The Brown Onion Tea Canister

So I was innocently looking through the goodies at my friend Liz's gift shop the other day when I spotted a vintage tea canister. It was part of a set, but happily each piece was for sale individually. "Why didn't you TELL me you had a vintage tea canister?" I said. (Sheesh, haven't I trained her better than that?) But then she said this piece actually belonged to Bebe, the woman who helps her at the store, so she hadn't actually displayed this herself. So I had to give her a pass on that, and besides, I was too happy to have found a new piece in some nice fall colors.

The lid was interesting, and I couldn't quite figure out what it was supposed to be. Some fruit, maybe? Hmmm.

I got home with the new tea canister and discovered that, whaddayaknow, those coasters I bought a few weeks ago match the tea canister. Cool!

The brown leaf design is clearly the same one. Sure wish I knew what it was called ...

But what I had not noticed at the store was that unlike my coasters, the tea canister has a sticker on bottom! It says Original Arnart Creations in Japan and the piece itself is stamped "Braun Onion" which means "Brown Onion." I found a description from an Etsy seller who sold some similar pieces: "Made by Original Arnart Creations in Japan with a distinctive middle Eastern hourglass shape and decorative tops, uniquely decorated in a vine, gingko leaf and mum design accented with terra cotta stripes. The lids have a dimensional leafy onion as a handle." Mystery solved!

Time for a tea giveaway!

Let's kick off the week with a tea giveaway, shall we? The winner will receive everything shown here!

First, you'll receive some of the new teas the Lipton folks were kind enough to share recently, including Vanilla Caramel Truffle Black Tea (which I've tried and love), and two that are new to me, Blueberry & Pomegranate White Tea, and in the new Green Tea Superfruit line, the Acai, Dragonfruit and Melon flavor.

From Stash Tea, you'll receive a fresh new bag of their loose tea in the Christmas Eve flavor, a blend I've enjoyed at Christmas many times before.

You'll also get some of the Teatulia teas from the sampler I recently received.

And finally, there's the Martha Stewart Tea mug from her Dish of the Day line. If you want to win, just leave an "Enter Me" comment to this post anytime between now and 7 a.m. EST Friday, Nov. 18, and I'll choose the winner later that day. (U.S. residents only, please.) Good luck!

Tea Sandwich Saturday #46 - Chicken Salad with Dill

When it comes to chicken salad I agree with my friend Linda, who says she is on a mission to try all the chicken salads she can in her quest to find the best one. I agree! This year I've tried quite a few chicken salad recipes including one that featured pecans and black olives, one with sunflower seeds and Ranch dressing, one with almonds and sweet pickle relish, and more recently, I was having lunch in Alabama when I had a dill-flavored chicken salad that was quite tasty.

Now here's a question for you: What consistency of chicken do you prefer in your chicken salad? I've had it (and made it) with huge chunks of chicken, with finely diced chicken and with chicken highly processed in the food processor. I guess the finely diced chicken would be my favorite, but I'm open to them all.

I used the finely processed chicken in this dish because I wanted a very spreadable chicken salad. I also added chopped almonds to give it a little crunch. This recipe has a mild dill flavor because I didn't want to go overboard on the dill. This recipe got it just right for me—but feel free to add more dill if you're the adventurous sort!

Chicken Salad with Dill

2 large boneless chicken breasts, fully cooked (about 1-3/4 cups chopped)
1 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons dried dill
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons nuts, optional

Cut chicken into chunks and place in bowl of food processor. Pulse until all chicken is chopped and of a very fine, light consistency. In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, dill, parsley, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper.
Add chopped chicken and combine well. If desired, add nuts (I used chopped almonds). This chicken salad is good served hot or cold! Yields about 2 cups.

The dishes of "Dainty Dining"

The big news for me this week is that my book "Dainty Dining" arrived about a week early, so on Wednesday I was able to send out pre-orders, giveaway-winner copies and some review copies, which has been quite exciting! I'll bet some of you will receive your books today or tomorrow, and I'm so eager to hear what you think. And to keep the focus on tea here at Tea With Friends, I have launched a new and separate blog just for "Dainty Dining," at daintydining.blogspot.com. I'll be posting there at least once a week, usually on Fridays, and IF the post pertains to tea, teawares or tea rooms, I'll post it here as well, as I'm doing today. I wanted a way to write about my experiences with the book for those who may be interested, but I don't want the book to eat up all the airtime here!

This week, I thought my fellow "dish detectives" might enjoy hearing the stories behind some of the restaurant ware and china that appear in "Dainty Dining." My sentimental favorite would have to be this Syracuse China oval plate, which is pictured in the chapter on the Higbee Company. I got interested in restaurant ware earlier this year and came across this plate for a few dollars at an antique mall in north Georgia. When it came time to photograph the Higbee Cinnamon Muffins I made for the book, this is the plate I decided to use.

Later, after the photo of the muffins was taken, I finally managed to locate a copy of the out-of-print book "The Silver Grille," which was the name of the tea room at the Higbee department store. I was reading along in the book when I turned a page and there was a photo of this very pattern of restaurant ware, distinctive because its design matches that of a border in the tea room. Quite unknowingly, I had managed to pair the Higbee muffins with Higbee department store china!



