Fall Giveaway: Tea & Shortbread

This is the time of year when I start to seriously think about gift giving, and when I was at T.J. Maxx over the weekend, I was surprised (but shouldn't have been) to realize that fall items are already on clearance and Christmas items are appearing on shelves. My home repairs were finally finished last week, and I feel like celebrating, so I thought it was the perfect time for a giveaway!

T.J. Maxx always has tempting teas, and this Taylors of Harrogate Mandarin & Ginger Tea sounded like a fun new blend to try.

And of course shortbread is always perfect to pair with your tea. Want to win this teatime treat? Just leave an "Enter me" type comment to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Friday, October 18 (making sure I have a way to contact you if you're the winner), and you'll be entered to win. Good luck!

Celestial Seasonings Lemon Honey Drop Tea

My fall allergies have kicked in a little, so when I checked out the tea aisle at Kroger this week, I was compelled to buy a lemon herbal tea I didn't recall seeing before, this one with Vitamin C.

This Lemon Honey Drop Tea from Celestial Seasonings really does contain both lemon and honey! The ingredients list reads: Lemongrass, Orange Peel, Hawthorn, Licorice Root, Blackberry Leaves, Lemon Powder (Crystallized Lemon [Citric Acid, Lemon Oil, Ascorbic Acid], Evaporated Cane Syrup), Natural Flavors, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Dried Lemon, Honey.

What I liked most about this tea was that it was such a great blend of lemon and honey, not too tart from the lemon and not too sweet from the honey. Also, since my young neighbor kids are fans of honey, I thought they might like this tea, too, and we're all looking forward to another tea party very soon!

A new cookbook I absolutely love

After getting the news about my friend Katherine, I found myself scrolling through her old Instagram posts, and I remembered that she had provided the illustrations for a cookbook I'd meant to order. I don't need any more cookbooks, and I'd never heard of the author, but I'd meant to order the book anyway just because Katherine's artwork was in it. So over the weekend, in between the contractors banging away at my new floors (pray for me, y'all), The Very Vera Cookbook: Occasions arrived.

Katherine illustrated the Table of Contents and …

The section dividers and a lot of individual food items as well. The artwork is all so lovely, as I knew it would be!

But what I did not expect was that I immediately fell in love with Vera Stewart, who apparently has catered lots of soirees in Augusta over the years, and she shares some of her secrets throughout the book. (I wish I'd had the opportunity to ask Katherine how she hooked up with Vera, but here we are.) And imagine my delight when one of the first things to catch my eye was tea sandwiches featuring carrots and pecans! I will be making these.

I also loved the look of these Sweet Little BLTs with Maple-Candied Bacon. What a sophisticated presentation!

And I would want to make the Lemon Cheese Logs even without the Santa mug being in the photo, but since I collect Santa mugs, I hit the brakes when I came across this recipe. When you slice the logs to make these cookies, you use the fork to press grooves into the dough before baking, then you dip them in chocolate. These will be so great for Christmas treats!

Vera herself appears to be a petite woman (earning bonus points from this five-foot-two reader) who is just a powerhouse. I had no idea I would love this beautifully photographed and illustrated cookbook so much, and I can't wait to use it. I feel like Katherine just gave me one final gift!

Remembering Katherine

Ten years ago, I first shared this photo here on Tea With Friends. I'd recently spoken with my artist friend Katherine and mentioned that I needed to order some nice business cards, something I just hadn't gotten around to. "I can design you a card!" she said. Katherine was creating a website for her custom stationery business, and we were both really busy with work, so I was surprised when she soon emailed me a beautiful watercolor of a teacup and pencil. The artwork was something Katherine had created just for me, inspired by the teacup pictured on my blog header at the time, and I was thrilled to have new business cards with her design. I have a few of them left, and the cards mean even more to me now, because in the early morning hours of September 27, Hurricane Helene sent a tree crashing through Katherine's home in Augusta, where she was asleep in bed. Her husband was away at a conference, and she and her Jack Russell terrier were both killed instantly.

