Tea Roses

If I were rich I would live in Switzerland for half a year and Italy
the other half. As it is, I guess I will live right where I am.

I take back what I said about the deer. Those lovely scoundrels have eaten ALL the seed from both feeders.

Sorry to be so lax in tea tasting, but I have been trying to finish my gifts for my neighbors. I made them all bread and just finished in time yesterday to take it to our neighbor's party. Now I can do some cookies.

Today I am trying some tea I got a while ago - Taylor's of Harrogate Choice Rose Petal Leaf Tea. The dry leaves are almost blue-black, with a bit of a sheen to them and some rose petals. They smell very strongly of rose, with a citrus overtone - very much like... tea roses. In fact those roses were named that because they had an underlying scent of China tea. I followed their directions and brewed it for 3 minutes with boiling water. Sadly, the scent disappeared, as did the taste. In fact, it was a bit odd, but I am not sure I could describe it. It also was quite weak.
I think I'll make some more tomorrow and see if making it stronger makes it better.

Molasses Cookies for Tea

This is about what it has been looking like around here, Grey sky, sullen river. But today, the sun is lighting up the trees and sparkling on the snow.

I have been noticing that our local grocery stores have been making more of an effort to stock locally grown and produced products. More fruits and veggies, even canned ones like pumpkin and tomatoes and meat, poultry and eggs. Now it is our responsibility to buy them, even if they're not a famous brand.

Our deer herd has been eating the bird seed that gets dropped, but they don't try to eat out of the feeders, even though one would be easy for them to use. For some reason the birds have all stopped coming to eat. Every last one of them.

Yesterday was a good day. I made 3 batches of bread for gifts - cherry and marzipan, chocolate chip and cherry and cheddar walnut, I have to confess I saved one of the cheese loaves for us, because I really love it. The first 2 I got out of Totally Tea Breads, which is a very small book loaded with great recipes, not only for tea breads, but spreads as well.

Ma's Molasses Cookies.
I have no idea where she got this recipe
In 35 minutes, you can have fresh cookies that are super. 325 degree oven

Using a large mixer, mix in order:

2 beaten eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup molasses

Mix together and add
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves

mix in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
the grated peel of one orange or orange oil or 11/2 teaspoon orange extract.

Dump out on floured board and knead about 1 minute, form into 2 long loaves
that fit on a cookie sheet, make them a little taller than wide and bake about 25-30 minutes.

If your kitchen is warm or just because, and the loaves are a bit soft, put the cookie pan with them in the fridge for 1/2 hour and then right into the oven.

You can slice these or just break them off and eat them. You can double the recipe with no problem. You can not add nuts, but I think the orange flavor is essential, whatever it comes from. My kids and everyone else I have ever served these to has loved them. If you make the loves small, you can slice them and add them to your next tea party. They don't keep forever and I would store them in a tightly covered tin with an orange or pieces of apple. They are wonderful with Keemun tea.

Icy Day, Warm Ice Wine

It's really Tuesday.



I am feeling very spiffy today. My narcissi are in bloom! They are filling the house with their lovely heady scent. I always feel so darn smart when something I do for the first time works. Even if it is a no brainer like sticking some bulbs in dirt and watering them once in a while, or making a recipe that really works. I am doing an amaryllis this year, too, so I will really be hot stuff, don't you think?





I found the neatest idea on the chat group Afternoon Tea Across America. It is a tea Advent calendar. Go here - http://amzn.to/hcoRmG to see it and maybe adapt the idea for yourself. Wouldn't it be a really neat gift for next year for a tea-loving friend? Especially one who has everything. One you could make yourself. I certainly have enough kinds of tea to do it. Now if I can just remember to do it!!!!





