My sister’s getting married and I think it’s bonkers. Okay,
well it’s not totally bonkers and I’ve grown to warm up to her fiancé, but
nevertheless it’s so weird for me and I don’t think it’ll sink in till the
actual day of the wedding. Even prepping for her bridal shower was surreal. As
expected, I volunteered to cover food for the day while the other bridesmaids
were responsible for decorations, invitations, favors, etc. We all decided that
Amy would like a tea party, so I figured I would stick with little portions and
fresh and simple dishes. Sadly, I don’t have photographs of all the food yet
(in the process of collecting them all from friends who took pictures), but I
got the important photos of dishes I made entirely from scratch. So the menu of
the day consisted of traditional tomato bruschetta, smoked salmon bruschetta,
raspberry crumb bars, vanilla bean scones, and chocolate-dipped sugar cookies
that look like tea bags (specially requested by the bride-to-be). Bruschetta is
pretty easy to make and I followed Pioneer Woman’s recipe. Thanks to good ol’
Costco, I got a load of red grape tomatoes for cheap, but didn’t use yellow
grape tomatoes (like the recipe asked for) because they weren’t available
there. The dish was a hit and I had so much left over tomatoes that my sister,
her to-be mother-in-law, and my grandma took some home with them. The dish is
really fresh and light and great for the summer (wow, I just sounded like some
Food Network chef right there).
The smoked salmon bruschetta (not shown) was the only dish
with protein and was mainly chosen ‘cause it was simple, delicious, and also
used baguettes. All I did was buttered and toasted slices of baguette, spread a
layer of cream cheese on top, and then laid a thin layer of smoked salmon. Easy
peasy. The only things I wish I added were capers or some type of garnish.
Moving onto the desserts, I made raspberry crumb bars. I didn’t photograph the
process of making them ‘cause I’m made them a few times already and have
photographs in another post. Now, what is a tea party without scones? I have
never made scones before, let alone work with vanilla beans. You know when you
buy Haagen-Dazs or some fancy ice cream and see those black dots and feel all
fancy ‘cause you know they used REAL vanilla beans? Well I got to scrape
vanilla beans and take out those little specks (which are called
“caviar”—fancy, no?) and add them to the glaze that went on top. Vanilla beans
are really expensive fyi. Granted I had little time and only went to the nearby
Sprouts and got organic vanilla beans, but still… $10 for two beans? What the?!
I altered the recipe so that I only had to use two beans and just substituted
vanilla extract in the dough. I felt so legit scraping out the caviar and
seeing my finished scones with black specks. Oh, and I tried some of those
specks raw (thinking that they’d taste super vanilla-y), and they were gross.
So yeah, I don’t advise that. I think the vanilla flavors really come out of
the caviar when you let them sit in a medium (like the glaze), and not when you
eat them straight up raw. Lesson learned.
And lastly, the teabag-inspired sugar cookies. So my sister
has a Pinterest (and I do as well!) and she had these cookies pinned and she
hinted (maybe not hinted, but had blinking bright lights and arrows and lots of
winks) that she’d like to have these cookies. Well… I HAD to make them. They
looked simple enough and figured they were either sugar cookies or short bread
dipped in chocolate. I decided to go the sugar cookie route ‘cause I made them
before. Now, the toughest part about these cookies in actually their shape.
There aren’t cookie cutters shaped like a tea bag (please correct me if I’m
wrong), and so I figured I had to hand cut each. Sadly, hand cutting each
turned out a disaster (although in the picture it looks pretty darn cool)
because the dough kept sticking on the counter and wouldn’t stay in tact as I
transferred the cookies to the baking sheet. What ended up really happening was
that I used this present-shaped cookie cutter (I have a bunch of Christmas
cookie cutters and no normal square ones) and then cut here and there to make
it into a tea bag shape. I then used a straw to poke a large hole. Because
sugar cookies expand, the hole had to be quite big in order for the hole not
to close up in the baking process. And just to add a little touch, I made
teabag tags with “A” (for Amy) for each cookie. If I ever make these again, I
might use short bread because they might not expand as much and distort the
desired shape.
