Tag archive for tea

The past is behind us right? Well in that case perhaps we shan’t waste time talking about how a short summer hiatus some how turned into a full summer break and basically a fall break too. Let’s just say things have been really busy and good times were had all around. Perhaps at some point in the future I will tell you about my unexpected trip to the Caribbean and move to a new house. But we aren’t talking about that now that is for sure.

I am not a big fan of the time change that happened a few weeks ago. I have hardly stood up from my desk at the end of the day and it is already dark out. I have given up my forest trail running in favour of blocks and blocks of uneven kind of lite sidewalks. I have started falling asleep on the couch at about 7:30 most nights and to top it all off I forgot some of my potted plants out on the patio and the frost has killed them! My plants lives are on your head time change!!! This whole time change thing has really thrown me off my game!

Such males viagra sales in india ejaculate semen within one or two minutes of penetration into her genital passage, create more contact and friction during lovemaking and offer her enhanced sexual pleasure. And you would want to realize the root cause of problems, viagra pfizer 25mg pinpoint appropriate solutions and implement these solutions in the best possible manner. The device can be worn discreetly under clothing (even at work, if a man has a low-exertion job) and needs to be applied consistently for cialis purchase a course of months. Your get viagra cheap signs of despression symptoms are different as well. The one good thing that the cooler darker days afford me is afternoon tea. Nothing is quite as comforting on a chilly afternoon as a pot of milky tea. But, there is something that can make that afternoon pot of tea even better, Scottish oatcakes. A few days ago I was scanning through Flipbook when I noticed a recipe for oatcakes. A little spot in my heart is dedicated to these lovely little treats but for some reason I have never baked them at home. They have always only been an occasional store-bought treat.

The recipe narrative drew me in right away, I too wanted to be walking the Scottish moors with my thermos full of hot tea and a package of oatcakes in my pocket. Honestly now, who could say no to a cookie chock full of oats that can double as breakfast. Certainly not me! Visit Food52 if you find yourself in need of a salty sweet treat to accompany your afternoon tea.

Is tea the new coffee? I stumbled upon this question in an article or some such business earlier this week. My immediate reaction was, “Yes! Tea is totally the new coffee.” But upon reflection I realized “no”, both hold such distinctly different roles in my daily routine that I couldn’t do with only one or the other. Coffee is peppy, social and bright, it is the drink that drags me out of bed in the morning and shoves me out the front door. Tea is a whole other story. It is cozy, relaxing and lulls me into bed at the end of the day. Simply put, coffee is an extrovert and tea is an introvert. And life wouldn’t have any balance without both.

I’ll admit it, I have a nightly tea tradition. The tradition varies a little, sometimes I have a cookie with my tea and if I’m really, really lucky, I get to have a Tim Tam. But most often I just have tea. Vanilla SleepyTime is the tea du jour. If I happen to have a Tim Tam on hand, the Tim Tam slam is the only way to go. Are you are sitting in front of your computer thinking “what the heck is a Tim Tam slam?” this guy will show you how it is done and if you don’t believe him Jennifer Love Hewitt will show you too. It is legit.

Sadly, I’m currently out of Tim Tams and my evening tea has been cookie-less for quite sometime now. As I was digesting the whole tea vs. coffee thing, I was inspired to do a little baking, and my inspiration point was a certain coffee flavoured cookie that we often had around the house at Christmas. If tea really is the new coffee, then I should make a tea flavoured cookie to celebrate. Earl Grey is my tea flavour of black tea, so naturally it is only fitting that I use it in my cookies. To give them a little twist, I decided to dip them in chocolate to mimic our Christmas coffee cookies.

I know that I have been talking about chocolate dipped cookies but I have yet to show you any proof that they were ever made. Keep scrolling down and you will see one. Here is the deal. I dipped half of the cookies and then did a taste test. I know what you are thinking, “Chocolate and Earl Grey, sounds like a match made in heaven.” I know right! That is exactly what I thought. I don’t what to sell the chocolate dipped version short but they weren’t mind-blowing. They were fine, perhaps even good, but not better. So, unless you are a chocolate fiend, I would suggest that you just keep these cookies as is. Crisp, delicately favoured with tea and delicious.

Earl Grey Tea Cookies
makes 2 dozen | adapted from The Kitchn

1 cup all purpose flour
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1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon Russian Earl Grey tea leaves
1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon water
1/2 cup unsalted butter (cut into cubes)

Using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle grind the tea into a fairly fine powder. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Add the vanilla, water and butter into the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until it forms a dough. Form the dough into a ball and place it onto a sheet of parchment paper. Roll the dough into a smooth log shape, wrap with the parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat your oven to 375. Remove dough from the freezer and slice into 1/3″ slices. Evenly space cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack.

