Last of the Party prep.

Well the day of the tea party has arrived and I spent the entire morning and early afternoon making salad, sandwiches, and cupcakes. Making sure the area was clean and the tables were nicely set. I will make another post of the actually party later today.

Here is a Luncheon Chicken Salad. I used ABC pasta instead of the Orzo it called for because I thought the kids would enjoy it more. I got the recipe from Becky Evans and I think everyone like it. I did leave out the almonds because I thought the kids might not like that part.

Here is the recipe:

Luncheon Chicken Salad

1 cup (6 oz) uncooked orzo
3 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
1 cup chopped celery
¼ cup chopped onion
20 oz. can pineapple chunks, drained, reserving liquid
11 oz. can mandarin orange segments, drained
½ cup slivered almonds, toasted
Dressing: ¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup reserved pineapple liquid
1/3 cup vinegar
2 Tablespoons oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
Cook orzo to desired doneness as directed on package. Drain; rinse with cold water. In large bowl, combine cooked orzo and remaining salad ingredients except almonds. In jar with tight fitting lid, combine all dressing ingredients; shake well. Pour over salad; mix well. Cover; refrigerate until serving time. Garnish with toasted almonds.

Let me tell you who knew it was so time consuming to make these little sandwiches. Buttering, ham, and then cheese. The put it together and cut out the flower. So then there was all this excess bread ham and cheese. So I tried to cut my circles as high as I could so that I could still cut two small squares out of the same sandwich. I didn't want there to be more waste than necessary. It took almost two large loafs of bread and I hope everyone had as many as they wanted.

Okay so now to the cupcakes. I was most excited about this part of the tea party, hence why I chose a cupcake theme. My Mother bought this cupcake book awhile back and I asked her to send it with my sister when they came at Christmas. So I had carefully searched this book for just the right recipes I wanted to use. Let me just say it ended in disappointment. My first batch of cupcakes came out beautiful but the frosting didn't work. It just never set up like it was suppose to. Then the second type of cupcake I made they tell you to sift the flour and salt and set it aside and then never tell you to add it in. I didn't realize I hadn't added it in until I was just about to take them out of the oven. Then went completely flat then minute I pulled them out. So I mixed in halve of the flour for the second batch since these were mini cupcakes and they did turn out then. So by now I am a bit frustrated so I grabbed old Betty Crocker Chocolate cake mix so that we would have some decent cupcakes. I did use another frosting recipe for the chocolate cupcakes and it did turn out but lets just say I am unimpressed with the cupcake book. Poor Jouette, pink is her favorite color and we had to go with blue frosting since I forgot we were out of red and hadn't picked any up at the store. But in the end I think the kids were more than happy with the food.

Last but not least I did make raspberry lemonade for this kids instead of tea. I did have some herbal teas for the Mothers and Candice Leman brought a tea that she grew up on that you get in South Africa. She tells me it is very healthy and I quite enjoyed it myself. As I said before the actually party will have to be a to be continued.....