A "Gone with the Wind" Theme Tea

Last Saturday, at 1:00 o'clock, the tea that I host annually to commemorate my daughter's birthday, was held.  Every tea has a theme, and this year's was Gone with the Wind - a novel written by Margaret Mitchell, published in 1936, and turned into an Academy Award winning movie in 1939. The setting is Clayton County, Georgia.  Today's blog is the post tea party recap, including some of the kitchen preparations. 

 Menu

I served both hot and iced tea.  The hot tea was Irish Cream [a black tea], and the iced tea was Peach [sweetened, of course, since we traveled vicariously to Georgia for the afternoon!] The hot tea was loose-leaf, but I used teabags for the iced tea.  Peach tea ice cubes prevented the tea from becoming diluted as the ice melted.  A chilled peach slice was added to each goblet.

Scones were a basic cream scone with white chocolate chips added.  I filled clear glass egg cups with peach preserves to spread on the scones.  One of the guests was on a gluten free diet, so I purchased a King Arthur gluten free muffin mix to serve in place of a scone.  The muffins were tasty, so I cubed the extra ones to make a gluten free bread pudding for her dessert.

~ The soup was Curried Carrot ~

Cheese wafers [instead of cheese straws] accompanied the soup.  The recipe was Lady Bird Johnson's.  The Rice Krispies in the batter gave them a nice crunchy texture.

I chose savories that I thought might have been eaten at the barbecue Scarlett attended at Twelve Oaks:  Barbecue sandwiches with Coleslaw, Sweet Potato Angel Biscuits with Country Ham [Elmwood Inn's The Tea Table cookbook], Pimento Cheese Sandwiches [from the Purple Iris Tea Shoppe in Buford, GA], and a Deviled Egg.

[Sweet Potato Angel Biscuit Dough]

The Georgia Peanut Salad was a recipe I tweaked.  Vanilla Instant Pudding mixed with creamy Peanut Butter and Cool Whip, with Flaked Coconut and Chopped Peanuts  folded in.

Dessert was Praline Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce.  The recipe was in Southern Lady's Gracious Tables book.  It was yummy!

The Tablescape 

I searched in vain for green linen napkins.  Gold tassels on white napkins represented the tie-backs from the green velvet drapes/portieres that Scarlett ripped from the window to make a dress for her visit to Rhett in jail to ask for his financial assistance.  

I had hoped to squeeze sour cream in a circle on top of the curried carrot soup [pictured below] and then drag a tooth pick across it for a web effect, but the sour cream wasn't thin enough, and came out all squiggly, so I scrapped the idea.  The best laid plans...often go astray! ;-)  Hence no garnish on the soup!

I selected carrot soup for the menu because I thought it was a carrot Scarlett pulled from the ground in her famous line, "As God is my witness, I'll never go hungry again." I later discovered it was a radish!  

Below are the savories.  It didn't occur to me until I was sitting at the table that I should have placed a radish rose somewhere on the plate to represent Scarlett's famous line. Fiddle-dee-dee, next time!

Praline Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce.

I found a fun Gone with the Wind quiz on the Internet [www.brownielocks.com], so after we ate we took the quiz collectively.   One question was:  The liquor used in making Gone with the Wind was really what?  [a] Tea [b] Cold, weak coffee [c] plain water died brown. The answer is [a].  

In the scene when Rhett hands Mammy a glass of whisky, you can see her sniff it before drinking.  When it was originally filmed, tea was supposed to have been in the glass, but Clark Gable [Rhett] substituted real whisky as a joke.  Hattie McDaniel who played Mammy, downed the glass, not realizing what was in it.  The scene had to be redone with tea, and she didn't trust Gable after his joke.

It was a lovely afternoon enjoying each other's company. Alexandra Stoddard says tea celebrations are the way to serenity - they're a spa for the soul.  I hope my guests felt that way as they sat around my table.

Before everyone left, hubby took a group picture. Regrettably, one of Lori's piano teachers fell and injured herself prior to the tea party, so she was unable to join us this year.

[L-R:  Lori's dear friend, Melissa; Lori; Tiffany [Lori's daughter]; Ruth [one of her piano teachers; and me.]

A good time was had by all.  Now I have a year to think of a theme for the next tea!

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Today I'm joining Rose Chintz Cottage for Tea Time Tuesday
and Antiques and Teacups for Tuesday Cuppa Tea