I love using glistening silver on special occasions. It always makes me think of Alda Ellis' comment - "Silver is the table's jewelry."
I got my November/December Christmas issue of Tea Time magazine last week, and noticed Jane Pettigrew had written an article about silver wares for tea in the issue.
Ironically, a friend called around the same time wondering if I'd be interested in buying her Rogers silver plate punch bowl, tray, ladle, and 20 cups, because she was moving to Tennessee and didn't want to take them with her. She said she hadn't used the tray and cups [they were still in their original packaging], and had only used the punch bowl and ladle a couple of times.
I really wasn't looking for a silver plate punch bowl since I already have a lovely crystal one that I received for a wedding gift, but I told her I'd look at it. She only wanted $75 for everything, and a quick peek on E-bay revealed it was worth much more than that, so I bought it from her. Though not a tea accessory, it can still be used at a fancy tea party.
I can even envision a pretty floral arrangement in it when it's not being used to serve punch.
I looked through my files and found a great tea punch recipe that I used for a May Mother's Day Tea at church a few years back. It will be perfect served in my new punch bowl!
Fruity Tea Punch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
6 Earl Grey tea bags
6 cups water
1 cup orange juice
1 cup lemonade [prepared from concentrate]
4 cups ginger ale, chilled
Garnish: Thin lemon and orange slices to float on top of punch.
In a sauce pan combine sugar, whole allspice and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for five minutes, covered. Remove from heat and set aside. Bring remaining five cups of water to boil, then remove from heat and add tea bags and steep for five minutes. Discard infused tea bags and add liquid to sugar syrup. Add orange juice and lemonade and mix together well. Chill thoroughly. Just before serving add ginger ale.
Yield: 12 [1 cup] servings
A gorgeous set! For a long time I looked for an affordable silver punch bowl but they were out of my range so I settled for a glass set. Like you, I received a crystal set for our wedding but the whole box tumbled and broke during a move.
ReplyDeleteA gal in our garden club has one and brings it to our annual Christmas pot luck to have punch before dinner.
Enjoy your new shiny treasure!
Beautiful! They are quite expensive, but a lot of folks don't want to clean them. I think it's gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I have been to tea's where the punch is self serve before the tea is served. It sets a nice festive mood. Thanks for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteNancy
How exciting! I would have snapped that up, too.
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful! And a good price. Your punch sounds delicious, and will be so elegant served in this punch bowl.
ReplyDeleteWe had tea punch at my wedding reception tea ... and if only I'd had your gorgeous new punch bowl and cups to serve from! (What a find, girlfriend!!!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lovely punch recipe! And that is a very pretty bowl indeed, could certainly be used for things other than punch, fruit perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI was watching the movie The Satanic Rites of Dracula on TCM. Lov those. Anyway, Peter Cushing serves tea from what looks like a silver punbowl with ladle, along with tea cakes/noches. I had never seen tea served that way before, so wondered if it wasnt a boozie type of punch?
ReplyDeleteThen I landed here. I love knowing there is a tea punch. Thank you for the recipe. Now I need a lovely punch pool. I lov silver and China. And finding new ways to use it!!!