Just before Easter a friend and I hosted a Tea Party at my home. Our Church is trying to have ladies to get to know each other better, and to that end we are having one birthday celebration a month for the ladies of the Church whose birthdays fall in that month. I had the February birthdays, and my friend the March ones, so we collaborated and had one tea party for two months. I love tea parties, and always love an excuse to host one, so I polished up the silver and got out some of the pretty china and dishes I inherited from my mother. This is a cute pair of salt and pepper shakers I get out for Easter each year, from the Precious Moments line. They looked festive on the table, although nothing we served needed salt or pepper! Our menu was as follows:

• Button Cookies
• Lemon Angel Cookies
• Grapes, with crackers and cheese
• Scones, with a simulated clotted cream and freezer raspberry jam
• Three choices of tea...Backberry Sage, Ginger Peach and decaf Cinnamon Cardamom

The scones were delicious, but it was a new recipe and didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned. Still...there's nothing like a warm scone, with cream and jam!

I filled up my Mom's silver server with the cookies. The 'button' cookies were also a new recipe, and I didn't like the way the first ones turned out, so started over with a tried and true dough. They turned out to be small rounds that time, just like they should look. I poked two holes, side by side, with a straw to give them a 'button' look. I found a new/old recipe for decorative icing from my old Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, and colored it with pastel colors. I don't know why I had never tried that icing before, but it turned out to be a huge success. It's easy to work with, firms right up on the cookie and tastes great too! It will be my icing of choice from now on...(it's never too late to learn some new tricks).

Here's a close up of the decorations on the cookies...


The lemon angel cookies were made from the same dough, but sandwiched with some homemade lemon curd between. Yum!

We had a lovely time, sitting around the table, sharing stories of our lives and sipping tea.