Hi all! Well, the holidays are officially over- time to start creating special occasions and making reasons to have friends over! For my most recent get-together, it was our annual tea party. Usually, our group goes out to a tea house and the daughters treat their mothers to tea. This time, though, we decided to stay in and make the whole thing ourselves! We had a delicious strata, blueberry scones, cream puffs and éclairs, chocolate covered strawberries, chicken salad sandwiches, and different types of cheese. And of course, the teas! We each had our own teapot thanks to the contributions of teapots by all the ladies, so we could all pick our own tea to try. We even used antique teacups!

The recipe that I wanted to give you all is the recipe for the chicken salad sandwiches. It is such a simple recipe, but it was absolutely delicious! It’s elegant and traditional, but not so fancy that little kids wouldn’t love it as well! Here are the ingredients:

• 1 can chopped chicken or one boiled chicken breast (The canned chicken was scary to me at first, but it’s a great shortcut and is actually really nice and moist!)
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise, light or regular
• Dried sweetened cranberries to taste (I used about 1/8 cup)
• Scallions to taste (I used about 1/8 cup)
• Wheat bread

Drain the water from the chopped chicken, and put it in a mixing bowl. Using two forks, shred the chicken further so that you have very small pieces of chicken. Hint: This will prevent your guests from taking a bite of the sandwich and having a huge chunk of chicken fall out onto their plate. Now add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. If you want to make tea sandwiches, cut the crusts off 16 pieces of the wheat bread. If you’re just making sandwiches for the family, it’s up to you about the crusts!

Spoon the chicken salad onto the bread to make about eight sandwiches. You might have some chicken salad left over, so either make more sandwiches or eat it from the bowl- it’s great either way! Cut each sandwich into two triangles and arrange them on a plate, and you’re ready to serve!

I hope you all enjoy this recipe, and remember- you don’t have to be in the holiday season to spend time with friends and family! You can make the time and make the plans, and feel the joy of the holidays year round. Maybe take these sandwiches on a picnic! Whatever you choose, enjoy!