Spring is not quite here yet, so when I had a chill the other morning I wanted a nice bracing cup of tea and remembered I had a brand new blend just waiting to be sampled!
This "Aqua Cup Tea Co." box of tea is from Kimberly Shaw, whose beautiful notecard is featured up top.
This Orange Spice Tea was just delicious, and exactly what I needed to chase away the morning's chill. If you'd like to see this and other teas she has for sale, and at some very reasonable prices, go here!
Over the weekend I read "The Herbal Tea Garden" by Marietta Marshall Marcin, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough! I've had it for a while but when I started to read it last summer, I realized I had missed out on using the spring planting tips, so I re-shelved the book and vowed to read it early this year. Now, I am armed with a shopping list of new herbs I plan to try as well as some great ideas for planting and using them!
Several weeks ago I wrote about my new tea friend Lani in Honolulu and the wonderful package of photographs and gifts she had sent me. One of the gifts was some Hello Kitty cookie cutters which make for particularly delightful cookies!
Here are the Hello Kitty cookie cutters, some stencils and some stickers she thoughtfully included for the little girls in my life. And they're not in the photo but she even included some cute Hello Kitty bookmarks for this book lover!
I especially loved the cookie cutters and decided to try baking a few cookies yesterday after church. One part of the foot is larger than the other, and I'm not quite sure whether the larger part should go in front or back. Any thoughts? (My only thought is that these sugar cookies sure are tasty with a cup of Mango Tea!)
And speaking of cookie cutters, someone at the Wai'oli Tea Room in Honolulu cuts out these adorable cinnamon ornaments, one of which Lani very carefully packaged and sent to me. Wouldn't you love to end your visit to a tea room with such a lovely treat!
With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to feature some shamrock-shaped tea sandwiches today!
These are filled with egg salad. You can use your favorite egg salad in this sandwich, whether it's from the local deli or homemade. (My favorite egg salad recipe is included in a previous blog post, but I used store-bought for these particular sandwiches.)
I have to say, though, that I enjoyed the light crunch from the dried version of the parsley. It's an easy way to "dress up" a tea sandwich so it's ready to celebrate St. Paddy's Day!
During a recent Saturday trip to Woodstock, my husband and I shopped at several nice antique malls, including one where I found this cheerful tea towel trimmed in bright green rickrack.
I loved that it featured cups and ...
... a sugar and creamer.
And I'm astonished to report that the next two pieces were *both* discovered by my husband! This tea towel looks straight out of the Early American decorating period. I can just see it polishing some brass Eagle plaque hanging on a wooden plank wall.
Of course, it sports a label boasting "Parisian Prints" -- made in the U.S.A.
Alex also found this great runner featuring red piping and ...
... an embroidered tea kettle and sugar bowl. I told him he's getting so good at finding tea-themed stuff, I'll just start staying home while he shops. (He did not agree to this arrangement, by the way, but I love him anyway!)
One of the vendors at the recent Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta was Indigo Bath & Body. The "Indigo" in the name makes me think of the Indigo Tea Room in Laura Childs' tea shop mysteries, so I was immediately charmed. I bought a bar of soap and a vial of a Green Tea & Aloe Face Mask. The powdered mask is interesting in that you can mix it up with water, milk, honey or apple cider vinegar. I mixed it with water and indeed it did leave my skin feeling silky smooth. Unfortunately, the smell was pretty wretched. I decided I'll wait 'til I'm all stuffed up one day to try this mask again!
I had a better experience with the yummy smelling Scrubble Bubble Green Tea Exfoliating Massage Soap. It lathers up just great, and I also like the exfoliating tapioca pearls, but the fragrance is just incredible! Quite yummy, and I can still smell it in my bathroom hours later. (If they could only make the mask smell like the soap!)
It caught my eye as soon as I entered the store.
Could it be? That British designer I so love? Sure looked like her work.
Yes, it was!
And the price was right! You just never know where a new treasure will turn up, do you?
At Marshalls recently, I came across a tea blend that struck me as so odd, I simply had to try it. Peppermint and English Toffee? Hmmm. I wasn't quite sure about that. Wouldn't the peppermint overpower the toffee flavor?
When I opened the box and tore into the foil pouch, I was pleasantly surprised at the terrific scent which greeted me from these pyramid shaped teabags. Half peppermint, half toffee. I poured water into my electric tea kettle and soon was enjoying a truly wonderful cup of tea!
Want a pairing suggestion? Alex bought a box of Dulce de Leche Girl Scout cookies, and oh my ... the caramel flavor of the cookies combined with the toffee flavor of the tea is awesome! 
My new vintage teacup was in a box of this-and-that my mom gave me for Christmas, and I'll bet she didn't pay over $1 for it. Gardener friends, are those sweet peas on this teacup and saucer? At any rate, it made for some lovely teatime sipping!
Friends, I am afraid I am losing my touch. I left for the beach Thursday morning, visited eight antique malls (and one Montessori School yard sale) between Seagrove Beach and Fort Walton over the next few days, and I did not buy one, single, solitary thing. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Fortunately, we had stopped by Angel's Antiques in Opelika, Ala. on the way down, and it was there I found this pink 9-1/2-inch oval vegetable bowl in the Tea Room pattern. Whew!
