"Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed, and then one day he was shootin' at some food, and up through the ground come a bubbling crude. Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea." I'll bet many of you know exactly which classic TV show that came from, don't you? But it's another kind of Texas tea that's on my mind today, as you'll see!
• As my Texas-born brother-in-law is fond of reminding me, everything is bigger and better in Texas. Perhaps that explains why, to my knowledge, Texas is the only state that has ever had a whole magazine devoted to the topic of tea! I can't remember when I first learned about this magazine, but I have collected several issues over the years and think somebody ought to franchise the concept and see that there's a similar product in every state. My tea friend Janet Pool in Texas has written for this magazine for years, and it's now available in an online version here.
• Want a fun twist on tea bread? Try the Banana Apricot Nut Bread from a Texas tearoom! In 2013, I assigned myself the challenge of trying a different tearoom recipe every week, and one of my favorites for the year was this delicious variation on a classic tea bread that I found in "The Peach Tree Tea Room Cookbook" by the late Cynthia Collins Pedregon of Fredericksburg, Texas. Copies are easy to find online, and by the time I got a copy, it was a 2005 edition and the book was in its ninth printing, with some 59,500 copies in print already. (Even the tearoom cookbook runs are bigger in Texas, apparently.) Click here for the recipe.
P.S. Click here if you want to hear that old TV theme song that mentions "Texas tea."
Yay Texas! So happy to finally see my state! I subscribed to Tea in Texas (later became Texas Tea & Travel) for several years and it was a great magazine. Unfortunately, last Spring I received my last issue and when I called to inquire about what had happened to it, Lee Garcia told me that it had been discontinued and they were just going to do an annual on tearooms and tea events from then on. I believe she told me it would be coming out in Fall 2016, but I haven't received anything so far. I'm really going to miss the magazine because Teaxas is so spread out, and it was a way to bring us Texas tea sippers a little closer!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you mentioned The Peach Tree Tearoom in Fredricksburg. I was just there a few weeks ago and it is as great as always. And Fredricksburg is just a neat town to visit with its' German heritage.
You forgot to mention that Texas has the largest teapot in the world! At least I'm assuming that it still holds the record. It sits outside M. Bloomers in Navasota where they have a nursery and tearoom called Café M. Bloomers.
Then I will have to ask my brother-in-law to take a picture of it for me next time he goes home! Fun!
DeleteWhen the Jane Austen Society of North America had their Annual General Meeting in Fort Worth we were each given a copy of Tea in Texas magazine with our registration goodies. Thank you for bringing back a good memory!
ReplyDeleteHope to visit Texas some day!
ReplyDeleteHow neat that they have a tea magazine.
ReplyDeleteOh I think I have that cookbook. Now must go check for that recipe. Tea in Texas use to sell some of my sewing patterns at shows they do.
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