Tea sandwiches.....?
Cucumber with thinned cream cheese seasoned with herbes d'provence...
Olive and cream cheese spread, potted shrimp on white bread....pinwheel sandwiches with pimento cheese....checkerboard sandwiches wih whatever...sandwich loaf, decorated with veggie and herb flowers coated in aspic.

Oh! Aspic is so - so - so pinky-up! Perfect!

Never made aspic either so this adds to the Kindergartner's fun with food. Wish it was summer for the blue Borage flowers.

Grandma used to "play" tea party with us at lunch, and we'd have sandwiches with cucumber and watercress (good luck finding that!), radishes and butter on white bread or cucumber and cream cheese, sometimes slices of hard boiled egg. Always tea, of course, in a teapot, made with loose tea, Grandma didn't like teabags very much. I liked them all, but I liked the watercress sandwiches the best. These were all, of course, from women's magazines, and was based on what Grandma thought might be contained in a tea sandwich.

If Aunt Amy came, it was even more special. She was Japanese and she would carefully brew the tea and bring some of that cocktail rye bread. Her sandwiches were open faced and she'd carefully arrange overlapping layers of cucumber and radish.

Grandma cut the crusts off the bread, but the cocktail rye was kept intact. No aspic involved, it was mostly vegetables. I know that's because that's what we had, but it made us feel grown up and important, LOL.

Have fun!

Annie

I've been to several Teas lately, and in addition to those already mentioned there seems to always be ham salad on crustless white bread. There is tuna salad sometimes too. my favorite is the cucumber on cream cheese, Yum. I like finger food too!

Someone who used to post on these forums once had a fabulous brunch with a sandwich loaf decorated with flowers cut from cooked carrot slices with dill leaves and flowers of various herbs all held in place with a layer of something clear and gelled.....the loaf was frosted with a mix of cream cheese and mayonaise.
My favorite tea sandwich is that checkerboard thing, but that takes 2 full loaves of unsliced sandwich bread, one dark and one white, sliced lengthwise and stacked with a filling, then sliced again and put back together differently and sliced again into a checkerboard. Labor intensive, but very VERY cute!

Here's my mom's cucumber sandwich recipe. So good!

Cucumber Sandwiches

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese—I always use the Neufchatel

1 small cucumber, peeled and seeded and chopped fine

2-3 green onions with tops, chopped fine

Seasonings

Soften cream cheese, thin with a little milk, yogurt or sour cream and 1 tablespoon real mayonnaise.

Add chopped veggies and season with 1/2 teaspoon each lemon pepper and cayenne pepper and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste. Spread mixture on heavy brown bread and cut each sandwich into desired shape. Make at least the day before serving. Cover and refrigerate with damp paper towels on top of sandwiches so they will stay moist. Makes 4-5 large sandwiches—maybe 4 because I like lots of filling in mine.

Pimiento cheese.

I'm of the traditional British school for cucumber sandwiches, bread, butter, cucumber, salt and pepper! When I do teas, I always figure one whole sandwich per person (which means 4 "pieces" pp but not necessarily 4 of each kind). I always do cucumber, I have a cream cheese and blue cheese mixture that I like to spread on date nut bread, chicken salad is good as is egg salad.

annie1992 said: '....we'd have sandwiches with cucumber and watercress (good luck finding that!)'

One should be able to find watercress in upscale markets. Unfortunately I suppose annie would have to adventure to Great Falls. But the nice thing about watercress is that it is essentially a weed in flowing water. It will survive a winter in zone 7. Anyway, if one has a natural or fake stream/waterfall, they could stick a sprig or two under a rock or something and it will grow vigorously with sun.

Love tea sandwiches! Cream cheese and cucumber, minced ham and gherkins, pimento cheese and sliced olives, egg salad, sliced radishes and butter.....are some of my favourites.

I also like to make different shapes , some that are three slices of bread, spirals and like Linda I love the checker board. As simple as they are they can be a lot of work......but worth it.

Smoked salmon on puffed pastries instead of bread.

dcarch

A nice low carb way

Whipped cream cheese and chopped pecans.

Whipped cream cheese with dill and smoked salmon.

Mock chicken (a vegetarian filling made with cheese, onions, tomatoes, and eggs which sounds weird but is delicious)

Whipped cream cheese, thin ham and chutney.

Rare roast beef, cream cheese and horseradish.

