QuaranTea Party: Mother’s Day at Home
A little guide I wrote, inspired by the day-long preparations my sister and I made to celebrate our mom’s birthday in quarantine :)
Picture the eve of Saturday, May 9, 2020. You’re slightly panicked, calling Amazon Customer Services to no avail because mid-quarantine, the shampoo-spa gift set you ordered a week ago still hasn’t arrived yet. You’ve already given up on the flower bouquet that Costco forgot to deliver -- and amidst the panic, you yourself forgot about the customary “Happy Mother’s Day!” greeting card you’d usually pick up from CVS, when it was safe to leave the home.
So, what can you do for Mother’s Day, quarantine-style?
The fact that we should socially isolate does not mean we can’t celebrate the mothers and women figures in our lives. In fact, my sister and I made afternoon tea to celebrate my mother’s birthday the past week -- and so, the Mother Day’s QuaranTea Party was born.
If the sound of living up to Queen Elizabeth’s high afternoon tea, replete with fanciful scones and assorted jams and imported oolong leaves, sounds daunting, do not fret: this Quarantea Party only requires a bit of pantry-digging, creativity, rudimentary Microsoft Word skills, and a whole lot of love. Here are three steps that you can take to throw a great Mother’s Day tea party in quarantine!
[ 1. PREP ]
First, take note of any afternoon-tea related ingredients in your pantry. The usual flour, sugar are helpful for baked goods, and keep tabs on ingredients for savory bites, such as easy sandwiches or salads. And, feel free to jazz up that Trader Joe’s vanilla cake mix or other baking mixes with fun add-ons, from maple syrup drizzle, chocolate chunks, to extra fruit (My miscellaneous inventory: pecans, butterscotch candies, a Costco-can of chickpeas, whole-wheat bread, cucumbers, garlic, assorted seasonings, and half a bag of Bob's Red Mill oatmeal scone mix).
You could also consider ordering groceries or ready-made items from local restaurants. Some are even selling make-at-home kits like Meimei Boston’s dumpling kit, Bar Pa Tea NYC’s bubble tea kits, and Kitsby’s matcha cream puff and other baking kits.
(One contactless pickup at my local Liv Breads, and one Kitsby order later, I acquired egg salad, a dark chocolate babka, a ciabatta loaf, and Greek yogurt, along with Kitsby’s earl-grey tea cake kit.)
[ 2. PLAN ]
Now that you know what you have or can procure, you can plan your afternoon tea in three categories: sips, savory, and sweet.
Sips
Whether you have some leftover Lipton tea bags or fancy tin of loose leaves, tea is the easiest part of serving afternoon tea. Honey, lemon, and milk are great pairings to serve on the side. And, if you have some instant coffee, you could never go wrong with dalgona.
Sweet
Sweets are the star of afternoon tea, and scones are a classic choice. Feel free to get creative with Smitten Kitchen’s straightforward scone recipe as a canvas: using my extra scone mix, we also added butterscotch drops, oat milk, and chopped-up, honey-roasted pecans for extra crunch and sweetness.
Anything else that can be served in bites -- mini snickerdoodles, mini banana muffins, works as well. I personally loved the earl-grey tea cakes, topped with fresh whipped cream and butterfly pea flowers -- and aside from a few eggs and milk, Kitsby delivered all the required materials, from heavy cream to tiny baking cups.
(To complete the sweet trifecta: the freshly-baked chocolate babka from Liv Breads).
Savory
Tiny tea sandwiches are a must for afternoon tea, and you’re good to go with a few slices of untoasted white or whole-wheat bread. Virtually any flavor pairing can go in them, from the simple cucumber-butter to peanut-butter bacon. Pro-tip: de-crust your breads, and place most of your fillings on the bottom slice before cutting them into tiny sandwiches (For our egg-salad cucumber tea sandwiches, I divided each bread slice into four, and then halved each square for right-triangle shapes).
If you also have an excess of chickpeas or canned legumes, you can consider making these quick and cute chickpea fritters, which only require eggs, flour, and other pantry staples. Served atop some toasted ciabatta, with the included tzatziki recipe of Greek yogurt, garlic, and lemon on the side? Delicious.
(To complete the savory trifecta: Costco’s spinach and mozzarella ravioli, tossed with olive oil and parsley.)
[ 3. PRESENT ]
The food is now prepped and planned; now, it’s all about execution. Here’s how you can make the final QuaranTea Party a success:
Make a game plan.
Afternoon tea has a lot of moving parts, so recruit siblings and other family members to get in on the food-making fun and split up tasks! My sister and I found that writing down time benchmarks helped my sister and I make our scheduled two p.m. teatime.
Make a fancy menu.
For an extra-fancy tea party, and to reach your Microsoft Word or Adobe potential, design a quick menu to place at everyone’s seats before the tea party -- Canva in particular has great templates.
Serve, with love (and pizzazz).
You’re likely exhausted after doing all that food prep, but it’s all about how you finish! Now’s the time to brush the dust off the matching dishware, decorated placemats, and teacup sets on the shelves. Using tiny spoons and serving dishes to serve sugar for the tea, or leftover whipped cream to balance the sweetness of the scones, also contributes to the high-tea ambiance. And at last, after the table is set, the tea is brewed, and the women of honor are seated, the QuaranTea Party can begin.
As we weather this global pandemic together, we hope to find ways to treasure and celebrate the joy and love in our everyday lives however we can -- a cup of tea at a time. Happy Mother’s Day!
