HIGH TEA

Entertaining is part of life growing up in an Army family.
Add to that, having a Dad who was in the British Army before it became the Indian Army, and you have a plethora of rich experiences related to entertaining.
As far as entertaining and being entertained is concerned: as a child I didn't enjoy the fact my parents were out almost every evening. As an adult and married to a civilian, I entertained and went out on a moderate scale, keeping in mind that I didn't want the kids to be alone at home all the time.
Now as a senior with diabetes, it isn't easy to entertain. However, we really want to repay all the hospitality extended to us throughout this year. The summer heat makes me dizzy and the winter cold makes me stiff. I have a small wedge of time in the Fall to do the things I want to, so I decided to do something quickly.
I've come up with the idea of having a HIGH TEA, and am looking forward it.

But our High Tea is going to be easy on us (I hope) with make ahead dishes and one last minute standing-by-the-stove fried item.
It is going to be in the comfort of our home and though I plan on using Corelle plates, I will concede to using paper cups and disposable glasses. The plates will go in the dishwasher with the dishes, and I have helped the environment by using them.

Planning this High Tea brings back memories of my varied experiences with them.
I've always loved High Teas, and have enjoyed them in Singapore at Raffles, in London at Claridges, in Victoria BC at The Empress, besides a lot of places in the USA.
Of all these places, The Empress wins hands down for the best tea.
The incredible quality of the high tea at the Empress though expensive, has to be experienced to be believed. Each and every dish was fresh and superb in taste and presentation.
The quantity filled us up and there was a mix of dishes for vegetarians and non-veggies.
An excellent tea selection was served with each cup freshly made not over stewed.
The attentiveness of our waiter throughout the meal topped it off perfectly.

The usual High Tea is made up of scones with clotted cream and a variety of jams, an assortment of sandwiches (I hate the ones made with chicken paste, salmon paste, preferring the actual fresh meat instead), miniature cakes and biscuits and of course a selection of different teas.
Raffles in Singapore with the most extensive menu I have seen of any High Tea, combining tastes and flavors of East and West with huge tables groaning under the weight of the food.
The curried chicken puffs stand out in my memory.

This is what I intend to do for my High Tea: combine Indian sweets and snacks with the cakes and sandwiches to please the palates of all my guests and fill them up as this was what High Teas were originally intended for.

A brief history of High Tea: Low tea was the normal tea served with dainty treats, whereas High Tea was what the farmers and working class wanted when they came in from work. It was filling, it took the place of dinner, and there was nothing 'dainty' about it. High Tea was also known as Meat Tea in early England.

Here I've gone out for High Tea at 10 a.m, noon, mid-afternoon, evening and dinner time!
For mine this year, I'm inviting my guests at 3 o'clock, knowing most of them will show up at 4 (Indians have their own standard time). My High Tea menu is going to be a mix of the menus of low and high teas, so it fills up my guests. That's what a good party is all about, to me: good food, good people, good conversation and nowadays a good chair to sit in!

If you have any easy make ahead sweet or savory suggestions, please send them to me.
I really would appreciate time-saving recipes with great results and I will give you full credit here.

In the meantime while I invite you to stick with me while I plan this event, I'll give you my tentative menu. The recipes will follow when I make the dishes.

Sweet dishes:

1. Scones with lemon curd.
2. Cake
3. Biscuits/cookies/tarts.
4. Fruit salad
5. Brownies (a friend is bringing them)
6. An Indian mithai (sweetmeat)/dessert.

Savoury dishes:

1. Chicken and vegetable puffs
2. Sandwiches
3. Matri/chakli/kodbilla (make ahead dish)
4. Salmon dish (my neighbor is bringing that)
5. Chips/crackers/dip (bought and set up).
6. My last minute fried dish...tikkis/vades/?

Beverages/Drinks: Tea, coffee, soda, punch.

Let me know what you think of the menu and especially if you have GREAT suggestions for easy dishes.
I look forward to hearing from you with anything from sweet, snack, drink recipes and I will be haunting the cooking blogs for ideas too.

12 dishes with an assortment of tea, coffee and soft drinks/punch should make 30-35 people happy. I had a list of 20 but that was too much and I cut back. As a foodie, I want each dish to taste it's best, be really fresh and make my High Tea a 'moment on the lips but forever in their memory' type party.