is finger food- especially tea time finger food.
I love preparing food for tea- love garnishing and presenting it-
and most of all I LOVE eating it.
We had an afternoon tea for my niece and her family today.
I used an ice cream scoop and made watermelon balls that I served in a water pitcher.
Then cleaned a pineapple and cut it into spears which I placed in the empty
melon – with the pineapple crown on top with coconut slices and mint leaves
to garnish.
Chocolate meringues,using Celia’s recipe!
Cranberry and almond Welsh scones-you can find the basic recipe here- just substitute craisins and sliced almonds for the lavender.
Apple spice babycakes (I was kind of in a French state of mind, hence the flags!)
Bacon and sundried tomato mini quiches- yum!
Basmati rice and pine nut and mint meatballs with Hawaiian barbeque sauce!
Served with hot Darjeeling tea and ginger and lemon iced tea- it was a great
menu- a wonderful visit- and we had a great time visiting and snacking.
I really wish I could sit down with all my blog friends and share a cup of tea
and a plateful of goodies. My niece, Martha, blogs at The Weinhardts , and I
haven’t seen her in over a year, so it was like sitting down with a blogger
friend and sharing recipes (she brought me a pretzel roll that she promises
to put up the recipe for on her blog soon!)
So – I was thinking about all of you, my internet friends, as I was preparing this
food- and if we could I’d love to have you all over to tea!
(Although we actually met at my sister Cynthia’s house! LOL! I was so tired and
my house is cluttered with all the stuff we brought back from Chincoteague last
week that I couldn’t clean my house and cook for the same event. Cynthia did the
cleaning and I did the cooking/baking. We make a good team! 
That is a sight to warm the cockles of my heart ( no idea what they look like though or where the expression comes from. What a delightful spread you have laid on for us all here. I must do a little blogging this week, I have photos, just not quite got organised…. it will happen once I have tucked into that plate of mini flans !! xx Joanna
So glad you could come, Joanna! I looked up cockles of the heart in Wiki and it either refers to a bi valve sea creature or a Geordie saying. I looked up cockle in a Geordie reference book and it referred to spit. So I’m not sure where the saying comes from although the connotation is of a warm feeling that goes deep.
Anyway- I do love to get to the roots of things so I enjoyed the jaunt even if it led no where fast!
I have been planting today- and since my beds are not in good shape, most of my plants are going into containers this year.
Looking forward to your next blog post.
goodness that was a long time ago that I wrote that.. I just had a scour of the internet and came up with this ” The English phrase ‘cockles of my heart’ refers to the ventricles of the heart (Latin: cochleae cordis).’ sounds plausible. Someone wrote something about it here http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-coc2.htm
It was wonderful!! So are you! Your details always make things look and taste very special. Thanks so much.
You are thoroughly welcome, Carole! It was very good- and I was pleased with the “look” of the table and the great conviviality of the womenfolks. The men were rather caught up in computers and didn’t truly take time to enjoy what they were eating- except Christopher and Timothy- one with the watermelon and the other with small tidbits!
Hi Heidi, It was a wonderful Tea. The food was great and the company was also great. Thank you !
We do make a good team, Cynthia! Thank you.
Dear Heidi,
I love the way you have decorated that watermelon and those mini quiches would be gone in no time if they were on my dining table. How good is a combination like bacon and sun-dried tomatoes!!
Thanks Chopinand!
If I hadn’t chosen stay at home mom and cottage baker as my life’s work- I would have loved to have a tea shop/ bakery. I love to garnish and play with the look as well as the flavors of food. That is why I so loved the breast cancer/ jelly mould competition you and mysaucepan did last year! Everything looked so good
Bacon is good in combination with EVERYTHING!
You two ARE a good team!!! My love cup sure was filled up spending the afternoon with everyone. 🙂 Where do I begin to start my comments on all you did? Sitting in a cool and comfortable living room (with enough room to divide the womenfolk and our recipe talk from the men and their computers and politcal mumblings), sipping that fabulous tea (I never did get any of the chilled tea as I kept going back for the hot ginger tea), watching Timothy in his glory with all that yumminess (he’s my co-foodie in the family) and Christopher loving his favorite food – watermelon! Stephen LOVED the pineapple spears and asked me if I could make them here. And by the way, Aunt Heidi also had some delicious slivers of coconut in the top of the pineapple that was so delicious! The French flags were more than appropriate since the boys are in French Immersion classes – they noticed them right away. My favorite had to have been those fabulous meatballs, though! Mmmmmm! I guess if the sauce was a Hawaiian BBQ sauce, there will be no way I could replicate it, but wow. Was that beyond tasty!!
More than the appetizing food, though, was the engaging conversations we had. I always learn something when I’m with you both and the short time we spent was very precious to me. If we didn’t have to run off to another family event that evening, I would have been thrilled to stay and chat and sip more tea!
Thank you both for sacrificing your afternoon for our family. All the attention to detail made me feel special and I will treasure our short time together!
Oh, and yes, I’ll get that pretzel bun recipe posted eventually, but first I’d better finish the Florida post from March!! Haha!
Martha- Hawaiian bbq sauce has pineapple and mangoes chopped fine in it.
I am always partial to the Basmati rice and meatballs- it is one of my favorite dishes- I make a big batch of meatballs and freeze what I don’t use . Then I pop them into the cooler when headed down to Chincoteague, make rice and add sauce when we get there. It is a fast and festive meal!
It was wonderful to see you again- it has been over a year, I think.
And I loved the pretzel roll- I do want that recipe- but will wait patiently until you do Part two of your Florida trip.
(I’ve already been waiting pretty patiently- get Fred to teach you how to upload/down load your pictures!!) 🙂