"English Tea & Cakes" magazine

My goal, really, is rather simple: I'd like to read everything ever written on the topic of tea and teatime. Is that so much to ask? Few things make me happier than learning about a new publication on the topic of tea, and last week I was visiting the website mrmagazine.com, which regularly announces new magazine releases, and learned of this one, English Tea & Cakes.

I found a single copy left at my local Barnes & Noble. Interestingly enough, when I got home with it, one of the pages contained crumbs, and my husband surmised that someone probably read it in the store's café while eating a snack. I don't know whether or not that person enjoyed my new magazine, but I sure did! This 114-page magazine is printed on thick paper and contains a wealth of information, recipes and lovely photography. Here, for example, is the feature on Blackberry Teabread. This bread very much appeals to me, and I was also charmed by the appearance of that pretty chintz-handled tea knife at left of the tea bread. I also learned something just by reading the description for this loaf: "Made with freshly harvested hedgerow berries, this tea loaf from Trelissick in Cornwall makes a delicious change from more traditional fruited breads. The garden here was created by Ronald Copeland who was chairman, and later managing director, of the Spode china factory. Many of the flowers that flourish in the mild Cornish air were the inspiration for the floral designs produced at the works."

This magazine also contains history and how-to's, including some suggestions for Tea Party Menus. But there's so much more! In the article on tea destinations, I learned one of the Top 5 London Favourites, at least according to this publication, is Liberty and Co. I bought needlework there but somehow missed out on knowing they have a café and serve afternoon tea! The recipes, though, are the best reason to get hold of this issue. Simnel Cake, for instance, I'd heard of, but I did not know this traditional cake made at Easter has 11 balls of marzipan symbolizing the 12 apostles minus Judas. Must learn more about this! There are also recipes for such English treats as Ginger & Treacle Scones, Bath Buns and Cornish Splits. And if you can't find a copy at your local bookstore, check eBay, where I found a couple of copies selling for about half of the $12.99 I (rather happily) paid for mine!

The Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin

Have you ever longed to have perfectly uniform 1/4 inch thick dough? Or some other thickness? Thanks to the Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin, I now have *exactly* 1/4 inch thick sugar cookie dough, and I couldn't be more pleased!

My newly-uniform dough comes courtesy of this rolling pin I found at a T.J. Maxx at the beach last year. I'd been casually looking for a new rolling pin, but it had not occurred to me there might be one that could automatically ensure the right height of dough!

This one comes with three sets of disks, which helpfully attach right on the rolling pin, and you can select dough heights of 1/16 inch, 1/4 inch or 3/8 inch.

Sugar cookie dough, of course, needs to be 1/4 inch thick. I simply attached the discs for the 1/4 inch height of dough on each end, locked them in place, and my dough rolled out in no time flat. (Flat. No time flat. Get it? Oh, never mind.) With the discs set at 1/4 inch, I knew that once my dough was smoothly rolled out under the rolling pin, I had perfect 1/4 inch thick dough. I was amazed how quickly I was able to cut out cookies with this simple time-saving rolling pin!

Thanks to this new gadget, I ended up with some of the most perfectly cut sugar cookie dough ever—and it didn't cost a lot of dough, either. My rolling pin was $9.99 at T.J. Maxx, but I see on the Joseph Joseph web site that the rolling pin has now been redesigned with an extra set of discs, and all are color coded according to size. Since I just wanted perfect 1/4 inch dough I'm quite content with my rolling pin as-is, and if you should need a new one, I enthusiastically endorse the Joseph Joseph brand!

The year for sugar cookie excellence

Here it is, the middle of January, and I haven't even told you about an important New Year's Resolution! Now I love to make resolutions each year, and even have success with a few of them. This year, my resolutions range from the physical (crank up my speed on the treadmill a notch each month) to the professional (complete at least two books, one fiction, one non-fiction) and the spiritual (memorize the Sermon on the Mount). I also made a tea-related resolution, and it is this: master the art of making sugar cookies in teapot and teacup shapes.

Over the weekend I decided to do an inventory of my tea-themed cookie cutters. My most-used set is this one, which I believe is missing the largest of what once was a set of three. The middle one (the larger of the two here) is the one I use most often for cutting out bread for tea sandwiches.