Katherine wrote a column called the Thoughtful Gardener for the magazine I edited years ago, but she and I had been friends before that. If I had to describe our friendship, I would say we bonded over a love of Jesus and … pretty things! A nurse by training, she was a devoted homeschooling mom when I first met her, and we often talked about faith and creativity since she was into art and I was into writing. She went on to achieve many accolades in her artistic life, getting commissions for her work from all over the country, projects as varied as illustrating the invitations to the New York Botanical Garden's ball and creating eighteen botanical watercolors corresponding to the eighteen holes of golf at a certain little golf tournament they have in Augusta each year. She collaborated with designers and authors and all sorts of interesting people, and I love that she remained humble and gracious whenever I reached out to say congratulations on her latest success. To say I was proud of her is quite the understatement. I'm so glad her family chose an artsy photo of her to use with her obituary because it captures the spirit of Katherine—elegant, happy, and surrounded by the art and flowers she adored. (Here's a link to her obit if you're interested.)

Katherine once surprised me with the gift of a vintage Chinese teapot and tea set in a basket, and I loved it so much that I even wrote a short story about it in my book A Year of Teatime Tales.

The devastation caused by Helene seems to be in the news every day and will be for a while, and the grief I feel over the loss of my friend is no doubt being replicated many times over. I can only thank the Lord for letting our lives intersect during the sweet years that they did, and I trust He will comfort her family—and the families of so, so many others—in the days ahead. And I aim to use that Chinese tea set more in the days to come. I think Katherine would like that!

A "sweet" time of thanking the local LEOs

Yesterday, I got to join some friends in serving at the Public Safety Appreciation Luncheon honoring local law enforcement officers (or LEOs), and I'm happy to report it was another huge success! This year, our longtime leader, Norma, who'd been recovering from a brief hospital stay, arrived by firetruck, which I thought was brilliant!

This is about a third of the dessert table, where I serve each year. Eyes light up when the officers see all these homemade desserts. Sometimes, well-meaning folks try to sneak in a store-bought dessert, but Norma won't have it, and it immediately gets whisked away, out of sight.

I can report that banana pudding remains a fan favorite.

My friend Pam contributed a huge loaf-style pound cake, and less than half a (skinny) sliver remained at the end of the luncheon. (Guess who took it home to enjoy with her tea? Ahem …)

Peach cobbler disappeared before I thought to get a photo, and this strawberry cake got devoured too.

This chocolate cake was a hit as well.

My friend Susan, who works at the local hospital, was volunteering as well, and I love getting to work this event with her.

She was also part of the team working the beverage table, and their sweet tea is always delicious.

But most of all, I enjoyed getting to say "thank you" to the officers who came through the line! I know they got a nice lunch (pork loin, squash, green beans, mashed potatoes, and rolls) and plenty of homemade desserts, but that's such a small token of appreciation for keeping us safe during these crazy times!

Lipton Vanilla Caramel Tea

When I was coming home from my niece’s baby shower last month, I passed a Food Lion grocery store, a retailer we don’t have in my town, and I made a note to stop by for a few things on the way home. I always check the tea selection of any grocery store I’m in, so when I got there, I spotted this Lipton Vanilla Caramel Tea.

While these bags are pyramid shaped, they’re not silken but paper, and the scent was indeed a very vanilla-and-caramel one.

And the tea is deliciously rich, very much a “dessert tea” with natural sweetness! Even my six-year-old neighbor liked it when he tried it, and he didn’t even ask for honey with it (and he almost always wants honey, although that may be because he likes using the honey dispenser). While I’ve had Lipton’s flavored teas before, this was a new one to me. I looked it up on Amazon, and it’s clearly been around for years, but I don’t believe I’ve ever had it before. Do I need to make a habit of visiting smaller grocery stores to find different teas? Have any of you seen this tea at your grocery store before?

A great new volunteer opportunity

Some of you may have heard of Operation Christmas Child, a ministry in which Samaritan's Purse sends shoeboxes full of Christmas gifts to needy children around the world. My hiking friend Tammy attends Poplar Springs Baptist, a small church of around twenty members in Tallapoosa, and would you believe this congregation is giving over one thousand (yes, one thousand!) shoeboxes this year? So on Saturday, I helped with the packing of the gifts donated by this generous church. The volunteers have this down to an art form, and everything was so well organized.

Here's Tammy standing before a wall of shoeboxes ready to be packed with goodies!

Boxes are marked for a boy or a girl and are labeled by the child's age. Every child gets a big "wow" toy, typically a doll or stuffed animal for girls and a tightly packaged soccer ball with its own pump for the boys, and they also all got a notebook, coloring book, crayons, pencils, a spoon, a toothbrush and wash cloth, and some got clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, and more. I was astonished at how much you could pack into a shoebox! There were also bins full of tiny filler objects like yo-yos and chalk and plastic toys galore.

