HIGH TEA PREP

PREPARING FOR THE DESI HIGH TEA

Thanks to my friends and neighbor for the recipes and tips for make ahead dishes.
More on that when I make them and have pics to show everyone.

This week has been intense prep week...I can't tell you how much stuff we have lying around that needs putting away and how much needs taking out before company comes!
The grandchildren (5&3) have their art gallery in place, to be admired by the guests. The two little ones also listen seriously to my tales of party etiquette and are trying to pick up their cups with their 'pinkies in the air', and giggling a lot. Grand kids are so much fun.
Our daughter, who will be away that weekend, has offered one of her best make ahead dishes (recipe later) and has also lent all her best crystal. She's worrying she won't be around to help me on that day and her busy schedule and my needs make it hard for us to find a free weekend together. Besides, it's good for me to see how much I can manage to do myself.

HD who HATES to put a nail in any wall, deplores the idea that after ten years I want to move some of my pictures around. In some place, our walls need special screws and I distinctly remember him asking all that time ago, "Is this place permanent?" before he put in the screws. I said yes at the time. What other choice did i have?
Now there's lots of rebellion from the bitter half on discovering it is not so.
The only reason I ask him to help is he hangs pictures perfectly. I eyeball the wall space and go bang, bang bang...then discover it's not straight...then go bang bang bang a little to the left. Oops that;s no good, so try again. In the end I have to hang the picture to cover the five other holes I've made in the wall...so now you know why I ask HD and endure the disapproval! He doesn't like parties and this one is making him nervous as usual.
Can anyone tell me why someone who just has to show up and smile and talk to people would get stressed about a party? I'm inviting friends whom I like not throwing a gala official dinner for diplomats where everything has to be 'just so'.

I'm using a set of Corelle plates I got for my grandson's Namakarna (christening). They will lend a touch of elegance as they are white with tiny red and pink roses in three places.
I'll have to use paper for glasses and cups as we are having over thirty guests.
I've planned the table covers and centerpieces trying to come up with the High Tea ambiance. I'm planning to have a good 'desi' (Indian) High Tea which will fill up my guests.
Good food and plenty of it is always the main thing at an Indian gathering.
I am getting stuff from outside too, but the fun for me is making items that we haven't had for a long while... thus breaking up the monotony of all the meals we attend at restaurants that have the same, repetitive menu.
I do have an alternative menu in case I don't feel well or come down with something, as happens often with diabetics...but perish that thought. I'm visualizing a healthy, happy me, able to do all I want to.

Researching dishes, getting ideas from my foodie friends, and a day to day discussion with my neighbor as we walk, is all helping me come up with a party. By the way, my neighbor is from the Phillipines and yous hould see the spreads they have at their party. She has a large family here and everyone brings their BEST dish to the party and there's so much food there's no place to set the dishes down. She cannot imagine the way I work solo, which is what I like to do when I entertain.

Back to the fun I'm having...some people call it work...have to taste the dish I just made and add or drop it from my list.

Do your prep at least two weeks before the party: clean dishes, wash crystal, polish brassware (if like other Indians you have a lot), move pictures, clean cobwebs. cover everything you've washed with a clean cloth so it doesn't get dusty. I do one thing a day to ensure I'm not wearing myself out.
Sit like your guest would and look around critically and you'll be surprised at the things that catch your eye that need doing.
Final cleaning will be done the day before the party by a cleaner, (floors, bathroom, dusting, kitchen), but all this attention to detail, helps ensure success finally. It's confidence building too, to know you have all this under control.

All about the dishes after the party mid-November. Lan, thanks for all the continuous help and support..it's like having another daughter. Prabha, you're my ace in the hole....thanks for all your help too.