Winter White and Spring Green Tea Party: White Chocolate Rum Coconut Truffles

This recipe makes about 48 truffles which is a lot. Serve them at your tea and send the leftovers home with your guests. Change out the rum with vanilla or almond flavoring, about 2 teaspoons, if you prefer. And if you don't like cashews, use a different nut or leave them out completely.

1 pound white chocolate, finely chopped
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons light rum
1 ½ cup shredded sweetened coconut
½ cup cashews, very finely chopped

Place 1 pound of the chocolate into a bowl. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to a boil. Pour the cream into the bowl with the chocolate. Let the mixture stand for a minute, then stir together until thoroughly blended. Mix in the rum and 1 cup of the coconut and blend well. Cover the truffle cream and let cool to room temperature. Then chill in the fridge until thick but not stiff (2 to 3 hours).

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Using a small ice cream scoop, form the truffles into 1-inch diameter balls. Combine remaining coconut and cashews in a small, shallow bowl. Roll the balls into this mixture to cover. Allow the truffles to set up at room temperature. When set, place them in paper candy cups. Tightly wrapped they can stay in the fridge up to a month.

Winter White and Spring Green Tea Party: Avocado-Almond Tea Sandwiches

It isn’t unusual, even for a seasoned cook, to have a kitchen disaster while preparing for a tea party. The hostess is often doing several things at the same time; it is easy to forget the tarts in the oven when chopping vegetables for the salad. Mechanical problems occur because appliances are doing extra duty. And a rotten headache or sick kid can really throw off the prep day.

I had my own kitchen problem this morning while trying to make these Avocado-Almond Tea Sandwiches. I’d carefully selected my avocados, firm to the touch with some give. I allowed them to sit for a couple days. But when I cut into the first one, it had nasty brown spots. Down the disposal it went. The next avocado was the same, spoiled.

Had I been preparing this recipe for an actual tea, I would have been peeved to have had to run back to the store. And even then I would have suspected the other avocados might be bad too. To tell the truth, I probably would have bought some prepared guacamole and finished these tea sandwiches with that as the base, adding the bacon and almonds.

Most tea party problems can ultimately be solved just that easily. Keeping the sense of panic out of any situation makes everything go so much smoother. We’ve all probably experienced having one thing go wrong and then another and then because we’re stressed and not thinking clearly, we can’t do anything right.

We want everything to be perfect for our tea party. We want to please and impress our guests. That’s okay. We should be making our best effort to do so. Like the t-shirt says though, stuff happens.

I have no photo of the finished tea sandwiches today. The recipe is not complicated and, I’m pretty sure, not difficult to imagine how it looks. The light green avocado on white bread gives the perfect Spring note to the Winter White and Spring Green Tea Party.

Almond-Avocado Tea Sandwiches:

Seed, peel and mash 1 large ripe avocado. Add 1 tablespoon lime juice, ¼ teaspoon chili powder, ¼ teaspoon seasoned salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Stir in ¼ cup toasted chopped almonds and 2 slices of crumbled crisp-cooked bacon. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and chill up to 4 hours.

Cut thin white bread on the diagonal for the tea sandwiches. Remove the crusts. Spread with the avocado filling. Use a small canapé cutter to create a cut-out in the top piece of bread so that the pretty green filling shows through.

Winter White and Spring Green Tea Party: Brie Sandwiches

Martha Stewart tells us that to remove pomegranate seeds, whack the pomegranate on the outside with a wooden spoon. Let me just say in doing that, I've only managed to cover the whole kitchen as well as myself with pomegranate juice. Use your fingers to coax the seeds from the membranes.

1/2 loaf of sourdough baguette, approx. 1" diameter, cut on a diagonal in 1/2 inch thick pieces

1 wedge brie, about the size of a generous doorstop, cut into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces, arrange on bread

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds. Remove them, rinse them, let dry. Sprinkle about 1 tsp to fit on top of brie for each piece of bread

1 leaf of fresh parsley per piece of bread

barest sprinkle of sea salt

Bake at 350 for about 15 min. DO NOT overcook.

Winter White and Spring Green Tea Party: Shrimp Bites

These Shrimp Bites have an aioli-like base. Real aioli calls for raw egg and a mortar and pestle. Then there is quick aioli which can be made in a food processor with pasteurized egg. And finally there is the dolled-up-mayonnaise method which I’ve used.