Enjoy with a piping hot cup of tea!

Pause with me for a moment and reflect back, 31 days ago to be exact. Yes, the day we made all those resolutions that we have either long since forgotten about or are seriously regretting ever making. That might be a little harsh, but this week I have rather unintentionally found myself revisiting those plans that I made. But instead of focusing on what I haven’t done (not to brag or anything but, I have been doing pretty well) I have been focusing on fine tuning, devising ways to keep my plans on track and perhaps making them more realistic. I am notorious for taking on too much, planning too big and getting side tracked.

This year I hope to learn to focus on being present and in the now. This week I have been reminding myself that life is made up of little details, in-between stages and stolen moments. It is so easy to get caught up in the big picture and forget to enjoy the moments that we have right now. We forget to admire the purple stock of the thai basil that went into last nights dinner or the fuzzy silver sage leaves that I really need to figure out how to use up before they go to waste or watch the milk as it swirls into a cup of tea. All of these lovely moments meant to be enjoyed to the fullest and remembered.

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While plenty of food was made this week; recipes tried and modified, some saved and others quickly forgotten. This week I want to pause… pause and remember to enjoy every bit of it.

I think I’m calling off the search for my perfect mint tea. Since sometime last fall, around about the time I had my last meal at a certain Moroccan place in a market in Paris, I’ve been searching for the perfect blend that will somehow live up to my memory. Hot, sweet and brimming full of minty goodness, that tea keeps bouncing around in my head.

And in the last few months, I’ve gathered up quite a collection of Moroccan mint teas. There are a couple of varieties I brought back from Paris, a North African variation that Tina found for me, a few blends that I found in grocery stores stateside, as well as the surprise gift from a friend. They are all delicious and the ongoing sampling of these teas has brought me right into a new appreciation for tea.

Yes, the insufficient flow of blood to the genital organs. cialis active We ingest new chemicals, use more viagra without side effects drugs, eat more sugary and refined foods, and abuse ourselves daily with stimulants and/or sedatives. Obstructive sleep apnea is treated with the cialis viagra online help of CPAP or even surgery if the condition is serious. When they valsonindia.com cialis mastercard are taken on a day to day basis, and avoid serious problems later on in life. I’ve been pretty consistent in my appreciation of tea so far. I’m not much of a coffee drinker, so most mornings when the coffee routine is going on at my house, I am sitting on the sidelines. Some weekend mornings I’ll make myself a cup of tea. But these days, tea has become a little more of a routine to me. Now, most weekends see me steeping my way through multiple pots of tea, carefully boiling fresh pots of cold water and timing the brewing process with care. Sometimes it is relaxing to get caught up in an exacting process like that.

And as for my favorite mint tea so far, I don’t have one. I like them all. I think my memories of those steaming hot glasses of tea that I held tightly while trying to stay dry and warm in the midst of a flash rain storm will always taste best. And I think I’m OK with that.

Blaise and I took a sick day today. Actually, it was more of a sick afternoon, but that has an awkward sound to it! Anyway, we ended up curled up in the sunshine with some time for a little relaxing and a little reading. As it turns out, Blaise is not keen on napping. However, he responds quite well to the notion of relaxing. So, relax we did! We built some blanket tents, got a few stacks of books and a couple of treats. We were set.

Lately I’ve been stuck in a spring cleaning mode. Thanks to Tina’s closet cleaning antics and a few other articles here and there, I’ve been feeling the urge to reduce the clutter around here. It turns out I might be a little bit of a hoarder, but I’m working on it. I still have a few too many boxes that have not been opened since I moved – that scares me just a little! Just the other night, I was trying to sort through some tightly packed book shelves and I found a special book from my childhood.

I am not sure if my memory serves me correctly, but I think this book came as a gift to me. Maybe from an aunt?  Anyway, it is a sweet book about three kittens and their mother. Each of the kittens have little adventures and it just so happens that one of the kittens is named Ginger, likely the reason why I received the book in the first place. Anyway, I remember it being a favorite and I was happy to see it again. Blaise has been stuck on the notion of being a little cat, so I think he might have some interest in this story.