This teacup-and-saucer cookie cutter still had the original tie-on with it, telling me I'd never used it. It was time to untie that twine and get down to business!

I believe the only cookie cutter I've used in this set is the teaspoon. I saw some cute sugar cookies online that used this particular cutter, so now I'm inspired to make teaspoon cookies to match my teacup cookies.

And I'd bought this Wilton set last year but hadn't used it yet, so it was time to break it in as well.

In fact, the rounded shape of the Wilton cookie cutter teapot was easiest to cut out of my sugar cookie dough—I use the recipe from the wonderful book "Cookie Craft"—so this is the cookie shape I ended up using the most. For this first try, I just wanted to make sugar cookies, not decorate them, to make sure I remembered the techniques from "Cookie Craft." Done. And tomorrow, if you're into baking, I really *must* tell you about a new gadget I have that has revolutionized my cookie baking!

Tea Room Recipes #2 - A Time Remembered (Thomaston, Ga.)

Some years ago, wanderlust struck and I decided to go to a tea room all by my ownself, as a friend likes to say. If you've never been to tea with yourself, I definitely recommend it! I took a journal along that day, and I had a wonderful time enjoying tea and just hearing myself think. If there's a better place to do this than alone in a tea room, I can't think of it. A Time Remembered has since closed and is now "a tea room remembered," and I'm so grateful the tea room had published this lovely book of recipes!

This potato chowder recipe appealed to me for many reasons. Soup is such a great, satisfying food to make to ward off winter's chill. And this recipe is a little loosey-goosey in that it lets *you* decide exactly how many servings to make (I chose four), and I like the flexibility of this. Of course when I read that it is recommended you serve this in teacups, that sealed the deal for me. The result? An absolutely delicious chowder that I will be making again and again!


Old Fashioned Potato Chowder

You will need the following ingredients per serving:

1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 medium Idaho potato, peeled and diced in 1/2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 baby carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1/8 medium onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon flour
Salt, pepper and whole milk, as desired

In soup pot, melt butter on medium heat and add potatoes. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer while preparing other ingredients.

In skillet, heat olive oil on medium heat and add carrots, celery and onion. Cook until soft. Sprinkle with dill, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Turn off heat, add flour and blend well.

Bring potatoes back to a boil, add skillet ingredients and stir. Reduce heat to simmer. Continue to stir, and add milk to desired consistency. Simmer, covered, until potatoes are soft. Add salt and pepper as desired. Serve in small bowls or teacups. You may wish to add toppings such as cheddar cheese, parsley, sour cream or bacon pieces.

Gifts from a fellow tea blogger

When my friend Maureen and I met for tea back before Christmas, she arrived bearing a delightful assortment of tea-related gifts, including this cute snowman bag, various teas, some madeleines (which were delicious!), some chai flavored mints and a fun "Keep Calm and Make Tea" teabag caddy. (Recognizing my longtime love of ballpoint pens, she also gifted me with one of those, a gorgeous handmade wooden pen made by a friend, but it was upstairs on my writing desk at the time I took these photos!)

Of course I was also completely thrilled to find a cross-stitched card stitched by her husband. Isn't that gorgeous!

While I munched and sipped the edibles and drinkables pretty quickly, I still have a few of these great Sencha Naturals mints left. These are housed in a neat little cardboard tube, and these are so good, I'll definitely be on the lookout for them in stores!

You twist the tube, and inside you can see …

… small mints in the shape of tea leaves. Clever!

Silver sugar spoons

So the general rule here in tea blog land seems to be that three of anything makes it a collection. By that standard, I now have a collection of sugar spoons, and I absolutely love them! I always like to have some tea-related collectible to be on the lookout for, and since I'm about out of space for teapots and teacups, I realized silverware is small, easily stored, inexpensive and there's heaps of it out there. Plus, it's nice to have a pretty spoon for serving sugar to guests at a tea party!

I think the handles are the prettiest feature of sugar spoons. These first two are marked "Rogers & Bro. A1," which was a common mark for Rogers' silverplate. The third piece is a sterling silver sugar spoon which belonged to my husband's mother, whom I never had the pleasure of knowing. There is no name on the piece, just a hallmark of a lion, the number 925/1000 representing the silver standard, and the word "STERLING." A sterling sugar spoon is said to be an essential item for a proper tea table. (Though I didn't realize I had one until recently, yet somehow I got by just fine!)

