...Takes a lot of time.
While I definitely love to have friends over and plan picnics, get-togethers, and leisurely dinners, I wouldn't say entertaining or hosting comes naturally to me. Usually, I'm the flustered one in the kitchen, not sure of anything other than I've forgotten something - important - and as a result, everything's ruined. According to my better and calmer half, it's all in my head.
I completely agree with him, but it doesn't stop me from feeling anxious.
For my upcoming Afternoon Tea, I'll be hosting ten people - eleven including myself - and while neither Martha Stewart nor the Queen is on the guest list, I'm still feeling a bit edgy as to how things will turn out: Is the menu suitable? Will there be enough food? Will the food taste good? Will people enjoy themselves? Will anyone notice that my chairs and flatware are mismatched? Again my better and more logical half will remind me that we're hosting a group of our closest friends, and that no one will judge me.
Not that I want to be patronized either. If something is bad, I want to know. ...Or do I?
...Let's skip my insecurities and move on to my planned menu. It's meant to be an Afternoon Tea Lunch, which means there's an abundance of sandwiches and they won't be finger-sized:
Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches
Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwiches
Asparagus and Ham Sandwiches
Apple and Brie Sandwiches
Smoked Salmon and Dill Pinwheels
Mushroom Tarts
Scones with Strawberry Jam and/or Lemon Curd
Crepes with Nutella and/or ice cream
Mocha Chiffon Cake
My start date was about a week in advance, planning which days to do what. The actual "making" started today: Two days before the event. Today I readied the lemon curd and crepe batter. Aside from those two things, it would be much too early to prepare the other items on my menu; things would get dry or soggy. Thankfully lemon curd and crepe batter can be stored in the fridge; everything else, I'm afraid, needs to be made fresh.
I'm anticipating a bit of a rush tomorrow as I tackle the last of my grocery shopping (fresh bread is my ideal), bake the Chiffon cake and scones. Plus I'm trying all new recipes - not a wise decision to bake a new recipe blind, so to speak, but I don't have the time nor the resources to try each recipe ahead of time. Besides, half the recipes are Martha Stewart and following them to nearly a T, I'm sure they'll be at the very least adequate.
The Morning Of will be for the assembling of sandwiches (I plan to have the table set the night before) and the plating of food. I don't own a real serving set but the mismatched plates will compliment my set of mismatched Everything Else; let's just say when I was registering for my wedding, I didn't have entertaining large parties on my mind.
And as the hours of Tonight wane (I did wake up at 6am this morning for work), I'm turning in early for an early start tomorrow, thus concluding Part One of my Afternoon Tea Adventure this time around. Part Two begins shortly as I deal with the bulk of the baking tomorrow. I've already decided that if the scones don't turn out, I'm buying them from the grocers, throwing them on a plate lined with parchment and taking all the credit. I mean, I did try after all.
(I apologize for the lack of photos; lemon curd isn't particularly interesting to photograph, and oddly enough, looks a lot like crepe batter - except more yellow.)
