Darwin Birthday Tea Party

Yesterday, we had some friends over to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birthday. I decided to have a tea party, and the following is the menu. One of my friends is vegan, so I got a couple of vegan treats for him – which ended up being the stars of the table. Here is what I served:
–Harrods No. 14 English Breakfast tea
I got this at the London airport last year, and I was quite happy with its full, balanced taste. A good black tea.
–Chicken Salad sandwiches
–Tomato & Avocado sandwiches

on vegan whole wheat bread, with hummus. They were good, 2yo Jaime loved them, but I thought they tasted too much of hummus. Next time I’ll try to use less (maybe only spread it on one slice of the bread)
–Trader Joe’s Mushroom Turnovers
–Iced and plain Rolled sugar cookies
in heart and Darwin fish shapes (see below). I wasn’t thrilled about the taste of the cookies, but they held their shape beautifully – great for the skinny legs of the Darwin fish.
The icing recipe was great and I’m posting it next.
–Vegan orange poppy-seed cookies
Very, very tasty, recipe to follow
–Trader Joe’s Apple Streudel
This vegan dessert was delicious, a little bit on the sweet side, but with a great flaky buttery (but made with no butter) crust. Vegan or not, you should definitely try it.
–Birthday Cake!
What’s a birthday without a birthday cake? My friend Fanny brought it, she made it from scratch, and it was delicious. We sang the birthday boy “Happy Birthday”, the kids blew the candles and devoured the cake.
And that was it. We watched the beginning (“Nace la Tierra” or “The Earth is born”) of “Érase una vez el hombre“, a French series, translated into Spanish, that I watched when I was a kid. This cartoon series records the history of human kind from the beginning of the earth until the 70’s, when the series was made. The series is not always historically accurate, but it’s a great introduction for children to history. The beginning is particularly good as it shows the evolution of mankind from a cell to a human being.
Katrina read a book on the history of the universe to the children, and Fanny read parts of a biography of Darwin. Mike played the Monty Python universe song, and everyone had fun and learned a little bit about Darwin. Alas, the kids (the oldest being 7 1/2 yo) can’t quite understand the theory of evolution yet. I didn’t learn it until I was in college, so I can’t fault them for that.

Marga’s Party Recipes