Fred Said:

Tea party ideas please?

We Answered:

How to Brew and Serve a Proper Cup of Tea

Whether you're planning a special Afternoon Tea Party and want to impress your friends, or you simply love a good cup of tea yourself, here's the proper way to brew and serve a pot of tea.

Difficulty Level: Easy Time Required: 10 minutes
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Here's How:
Fill tea pot with hot tap water to warm it up prior to adding tea leaves and boiling water.
Fill tea kettle with fresh, cold, non-distilled water.
Place kettle on stove and bring to boil.
Just before kettle begins to boil, pour water from tea pot and add one teaspoon tea leaves per cup to pot, plus an additional teaspoon 'for the pot'.
Remove kettle from heat right after it comes to a boil, and pour 6 ounces per cup into tea pot.
Let tea steep 3 - 7 minutes depending on desired strength.
While tea steeps, ask a close friend to "do the honors" by serving the tea to your other guests.
Add cold, whole milk, or lemon to tea cups depending on preference of guests.
Pour tea into cups using a strainer to catch loose leaves.
Enjoy!

Tips:
For easy entertaining, host a Tea Party with assorted tea sandwiches and other goodies.
Use a ceramic tea pot rather than metal. Metal can affect the taste of the tea, and will cool the water more quickly.
Keep boiling water available for second cups, to dilute tea that becomes strong while sitting in tea pot.


Christmas Scones

Here's a recipe for Christmas Scones ...scones are a must at any worthwhile tea party :)
Servings: 8
Total Time: 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine or butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins, chopped
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange peel

RECIPE DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease large cookie sheet. In cup, with fork, mix cinnamon and 1 tablespoon sugar; set aside.

2. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 cup sugar. With pastry blender or two knives used scissor-fashion, cut in margarine or butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in dried cranberries, sour cream, orange juice, and orange peel just until ingredients are blended.

3. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; with floured rolling pin, lightly roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut out scones with 3-inch star-shape cookie cutter. With pancake turner, place scones 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Press trimmings together; roll and cut as above. Sprinkle scones with cinnamon mixture.

4. Bake scones 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Serve scones warm. Or cool scones on wire rack; wrap in single layer with foil. Just before serving, reheat if desired.

Dean Said:

alice in wonderland party ideas?

We Answered:

for decorations, you can have everything different colors, maybe stripes and poka dots, nothing should match, but not tacky either. You can have a "mad hatter" cake, even if you have your mom make it, just make different size and shape cakes and frost them in different colors. For tables you can put old tea pots and tea cups with different colored daisises in them. For food, you can serve little finger sandwhiches, scones, pretty much and finger food and tea of course, but i would also have another option since some people don't like tea but serve it all in tea cups. You dont have to spend alot to make it look pretty, you can buy pretty much everything i just described at a dollar store. Its all about how you set it up. Good luck and happy un-birthday!