Appearing in the background of a photo in the book is this Lenox teacup from Seattle's Frederick & Nelson department store. While I don't have any reason to believe this set was used in the store's tea room, I do think it's a pretty shade of shell pink, and I enjoy knowing it came from Frederick & Nelson!



This Limoges plate with a band of pink roses is from Gimbel Brothers. Was it the Gimbels in New York, or perhaps the one in Milwaukee? I have no way of knowing and simply like it as a piece associated with the Gimbels name. I have a few more "dish stories" to share, but I'll save those for another day. If you have any china or restaurant ware that came from a department store or its tea room, I'd love to hear about it!

Lipton Green Teas with Superfruits

What a tea-filled fall this is turning out to be! Lipton recently offered to send me samples of some of their new teas, and this wonderful box of goodies soon arrived at my house. (Yes, I know, I should share. We will be having a tea giveaway on this blog in the near future, I promise!)

The teas I was most looking forward to sampling were from the new line of Green Teas with Superfruits. According to Lipton, these teas are "naturally flavored using juice solids and concentrates from superfruits and other fruits as well. Superfruits provide drinkers a nutrient and antioxidant rich beverage in combination with the delicate, clean taste and subtle aroma of green tea."

The Passionfruit and Coconut flavor is the first one I wanted to try, and it is indeed quite a juicy tasting tea. The passionfruit is the primary taste I find in this tea, and it's surprising just how juicelike this green tea is. In fact, I shared some with a co-worker who doesn't usually like green tea and she loved it! I also like that this tea is packaged in individual packets, making it perfect for transporting to and sipping at the office. Now I can't wait to try some other new flavors!

The Tea & Coffee Christmas Cookie Project

I do love to give lots of food gifts at Christmas, but last year I waited too late and just didn't have it in me to conduct a marathon cookie-baking session at the last minute. And so I vowed to do something different this year. One of my favorite, most relaxing times to try a new recipe is on Sunday afternoons after church. Why not start in November and bake and freeze a batch of cookies each week? I thought. So that's what I'm trying this year!

This week's chai tea cookie was inspired by a feature on tea-and-coffee infused cookies in a Better Homes and Gardens Christmas cookie magazine from 2009, which some of you probably own. Their cookies were crescent-shaped, but I wanted mine to be plain round ones.

The Butter Frosting is a great complement to the spicy chai flavor of the cookie, and if you look closely you can see bits of chai tea in the cookie. I love the whole "Tea and Coffee" cookie theme, and making one batch of them a week until time for gift-giving is easy and not very time consuming at all. Week One: Done!

The Hand Warmer Mug

Several of the magazines I picked up in North Carolina a few weeks ago contained ads for some interesting pottery pieces known as Hand Warmer Mugs. Now you'd think a Georgia girl wouldn't get that cold, but I like it to be above 80 degrees at all times so late fall and the entire winter are pretty difficult for me. For that reason, I knew this pretty Hand Warmer Mug would be a good investment, and it was!

Even though I ordered my mug from North Carolina, I learned this particular line of pottery is made in Oregon. The color I ordered is called Ocean Tide, and you can go here to see the entire line, which is just beautiful. I'm thinking of ordering a second mug to use at the office, and I'm also thinking this mug would make a good Christmas gift for a few friends who aren't really the "bone china teacup" type of tea drinker.

I think it's neat that this mug comes in right-handed and left-handed versions. By the way, my left hand took this photo of my right hand holding my mug! It really *does* keep your hand warm ("hands," if you wrap the other one around it too). Any cold-natured kindred spirits out there? Today I raise my mug to you!

An update of the fall teawares

The fall redecorating bug has come to visit, so over the weekend I took some things down, switched some things around, and remembered that I enjoy seasonal decorating because it's like going shopping in your own store where everything is free! Although the Sandy Lynam Clough picture hanging on this wall has a mauve mat (I got this in the late eighties or early nineties) and had been hanging in my pink-hued craft room, I wanted to see if it could have a new home in the dining room. I decided yes.

It was also time (past time) to put away some teapots with pink roses on them and focus on some new fall colors. Now fall colors aren't my favorites, so I had to try to soften the color palette a bit. Is it OK to display a teapot in a basket? There was no one around to tell me not to, so I did. Besides, I felt really thrifty using the basket I bought for 10 cents at a yard sale last year! You can't see the bottom of it, but it's got these pretty ball-shaped things woven into the basket and is a really sturdy piece.

This small teapot is one I found at an antique mall a few years ago, and I love the teacup on the lid.

I also switched out some teapots on this piece I've often seen referred to as a muffin stand. Some of my knowledgeable tea friends tell me this is also called a curate's stand or butler's stand.

My favorite teapot on here is this Tea for Two teapot.

And I'm not entirely happy with this table decor (and I did iron the cloth, by the way, even if it doesn't look like it!), but I really wanted to use this vintage tablecloth. Unfortunately, my Thanksgiving dishes (His Majesty by Johnson Brothers) look too busy on here, so I removed them while I think about what to do.

