Teacup love

I must admit that the Tea in Coffee Tea Books and Me has been sorely neglected.  Now that the temperatures are cooler, tea time has returned in earnest although not at the proper afternoon time.  My tea time is most often after finishing the dinner dishes each evening.

I usually brew either Earl Grey Green, Candy Cane Lane, or one of my other favorite teas.  However, if tea is taken earlier in the day, I have been loving Twining's Chai French Vanilla.  Christopher brought it home earlier in the year and it is truly delicious... most like coffee house chai that I've ever tried at home.

Of course, you know my obsession affinity for teacups and teapots.  All pictures shown today were taken in the recent past since I still do not have camera batteries (the budget is being tweaked to add them as a priority).

This picture is showing the bottom shelf of my corner china cabinet.  I always place favorite teacups there which have an inside print just as beautiful as the outside (since one is looking down on the teacups).

This is a view of the top shelf.  It contains many hodge podge teacups and I often place those which were pretty but did not have a saucer.

Both of these tea cozies came from the same thrift shop.  I use the cute blue tea cozy a lot, I love the whimsical cozies and was thrilled to find this one (I think it was a quarter).  The tapestry tea cozy was much pricier, it was an entire dollar.

This picture shows off my favorite teapot (which is often displayed on the buffet, too.  It was my first "English" teapot, a gift from Stephanie while still in high school I think.

While I love teacups and teapots (and what I've shown is just a small part of my collection).  I also look for other pieces of china and crystal at garage sales, thrift shops, etc.

These gorgeous dessert goblets were 49 cents each ($3.00 for all six available at the thrift shop).  I later found similar water goblets for the same price, I use them a lot for special dinners and Holidays.  Similar water goblets were on a blog pic of an antique show for nearly $70.00.

I know there are many who share my fondness for china and half the fun is finding such beautiful items so cheap!  :)

Oh, I can't remember who it was but someone asked awhile back what Johnson Bros. patterns I am always on the lookout for... here is one of them but I love to mix and match similar patterns.

The silverware shown is also thrifted, found at a garage sale... service for at least eight with serving pieces.  I think it was around $30.00, which included the beautiful storage box.  These were once collected a piece at a time from grocery stores!  My mother's everyday china was purchased in the same way.  :)

Last but not least... here is a picture I took a couple years ago of my teacup collection I keep in the drawer of the breakfront (hutch).

Sometimes they get switched out with those in the china cabinet.  Those I always have "washed and ready" for visitors are kept in this drawer, too.

A tea party!

Matty is hosting a virtual tea party today.

I thought it would be an excuse to show off the beautiful teacup Sally (Clarkson) gave me as a gift when she arrived at Stephanie's house. My current favorite teacups to add to my "official" collection are bone china with roses... you can see how it is perfect? :)


I haven't put in the tea, yet... it would cover up the pretty roses. I'm brewing one of the teas Stephanie brought back home from England for me, called "Afternoon Tea" (and it is delicious).

I made the cupcakes yesterday and I have more to make today. I "cheated" and used a yellow cake mix but I made chocolate and vanilla butter cream frosting and sprinkled it with pretty sugar.

Christopher's 20th birthday is Sunday!

Hmmm.... do you think his guy friends would like a tea party?

You can go to Matty's virtual tea party... here.

Tea Time in New England

We so enjoyed going to a tea room with my son-in-law's lovely mom (aka: Gramma to my four grandchildren). I keep telling Stephanie she is so fortunate to have such a mother-in-law.

This was a vacation day from her job as a preschool teacher and she used it to cook a huge (and may I add... delicious) meal for all of us later in the day.

Since we were the only people being served at the time, the owner allowed me to go around the tables and take pictures.






As you can see, the tables were absolutely gorgeous. I loved trying different Harney and Sons teas that I had seen in their catalog. I especially liked their chocolate mint tea, which has just the hint of flavor. I've taken note that Harney and Sons tea was used in other tea rooms I have visited. :)

The food was just okay... not terrible but nothing special at all. The scones and muffins were rather dry, and the tea sandwiches were bland. Although one sandwich filling was interesting, she blended together cream cheese with roasted red peppers and a little lemon juice.

Having said that, we all overlooked the so-so food while enjoying the visual feast around us. I'm not sure the girls could possibly understand how rare that day would be in their young lives... all three generations of ladies having tea together. :)

Tea and Daughters

My daughter has started another blog. Hopefully she can keep up with this one since the children are all a little older now. The picture in the header of her blog is of my Hobbit looking out at the ocean... just too cute. Head over and give her an encouragement if you want, her blog is Cottage Thoughts.