These spoons are also sometimes called "sugar shells," and the shell-shaped bowl (this one from the sterling sugar spoon) makes it obvious why this is so. There are also other shapes of sugar spoons which are known as "sugar shovels," and indeed the bowl of those pieces does indeed resemble a shovel. The other reason I'm into sugar spoons? Next time I travel somewhere, a sugar spoon would be a great souvenir that can make it into a suitcase and back home without fear of breakage!

"Forks, Knives & Spoons" by Peri Wolfman and Charles Gold

Betcha can't guess what this book is about! Or maybe you can. I'd been wanting to learn more about old silverplate flatware and came across "Forks, Knives & Spoons" by Peri Wolfman and Charles Gold (Clarkson Potter, 1994). This book is a quick read and so very helpful. Now I already knew the Victorians were fond of having serving pieces for every food imaginable, but this book has opened my eyes to some pieces I wasn't even aware of. (Sardine forks, anyone?)

Wolfman shares her love of collecting old silverplate along with some utensil history that is just fun to read. She says the first utensil is thought to have been a spoon, and it was used for *stirring* hot foods, not for eating them. She also says that the knife was originally used to convey food to the mouth, sort of like a flat spoon. An old English rhyme referred to this eating-with-knives habit: "I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life; It makes the peas taste funny, But it keeps them on my knife."

And speaking of knives, I was quite interested to learn about tea knives, which Wolfman says "are for spreading jam on scones. The 19th-century ones look elegant with handles of ivory or mother-of-pearl; the newer ones are bright with colored Bakelite handles." Naturally, I did a quick eBay search and found quite a few sets of these charming tea knives! Charles Gold's photos in the book are luscious, and I was pleased to be able to see the great detail on so many of the elegant silverplate pieces. I was also interested in the topic of this book because I realized a while back I was informally collecting a particular silverplate utensil that's appropriate for teatime. It's not a teaspoon, infuser, strainer or sugar tongs, but can you guess what it is? I'll show you some of them tomorrow!

A teapot to cross-stitch

Stitchery has always appealed to me, but I do it in spells. As a young girl I crocheted first, then I learned to cross-stitch, then later I learned to tat, needlepoint and quilt. Lately, I've had a hankering to pick up my needles and cross-stitch again. So, this pretty rose cover on the new issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine caught my eye at the grocery store last week.

But never mind that pretty rose design—would you get a load of Donna Giampa's Red Transferware Teapot in this January/February 2013 issue? Isn't it gorgeous! Actually, I had to get this magazine to make sure our friend Phyllis of the Relevant Tea Leaf blog knew about it since she is very much into red transferware these days. (Phyllis, I hope you cross-stitch!) And I was happy to see that this is first in a six-part series of teapots. Oh, how I wish we all could get together and stitch these designs over cups of hot tea!

Dreaming of the garden

One of the best things I ever find waiting in my mailbox in winter is a new garden catalog. So far, I've received catalogs from Totally Tomatoes, John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Daddy passed along his Burpee catalog as well. This is some of my favorite reading material in the cold, gray days of winter—and it's just so lovely to be reminded that spring is just around the corner. This year, I think I'm going to concentrate on teatime herbs since I seem to have better luck with them than some of the flowers I've tried to grow.

Of course half the fun of working in the garden is accessorizing the garden, so I was quite happy when several friends and family gave me garden goodies with a tea theme as Christmas gifts. My friend Deberah got our mutual friend and garden club member, Charlotte, to make this great teacup bird feeder, which is somehow glued and mounted on top of a glass vase. I've had a similar piece before and erected it in the garden using some of the bamboo which grows so abundantly near our creek. I'll be doing that again this year, I hope!

Deberah joked that she had a "glue theme" with my gift this year, because she also gave me a pedestal plate she made herself using a candlestick and a rose design plate she found at Goodwill. I love this—and because it's clear in color, I know I will get lots of use from it!

Deberah also carried out her "glue theme" with this rose-design piece she found on Etsy. You can use it this way or turn it upside down. I will probably use it both ways as the years go by. Pretty!