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I have such happy memories of my reading adventures as a child that I can’t help but want to share those with Blaise. Whether it was our evening tradition of bedtime stories, trips to the library or encyclopedia reading over the lunch hour, they all stand out as special time where adventure and intrigue were always close at hand! Already I have a small collection of several of my favorites, including Tintin. There is still more time to build the collection, but I might need another bookshelf! But back to the kittens, they were quite the hit!

George gets up on the wrong side of the bed, Ginger wanders off into the world and Gigi decides she does not to share. And apparently, Mother takes care of Mother-Cat business! Reading the stories again, I feel like a kid, sitting in my childhood room alongside my sister.  But instead, we’re laying out in our little blanket tent with pillows and more blankets so we’ll be cozy. We’ve got treats, not to mention a stashed box of French Pims! Hoarder tendencies, what can I say! And suddenly, a sick afternoon is not quite so bad.

Nothing kick starts the winter blues like the first day back in the office after the holidays, January’s torrential rain and the spare tire that santa left you. I’ll say it, January is a meh month, at least compared to December’s 31 days chock-full of friends, family and good times.

This year I have a plan to best the blues! It is a simple plan really which revolves mainly around afternoon tea parties and evening tapas. Relax, I’m not suggesting that you need to host another party, but rather just prepare a little bite for you and maybe a friend. Think about it, what better time to have a nice little tea party than in the dead of winter? And following my dad’s wisdom, if you make plans then you always have something to look forward to! Really, what better way to ward off the winter blues than by having something exciting to look forward to every week through-out January.

So this is the deal, set aside a couple hours once a week for a little me time. I’m planning on having Saturday afternoon tea parties with Charlie. You could always invite a real person to your tea party or maybe just bring along a good book. I’m also thinking that a mid week tapas night would be a swell ideal too. But remember:

Keep it Simple

That is when planning the menu at least. Try to get everything together without making a trip to the market. Make use of the things that you have on hand. If you are like me having to run to the store in a down pour would really put a damper on actually following through with the whole plan. So even if all you are having is tea and a couple of cookies or olives and a little cheese, just make it happen with what you have on hand.

God is in The Details

So now that you have whipped up your simple menu, bust out your best china. What makes a tea party more fun than using a proper tea cups or a few tiny bowls of fancy salts to choose from? Or maybe you are the proud owner of your grandma’s spoon collection, I bet they would like to see a little action. Anything will do really, just as long as it makes you feel like you are doing something special.

So set your table up nice and proper or maybe take your cue from Joy The Baker’s Perfect Cheese Plate. Whatever you do, have fun. And watch out for January 16, it will apparently be the most depressing day of the year.

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I am a lucky girl. You see, when Ginger returned from Paris she brought with her not one but two tins of my very favorite tea. I have been greedily sipping it every morning since. But something has been missing. Aside from the fact that Russian Earl Grey is best enjoyed in Paris, a yummy cookie would probably make drinking tea in rainy Vancouver a little more bare-able. Isn’t it traditional to have cookies with tea after all? And with Christmas just around the corner, making a batch of cookies seems like a natural fit.

I discovered something about myself while hunting for a recipe. I am often drawn to recipes that have cornstarch in them. I know, weird right. But it is true, throughout my life recipes with cornstarch in them seem to some how end up being the recipes I choose to make. Take for example one of my first forays into baking. When I was 6 or so I asked my mom if I could bake some cookies. “What kind of cookies would you like to make?” she asked. I ran off to the kitchen and returned with the box of cornstarch and declared that I wanted to make the recipe on the back of the box. It was a simple recipe, so she agreed. I made them, my family ate them, I gave some to my grandma and she ate them. For awhile I was certain I was going to become famous child baker. However, one fateful day while whipping up a batch of cookies I doubled the cornstarch and omitted sugar. That was the end of my run as a genius child baker.

Fast forward 20 years and you will find me in the kitchen again trying out a waffle recipe. I’m not a big fan of waffles, but that is another story for another day. But when I found a recipe that promised the lightest, fluffiest, most perfect waffles ever I was willing to give them a go. What was the secret that made these guys the lightest fluffiest waffles ever? Why cornstarch of course.

But back to the real story. I want cookies. And I want the perfect introductory cookie to Christmas baking. So when I stumbled upon a shortbread recipe that featured cornstarch I know it was a sign and I had to make them.

Grandma’s Shortbread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup butter, softened

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Directions:

1. Sift together cornstarch, icing sugar and flour.
2. Stir.
3. With wooden spoon blend in butter until soft, smooth dough forms, shape into 1″ balls flatten with fork, or you can roll them 1/2 inch thick and cut into shapes.
4. Bake at 350°F for 15-20 minutes.