Egg salad, especially curried egg salad, with or without shredded lettuce.

Tuna salad.

Chicken or turkey with cream cheese and cranberry sauce, with or without lettuce.

I went to an event once where one lady brought the most delicious tea sandwiches which I found really hard to resist. Apparently they were made from the meat and stuffing from a rotisserie chicken, blitzed in a FP with enough cream of celery soup to give it a spreading consistency. So good :-)

Even a quick bread for variety--banana bread with cream cheese.

One I invented and loved, is guacamole made with mild salsa and mixed with crumbled bacon, and lettuce. BLTAs or BALTs. :) Could even add shredded cheddar to the guac although I try to keep my vices to one or two, not guild the lily too much. I also love all sorts of egg salads and fish salads.

For me, it's more about the bread than the fillings. The best is thinly sliced and baked in a pulman pan so there's no arched top. It looks so pretty when there's a variety of shapes and colors! White/sourdough, whole wheat, pumpernickel, egg bread, etc. Cut into batons, triangles, long wedges, squares, and a few cuttered ones in circles, flowers, etc.

A favorite of my family is peeled green bell pepper, diced fine. Let liquid drain for 15 min. Equal amount of onion diced fine. Mayo to hold together. Salt & Pepper to taste. Spread generous amount of soften butter on good white bread. Chill and serve.

I love thinly sliced Danish or Lithuanian wholegrain rye w/ mustard, a sharp cheese and slivers of onions.

I'm very interested in the different breads some of you use. My experience with traditional tea sandwiches has only been white and brown breads. Time to branch out ! Mind you Nana would be mortified !

Datenut with cream cheese...date nut with banana ( dipped in lemon water)
I make a honey bread that is very dense and it's good with cream cheese and Major Grey's chutney.
A cheddar spread with a tiny shrimp on top....liver pate on rye bread with a slice of sweet gherkin.
Brie with a dab of raspberry or apricot preserves.

So cute!

Arlinek, those are adorable!!! Our granddaughters love tomatoes and black olives and I'd love to make a few of these as a surprise when the are here for lunch next week! How to you keep the olive head on the tomato body? If you don't mind sharing..... I love those!

arlinek, I smiled at the little lady bugs. My grandkids would ohh and ahh, and they'd be too cute to eat!

Annie

I just made some!! Adorable! I used wheat thins, whipped cream cheese, and chives because that's what I had on hand. so cute!

Sorry I didn't see your question sooner, Marcy. When it's (the body of the bug) simply "settled" on top of the parsley leaf, the olive piece is just butted up against the tomato and seem to stay there. I hope all of you can also see the 2nd pic of the close-up of the ladybug. Sometimes it shows here and sometimes it doesn't. They ARE fun, aren't they?

Very cute ladybugs. I think I'll let my granddaughters (5 and 8) make them next time they're here. I'll want a different way of doing the spots.
Maybe find something to use as a punch and make circles from black olives.

Thanks arlineK! Kids will be here Thursday for several hours. Looking forward to showing them these cuties!

Those are adorable, arlinek!

One of those "Why didn't I think of that" amazing creations!

But it bothers me. I can never figure out what to call a male ladybug.

dcarch

Oh, this is bring back wonderful memories of the tea I took my DS and DGC to in London last April! We had tea at a wonderful hotel The Lanesborough. I've been there many times, and it did not disappoint. These are the finger sandwiches served:

Egg (salad) and watercress

H. Forman salmon and cream cheese

Ham and aged cheddar cheese
with honey mustard dressing

Cucumber and mint

Coronation Chicken

They were fabulous! Coronation chicken salad is made with a bit of curry in it - just a tiny bit. It's SO good - best chicken salad ever!

I also like VERY thinly sliced tomato sandwiches with just a tiny bit of mayo.

A lot of the very expensive London hotels are now doing some rather non-traditional teas - guess to please the new, very wealthy young ones who destain anything traditional. Thanks, but no.

Here in KY, tea sandwiches always include pimento cheese - SO good!

Mom, also from KY, also made pimento cheese sandwiches.

She also made smoked salmon w/ cream cheese, paper thin onion, and sometimes capers.

Or cuke, cream cheese, dill. (Unfortunately she turned them green with food coloring.)

Or egg salad with pickle and mild curey.

I loved all the above. If she made others, they weren't as much to die for, so I don't remember.

Breads: sourdough, rye, pumpernickel, white.