melt butter.  Add the lemon peel, lemon juice and sugar.  Mix well.

Using a whisk, add the egg and egg yolks, continue to whisk and cook for about 20 minutes, until the mixture is thick and smooth.

Cool.  Place into covered containers.  Refrigerate.  Will last approximately a week in the refrigerator.

* * * * * * *

I had been disappointed that the market where I normally get clotted cream was out and I could only get double cream (clotted cream is 55% fat while double cream is 48% fat).  Clotted cream is supposed to taste better, but we all liked the double cream better. 

Before my next tea party, I want to get some small teaspoons to go with my china tea cups.  And I want to get more tea cups.  With coffee and hot chocolate drinkers, we had just enough tea cups.  But next time, we could easily run out. 

I will also skip the petits fours.  I love the currant jelly taste of them, but for the time they take and the “one’s my limit” reaction I got to them, I’m going to say they just weren’t worth it.

We also had chocolate mint lentils (they look like pastel M & M’s, just a bit classier), but they weren’t that popular.  I had meant to make brownies with pastel icing but let the weekend get away from me.  I think it was just as well.  Chocolate just didn’t seem to fit, for some reason.

I also left my carrot flowers and butterflies in the refrigerator that I had planned to use to garnish the sandwich platters.  I did remember to line the trays with lettuce (we used romaine).  That did help keep the sandwiches from drying out.  But I really would have loved to have had my flowers and butterflies, too.  (I will be posting a blog on making them later this week, so please check back.)

The tea party was a success I think.  The main thing was that my mother felt honored and seemed to really enjoy herself. 

I’m really glad that we hosted this tea party.  Next year, however, I’m taking the day off.

We’re less than two weeks until Mother’s Day and that means less than two weeks until our Mother’s Day tea.  This weekend, my number one goal was to make invitations and get them out. 

I first thought I’d look for ideas on the internet but I really didn’t find anything that I liked.  So I went to the drawing board and created my own design.  I am pleased with how they turned out.  According to my husband, the pictures don’t do them justice.  But I think you can get some ideas of what you can do with the patterns yourself.

And yes, I’m going to give you the free printable patterns for the tea party invitations.  And you don’t have to join anything to sign up to get them, either.

First, gather your supplies.  You will need the following:

- 1 sheet of decorative paper for each pair of teapot invitations, if you want to print two per page

- scraps of decorative paper to trim the teapots (may also use glitter, buttons, lace, etc.)

- 1 sheet of color-coordinating cardstock for each invitation

- color-coordinating solid paper to print the wording on  - 3 fit per page

- 1 sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock for the envelope pattern

- 1 sheet of 12 x 12 colored cardstock paper for each envelope (may also be called cover stock)

- scissors

- glue sticks

- ruler

- pencil

Cut the colored cardstock into rectangles 7-3/4 inches long and 6 inches wide.  One for each invitation.

Use the teapot template and print out as many teapots as you will need for invitations.  I printed mine on the back of the paper so that I didn’t have to worry about partially showing black lines.  Also, I wanted them to have a more handmade look and feel rather than the look of something I just printed out. 

Test print the teapot.  Make sure the teapot is 5-1/8″ tall.  If not, adjust the image size before printing on your fancy paper.

Carefully cut out the teapots and use the glue sticks to attach one to each card.

Cut two small rectangles from coordinating paper (or use other trimmings).  The top band is 3-1/8 inches wide and 1/4 inch tall.  The bottom band is also 3-1/8 inches wide, but is 1/2 inch tall.  Use the glue stick to glue on the decorations.

Print the wording using this template.  It is in MS Word.  If you need a different format, email me.  The image should be around the wording and should be 2-1/2 inches tall and 4-1/2 inches wide.  If you need to adjust it, do so before you change the wording to your own.  Cut out the wording, removing all traces of the black guide.  Glue the wording onto the teapot.

You are not quite done.  You will need to make a coordinating envelope, too.

Start with the white 12 x 12 cardboard and make a template.  That will make the remaining envelopes very easy to make.

The directions may sound complicated, but if you take them one step at a time, it won’t be hard.

Near the bottom left hand corner, along the bottom, write “bottom” so that you can keep the template oriented the same way as you follow the directions.

We will start by drawing a parallelogram on the cardstock.

Starting in the bottom left-hand corner, measure 11-1/8 inches up the left side and place a dot.  Repeat on the right side, measuring up from the bottom right-hand corner.  Connect the dots with a line.  Cut on the line. 

Now measure from the bottom left-hand corner across the bottom of the paper 11-1/8 inches and place a dot.  You will repeat on the top line, but you will be starting on the top right-hand corner and measure measuring to the left 11-1/8 inches.   

Connect the bottom left-hand corner and the top left dot with a line.  Cut off the long, tall triangle that results.  Connect the bottom right dot with the top right corner with a line.  Cut off the long, tall triangle that results.  Your cardstock will look like a square that has been pushed over just slightly.

Starting on the bottom left-hand corner, measure to the right 4-1/2 inches and also 5-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the bottom right-hand corner, measure up 5-1/2 inches and 6-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the top right-hand corner, measure left 4-1/2 inches and 5-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the top left-hand corner, measure down 5-1/2 inches and 6-1/2 inches and place a dot in each location. 

Now here’s the hard part (not to do, for me to explain).  Imagine an unbalanced tic-tac-toe board with a huge center and small outside squares.  Connect the dots to make such a tic-tac-toe pattern, which will create a small triangle near the middle of each side.  Snip out those triangles.

(Alternatively, you can number the dots.  Starting from the bottom left and continuing to the right, 1 & 2. Then turn and go up the right-hand side and number them 3 & 4.  Turn left again and go across the top, and number them 5 & 6.  Turn left again and number the last two 7 & 8.  Connect 1 to 4, 2 to 7, 3 to 6,  and 5 to 8.)

From the top left-hand corner, measure down 1-1/4 inches and then to the right 1-1/4 inches.  Connect the dots, draw a line, and cut off the corner.  That corner is the bottom flap of the envelope.

Use the template to draw the pattern on the 12 x 12 cardstock paper (thinner than cardstock but heavier than typing paper), 1 per invitation.  To assemble, turn the bottom flap up first (the one with the tip cut off).  Fold in the right and left sides at the same times, making sure you match the tips.  Use the glue stick to glue just the outside of the bottom edges of the side flaps.  Dry completely.

If you want to line the envelope, you can line the entire back, but it makes it hard to fold unless you have some very thin paper.  I used the top flat template (down to where the little triangle cut-outs start on each side).  Then glued that triangle to the top flap, aligning the bottom of the triangle with the crease.

Fold the top over.  You may a glue stick or use a seal to close the envelope once the invitation is inside.

While I don’t think that you have to knock yourself out every time you entertain, every now and then it’s nice to pull out all of the stops and attend to every little detail.  For me, this tea party is going to be just that kind of event.