I was already dreaming of my 2013 tea garden when my friend Susan gave me these windchimes. Perfect!

Then my friend Liz gave me a "tea set" that I am already envisioning planted with moss. I spotted a pretty patch of moss out in the yard just the other day, and I can just picture that pretty green color peeking through the wire of this set.

Then on Christmas day, my mom said, "If you have one of these already, feel free to take it back to Hobby Lobby." I didn't bother to tell her that in fact I did have one, because I think I rather like the idea of having two, and in different colors. Are any of you thinking about the garden just yet? I'd love to know what seeds you'll be planting this year!

Tea Room Recipe #1 - The Crumpet Tea Room (Rogers, Ark.)

Each year I like to have a "tea project" to work on and share here on Saturdays. In 2009, I made a point of sipping every tea in "The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea." In 2010, I read and reviewed a book about tea each week. In 2011, I experimented with new tea sandwiches for a year, and in 2012 I hosted a giveaway each week. For 2013, I am turning to my collection of tea room cookbooks and plan to highlight one each week along with a recipe I have tried. This week, I begin with what I believe to be the first tea room cookbook I ever acquired, this one from The Crumpet Tea Room in Rogers, Ark., which I'm pleased to report is still in business! Many years ago now, I had a girlfriend whose parents lived in Arkansas, and once or twice a year I would join her for a trip there.

My friend's mother and I were great fans of this tea room, and the cookbook I got there remains a favorite. The Crumpet Tea Room was quite charming. I fell in love with the mismatched china cups and saucers, the pretty floral placemats and napkins, and I believe that my visits to this tea room kicked off my own love of vintage teawares and linens. The tea room had quite a few signature dishes, including Hot Orange Rolls, the Crumpet Baked Potato, and their Open Face Crab Sandwich, which I made for this week's post because it just seemed fitting to make crumpets from the Crumpet Tea Room!

Open Face Crab Sandwich

16 ounces softened cream cheese
4 tablespoons Miracle Whip
2 tablespoons onion powder (I grated fresh onion instead)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco sauce
2 cans white crab meat, drained well
Slices of American cheese
Slices of fresh tomato

In medium bowl, beat cream cheese until creamy. Add Miracle Whip, onion powder, lemon juice, Worcestershire and Tabasco. Add crab meat and mix well. Spoon crab mixture on top of crumpet, then add slices of cheese and tomato before serving. If desired, warm in microwave for a few seconds until cheese begins to melt. Refrigerate remaining crab mixture. (Note: I made half this recipe, and it yielded enough spread for about 8 open face sandwiches.)

Crumpets

3-1/2 cups plain flour
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons fast active yeast
1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 cup melted margarine
3 eggs, beaten well

In large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix well. Slowly add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. Cover and let double in size. Using medium heat, fry batter in metal rings in iron skillet, browning on each side for about 2-3 minutes. (Note: This recipe is said to yield 12 crumpets, but I halved it and still got 12 crumpets, 4 inches in size. I definitely recommend halving the recipe, the only challenge being how to get 1-1/2 eggs, but I whisked mine in a measuring cup and adjusted the amount accordingly.) I'm pretty sure this recipe is one I actually ate at this tea room 20 years ago, and oh my, is it good! The Official Tea With Friends Taster (i.e., hubby) declared it "another triumph," which made me really happy. That creamy crab mixture atop a fresh, hot crumpet, with gooey cheese and tomato on top—my only improvement would be to make this again when our garden's yummy tomatoes are in season!

Calling prizewinners Marie and Jackie C.!

The last two giveaways of 2012 remain unclaimed, so I need to hear from Marie (winner of the tea gift certificate) and Jackie C. (winner of the teapot calendar). Please contact me via the e-mail button at right with your contact information. Thanks!

Green glass grill plates

Thus far I had been able to restrain myself from purchasing any green Depression glass. Oh, I like it just fine, but I had decided I would stay with pink and clear glass pieces. I was *not* going to start collecting green as well.