My two favorite Depression Glass patterns really are polar opposites. I love the Lace Edged design with its open, frilly edges (you can see a plate here), but I also like the very Deco styled Tea Room pattern with all its sharp, angular lines.
As I've read about Depression Glass, I've learned that some "flaws" were pretty standard, like this tiny air bubble. I can live with that!
The lines of this pattern also make me think of finely cut gemstones. I just marvel that these Tea Room pattern pieces, in particular, were once common in tea rooms and soda fountains of the twenties and thirties. I'd probably go to Dairy Queen more than a few times a year if I could eat off something like this!
And until I find this piece some companions, I'm using my "vegetable" bowl as a "fruit" bowl!
Now if you're a New Orleans native like my husband, please don't get your Mardi Gras beads in a bundle. Yes, I know the only real muffuletta to a New Orleanian is the one from Central Grocery on Decatur Street in New Orleans (see a photo of it here), but since Mardi Gras is coming up this Tuesday I thought I'd give a nod to the famous muffuletta by making some mini muffulettas as this week's tea sandwiches. If I were planning a tea on or around Mardi Gras season, I would simply have to serve this sandwich or some variation thereof!
Some of the main ingredients for layering are ham (I used Black Forest Ham), salami and Provolone cheese. I got the deli clerk to slice mine 1/8 inch thick. (I love buying one slice at a time, and they truly don't seem to mind slicing them.)
But the most important ingredient of all is the Olive Salad that pulls all these great flavors together. The Publix I usually shop at didn't have any, so I had to go to Kroger to find a jar of Olive Salad. Their deli had some bread already neatly sliced into 2 to 2-1/2-inch rounds, so I opted for that. My husband likes the taste but says this is "definitely not a girl sandwich," and he's right in the sense that it's not your usual delicate tea sandwich. I actually thought of making this with thin-sliced meats and cheeses and doing something with the olive salad mixed in with cream cheese, but that just seemed wrong, somehow, since the muffuletta was never designed to be a dainty sandwich. At a seated (as opposed to buffet-style) tea near Mardi Gras, I think this could work!
You can find lots of recipes online for the muffuletta as well as the Olive Salad, so this would be something fun to experiment with. Here's Emeril's version, just to give you an idea of one variation. I got to eat a muffuletta, the real thing, at the Central Grocery counter on vacation a few years ago, so I definitely have good memories to associate with this sandwich.
So will you be enjoying any special foods for Mardi Gras this year? As they say in New Orleans, "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" (Let the good times roll!)
Today, I am celebrating two importation occasions: 1) The release of Laura Childs' newest tea shop mystery, "Scones & Bones" and 2) my four-year blogiversary! I didn't have a clue what I was doing when I began blogging four years ago (some days, I still don't), but I will say I've learned a lot and I could not have imagined the many wonderful friends I would make as a result. That has been the greatest pleasure for me! Because I was given a book to read as well as one to give away to a reader, I decided today was a great day for a celebratory giveaway! You can just leave a comment to this post anytime between now and Monday at 7 a.m. and you'll be entered to win the newest tea shop mystery.
My friend Ashly assured me it is *not* tacky to blog about the new nightshirt I came across when we were out shopping last week, because it's not like it's underwear or something. At any rate, I had been shopping for a new nightshirt and was pleasantly surprised to come across this sweet design at Marshalls!
Very comfortable. Very soft. Perfect for dreaming of teatime.
And it's even got the right name. (But you know I didn't pay $59 for this -- the Marshalls price of $19.99 struck me as just about right.) And if you're interested, this design comes in PJ's as well. Sweet dreams, everyone!
You know Republic of Tea loves us because they have just released some new chocolate teas. Would I like to sample them? I was asked. Oh my, yes!
The names alone were enough to hook me. When the samples arrived, I read the ingredients listed on the Red Velvet Chocolate tea: "Caffeine-free herb blend with rooibos, chocolate, vanilla and beet root." Uh oh. Now I love rooibos, chocolate and vanilla, but beets are one of the only foods on the planet I do not eat because they make me queasy. Hmmm. Smelled good. Might as well give it a try. And my, how yummy this was! A very, very rich tasting herbal tea that did indeed bring to mind (and tastebuds) the flavor of Red Velvet Cake, and I didn't taste the beets a bit. What a delicious treat -- and just think of the calorie savings!
And then I tried the Strawberry Chocolate and Oh. My. Goodness! The first whiff of this strawberry blend made me think of those yummy chocolate-covered strawberries my friend Susan shared over Valentine's this year. And in a tea! How *do* they do it? If you're a chocolate lover who likes chocolate-flavored teas, you will definitely want to look for these delicious new flavors!
Shopping at the flower show is one of the things I most enjoy, for it's there you get to see new and unique products you just don't come across every day. Now I have been wanting a countertop compost bin forever (or at least two or three years), but I just haven't liked the stark, stainless steel look of many of them. This one practically had my name written on it! It's just the right size for collecting kitchen scraps and, yes, teabags! I have been wanting to compost for so long, and I'm definitely ready to give it a whirl.
When I got home, I saw this plate on the side of my new bin and realized it was made by Burgon & Ball in Sheffield, England. As an Anglophile, that made me pretty happy!
The bin came with two matching paper liners, but I imagine I'll just be asking for paper bags at the grocery store. Or lining the bin with newspaper. Coming across such a fun item at the flower show made me glad I had been saving my Christmas gift money for just such a treat!
