Tea Sandwiches

Hello Ladies,

I got this picture early before the day began for me, as I was walking in the garden looking for that friendly rabbit that waits for me.  He/She watches me until I get too close and then hops away with its white tail showing---so cute!  And it always feels like such an honor when it sits there and waits for me to pass by. I feel like I'm in Eden.

Today there were a few ladies that come every week for Ladies Bible Study. At their request I provided carrot-chive sandwiches and chicken-basil sandwiches, so I would like to share the steps to making them. 

Did you know that your chive blossoms could be used in recipes? You might see those lovely chives go to seed and form a purple blossom, but the onion parts are no longer tender, so it is lovely to know how to use the blossoms.

 I first learned about chive-blossom butter spread in a very old Victorian magazine, and the recipe is contained in their book, "At Table With Victoria." 

 If you recall, that book was very, very expensive when it was being sold at the time, but now you can get it it for just a few dollars online, so to use a colloquialism, "I got me one" and really enjoy looking at all the recipes that came from the original Victoria magazines, the first 10 years.

Simply crumble a chive blossom into two tablespoons of softened butter and use as a spread for one side of your bread when making tea sandwiches, or use it on dinner rolls. It has a light onion flavor.

Now for the carrot-chive sandwich filling:

I grated one large carrot into a bowl and added chopped dried chives. You can get these at Dollar Tree and made in the US.  I keep them on hand for when my garden chives are going to seed. That is what the blossom is--going to seed. You can successfully plant those blossoms and increase your crop.

In my previous post I suggested mixing in a couple of tablespoons of whipped cream cheese spread, or mayonnaise, yogurt, or other kind of filling, but today I decided the buttered bread would suffice, and everyone agreed that both kinds of sandwiches tasted just fine without the spreads.

I mixed in a teaspoon of dried chives with the cup of shredded carrot.

Make sure the butter is soft. Do this by leaving it in a covered dish overnight. I use a special butter dish that is made for keeping butter soft.   This is a picture, above, of the dish, and it costs in the area of $6-8 but it is just a really good thing to have. The lid rolls back like a Victorian roll-top desk 😄 and it is available in other colors, too, including red, if you are so inclined.  It is important the butter that you spread on the bread is soft, so that it doesn't tear up the bread while you try and spread it out evenly.

This butter dish softens a refrigerated cube of butter in just under an hour, so you can put it in the dish while you grate the carrots and chop the cooked chicken.

The butter or cream cheese provides a waxy barrier on the bread so that the filling does not leak through and make the bread soggy.

The carrot chive filling on its own stuck just fine to the buttered bread. I used a soft, commercial bread that had the best ingredients in it. Of course, home made, thin-sliced bread is the best.

Filling doesn't look too exciting but the taste is great, I guarantee.

I added a teaspoon of dried basil to a cup of cooked chicken, and spread the mix on the buttered bread, just like the carrot-chive sandwiches. 

Make the display more colorful by adding sprigs of sage or rosemary from your garden. If you have no garden, you can grow these in pots on the porch, and if you have no way to do that, your local grocery store usually sells the herbs such as chives and basil, fresh in the produce section.

Both these sandwiches tasted just fine, if not better, without the mayo or cheese spread fillings, and worked out fine for those people on restricted diets.

The ladies agreed there was no need for the mayo or anything else. 

It is not necessary to add salt to the carrot or chicken filling because the butter is salted.

 It is looking good today at the Manse, and I'm able to reveal a few more areas that had been "hot spots" for a long time. I have a few more miles to go before I get the place in shape but I'm making good progress.  It is accomplished by determination and exercising mind-over-matter. 

My goal is to have more time to sew. I have three things cut out for myself, as well as other things for other people, and if I don't sit down every day at the machine and stitch something, I feel out of sorts. 

It will be fun to see where we end up on our next "hour-trip" road trip to find a back ground for a picture when I get the garment finished.

One think I like about getting the April Cornell dress catalog in the mail, is the models are shown in rooms of the house, such as porches, living rooms, dining room, attic, etc.  So interesting what we can find for photo studios.  It is often right there in your very own abode. When you get clothing catalogs, such as The Paragon, have a look at how the model is posed in a dress that goes with the natural background such as the ocean or a garden.  

When the girls clothing catalogs used to be mailed to me, I always enjoyed the props and backgrounds to the lovely clothes of companies such as Storybook Heirlooms (which I don't think exists anymore.)

The ladies in the church once had a fashion show and tea/lunch called "Spring in the Country."  One of the ladies of the church owned a clothing store, and she commissioned some of the teen girls to model the clothes during lunch, while carried matching props such as baskets, balloons, bags, hats and so forth.

The placemats  on the tea tables were made of paper cut in the shape of a farm house. 

In my next post I will try to include something we discussed in the Ladies Bible Class. I must tell you this is a very amiable, interesting and curious group of ladies who like to look up the meanings of words, often going to the Greek, and discussing the application to our lives today.  We often look up the history of the area and find out more about the customs of the times and how that related to the teachings. It feels a lot like homeschooling, as we sift through scripture for words to live by today.