Numi's new Savory Tea

When I fetched the mail recently and opened a card from tea friend Frances, I couldn't help grinning. She'd received a sample of a new tea she didn't care to try, but she knew that I'll try anything once, and so it was that I went to sampling this Spinach Chive tea from Numi's new Savory Tea line.

The directions alone were quite different from those I usually find on a green tea: "Bring fresh water to a boil and pour 10 ounces over a bag of Spinach Chive. Steep 10 minutes while covered, or forever if you like. Its cornucopia of flavors will continue to stew. Squeeze tea bag after steeping to maximize flavor."

The scent was just what I expected from a brew named Spinach Chive. Spinach, chives, very vegetable-y. I took a sip and was pleasantly surprised! (I asked my hubby if he wanted to try a sip and, like Frances, he politely declined.) Now here's the thing: I would not want to drink this with, say, a pumpkin cupcake or a chocolate truffle, but if you treat this like a vegetable broth, I think it would be a *great* snack food, or even a light "soup" at teatime. There are other flavors too, I learned, including Tomato Mint, Carrot Curry, Fennel Spice, Broccoli Cilantro and Beet Cabbage. Except for the beet flavor (beets are about the only thing on earth I won't eat), I would love to try all the others, perhaps even cooking with them. And inside this sample there was a $1 off coupon from Numi tea, so I'll definitely be looking for their new Garden Sampler of Savory Teas. Would you have tried this tea if someone had sent it to you?

A surprise in the tea garden

My gardening was largely neglected over the summer, but a very kind friend has gifted me with a new rose bush so I decided to go see what spot might work. I wandered out to the "tea garden" for the first time in weeks, and lo and behold, for the first time ever there is a blossom on my camellia sinensis plant!

If you look toward the center, about a third of the way down in this photo, you'll see how I discovered the flower. "What's that white thing on my tea plant? Oh, my goodness! A flower!"

I'm not the only one who's enjoying my camellia sinensis, though ...

The plant has really shot up this year (all that rain, maybe?), and I probably need to cut it back, but not before I see if a few more blossoms appear this year!

Remembering Nancy Carolyn Webster (1941-2013)

First of all, a huge, huge "thank you" to each of you who left a comment or e-mailed after hearing about my mom's passing last week. In June she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, which we had originally been told was very treatable and not that terrible a diagnosis. Hers, alas, ended up being a very rare, very aggressive form of the cancer that was far more complex than we ever imagined. As my sister put it, "It's unbelievable how she's going to be missed." Yes! So today I am choosing not to dwell on the pain and sorrow of the past few months but rather to reminisce about some of the fun times we had together, of which there were many! It's funny to think about how many family get-togethers revolve around food, and in my family, that has often included teatime. Thank heaven for such memories — and thank heaven (I mean that quite literally) for the gift that was Nancy Carolyn Webster. I am so blessed that I got to be one of her daughters! The photo above was taken last Thanksgiving and shows, from left, my niece Cari, Mama, Aunt Jane and my niece Madison.

Here we all are on Mother's Day a few years ago. Like most mothers, mine was never happier than when she had all her family around her! Here are Aunt Jane, Cari, me, my mom, my sister Rhonda, Amelia, and kneeling, Madison.

Last November, we had a little birthday gathering for nephew Matthew, who was turning 4 (as evidenced by the cake he requested from my dad, chocolate with his age spelled out in M&M's). Last week after my dad, sister and I got back from planning the funeral, Matthew asked me to swing him on the hammock outside my parents' house. He said, "Angela, I'm never, ever gonna forget Nana and all that she did, not even when I'm old, and not even when I get married! Seriously! For real, I'm not!" (All said with the sweetest little smile imaginable.) My dad says he is counting on these kids to help him through his grief, and I can see why!

In April last year, Mama offered her "fancy" dining room as the scene for a birthday tea party for Cari. Here, as usual, she's in the background helping make sure everyone else is served.

Some years before that, there was a birthday party for Madison, and my mom is at right holding my niece Amelia.

Back during my single years, I lived in a little house on a road called Happy Valley Circle. People often asked me if it was indeed a happy place, and it was. Here, I had gotten a tiny new "parlor set" for the porch, and I obviously squeezed everyone around it for a tea party!

I'm not sure what the occasion was here, but my mom is pouring tea for her sister, my Aunt Jane, inside the house on Happy Valley Circle. Whatever the occasion was, they look like they're having a good time!

When my two oldest nieces were little, we all went to several tea rooms together. Here everyone is at the old Tea Leaves and Thyme tea room in Woodstock, Ga.

My mom absolutely loved spending time with Cari and Madison, and later Amelia and Matthew when they came along. When we were going through some of her papers last week, we came across some calendars she had, unbeknownst to us, been keeping ever since the kids were little, each month detailing what was going on in her grandchildren's lives. Neither my sister nor I knew about those, and the older girls, especially, enjoyed reading them, although the sweet comments were certainly a cause for many tears.