Another note on this little open-faced sandwich: as shrimp is the featured ingredient, use the nicest ones you can find and try to prepare them yourself. Those available at the deli are so often over steamed and over seasoned. That’s okay for shrimp salad or other dishes where shrimp is mixed with various ingredients but not good enough here. And use large count shrimp, about 26-34.

Caterers tell us that shrimp is the first thing to go when it is served. People often take seconds too. Consider preparing extra Shrimp Bites and passing them on a platter as your guest begin to eat the savory course.

shrimp, 1 pound
Old Bay Seasoning or other crab boil
good quality mayonnaise, 1 cup
lemon zest, 2 teaspoons
garlic, 1 clove minced finely
white bread, cut into rounds
green leaves for garnish

Steam or boil the shrimp with Old Bay. Remember, shrimp are done when they turn pink. Over-cooked shrimp and tough shrimp. If you aren’t sure they are finished, taste one. Peel the shrimp and leave whole. Refrigerate until serving.

Add the lemon zest and garlic to the mayonnaise. Allow the flavors to combine for a couple hours in the fridge.

Assemble by spreading the aioli mayonnaise on the bread rounds and topping with two shrimp. Add a sprinkle of Old Bay and top with a pretty green leaf. Celery leaves work nicely.

Winter White and Spring Green Tea Party: Frosty Apricot Scones

The scent of apricots baking in these scones perfumed my whole house yesterday. It smelled so good that my husband, dozing in his Lazy-Boy to watch the 13-hour pregame, actually got up and came to the kitchen. Scones—the new Super Bowl food!

3 cups flour
¼ cup sugar
1 cup dried apricots
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
¾ cup milk
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons milk

Preheat oven to 450º. Combine sugar and apricots in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until apricots are in small pieces. (Use a floured knife if you don't have a food processor.) Add the rest of the dry ingredients.

Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the bowl. Process in pulses until the mixture has the appearance of fine cornmeal. Add lemon zest. (Use a pastry blender to cut in the butter if you don't have a food processor.)

Whisk the eggs and milk together. Add to the processor bowl and pulse just enough to combine.

Dump dough out on well-floured surface. Knead a few times, adding more flour as necessary. Pat or roll the dough to about 1” thickness. Cut into circles with pastry cutter. Place on parchment paper on cookie sheet or grease the sheet.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on rack. Mix the confectioners’ sugar and milk to form a glaze, adding more milk if the mixture is too thick or more sugar if it is too thin. After the scones have cooled, drizzle with the glaze.

Happy Groundhog Day!

February 2nd brings the most-watched weather forecast of the year--and the only one led by a rodent! Legend has it that on this morning, if a groundhog can see its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If it cannot see its shadow, spring is on the way.

I don’t know about other places in the world but Groundhog Day is a big deal in my part of Pennsylvania. There is Phil in Punxsutawney, of course; he’s the most famous. But in my local area alone we have 5 groundhog lodges each checking on this day to see if their groundhog saw his shadow. We have Doug in Dover, Poor Richard in the city of York, Uni the groundhog in Myerstown, Octorara Orphie in Quarryville, Lancaster County and the newest from Berks County is Patty Pagoda. That’s a lot of groundhogs!

They’ve all seen their shadows this morning so I guess we’re in for six more weeks of winter. The truth of the matter is, whether the groundhogs see their shadows or not, spring will arrive as scheduled on March 21st.

Winter White and Spring Green Tea Party: Herbed Potato Soup

I love potato soup. It can be served hot in winter and cold in summer. Make it as chunky or as smooth as you like. Extra veggies can be added or it can be simple as is this recipe. Oh, bacon and cheese add flavor for sure but for a tea party, you don’t want guests filling up on the soup.

8 medium potatoes, peeled
2 onions, chopped
¼ cup butter
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
½ teaspoon crushed basil leaves
¼ cup flour
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 cups cold milk
4 cups scalded milk
2 cups hot potato water

Cook potatoes and onions together until potatoes are tender. Drain but save the potato water. Put about half the potatoes through a ricer or coarse strainer and cut the rest in small chunks. Or if you like smooth soup, put all the potatoes through the strainer. You could use a food processor or blender but this gives the potatoes a slightly gluey consistency.

While the potatoes cook, melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. Add parsley and basil and blend in the flour, salt and pepper; gradually stir in the cold milk. Add scalded milk and the potato water after the potatoes have cooked.

Cook over medium heat; stir constantly until mixture thickens slightly. Stir in potatoes and onions and heat. This soup can be frozen. Makes 12 cups.