Our small Facebook Tea Group is having a 'Tea Party' today. since we're all scattered in different parts of the world, and there is a virus that is keeping us home, we're celebrating it virtually...each of us is hosting our party at home, and sharing it with our story, photos, and menu, on the group site. The theme of our individual parties are inspired by a memory, a song, a movie, a fairy tale, a favorite book, a certain flower, a different country...whatever we chose, as long as we shared it with the rest of our group.
My theme is from a memory...bear with me for the backstory...
A few days after my 12th birthday, I embarked on a year-long adventure...My maternal grandmother and I flew from my home in Cuba to Key West, where her oldest brother, our (great) Uncle Park, picked us up in his car and drove us to her home in the Atlanta area. I was to attend school there. I had been away from my family before, having spent weeks of summer vacations with cousins at their beach home and at another cousin's farm, but this was the first time I was going to be so far away, and for so long...I was excited and apprehensive at the same time...Although I had been to the States before, it had been quite a few years back...and not to attend school.
Before I knew it, time had flown and it was almost time to return home. School had been fun; I had made a lot of new friends and I had one (of two) of the most memorable teachers I've ever had...I will never forget Miss Eleanor Burgess, and her kindness during the school year.
It was in May of 1950, a few weeks before I was to return home...I'm not sure if the occasion was for Mother's Day or no particular reason, but my grandmother and my aunt took my cousin Jan and me to tea at the elegant 'Magnolia Tea Room' inside Rich's Department Store in downtown Atlanta. (Photo above from public domain) The Magnolia Room was a place where 'ladies who lunched' wore white gloves... I remember Jan and I wore our Easter outfits my aunt had made us...identical sun dresses in white pique fabric with little matching jackets...mine had blue trim and Jan's had pink.
For my tea party, I chose to serve the two items from the Magnolia Tea Room menu most requested, even to this day, by readers of the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper's food pages... which happens to be what I had chosen for my tea; the 'Chicken Salad Amandine Croissant Sandwich' and the 'Frozen Fruit Salad' - photo below is how it was served in the tea room and taken from public domain
To set my theme, I wanted to use real magnolia blossoms. I live in Hawaii. Magnolias do grow here in certain places, but they're not prolific...In our town, I know of only 4... three of them in a park and one in the front yard of a business near the library...I decided to take my chances and ask permission at the office place rather than get arrested for cutting flowers in a park... Permission was given, but as the lowest blooms were still too high to reach from the ground, I drove my car right under the tree, and with the (reluctant) help of my son, and having the front right tire at an angle, risking life and limb, I used that as a step up and climbed on the hood of my car... Uh-huh...I can just imagine what people thought as they drove by...an old lady up on the hood of her car, cutting limbs from a magnolia tree. Luckily I did not fall and break any old bones.
So, flowers in hand, and menu all set, my son and I replicated as best we could, my memorable first tea room visit ...
My table was set on the back lanai...dark green corrugated silk tablecloth, made as a gift to me from a friend who lives in Tampa, moon flower a print napkins (the closest I could come to magnolias), Williams Rogers 'Primrose' flatware, Roscher & Co white Basketweave dinner plates, Assorted patterns of Pink Depression Glass pieces (most of them a Hilo Marketplace score), Edwin M, Knowles salad /dessert plates (a consignment store find), Eggshell Georgian by Homer Laughlin smaller plate (a Goodwill find) under the Pink Depression bowl and I cannot read the mark on the bottom of the tea pot, but it's one of my most favorite ones...The magnolia blossoms around a glass 'hurricane' candleholder, bought at a friend's state sale.
My version of the Chicken Salad Amandine Croissant Sandwiches, using mini croissants, and the Frozen Fruit Salad...I also made the little savory cheese cookies using a simple recipe for cheese straws...almost forgot they were in the oven, they got a little bit too done... The tea I served was White Peach (of course!) Wuyi Oolong from Stash, one of my favorite teas.
I will always have fond memories of my very first 'tea adventure' in a proper tea room...and it could not have been more memorable than at the Magnolia Tea Room in Rich's Downtown Atlanta store...alas, no longer there!
Not as pretty as their presentation...but it was delicious and just as I rmembered
The subtle scent of the magnolia blossoms bring back many warm memories of my life in the South... Y'all come back to visit...you hear!?