Tammy herself stitched five hundred teddy bears and bunnies so that children could enjoy these too!

This was one of my favorites (and no, I didn't tuck one away, though it was tempting).

When a shoebox was straining to close, as they often were, volunteers wrapped a rubber band around it, which apparently is permitted. I also learned that flat objects like stickers are easy to add, and I was delighted to find some with teacups on them! (Speaking of tea, I didn't get a photo, but the church brought in tasty sandwiches, snacks, and desserts for us at lunchtime, and I was quite happy—and very thirsty for—the Milo's sweet tea that arrived!)

I'm told that we ended up packing 566 of the shoeboxes that day, and I was especially grateful that we stopped several times and prayed over the boxes and the children who will receive them.

And as always, I'm thrilled that groups like this one provide dolls in an array of skin colors. I hope the precious little girl who gets this one is as excited to receive it as I was to pack it!

Girl Scouts and tea — a hundred years ago!

 

The Library of Congress website calls this image "Girl Scouts Tea room, Potomac Park, [Washington, D.C.]" and says the photo was created or published between 1920 and 1921.

Okay, but I have questions! The patrons look a little on the older side of Girl Scouting, so I'm guessing they're patrons at this "tea room" run by the Girl Scouts. It looks like two much younger folks hovering in the small building, which reminds me of the lakeside "canteen" where I worked a summer job in my teens.

The Library of Congress titled this image based on "unverified data provided by the National Photo Company," but assuming it's true, I'm intrigued that the Girl Scouts once operated an outdoor tea room. We churned butter and did sewing projects when I was in Girl Scouts, but I would have loved to have operated a tea room! Who are my fellow Girl Scouts reading today?

Rosevear Tea's Lemongrass & Marigold Tea

A few weeks ago, I followed along on Facebook as my friend Beth and her husband traveled to Scotland, and I was delighted when I saw them partaking of a very fancy afternoon tea one day. When I saw them at church after they returned, I commented on their teatime, and Beth mentioned that she fell in love with the Lemongrass & Marigold tea she had. Had I ever tried it? No, but it sounds good, I said. Well, guess what she brings to church for me on Sunday morning? A whole packet of this tea!

I'd never heard of Rosevear Tea before, but as soon as I opened the bag and saw what this tea looked like, I got almost giddy, because I've had only one other tea brimming with my beloved pineapple pieces, and I can spot that Emperor's Bride black tea from a mile away. But this was an *herbal* tea with lemongrass, apple pieces, pineapple cubes, marigold blossoms, lemon granules, and strawberry pieces. I've had lots of great herbal teas before, but this one quickly shot to the top of the list. I've always liked lemongrass herbal teas anyway, but with the addition of pineapple and strawberry, this one was absolutely divine! Happily, I was able to resteep the tea twice more, which will help me make it last longer.

So who's going to Scotland anytime soon? I'm going to be needing more of this tea! (Actually, I've decided *I* may be the one going to Scotland, and my excuse will be that going there is probably the most economical way of acquiring more of this tea!)

A surprise gift from my church!

Last week, my deacon's wife got in touch to say that she wanted to drop off "a gift from the church," and I was puzzled. Yes, my husband passed away back in April, but church friends already did a ton for me back then, and I'm no longer ugly-crying every day, so … Why would they want to give me a gift, and what could it be? Well, Fran comes by and, after navigating under the ladders and new sheetrock going up in my foyer, delivers a pretty gold bag that is absolutely brimming with gifts. What was inside?

A beautiful sage-green crocheted prayer shawl.

Some fun snacks. (I've already eaten the miniature Reese's cups.)

A candle and some scripture cards.

Lots of tea!

An inspirational coloring book and pencils.

An afternoon tea coloring book and metallic pencils.

A journal and pen.

And a book on grief that I didn't yet have! Turns out, my church's grief ministry times it so that after the initial shock of losing someone has worn off a bit, they like to give gifts just to let us members know that they're still thinking of us and praying for us. And the fellow widow who wrote me a sweet note said that she was sure to include tea gifts to let me know these gifts were chosen just for me, not just something they randomly put together. I was (and am) so overwhelmed! I don't know if any of you are part of a church that has a grief ministry, but I must say that I am completely bowled over by the way I've been ministered to by mine!