Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Memories of Tea Parties

Did you have tea parties when you were a kid? Or did you set the scene for them for your children? I loved tea parties and can remember little sets of dishes and tiny silverware, too. Somewhere in my photos, I have this really cute photo of my kids playing "tea party" and they are using the set of Little Lulu dishes that my mother made in her ceramic shop. When I come across it, I am going to post it her on Tea and Stitches. :-)



There were two kinds of tea parties that we played at when I was a kid..........there were "mud pie" tea parties and then there were tea parties where we actually had some tea and cookies. Thinking about that reminded me of a treat that I loved when I was young...........SUGAR sandwiches. Yes, that's right........soft white bread (Wonder Bread in the 50's), real butter and pure white sugar. Looks just like the half-sandwich you see in my photo. Only difference is that I went "light" on the sugar but I used real butter. And with that cup of English Breakfast tea, it was delicious. In fact, I had forgotten how good a SUGAR sandwich can taste!!! The other snack I liked was frosted soda crackers. When there were not "real" cookies in the cupboards, my mom would make up some vanilla icing and spread it on crackers. The combination of the sweet and salty is really tasty. When I grew and married and there were not cookies in the house, I, to0, made frosted crackers for a treat. I think they are even better than frosted graham crackers!
This was just a simple tea today. After all of yesterday's treats, I didn't need much of a snack. If you haven't tried a sugar sandwich or frosted crackers, take a chance and see if it might be just the thing for a snack tonight!

11 comments:

Mary Grace McNamara said...

Oh YUM! Tea time tomorrow I'll be trying that!

MGM

annemarie said...

How enjoyable - we had these exact same treats when we played tea party. Sugar sandwiches were a favorite!!

Kaye said...

Oh my Goodness, jarred my memory- I never ate them but 2 of my sisters did, bread, butter and sugar. They loved them I liked plain ole apple butter on wonder bread. Remember wonder bread selling or maybe giving away the small loaf size bread, about 6 inches long, That was yummy

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

I had a blue willow tea set - still do - and I played tea party with it all the time. Then my kids used it and now our grandson does - he has been pouring tea since he was two - he is so careful and I never worry about anything getting broken when he plays with the tea set. I, on the other hand, broke two saucers, one the first day I had the set - I put my elbow down on the saucer - and the second one I broke was the replacement for the first one - and I broke it just last year.

I loved your sugar sandwich story - we would have that but called it butter bread (no idea why we didn't call it sugar bread - but that is what we did).

Pat said...

OMGoodness did this post bring back some great memories of going to my grandmother's house. I haven't had a sugar sandwich in years! I haven't even thought of them. I am now though...

GeeGee said...

Sandi, enjoyed your tea party, it sure did bring back memories. I had tea parties with my children and grandchildren as well. Those were such fun times.
I think the sugar sandwich disappeared after our generation. Oh Yummy!!

Unknown said...

Sigh, that reminds me of all my favorite times with both my parents, and then my mom. They stayed with me part of the year, and part of the fun was everyafternoon I would set up for a 'high tea', and Mom and I would sit down and talk 'proper' English, hold our cups with our pinkie out then giggle and chat about our day, and this was when I was in my 50's and Mom was in her late 70's. These moments were very special for thank, thanks for reminding me. Barb in WNC

Pat said...

I just LOVE sugar sandwiches but we didn't call them that. I'm not sure what we called them...but I know it wasn't that. I'll have to try those iced crackers one day soon. What FUN to recall things that we loved in our childhood days!

Sandy said...

Tea parties both for children and adults create beautiful memories. Love them!
Sandy

{Bellamere Cottage} said...

What a walk down memory lane! I used to LOVE a good 'ol sugar sandwich. I'd actually forgotten all about them, so thank you for the reminder. And, English Breakfast Tea is my favorite.

Blessings,
Spencer

Owl Lady said...

The variations that I remember are butter bread and cinnamon toast. When I was a toddler, my dad was working as a carpenter, and my mother packed his lunch. He was getting used to full dentures so mama trimmed the crusts of his bread. Once his lunch was packed, she would put butter on the crusts as a treat for me. To get the butter bread, I had to cooperate while she made his lunch and help her put it in the lunchbox. My favorite was the rounded crusts from the top of the bread slices. I liked to rock them back and forth while I ate the less fun pieces.

Cinnamon toast was usually made when we had been working hard outside in the garden, in the yard, or at the clothesline. We also had it when there was a snowday from school.

A little stitching poem.........

This little poem was written for one of my beginning quilting students - only 8 years old but her stitches were those of a natural seamstress!

For Bailey Anne . . . .
When this you see, think of me.
Sit down and have a cup of tea.
Then place your quilt upon your lap,
begin to stitch . . . no time to nap!
Stitch patiently and you will see . . .

how fine a quilter you can be!

©1999-2008 Sandra E. Andersen