This photo was taken on a trip to the Victorian Rose Tea Room in Cedartown, Ga. (After seeing this washed-out old photo, I note with interest that my photos have gotten a lot better since the digital camera came along!)

A resolution I am making: I will henceforth date pictures! I have no idea when we all went to the Chocolate Biscuit Tea Room together, but oh well, here we are in Trussville, Ala.!

Later, after an afternoon of shopping, we stopped by a bakery for snacks, and this photo of Mama and Aunt Jane is the "Mama" I will best remember. My mother was a very witty person, and I remember her telling me about the time my old high school friend who runs the Senior Center back home asked her about joining. "I'll just be honest with you," Mama said, "I don't really like being around old people 'cause I don't like hearing about all their aches and pains." And she meant it!

Another tea room we visited together was the Grand Hotel Tea Room in Hogansville, Ga.

I'll never forget that Madison wanted something besides hot tea that day, and she got so mad when the server took her teacup away and replaced it with a glass or mug or something. Such righteous indignation from such a little girl! (Cari, on the other hand, always looks like she is in constant party mode and just happy to be there!)

And finally, longtime readers of this blog know where my mom and I liked to shop, so I thought it was fitting to end on this photo showing what the gals in my family always did after teatime. Thanks for indulging me in this little walk down memory lane!

Taking a break

Friends, I usually blog a few days ahead, so this week I had already written and scheduled my blog posts through Wednesday, but following the death of my beloved mother on Sunday night I will be taking a blogging break for a few days. I know many of you readers felt you "knew" my mom because of all the great teawares she found for me over the years which I shared here. Please keep my family in your prayers at this incredibly sad time in our lives. Thank you, and bless you!

Burlington Gardenia & White Tea Body Wash and Lotion

One day, it occurred to me that instead of shopping for lotion, body wash and "fancy" soaps at the grocery store, I'd come out just as well looking for new ones at T.J. Maxx. So even though this Burlington of Australia set was packaged nicely and in a little metal stand, the $6.99 price also made this a good value!

I actually left this set sitting there with the other body care products while I shopped, and when I went back I thought I was going crazy because the set I picked up said "Gardenia & White Peach," not "Gardenia & White Tea." Then I looked around and realized that both those fragrances were on the shelf. Whew! They also had a Lavender & White Tea set, which I may try next.

I always check the label to see if tea is actually listed in the ingredients. No, here it's just "scented with" white tea. And while I do like the fragrance of this set, I must say that it smells like lily of the valley, not gardenia, but I happen to love lily of the valley as well!

Bigelow Apple Cider Tea

Fall tea flavors are appearing in the stores, I'm happy to report, and at Kroger last week I found this Bigelow Apple Cider Tea. Yum!

This tea is a caffeine-free herbal, which would make it a good choice for those wishing to avoid a lot of caffeine.

As soon as I opened one of the packets, I got a strong scent of tart apple. The tea's taste matched its scent perfectly, and I'm so pleased to have found this great new fall flavor of tea!

An impossibly easy pie!

I can bake cookies, cakes and other desserts just fine, but pies are not my thing. I struggle with the pastry, always going back to the pre-made kind if I have any hopes of salvaging a pie recipe. So when I saw a recipe for Impossible Pie in the Barb's Country Tea Room cookbook I featured a few weeks back, I knew I wanted to try it.

Part of the reason was, I was hankering to use my pretty new 10-inch pie pan from Target! I don't believe I've ever owned a 10-inch pie pan before, and this recipe happened to require one.

What's so great about this recipe is that a) you don't have to make a pie crust and b) you mix everything at one whack in the blender. I was skeptical about this turning out well, so I was extra happy to slice into this pie and find that it set, cut and tasted just perfect. If you're pie-challenged yourself, be sure and add this one to your recipe box. It goes great with an afternoon cup of tea!

Impossible Pie

4 eggs
1/4 cup melted margarine (I used butter)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups milk
1 cup coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 10-inch pie pan with cooking spray. Combine all ingredients in blender and blend for 3 minutes. Pour into pie pan and bake for 1 hour. Like magic, you will find the pie has a crust, a middle layer of custard, and coconut on top. Brilliant!

Tea Room Recipe #40 - Old Southern Tea Room (Vicksburg, Mississippi)

This week I decided to make a big pot of Chicken a la King after I found a recipe for it in an old Mississippi tea room cookbook. Served with rice and vegetables on one of my old green Depression glass grill plates, I thought this made a nice presentation of an easy fall comfort food!

This 1960 cookbook features recipes from the Old Southern Tea Room, a restaurant in Vicksburg, Mississippi that was praised by the food critic Duncan Hines and newspapers including the Minneapolis Star and the Chicago Sunday Tribune. (Caution for fellow tea room cookbook collectors: The book was illustrated in, shall we say, less enlightened times, so line drawings such as the "happy Mammie" images may offend some. I don't like the images, but I think tea room history is worth preserving in all its forms, and so this book is a part of that.)

