Lists: Tea/Garden Party Menu Ideas

I am currently planning a baby shower for a dear friend. 

Any time I have any event coming up, be it holiday, having guests over for a meal, a party, etc. I always have about a bajillion more ideas than I can actually use. And they're all good ideas. And they swirl around inside my head and keep me from sleeping and will literally drive me crazy if I don't get them out. 

So I make lists. I have a notebook that I carry around that I write in. It is full of total randomness. Mostly lists for different things. Present ideas for upcoming birthdays. Menus. Things I need to do. Whatever. 

Lists are how I keep my sanity and how I organize my thoughts and how I plan things. 

I don't know how anyone functions without them!

Below is my menu ideas list for the upcoming baby shower. I am taking inspiration from English Garden Parties. Anyway, look at that sucker! Can you imagine having all that waltzing around in your head along with a bunch of other similar ideas on varying topics?

Fortunately, once I write it all down it doesn't stay stuck in my head anymore.

Now I just gotta figure out what out of this list of over a hundred items what I'm actually going to make and serve! That's much easier said than done.

Tea or Garden Party Menu ideas

Ø  Food

o   Savory

§  Mini Tarts

·         Mushroom

·         Tomato

·         Leek & Bacon

§  Mini Quiche

·         Lorraine

·         Asparagus

·         Spinach

§  Biscuits

·         Cheese Straws

·         Rosemary Shortbread

·         Lemon and Thyme Shortbread

·         Fig and Bleu Cheese Thumbprints

·         Olive and Parmesan Sables

§  Canapes

·         Devilled eggs

·         Crab puffs

·         Gougeres

·         Chicken salad in Lettuce Cups

·         Salmon Mousse on Cucumber Slices

·         Shrimp salad in filo cups

·         BLT Skewer with Sourdough Crouton

·         Ham and Swiss Puff Pastry Spirals

·         Roast beef in Shredded Potato Cup with Horseradish Cream

§  Tea Sandwiches

·         Open Face

o   Smoked Salmon and Herbed Cream Cheese on Pumpernickel Rounds

o   Duck/Chicken Liver Mousse with Apple & Bacon on Black Pepper & Tarragon Crostini

o   Pear & Walnut Topped Bleu Cheese Spread on Crostini Drizzled With Honey

o   Radish and Rocket

o   Proscuitto, Apple, and Brie with Arugula

·         Closed

o   Coronation Chicken Salad

o   Chicken Salad with Pecans & Grapes on Raisin Bread

o   Tuna Salad

o   Devilled Ham Salad

o   Club

o   Prawn and Mayo

o   Seafood Salad

o   Salmon Mousse

o   Egg and Mayo

o   Pimento Cheese

o   Apple, Cheddar, and Onion Chutney

o   Walnut & Pineapple Cream Cheese on Brown Bread

o   Cranberry Pecan Cream Cheese

o   Cucumber & Cress with Cream Cheese

o   Roasted Veggie Cream Cheese

o   Sweet

§  Cupcakes/Mini cakes

·         Double Vanilla

·         Vanilla-Strawberry

·         Double Chocolate

·         Chocolate-Raspberry

·         Lemon-Blackberry

·         Lemon-Blueberry

·         Almond-Apricot

·         Almond-Pistachio

§  Full Cakes

·         Madeira

·         Battenberg

·         Victoria Sponge with strawberries and whipped cream

·         Apple cake

·         Honey cake

·         Pound cake

o   Vanilla bean

o   Lemon/Lemon-poppyseed

o   Chocolate

·         Fruit cake

·         Kugelhopf

·         Princesstårta

·         Chocolate Swiss roll

·         Jam Roly Poly

·         Crumb Cake

·         Plum Cake

§  Mini Tarts

·         Chocolate

·         Lemon

·         Fruit w/ pastry cream

§  Mini Cheesecakes

·         Strawberry

·         Blueberry

·         Cherry

·         Blackberry

·         Chocolate

§  Brownie Bites

·         Peanut butter

·         Espresso/Mocha

·         Turtle

·         Fudge

·         Mint/Crème de Menthe

·         Raspberry/Chambord

·         Cream Cheese

·         German Chocolate

·         Almond/Amaretto

·         Irish Cream

·         Orange/Cointrea

·         Cookies ‘n Cream

§  Mini Pastries

·         Trifle

·         Pavlova

·         Cream Puffs

·         Eclairs

o   Vanilla pastry cream filled with chocolate icing

o   Chocolate mousse filled with caramel icing

o   Espresso mousse filled with coffee icing

·         Petit fours

·         Mascarpone Whipped Cream filled Strawberries

·         Millefeuilles

·         Napoleons

§  Tea bread

·         Date and walnut

·         Apricot

·         Citrus

·         Gingerbread

·         Seed cake

§  Madelines

·         Vanilla

·         Lemon

·         Orange

·         Almond

§  Cookies

·         Gingersnaps

·         Lemon sandwich

·         Lemon bars

·         Decorated sugar cookies

·         Decorated Hungarian honey cookies

·         Shortbread

·         Russian tea cakes

·         Linzers

·         Thumbprints

·         Amoretti

·         Vanilla crescents

·         Pecan tassies

·         Macarons

o   Coconut

o   Almond

o   Pistachio

§  Buns/Rolls

·         Scones with clotted cream, strawberry jam, lemon curd

·         Crumpets with butter, strawberry jam, orange marmalade

·         Brioche with butter and jam

·         Croissants with butter, jam, marmalade

·         English tea cakes with butter

·         Cherry-Apricot-Pistachio rolls

·         Hot cross buns

·         Chelsea buns

·         Cinnamon Rolls

·         Semlor

o   Almond

o   Ligonberry

o   Cloudberry

·         Swedish Tea Ring

·         Pulla

·         St.  Lucia Buns

Ø  Drinks

o   Tea

o   Lemonade/Sparkling Lemonade

o   Iced water with Sliced Cucumber/Lemon

o   White Sangria