To Make Brother Joel Regret Leaving One Day Too Soon

I asked for ideas, and while Klondike bars tempted me mightily, we went with hosting a Gobble-Gobble Garden Par-Tea two days after Thanksgiving, instead. The benefits of this were twofold: Thanksgiving guests were still in town to attend, and we could use those guests as an excuse to make donuts and other goodies (but especially donuts). Thanks to Titi for alerting me to this recipe.  They were divine.

I know you're all curious about the menu, if only to know what has been contributing to my newly acquired talent for trouser-splitting.  Here you go:

-Assorted herbal TEA (of course), along with hot cocoa, roasted hickory nut tea, and leftover fizzy punch from Thanksgiving
-Sandwiches: cream cheese & jelly, grilled cheese, and turkey salad (it was 2 days post-Thanksgiving, after all)
-crackers/cheese/sausage
-butter mints for melting in one's mouth
-crispy chocolate chip biscotti for dunking
-cinnamon taffy for chewing

All three preceding recipes will someday find their way to buildabelly, but the butter mints took top prize.

 -DONUTS...with extra glaze, because if you're going to make donuts, you might as well make extra glaze.






-rice crispy pumpkin edible place cards, which no one ate because we were full to bursting with donuts.







I took these pictures right before everyone pulled in the driveway.  The kitchen smelled like burnt grease, the counters were piled with every pot, pan, and baking sheet we own, and my hair looked like Einstein's.  We ushered everyone through the war zone to the dining room, and then we began to feast.  Sorry for the lack of any more pictures.  I was too busy.  (gobble, gobble, gobble.)