Oh snow! Beautiful snow! We have snow! About 3-4 inches. People are driving stupidly and there are smash-ups. Snow driving really is differerent and there's always someone who either doesn't realize it or thinks they are somehow different. After the first snow fall I always find a safe place to throw my car into a skid, so I can remembe how to recover from one safely, as it is counter intuitive. Our new to us car is all wheel drive, so I better read up on it first. I love snow. I love the silence it first creates, the patterns on the porch screens, the scent, the taste, I don't even mind shoveling the first few times. That last pleasure does dim, however, when there is just too much and then I am in favor of just stomping out a path.





I think today would be a perfect day to try some Ice Wine Tea I received from Stepanie over at Steph's Cup of Tea.

Okay, I never did get to that tea, so I am trying again today. Sometimes life interferes with tea drinking, much to my annoyance. On the plus side, I got all the specialty items for holiday entertainment and a bunch of Christmas presents, so I don't need to go near the malls again until after Christmas. I don't mind shopping, but I hate the crowds and the noise and the traffic and the people who are so harassed and unpleasant. A lot of my presents this year are going to be specialty breads, cakes and cookies. If you're not a baker or you're overwhelmed at Christmas, what could be better? I'd like that as a present, myself.

Ice Wine Tea. Neat Concept. Ice Wine is made from grapes that have frozen on the vine, which concentrates the sugars, producing a sweet, but acidic dessert wine. It is a very chancey operation as the grapes have to be perfect, almost over ripe and ice wine is a rare treat.

This dry tea smells intensely of rich deep berries or grape mash, waiting to ferment. I brewed it as I usually do for a black tea - 3,5 minutes with boiling water. If anything, the aroma intensifies as it brews. The tea is a pretty pale amber. What a great taste - like ice wine, sweet and full and deep! It reminds me of some of the better Keemuns, mixed with one of the muscatel Darjeelings. Very very tasty. It also reminds of the autumns in college when I picked grapes for Great Western and Taylor Wine Companies, on the shores of Keuka Lake in the FingerLakes of New York. Thank you, Steph!

Beauty in the Snow

Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'? In the lane snow is glistenin'.


Just getting ready, it is supposed to snow, anywhere from flurries to dustings
to actual snow for the next 5 days.

My local chain - Weis Markets, has Christmas teas from Bigelow, Stash and Celestial Seasonings. Maybe yours does too. They are also carrying a line from Bigelow that is probiotic, anti-inflammatory and something else - three separate one. I got a couple Christmas teas for guests, but didn't feel like trying anything too new today.


Except, of course, some tea. Today's' cup is Teas Etc. "Oriental Beauty" Oriental Beauty was my introduction to Oolongs and I fell in love with it. I have never had any as good as that first batch, but I've had some good ones. This one smells like baking bread, in the dry leaf. The leaves are quite mixed, with some beige and silver, some long slender pieces and a few shaped like clover leaves. I just did this a little below boiling, for about 2 minutes. It came out a medium old gold in color and as soon as I sipped it I was struck by its full, round mouth feel. It smelled slightly spicey, and a little like corn silk. The main flavor was that of honey and clover, sweet but not at all sugary, with a touch of astringency at the end. The aftertaste was of sweet bland crackers, like perhaps Marie Bisquits. A very nice tea for a quiet afternoon and a rather different Oriental Beauty.

A Wind in the Bamboo

I love this picture. I love the contrast between the strength of the
rock and the delicacy of the flowers, the way the flowers fit them selves into the curve of the stones.

This has not been the greatest week for many reasons, but I certainly hope yesterday's episode ended it. The oven was a little dirty - really, a little, but it was enough to constantly set off the fire alarm, so I decided to clean it. So I did and it melted the oven controls on top of the stove. A new one is coming today. Good thing tea doesn't need an oven.

How is your Christmas shopping coming? Mine is almost done. I start in January and when I see something for someone, I grab it and stash it. In early November, I see what else I need or what can only be gotten last minute - like baked goods or candy. Now, if only I were that good about birthdays and housecleaning and planting schedules. Oh, the list goes on...

Reminder - if you haven't done it - stock up on those special teas you like for Christmas. There are a lot I know you like, so make sure you get them now, don't wait any longer or they'll be gone. I have to admit, I do love some of the Celestial Seasonings offerings. It's very easy to order them on line - grocery stores can be very chancy.