Ah, but. When I went to Madison, Ga. a few weeks ago to meet my friend Maureen for tea, I got there early to drive around town and came upon an antique mall that looked promising. I didn't find anything I wanted until I turned to leave and saw a table where everything was a dollar. I don't often see $1 antiques, and these green plates—no chips, cracks or flea bites—caught my eye. There were just three of them, and one appeared to have some white paint on the bottom. Still, for just $1 each I went ahead and got all three, and even the painted one cleaned up beautifully.

Do any of my fellow glass lovers know anything about grill plates? I don't even know for sure why they're called "grill plates," though I assume the style originated at a diner where it was helpful to keep the foods separated in the plate's compartments. I found a similarly-shaped green glass plate online from Federal Glass, but it had a pattern on the plate, not plain as mine are. While I'm not on a mission to find a fourth plate, I decided it will be nice if I accidentally "stumble upon" such a plate online or at an antique mall one day. And if I get four, well, a St. Patrick's Day or other spring luncheon just might result, with a scoop of chicken salad on lettuce leaves in the large compartment and small servings of frozen fruit salad and cheese straws on the side!

New stationery for the year ahead

You may not believe this, but I am 'bout shopped out. I feel like I was in so many stores the last weeks of 2012, I have very little interest in shopping right now, including antique malls, regular retail stores, eBay, all of it. That said, I did have to do a little "un-shopping" the other day (i.e., a return), and since I was in T.J. Maxx I decided to check out the journals. I was quite happy to find this great new design with matching thank-you cards!

The notecards come in a great little box that I'll no doubt find some new use for once the cards are gone.

Inside, pages of the journal also feature a perky little teapot graphic. These items were just $3.99 each, which I thought was a very happy price. If you need to stock up on tea-themed stationery for the year ahead, you might want to look for these!

Marie wins the gift certificate!

I forgot to post the name of the giveaway winner yesterday, and it's Marie who wanted a gift certificate from Twinings! Marie, if you'll contact me by the e-mail button at right, I'll get this headed your way!

A new year and new decor

Every year it seems my winter decorating gets determined by some of my Christmas gifts, and such is the case this year as well! My best tea-related Christmas gift, though, would have to be the longed-for vintage tea cart my parents gave me.

Several months before Christmas, my mom asked me to go down in the basement to see something she and Daddy had picked up (probably for $5, knowing them) and thought I might want as part of my Christmas gift. Yes-yes-yes, I quickly said, and when they delivered it at Thanksgiving, with a bow tied on, I was thrilled, but I decided I wouldn't officially decorate it until after Christmas.

Now this year, I am humbled to confess I receive so many tea-related Christmas gifts I've got to share them by theme or I'd be here all day uploading photos (and you'd get weary and leave!). Today's theme is "Winter Whites," because I just love the silvery, snowy, blue-white palette that represents wintertime. First, a new teapot and two tea mugs from my friend Beth. Now that the Christmas teacups are packed away for another year, I'm enjoying sipping out of pretty new mugs!

From my husband (with a little nudge from my eBay wish list) came this ruffled Tea Room Depression glass vase. I know I will greatly enjoy using this for all kinds of things.

From Patsy, who reads my blog and lives nearby, I received a surprise drop-off at the office one day of this lovely little electric teapot she had decided to part with and thought of me. Isn't it charming!

Did you notice the silver teapot at back of the cart? This was a gift from my friend Sandra, who clearly has picked up on my newfound fascination for hotel and department store silver over the past year. Look how well the "Hotel Sutter" teapot, at right, matches the Halle Department Store Tea Room teapot, at left, I already had. Sweet!

Sandra also gave me some iced tea spoons (which I love to collect) from the Manger Hotels. Manger! At Christmas! I won't ever forget when I received these, will I?

More gifts from my mom included a nice new stack of Battenburg lace napkins and ...

... a new three-tiered server, which I hope will see action in the year ahead.

And last but by no means least, my friend Tina added to my tea-themed ornament collection with teacup and teapot ornaments from Cracker Barrel, and my friend Linda gave me a much-coveted Jim Shore Christmas Santa bearing tea. Although I didn't pull out my nearly-200 Santa mugs this Christmas, I hope to do so in 2013 and I know this Santa will be right at home in the midst of them! So that's enough for today, but soon I'll be sharing some tea-themed gifts for the garden, and some special tea treats, and some unique tea and toast sets ... thanks to generous friends and family, I'll be playing with my tea loot all winter long!