The recipe I made this week is called Aunt Carrie's Chicken a la King. Well, I am here to tell you that Aunt Carrie could have been a bit more specific with her directions, so I am going to share exactly how I made my recipe since she left too much to chance!

Aunt Carrie's Chicken a la King

1 (5-pound) chicken
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped parsley
5 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups milk
1 small (2-ounce) jar pimientos
2 small (7-ounce) cans mushrooms
6 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1/2 stick butter
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, cover the chicken with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 1 hour, until very tender. Debone and cut into large pieces. Strain and use remaining broth (I had about 6 cups) to cook celery, bell pepper and parsley, cooking until tender. Add a few tablespoons of water to the cornstarch to make a paste, then add to the broth and vegetables and whisk until completely blended. Add milk and whisk, then fold in chicken, pimientos, mushrooms, eggs and butter. Season as desired. Serve over rice. Yields 10-12 servings.

Some English tea towels to look for

Have any of you come across any tea-themed tea towels in fall colors? I haven't, even though I keep looking when I'm in crafts and decorating stores. T.J. Maxx didn't have any either, but I did find this adorable set of three English tea towels there for just $6.99 this week. They're marked "Cooksmart, England," and of course the English pedigree made me like them even more!

Having just made those Pillsbury Caramel Apple cupcakes this week, I loved this cheerful looking cupcake design on the top tea towel. The green checked one is fine too, but the tea towel I liked most ...

... was naturally this pink one with the tea goodies splashed across it!

With cupcakes and teawares galore, I thought this tea towel was absolutely perfect for tea lovers. Maybe some of you need to look for these too?

Upton Tea Quarterly - Fall 2013

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Upton Tea Quarterly is one of the best publications in all of tea-dom, and every time I receive one in the mail I marvel that they are so kind as to send it to customers for free!

The Fall 2013 issue has a feature and great graphics on "The Teas of Chase and Sandborn," and if you don't yet subscribe, you can read the article here. Chase and Sandborn is a name I associate with coffee, not tea, so it was fun to learn about this company that once distributed both coffee and tea throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The other reason I like to read the Upton Tea Quarterly is that they spend pages and pages describing the various teas they offer. Some catalogs are mainly pretty to look at, but this one is highly educational, and I love that — and I still can't believe it's free!

Pillsbury's new Caramel Apple treats

Those fall food displays in stores stop me in my tracks every time, so naturally I hit the brakes as my cart rolled by the Pillsbury display at Walmart last week. Caramel Apple is my most favorite fall flavor, so I left with cookie mix, cake mix and frosting, all in the Caramel Apple flavor.

I'm saving the cookies for when I find a new caramel tea to try (suggestions welcome!), but I couldn't help tearing into the frosting to see if it was as good as I hoped. Mmmm! So creamy and caramel apple-y. I usually prefer to bake from scratch, but with these flavors, I knew Pillsbury was the way to go!

The cupcakes I made were even better than I'd hoped, a fine accompaniment to afternoon tea. Have you tried any of these new Pillsbury treats? If so, what did you think?

Fuze Strawberry Red Tea

OK, OK, surely this is really and truly my last "iced tea" review for the year!

The other day in Walmart I happened to notice this 2-liter bottle of strawberry flavored red tea from Fuze for just $1. I had enjoyed their tea with lemon from a vending machine recently, so I decided to give the Fuze Strawberry Red Tea a try. And oh, was it good! I was hankering for a strawberry drink recently and bought a Fanta strawberry drink when I was in line at Target, but that thing tasted like pure sugar, way too much for even a sugar lover like me! This strawberry flavored Fuze tea, however, was much better. It has 80 calories and 22 grams of sugar per 12-ounce serving, so this will be merely an occasional treat, but it's one I'm happy to have discovered. And I also liked the fact that when the ice melted in the tea, it still tasted great! Any of you tried this tea?

The tea trolley gets a fall makeover

Some girls dress up their paper dolls, but this one likes to dress up her tea trolley! A new season means time for a makeover, so the yellow Welbeck chintz teawares have gone into hibernation for the year.

Instead, I've pulled out some vintage goodies in brown and beige tones to decorate with.

Seasonal decorating is fun because you tend to forget what all you've gathered over the years, and it's sort of like getting new stuff for free. Here I've used a small rack of tea bag holders, Harney's Pumpkin Spice tea (a recent gift), and a silver basket holding slices of tea bread.

The vintage silver basket is a piece I bought while out antiquing with my mom last year, and I still love the little acorns and leaves on the handle.

A teapot, a smaller teapot marked "Tea Bags" (oddly!) and a tea canister are joined by some brown teapot salt and pepper shakers.

Finally, the little scarecrow that was in a recent gift from a friend got plopped into the lavender silk flowers to make them more fall-like. Have you decorated for fall yet?