Luau Tea Party

I know it's already officially autumn, but I still haven't shared my final hurrah of the summer with you yet! Before the end of the season, I hosted a Hawaiian-style tea party! Now I can't take credit for this idea because my friend Tabitha is the one who suggested it! She arrived for her two week long vacation from Pittsburgh and on the second day of her trip here in Florida we started planning, looking up recipes, and shopping for all of the supplies we'd need to pull this thing together! It was awesome to have an assistant who was just as excited about everything as me! (So much so that she even agreed to wear a grass skirt!) So shout out to my girl Tabitha - thank you for all of your help!

To take advantage of the gorgeous Florida weather and to provide the most appropriate setting, we decided to host the luau outside. This meant we'd need to serve *iced* tea to keep everyone cool! (Yes, that still qualifies as a tea party in my book!) We steeped six mango flavored tea bags in six cups of cold water for five minutes, removed the tea bags and added pineapple juice, orange juice, and lemon juice until we got the perfect fruity combination! It seemed to be quite a hit with all of our attendees (a.k.a. my family members). How adorable do the glasses look with the colorful little umbrellas and tropical paper napkins?! Now the truth is that I had wanted to use coconut cups instead! Wouldn't that be the cutest thing ever? As you can see, though, I didn't end up getting them in time, but consider the idea for yourself if you ever decide to host your own luau tea party!

Now let's talk food! One thing we really wanted to make were shish kebabs! We put wooden skewers through pieces of bell peppers (red, orange, and yellow), red onion, pineapple, and chicken (some regular and some vegetarian) then cooked them on the grill.

Another item on our menu was Hawaiian Macaroni! HERE is the recipe we followed for the most part. We did end up adding some left over bell peppers and red onion (both diced) mostly just for a pop of color!

At the store, we saw lime salsa for sale (Tostito's brand) so we snagged ourselves a jar and went with it! When we got home, we decided to be a little creative/risky and embellished it on our own by adding bits of fresh mango and pineapple. It actually ended up tasting really good!

For dessert, we wanted to try to recreate one of our favorite Disney treats called Dole Whips! So I found THIS recipe online by the actual Dole website! The picture looked like what they serve at Disney, so I was pretty confident in choosing this recipe to follow. We did exactly what was said, but for some reason it turned out totally different than what we were expecting. We still served them in ice cream dishes, even though it was more liquidy than creamy. They still looked cute on the table with the colorful straws and whipped cream that we added! I would not recommend using these specific directions, but maybe you can find a better source online! Or call up Mickey Mouse to ask him the exact recipe they use in the parks! ;)

Here are some Hawaiian sweet rolls that we picked up at the store along with some citrus honey butter that my sister made! It's just a mixture of melted butter, lemon juice, and honey! I looked through all of our dishes to find ones that would add a tropical touch to the table, like this colorful fish plate.

I absolutely loved the preparation for this event because I got to really think outside of the box (since this was obviously not a traditional tea party)! The decorations that we used were very affordable as I found most of them at the dollar store by my house! It all came together really well considering! My mom says that every tea party needs flowers, so she surprised we with the beautiful bouquet you see here! I always try to wear an apron that compliments the theme of the event, so I was really happy when I found this pineapple one at Wal-mart!