My mom gave me the decorative Thanksgiving plate in the foreground. I may take it out and display it upright somewhere else.

And I still love these gaudy little turkey planters I found last year!

They're almost as bright as the teawares on this tablecloth. Again, not at all my usual color palette, but for this month I can enjoy doing something a little different. Have you decorated for fall or Thanksgiving at your house?

Tea Sandwich Saturday #45 - Cashew Curry Tea Sandwiches

This week's recipe is inspired by one I found in a tea cookbook a decade or so ago. I've since lost the recipe, but I remember the main ingredients were cream cheese, curry (a little too much, as I recall!) and cashews.

I think it's unfortunate that so many people today have nut allergies, and my condolences if you are one of them! I absolutely love nuts, from peanuts and cashews and almonds to hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts and Brazil nuts. There's nuttin' a nut won't make better, in my opinion. So here's the recipe I made for Cashew Curry Spread, which I believe is a lighter version of the one I made years ago. (But if you have a tea cookbook with that old recipe in it, please share!)

Cashew Curry Spread

1 (8-ounce) package of cream cheese
1/4 cup cashew nuts (reserve a few whole ones for garnish)
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Add all ingredients in bowl of food processor and pulse until combined into a nice thick paste. Yields 1 cup of spread, enough for about 24 small tea sandwiches.

Lots of interest in Pinterest!

It was only a month or two ago that I first heard the word "Pinterest." I was visiting the site of a blogger who mentioned having discovered Pinterest, and when I learned this was a "virtual pinboard" for helping you keep up with all the pretty things you find on the web, I knew I wanted to play too! I went to the website here, requested an invitation to join, and less than 24 hours later I was in. You can do it too, if you're interested!

Why have a virtual pinboard? I don't know about you, but I often seem to have about a gazillion bookmarks on my computer(s) for the things I see and intend to go back and revisit, but I rarely do. With Pinterest, you can "pin" all these great ideas to your Pinterest board and have them all nice and tidy, right there in one spot where you can find them when you need them. So far, most of my Pinterest boards are tea, garden and craft related.

Frankly, this concept is one I had to get in there and do instead of just reading about it. And if you're curious about what's on my own Pinterest board (which is still quite new), feel free to click the red Pinterest button at top right of this post. I'll no doubt be following some of YOUR Pinterest boards too!

Tasting Teatulia teas

Recently I was offered the opportunity to sample some Teatulia teas, and of course I said yes, send 'em on! They arrived in this cylinder-shaped cardboard container, which was certainly fun to come across in my mailbox. I wouldn't have thought of mailing tea in one of these, but I will now!

Today I thought I'd report on the first three of the teas I tried. First, the Tulsi Infusion was a black tea that featured a nice woodsy scent. I was amazed that the instructions said to steep it for only 1-2 minutes, but the result was a very rich, earthy tasting tea which was very strong and yet not astringent. It was a nice combination, and since this was a plain black tea blend I was surprised I enjoyed it so very much!

This Earl of Bengal tea was an Earl Grey blend. Again, steep for only 1-2 minutes? Could that possibly be long enough? Yes, it was, and it was a nice brisk Earl Grey with very little astringency.

Finally, the Lemongrass flavor appealed to me just because it was so pretty sitting there in its little pouch! The refreshing citrus taste was nice too, and this herbal tea would make a great pre-bedtime drink since it's naturally caffeine-free. Teatulia teas are grown in Northern Bangladesh, and the Teatulia website tells about the interesting social programs sponsored by the company. I was impressed with both Teatulia and its teas! Have any of you tried Teatulia teas? If so, which flavors do you recommend?

A tea gift from Iraq!

On Monday, I had a wonderful surprise on several fronts! First, my friends Bob and Ashly came by with their four boys—Jackson, Jefferson, Harrison and Hamilton—to trick-or-treat at the office. I was in their wedding years ago, and Ashly is one of my closest friends and also one of the only two women I know who can be relied on for power shopping. But more important, Bob has just finished his second tour of duty in Iraq and has arrived safely home! If that's not something to be thankful for this month, I don't know what is! Because Bob was away when Son #4 was born, I had the happy opportunity of being present for that sweet child's birth.

Anyway, imagine how touched I was when Bob said he wanted to thank *me* for my support with a gift he picked up while abroad. It was this charming lunchbox containing Al-Otuor Earl Grey Tea! Bob started to apologize for it not being "very Victorian or anything," and I said, "Are you kidding? This is even better because this is something I've never had before!" He said, "See Ashly, I told you she'd like it." Indeed I do!

And inside are not just a few packets of tea but two great big ole packages of loose leaf tea!

I was very carefully opening the top of the bag so it wouldn't explode on me (haven't we all done THAT before), and I laughed when I looked inside. Another bag! Smart!

The black tea had a nice fresh bergamot scent, and the flavor is terrific, one I'd rank right up there with Twinings Earl Grey. I brewed one heaping teaspoonful and let it steep for just a few minutes, and the tea was perfect! Bold but not too bold, and no astringency at all. This will be my go-to tea for a while (one bag for home, one for the office). Every time I drink it I'll think of my thoughtful soldier friend—and how grateful I am he's back in the U.S. of A.!