Since I was asked how to make a perfect pot of tea, here's what I do.

• Start fresh, cold water boiling on the stove
• Place very hot tap water in my tea pot
• When the teapot is starting to sing, pour water from pot
• Place loose tea in pot (usually one teaspoon for each cup plus one for the pot)
• Or, place one tea bag of good quality tea in pot for each cup (HT & Harney & Sons teas require one bag for two cups)
• Pour steaming water into pot for black tea
• Let water set for a minute or so and then pour in pot for green and white teas
• Steep according to directions or your taste (I usually steep black, green, and white only two minutes but I bet the Clarkson's steep theirs a lot longer since they like strong tea)
• Take out tea bags or pour tea through strainer
• Reuse tea bags once if desired or put them in your compost container if you have one
• I only add Splenda but one can add milk, sugar, honey, or lemon (never lemon with milk)
  

Added for clarification: The tea kettle is on the stove boiling water and the tea pot is what you steep the tea in. :)

Enjoy!

There are lots of places online to learn about tea. If I weren't on my way out the door soon, I'd give a few but off hand I suggest Brenda Hyde's tea page because it has many links you can follow.

My tea rituals

It's time for another week of Gracious Hospitality's Blog-a-Thon! We're to share our favorite teas and how we prepare them. I'm looking forward to reading more about new teas I haven't tried. Check her blog for the Mr. Linkys (when technical problems are over). :)

These are my two "go to" teapots which I use most days. The smaller one is when I'm making tea just for me. Sometimes I'll use it and then make my husband's tea in a large mug as guy's don't mind "taking tea" in mugs. Shudder... can you imagine? I use the large teapot when making tea for the three of us. It was a great thrift store find a few years ago.

I run the water at the faucet until it is very hot and fill the teapot with hot water. I put fresh water from our filtered water at the sink (a must for where we live, the well water is awful) into my whistling tea pot and let it come to a boil. For green tea, I let the water sit for about thirty seconds before using.

I pour the hot water out of the teapot, place my tea in the pot and pour the boiling water over it. I like most of my teas to only steep for a two or three minutes. Of course, my herbal teas steep for the full time asked for on the package. I pour mine into...

My favorite teacup...

These are my two favorite evening teas. I'm hoarding my box of Candy Cane Lane since it is only sold at Christmas... LOVE IT! The box on the left is hard to read, it is my latest find and it is delicious.

I hadn't tried any of the Lipton Pyramid Tea Bags until I begin to see them as favorites on other tea blogs. Target had a big sale on them a couple months ago so I tried Bedtime Story (chamomile and spearmint)... oh my goodness. How delicious!

These are our favorite "go to" teas we drink most often. They are Bigelow's Earl Grey Green (my favorite) and Green Tea with Lemon (hubby's favorite). They don't taste like a "grocery store tea" at all and they are perfect for "stocking up" when they are on sale.

The sealed packages helps them last a long time. I once found a box that had somehow found itself in the back of my kitchen shelves, could have been there a couple of years... tasted great.

These are our favorite "cold and flu season" teas. I like to keep them on hand all the time, although they are stored in the bathroom medicine cabinet.

I also enjoy HT Teas (Harney & Sons) and I love to try new teas if they are not expensive. I also have peppermint leaves sent to me by a dear friend which I use whole and strain into a cup.

I find all of the above taste great when using tea bags but through the years, there have been others I prefer in their whole leaf form... just don't own any right now.

Now, I must get ready for work. I just had to get these posted this morning, though. Sorry if I didn't catch typos! :)

Yummy tea time recipes

This week's Gracious Hospitality's Blog-a-thon is all about our favorite tea time recipes. I can't wait to go back and find new recipes from the other participating blogs!

Below are two great recipes but if you here are others labeled "tea time" on my recipe blog.

This is a new cookie I just made for my husband's birthday. He loves German chocolate cake so I decided to make these instead of cake (with just the three of us to indulge). They're remarkable!

I've had the recipe cut out from Taste of Home for awhile (I have one entire recipe box just for cut out recipe "cards" from Taste of Home, Country Woman, etc.). It is not difficult but it is a little time consuming. However, it is SO worth it! Yummy... BUT RICH!


