MM and I were having dinner one evening, during which I’m sure I started talking about The Great British Baking Show, and the term “High Tea” was brought up. Having never lived in Great Britain, or any of their commonwealth countries, we really didn’t know what it meant.

Despite the numbers of times that I’ve read books set in England (mostly historical romances, by the way), watched movies like Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightly / Matthew MacFayden version), or binged TV Shows like, well Pride and Prejudice (the Jennifer Ehle / Colin Firth version), I couldn’t be sure. The tea scene in Ted Lasso just looked like teeny sandwiches and cakes. The one in Gilmore Girls was rudely interrupted by yet another fight between Emily and Lorelai.

Yes, I watched that series so, so many times. We can go into that later if you really want. But now is not that time.

In any case, MM and I looked it up and determined that it’s a term that’s used in place of the American term “supper.” It’s the evening meal. Thanks, Wikipedia!

But, because that doesn’t fit with what we think High Tea should be, we decided that we had to do it our way. Enter Kegger excitedly trying to figure out what she could throw together quickly in a single day. And boy was that fun!

You can imagine that the first thing I thought of was the cakes/sweets part of the concept. What could I make in less than a day? (The timing was due to having said dinner on a Saturday night, and us wanting to have High Tea the next day.)

First, I thought of Petit-Fours, something that I had seen made in a number of hours on The Great British Baking Show. Of course I did. They make those things all the time! But I pretty quickly dismissed that idea. I’d have to find the right type of cake, the right filling, and cover it with some sort of icing that I’d never done before. There were far to many “I’ve never made this before” components that I didn’t think I could accomplish in a single afternoon.

Okay, so what would be fun, new, but relatively simple?

Meringue kisses and Mini Baklava! Preppy Kitchen and Taste of Home have recipes for me, so I’m set there.

Next up, what would be the actual main? What could actually be “healthy” in this meal?

Finger sandwiches, of course – and we wouldn’t need many. After all, there are only two of us. Cue a quick visit to The Food Network’s website for the “Top 50 Tea Sandwiches” to choose a couple that I thought the two of us would enjoy. And I make sure they were the ones we may like, but had never really tried before: Chicken Salad, and Orange-Ricotta!

The result? I now know how to make meringue kisses and mini baklavas, and we now know that the chicken salad recipe that I used was something we both really, really enjoyed – something we may have in the house more often!

So, what’s the moral of the story? When you have an idea that you’re excited about, go for it! Take a chance! Try something new! Enjoy yourself!

What are you going to try?

By the way, in case you were worried, I am going to write up the recipes I tried that are new. Which one would you like to see first?

• Chicken Salad
• Meringue Kisses
• Mini Baklava