“If you don’t have fun planning the party, it’ll show!”

~something you’d imagine the Barefoot Contessa would say (alas, only the Ina Garten in my head said it)

A few Saturdays ago, I threw my first tea party at Bee Cottage; I lured some ladies over with the promise of baked goods–and entrapped them to planning church social events with me.  It was the perfect excuse to pull out all my Franciscan Desert Rose and do a lot of baking.  One of the dear attendees asked to bring cheese straws, so I focused on sweet additions to complement our tea.  Scones are not only my favorite baked good, but also a requirement for a tea party; I pulled out my favorite scone recipe (whole wheat, oat & maple syrup scones) finished the menu with cookie-like “biscotti bites” from Martha’s January issue (sans chocolate-dip, due to time, and also due to an aversion to overindulgence–it was generally agreed that the extra coat would have been a significant mistake).

Scones freeze beautifully (most-beautifully if you make the dough and cut them out, and then stick them in the freezer on a sheet pan instead of the oven–take out a few at a time to bake fresh, or just to be prepared a week or two ahead), and though the biscotti bites probably ought to be eaten within a week, they were still delicious two weeks on–dipped in tea.