German Chocolate Cookies

Cookie Dough:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 12 oz. pkg. chocolate chips
1/4 cup flaked coconut

German chocolate icing:
1 egg
1 5 oz. can evaporated milk (or measure 5 oz. from larger can)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter (no substitutes)
1- 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Chocolate drizzle:
12 oz. chocolate chips
-0r-
dipping chocolate
(I had some dipping chocolate left so I melted it and it worked great)

For frosting, in a saucepan, combine the egg, milk, sugar, and butter. Cook and stir over medium-low heat for 10 - 12 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Mixture will reach 160 degrees (I didn't check temp, I just stopped when mixture thickened). Take off heat. Stir in coconut and pecans. Set aside and let cool.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in 2 cups chips and coconut. Drop by tablespoons 2" apart onto ungreased baking sheets. (I used my cookie scoop, which looks like a little ice scream scoop). Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheet for ten min. before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

In microwave, melt the chocolate chips or chocolate dipping chocolate. Frost the cookies when completely cool. Drizzle with melted chocolate.

(Recipe originally from Taste of Home magazine)

Here is another of my scone recipes, already posted on the recipe blog.


Cinnamon Chip Scones

3 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter, room temperature (yes, I know scone recipes usually call for cold butter)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter cookie sheet.

In large mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer), mix flour and sugar.

Mix in butter with dry ingredients just until mixture resembles cornmeal. (I just used the paddle attachment and it worked fine.)

Add heavy cream and cinnamon chips to mixture. Mix together until dough forms, mixing as little as needed.

Pat into a 1/2 inch thickness and cut out with a 2 inch biscuit or cookie cutter. Place on greased cookie sheet.

Bake 9-10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Do not over bake.

I let them cool on the baking sheet.

Makes nine scones.

Decor-a-Tea

This week's Gracious Hospital-i-Tea's Blog-a-Thon is all about decorating with tea stuff. Yes... I am looking forward to this. It will be fun going to visit other blogs! :)

Do join in at Gracious Hospitality. All pictures below can be made bigger by clicking on them.

This table is against the short wall space that divides my living room and dining room areas. I found that cute black and white sugar bowl at a thrift store and it reminded me of Mrs. Wilt! :)

This is a picture of my bedroom I took last year. Pardon the fuzzy picture! I have a window just like this on another wall, which also has "tea stuff" displayed. This was a little girl's room for the previous owner and the pretty shelves were already in place (as were the purple stamped butterflies on another wall, which I kept).

Here is a closeup of the shelf over my bed. My daughter gave me the silk flowers in the silver containers for my birthday last year. She said she knew how I liked "symmetry". They were perfect for that space, adding some color and depth.

This is the other window in my bedroom. I tried to make it less fuzzy but I was standing on my bed and for the life of me... I couldn't stand still on that mattress! Oh, the things we do for our blogs.

Another area in my bedroom, on top of the small bookshelf. Sorry for the dark picture, there is not a lot of light there.

You've seen my corner cabinet before but this is the first picture since I changed to darker plates. I think it makes the dishes stand out more.

I'll stop here. :)

Do join the fun!

Necessity is the mother of invention

Regarding the teacups in the drawer, I can clearly remember the decision to place them in there. I had already placed my "display" cups in the corner cabinet...

when I knew I had to find a place for the rest of my teacup collection... which is not easy to do when one lives in a small house.

The drawer came to mind and it has worked out great. It does keep them dust free and safe from two rather tall males with big feet (who are wonderful people but do not always mix well with dainty china).

My granddaughters think they are very pretty but it is my grandson, David, who kept asking for me to open the drawer so he could look at them. I think he has his mother's eye for good design, even if he is only four!

When I first began collecting tea cups about fifteen years ago, I would purchase any that were cheap and pretty. Now I only purchase those that are basically English very fine china or something quite unique... but still cheap.

I have a small collection of sturdy china cups from my early days of collecting, carefully wrapped and stored in a box, which can come out when little ones are here. They are also the cups I'll pull out and place in a gift basket since they are quite pretty but do not require careful handling. I let the little ones take one home with them if they like.

The hutch was in my mother-in-law's dining room/home office area (along with the corner china cabinet). She used that drawer as an extension of her desk. I believe it was originally intended for holding silver ware and linens. Whatever works! Teacups in drawers... as Martha would say... that is a good thing. :)

I'll have to try using salt to clean the teacups, Heather. One thing I found (quite by accident) that works great are the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers... they do work like magic!

Favorite tea books

This is the second in the series of the Gracious Hospital-i-Tea Blog-a-thon. Last week we shared our favorite tea cup/s (I plan to share more of mine as we go along). This week we are to share our favorite tea literature.

Oh... did she know what she was asking? :)

Here are some of my favorites. I recently added an Amazon "widget" to my sidebar. So many people have asked for book recommendations and I figured this was the easiest way to make them available. I have quite a few of my favorite tea books located on the "widget".

