An Un-fancy Tea Party

A couple of weeks ago, two of my children's friends came over to play for the day. While the children were content to play, I decided I wanted to have a fancy tea party. As is often the case with me, I dream big, but then reality steps in. Time and baby made it necessary for me to scale back my plans.

So here is what it takes to make a very un-fancy tea party.

First, of course, is the foundation-- a rumpled, from-the-back-of-the-linen-closet tablecloth that doesn't fit our table.  Since it truly was a tea party, ours was herbal iced-tea served in a plastic pitcher and be-Sharpied blue Solo cups. Also notice the mismatched paper plates and napkins in the background. These were leftovers from previous celebrations. Wait. Could that be microwaved hotdogs in the background?

Why, yes, I do think I see toothpicks attempting to make slices of hotdogs and cheese a bit fancier. Those gross-looking things were actually mini-quiches. Well, at least, it's what I imagine mini-quiches to be; I just put some pie crust in muffin tins and baked them up with broccoli, ham, egg, cheese and cream. The boys liked them; the girls not so much.

Now the fanciest I got was these little failures of green bean packets. I don't know what got into me. I guess I'd seen something like it on the Food Network before (was is you, Paula Deen?). But I was in too much of a hurry to actually look online to see how to do it right. It was nearly impossible to keep those carrots from breaking, and all the little packets ended up falling apart. At least it was much healthier than hotdogs.

And for dessert we had these yummy peanut butter thumbprint cookies from the C is for Cooking Sesame Street cookbook. I love that cookbook. Plus my son made his zucchini bread with a few added chocolate chips.

Do I think the children will store up memories of this day as their most treasured? Probably not. But I did enjoy playing around with the food a little bit. And the un-fanciness of it all sure made it easier to pull off.