The tradition of having tea with my daughter started when she was 7. Now at nearly 12, we try to go to our favorite tea house, Aubrey Rose, about every six weeks. With a few days notice, they can provide a lovely gluten-free tea. Sitting with my daughter, free of distractions, sipping a fragrant (and decaffeinated) Rooibos tea is one of my favorite things in all of life and we’ve promised each other to always make the time to do it.

But tea is a pricey affair, so we like to have an annual mother-daughter tea with my daughter’s friends and their moms. Several of the guests are gluten and casein intolerant which is easy to work around. Using Udi’s or Rudy’s bread, we had a choice of crustless tea sandwiches including Tuna Salad, Chicken Salad, Egg Salad and Cucumber and Cream Cheese with Onions and Chive. Fresh fruit abounded, but the real treats were Chocolate Bonbons, Chocolate Dipped Strawberries and Carrot Cake & Pumpkin Muffins. Because I made several things from scratch, I didn’t feel bad at all using Sof’ella’s Chocolate Cake Mix for mini Chocolate Cupcakes.

An afternoon tea is a wonderful tradition to enjoy with, and pass down to your daughters.