This is one of my all time favorite books... period. It's so cute. It's perfect for any Holly Pond Hill fan but especially little girls or big girls who enjoy tea parties. I sent my copy to Miss E. a few months ago so I need to purchase another one for myself someday.

This is just the sweetest book about tea and etiquette for children. I think I saw it first in Southern Lady. I bought it for Miss E.'s 6th birthday earlier last month but I had it sent here first so I could see what it looked like. It really is a delightful book for boys and girls (and Grammies).

My favorite of all tea books for recipes. I've had mine since the early 90s. Well, my daughter has my copy now. :)

Just the best cozy mystery series to curl up with when one needs to "get away from it all". They are not "War and Peace" but just good fun.

This one is still my favorite and the one book I'd recommend to give as a gift to someone just learning to love "all things tea time". All of Emilie's books about tea time or wonderful. I don't know how this is the only one I own, all others were checked out of the library!

I love this Victoria book about tea time. I purchased it a couple of years ago with birthday money. I also adore the companion book called The Pleasures of Tea which (I believe) is out of print and available only through the used book dealers online. My copy was sent to me by a dear blog friend and I think of her every time I read it! They are Victoria at its' best.

I enjoy anything by Patsy Clairmont (including her lovely little book It's About Home). This would be a perfect gift, tucked into a basket with a teacup and a box of tea.

Do be certain to read all the other bloggers posts (and take part yourself). I had so much fun viewing everyone's tea cups. I'll post more of my teacups off and on. :)

My favorite tea cup

La Tea Da at Gracious Hospitality is hosting a wonderful Hospital-i-Tea Blog-a-Thon. This week we are to share a picture (and a story if there is one) of our favorite tea cup.

Fortunately, I had a picture of my favorite tea cup already on my blog so I could "bring it up" to show you again. This is the teacup I use every day and the only one that is in my kitchen cabinet among the heavy coffee mugs.

It may be difficult to see in this photo but it has roses with greenery on it, it is large enough for a good cup of tea, and I love the "feel"... a little like bone china but stronger. There is a story behind it, too. :)

I had seen this china pattern at an antique store in Michigan and thought it so pretty. One day a few years ago, when we were still living in the rented town house (surrounded by drunks and drug addicts), I was out for my daily walk. The apartment complex which housed the town house used to be very "upscale" so it was in a very nice neighborhood (they did not like what the apartment complex had become... obviously).

It was a joy to walk by the gorgeous homes in this subdivision. One day I headed out with a little bit of money in my pocket (this was a rare thing since my husband was not yet approved for S.S. Disability). I walked by a garage sale and I immediately knew the woman was a kindred spirit by the teacups alone (not to mention silver items, snowmen, etc.).

There... among all the beautiful china and silver priced at a bargain but far above what I could afford... were two place settings of that china I had adored at the antique store in Michigan. Two place settings... dinner plate... cup... saucer... together for $5.00... the amount I could spend.

It was as if God was there, giving me a little kiss on the cheek, and telling me He was bringing a little "something special, something pretty, something elegant" into my world which was at the time... extremely painful and dark.

I had no way of knowing that He was already at work to provide a way of escape from that horrible location... the miracle of purchasing our house in the country. But as He has done so often, He gave me beauty in the midst of that darkness.

If you look beside that tea cup, there is the cutest little bear. I found her at my favorite antique store downtown for $7.00! She is sitting in a comfy chair, with a cup of either hot tea or coffee, and a stack of books. I believe if you click on the picture, it will show her a little better. She was another "gift" of God... discovered tucked away on a shelf in that little antique store and at a price I could afford. As soon as I saw it, I thought "It looks like ME"... only with fur, well... not real fur. :)

If you want something fun to do and have just a little "extra" time... find the archive section of Gracious Hospitality (on the side bar) and start from the beginning to read some of the most beautiful posts about tea, hospitality, flowers, etc. to be found in Blogland. There is a reason this is one of the first blogs I ever bookmarked! Not to mention meeting a person just as lovely as her blog.

Even better... join in and let us all see your favorite teacup!

An afternoon tea for two

Here is the table set for an afternoon tea for my husband and me.

A close up of the wonderful cinnamon chip scones!

This was a new recipe I've wanted to try for awhile but I couldn't locate the cinnamon chips anymore. Thankfully I found them again last week at Target.

I've posted the recipe on my recipe blog. :)

Our afternoon tea is part of the virtual tea party at Make Mine Pink.