Mother’s Day is coming up soon, and if you haven’t already booked a reservation for brunch or tea, you may be in trouble. But why not put together your own tea party for mom? These tea sandwiches are easy, delicious and can be assembled the night before.

Round out the celebration with a pot or two of delicious hot tea (my favorites are Buckingham Palace Garden Party, Lili’uokalani and The Queen’s Guard), scones and some pretty cookies or tea cakes.

My personal favorite of these three types of sandwiches is the pimento cheese. You can buy pimento cheese, of course, but making your own is quite easy and this version has Greek yogurt instead of mayo, which means less fat and more protein. Slapped between two slices of white bread, but still.

 

Toby’s favorite was the turkey with scallion cream cheese.

I wanted to make it on cherry walnut bread, but there was no cherry bread available, so I went with something called Yoga Bread, which has cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Really delicious.

 

Also delicious: Artichoke, tomato, basil and mozzarella sandwiches. I definitely didn’t choose the right bread for these, though. You should make sure you find something a little heartier, like focaccia. You can also change it up by using pesto instead of basil, but that’s up to you.

 

To store overnight like I did, assemble the sandwiches on rimmed baking sheets, then get a paper towel or two wet, wring it out and place it on top of the sandwiches. Yeah, you read that right.

Then wrap the entire tray in plastic wrap — make sure the cookies and wet paper towels are really sealed in there. The next morning, all you have to do is take the plastic off, remove the crusts and cut the sandwiches into triangles. The paper towels will keep the bread soft. It’s magical.

Pimento cheese tea sandwiches (makes about 24 small triangle sandwiches, plus a bit of leftover pimento cheese for snacking)
1 pound extra-sharp or sharp cheddar cheese (you’ll have extra, but yum!)
1 clove garlic
Half a red pepper
2/3 cup Greek yogurt (I used nonfat)
1 tablespoon jarred pimentos (plus more to chop)
Hot sauce
Salt and pepper
1 loaf sliced white bread

Grate the cheese, using your preferred method. (Don’t buy pre-grated, it’s weird) Peel the garlic clove. Remove the stem, seeds and most of the white inside parts from the pepper and cut the remaining red part into pieces.

Place 1/2 cup of the grated cheese, along with all of the Greek yogurt, the garlic clove, the pepper and 1 tablespoon of the pimentos in a food processor or blender. Process/blend until garlic and peppers are in small pieces (if you don’t have a food processor or blender, you can just cut the pimentos, garlic and pepper into very small pieces and stir everything together).

Stir additional 2 cups grated cheese into the yogurt-pepper mixture. Cut up a few pimentos for additional color/texture and stir in, if desired. Add several drops of hot sauce and stir to combine, then add more hot sauce and/or grated cheese if desired, and salt and pepper to taste.

Lay six slices of white bread down on a cookie sheet and spread a thick layer of pimento cheese on each. Top with additional slices of white bread and press down gently. Store as detailed above, or go ahead and remove the crusts and cut each sandwich into four triangles (I did this by cutting the sandwiches vertically down the middle, then cutting each of those square-ish pieces diagonally for two triangles per half).

Turkey tea sandwiches with chive cream cheese (Adapted slightly from The Barefoot Contessa, makes about 24 small triangle sandwiches)
12 ounces cream cheese (leave it out on the counter for about an hour before using)
1 small bunch green onions/scallions
1 loaf sliced cherry walnut bread or yoga bread with cranberries
8-12 slices turkey breast (deli turkey is totally fine)
a few basil leaves (optional)

Once the cream cheese is a little softened (not super cold/hard), place it in a small mixing bowl. On a cutting board, remove the little hairy ends and any weird-looking green ends of the green onions, then thinly slice the remaining green and white parts and chop around in those slices with your knife to get make the pieces even smaller. Add the pieces of green onion to the cream cheese and use a hand-held electric mixer to beat for a few seconds, until well combined.

Lay 6 slices of the bread on a cookie sheet, and spread a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture on each. Top with 1-2 slices of turkey breast per piece of bread, and some (rinsed and ripped apart) basil leaves.

Spread a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture on another six slices of bread, and place them (cream cheese side down, obviously) on top of the other slices to make sandwiches. Press down gently.

Store as detailed above, or remove the crusts from the bread and cut each sandwich into four triangles to serve.

Tomato, mozzarella, artichoke heart and basil tea sandwiches (makes about 24 small triangle sandwiches)
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts
2 medium tomatoes
fresh mozzarella cheese
basil leaves (or pesto)
1 loaf foccaccia or other dense bread

Remove the artichoke hearts from the jar and slice in half lengthwise. Slice the tomatoes and remove the gooey/watery/seedy part. Slice the cheese into strips or thin pieces.

Place six slices of the bread on a cookie sheet or plate. Arrange the sliced artichoke hearts evenly on the bread, then top with tomato slices and cheese. Rinse the basil leaves and place them on top of the other ingredients, then close the sandwiches with six more slices of bread. (If you’re using pesto, just spread it on the bottom slice of bread before assembling the sandwiches)

Place wet paper towels on top of the sandwiches, then wrap cookie sheet or plates in plastic wrap and use another cookie sheet or a skillet to smash the sandwiches down. Refrigerate (with a cookie sheet/skillet on top of them, if possible) for at least an hour, then remove crusts and cut sandwiches into triangles.