Afternoon Tea Cucumber Sandwiches 1.18 The Third Lorelai

“Thanks. I thought you were gonna have tea today.” Uh, we did, we finished.” “Finished early.” “Yeah well once you’re done with those little sandwiches, there’s no reason to pretend you like tea anymore.”

Ingredients:

• 12 slices of white bread

• 1 English cucumber, thinly sliced

• 8 oz of cream cheese, softened

• ¼ cup fresh dill, chopped

• 2 tsp lemon juice

• 1 tsp lemon zest

• ½ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp black pepper

Directions:

1. Use a round cookie cutter or other round sharp object to cut out a 3 in circle from each slice of bread (I used a wine glass). Tip: It’s easier to cut the bread when it’s slightly frozen. Place bread in the freezer for about 20 minutes ahead of time.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, dill, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper.

3. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture across each bread circle.

4. Place two to three cucumber slices on top of half the circles.

5. Place the other half of the circles on top of the cucumber layer, filing side down to make the sandwiches.

6. Top with a small sprig of dill to serve.

I love the smell of fresh dill, and it pairs so well with the lemon.

Oh high tea, I wish you were a common practice here in America. In my post for the Pilot Episode, I recanted my trip to London in 2019 and how magical it was to have British tea for the first time. We didn’t have tea sandwiches that day, but we did when we visited the Cafe in the Crypt. This hidden restaurant sits below St Martin in the Fields Church with beautiful brick-vaulted ceilings and nearby tombstones for a spooky ambiance. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea spread with earl grey, scones, and tea sandwiches. If you want to create a full tea spread, I recommend my peach sauce from the pilot to serve over scones and Emily Gilmore’s apple tarts for a lovely sweet treat.

An English cucumber is usually sweeter than its regular counterpart, which makes it perfect for sandwiches!

These sandwiches are very easy to prepare. I made a half recipe since it's just me and my sister (I make half recipes for a lot of these dishes, actually!) You can make the filling ahead of time if you want to make these for a tea party once it’s safe again. I saved the crust of my bread to make homemade croutons, so they won’t go to waste. Cucumber sandwiches are such a classic staple for teas, you can pair these with just about any tea you like. I’ve been trying to get into tea over the last few years. I used to not care for it, but now I quite enjoy it. For Christmas, my mom got me a subscription to Sips By. It’s a tea subscription box and they curate four teas for you each month based on your interests. I loved all the teas I got in my first box. My favorite is one called Pink Citrus Magic by Tea Kitten, and it changes colors when you add lemon juice, going from a muted goldish color to a vibrant lilac! So fun!

My first Sips By box!

One of my favorite characters on Gilmore Girls is Trix, so I’m really excited for her debut episode! I adore the OG Lorelai, the classiest of broads, but hip enough that she rents her house to Korn! I relish her sassy comments. “I suppose I can just put these nuts in my hand.” Truly iconic. The dynamic between Emily and Trix is so compelling. Trix really is the only person that Emily is afraid of. I love Emily, but sometimes she is too cruel to Lorelai (although there are times when Lorelai is too cruel to Emily). Trix gives Emily a little taste of her own medicine.

Although we don’t see it as much in this episode as we do in later ones with Trix, Richard’s relationship with his mother is weird. Sometimes, it makes me a little uncomfortable how close they are, but it’s mostly that he’s daft to the way she treats Emily. We’ll obviously get to this in season 4, but we all know that letter Trix wrote to Richard on their wedding day was awful (though it leads to THE BEST Emily Gilmore scene in the entire series). Yet Richard still worships his mother. Overall though, I still love Trix, and she is one of my faves!

You could serve the sandwiches open-faced if you wanted to!

This episode brought about a lot of discussion after A Year in the Life was released. Because this episode leaves Rory’s trust fund in murky waters, fans of the show thought she would have had access to it after she turned 25, which she is well past in the revival. Rory’s financial troubles in AYITL wouldn’t exist if she did have access to the trust fund Trix set up for her. However, it’s not clear if Trix actually set up a trust fund for her in this episode. She indicates that she would set it up for her to access when she turned 25, but then at tea, she was going to arrange for Rory to access it now. But when Lorelai and Emily fight at tea, Trix changes her mind, though it’s not clear if she changed her mind about granting access to the trust now or setting one up altogether. It’s also possible that she was going to set a trust up for Rory, but didn’t get to before she died. Although, if Trix was still alive in AYITL, she would have probably been embarrassed about the way Rory was acting...I’m just saying. What do you think happened to Rory’s trust fund?

You could make rectangle sandwiches, but I think the round ones are so cute!

Emily really annoys me in this episode. I get where she is coming from in terms of wanting to keep seeing Rory and Lorelai on a weekly basis at Friday Night Dinners. If Rory gets access to the trust fund, Lorelai won’t feel compelled to attend the dinners- as we see at the start of season four. And I know Emily’s feelings towards Trix- we all do. But I think she acts ridiculous in this episode with how snotty she is towards Lorelai. To me, Emily often takes things too far. She has good intentions in mind, but she is blind to others’ feelings, usually Lorelai’s. Their fight at tea, while entertaining, is out of line.

There is something so beautifully dainty about tea time.

Shifting gears, we also have the subplot of Paris and Tristan’s first date. Though I think Paris and Doyle are endgame (Catch these hands, A Year in the Life), I do find the Paris and Tristan plot interesting. Personally, I think Tristan is trash- except for the last episode, The Breakup, Part 2, but I do think Paris having a crush on him is cute. They clearly went to the same schools for their entire education, so he’s probably been a friend to her at some point. Paris showing up at Rory’s house in a fashion panic is adorable. I like that it mirrors Rory’s similar panic when she has her first date,or technically group hang, in Kiss and Tell with Dean, and Lorelai helps her figure out what to wear. It kills me that Tristan tells Paris that he only went out with her per Rory’s suggestion. Rory and Paris were really starting to develop their friendship, and that comes crashing down. We just have to wait a little longer for some great Rory and Paris friendship moments.

Happy Cooking!

Enjoy your sandwiches!

If you missed what I made last episode, catch up here!