It's such a nice day I am going to try a green tea - after I take the vacuum cleaner in to be fixed - one of this week's many not-so-happy ingredients.

I was so lucky today - decided to do a bit of shopping, if the stores weren't too bad, so I did. And I found a beautiful teapot with poppies. I got very fond of poppies in Italy and have some cups and saucers with them and now, I have a teapot, too! None of them match, except for the flowers. But that is kind of how I am, anyway.


The tea I've chosen is Life in Teacup's Bamboo Leaf Green, Zhu Ye Ong. I love bamboo, I think it is a beautiful plant and I love to listen to the wind blow through it. [Next spring, my friend Leon is giving me some to shade our porch. I can hardly wait. ] This tea is very attractive, with long slender, flat leaves that feel like silk sliding through your fingers, you can almost hear the soft susseration of a breeze as they pour into the cup. There is not a lot of scent in the dry leaves. I brewed it for about 2 minutes with water about 180. [Next time, I will use a lower temperatures, as by the time the cup is done, the tea begins to get bitter]. The aroma became that of cookies with a green twist added. The brew was a pale gold, with a helping of green to tame it. The taste is a delicate green with some astringency, with perhaps some good metallic overtones. This again strikes me as a tea made for all day sipping. As I sip, the wind is beginning to move the pines and a few round flakes of snow start to fall.

Picking Berries With the Earl

It started out so beautifully today, with so much sun. Now it is November grey. It is better than yesterday when it rained so hard, we could hardly see and then we had sleet and finally, snow. Fortunately, I managed to be inside for all the very worst of it - good errand planning. Ha Ha.

The rivers and creeks, of which we have an overabundant share, are just roaring. But it is nice and warm inside and I have a tea that matches the picture, having pink raspberries and blue flower petals in it. It is Culinary Tea's Earl Grey Raspberry Tea. Amazing - I can remember when there was Earl Grey and then a foray into Earl Grey Decaf and now, you can hardly name all the varieties of them.

This one smells just like its name, Earl Grey with raspberries. It is a black tea and the pieces varied from about 1/2 inch to a good bit of dust. I don't know if that was from the journey here or if it was not the best quality tea. I brewed it my usual 3.5 minutes at boiling and the scent of raspberries and bergamot did a kind of a dosey-do, first one was forward and then the other. Very nice. The brew was a fairly light amber, which I was a bit surprised by, as I had made it on the strong side. Sadly, the tea itself did not live up to its aroma. It kind of tasted the way good mulch smells. Neither of us cared for it. Neither the Earl nor the raspberries could really be tasted.

Ya know, I've not had very good luck at all with flavored Earl Grey. Some I can tell are good, just not to my taste. Some are not so good, period. Maybe I should take a hint!

Oranges in the Rain

Love the sun and the sea on the Amalfi coast

Hoo boy, rain! It rained hard last night and today it is blowing and raining. Only Bert the brave has gone out. Ernie is whining about it, Andy went out, got rained on and returned immediately. La Principessa thinks they're all stupid and remains regally on her silk cushion.

I've just joined the Cornell Feeder Watch program, where I keep a tally of the number and kind of birds that I see in my backyard, two days a week. I don't get a huge variety as my yard is new and it is quite a ways to the trees. So far, the dread starlings haven't discovered us, and I am just as happy.

I was out for lunch and had a pleasant tea - Wild Sweet Orange from Tazo. This is a "juicy blend of lemongrass, citrus herbs, licorice root and orange essences", an herbal blend. It was a teabag, in a pot of very hot water. I let it brew about 5 minutes. It was so good. There was some sweetness, but mostly a very clear, sharp orange taste, a bit acid, a bit full and well-rounded. I am always surprised by Tazo, their teas carry a lot of flavor for a tea bag tea, much more than I would expect. I don't think I've had any that weren't well done.