Tea and Crumpets with Elizabeth

A new teacup has arrived for my collection. She was a birthday gift from my mother. I am calling her Elizabeth. For her inaugural use I made a cup of Black Chocolate Cream Tea and crumpets with butter and honey. It was the first time I had tried that flavor of tea and I must say it was remarkable. It was very smooth with a rich chocolaty feel. It did not have a strong chocolate flavor, but it did have a lovely scent. As far as the crumpets go, what is not to like about a buttery crumpet? 

Front of cup.

Back of cup.

Now that I have four teacups I am going to start looking for nice dessert plates to go with them. I am not abandoning my teacup search, but I have realized my folly in not looking for plates to go with them. How am I to serve treats to guests if I do not have a nice plate to put them on?

Tried & Chewed: Amish White Bread

I found this recipe for Amish White Bread a year or so ago. I really liked it but it is too sweet for us the way it is written. So I lowered the sugar to a quarter cup or less, sometimes I only use a tablespoon or so. I also use refined coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. (I use coconut oil for most of my oil needs.  If you do the same thing make sure you use refined because it is flavorless, unless you like coconut flavor, which I do, but the hubbles does not.) I have also started to add a cup or more of whole wheat flour. You know to make it a bit more wholesome. In this instance I used White Whole Wheat flour.  I am always looking for new bread recipes, but I always return to this recipe. 

This bread makes really good French Toast and Rodney likes it made into croutons. To make it into croutons I just cut it into cubes drizzle it with good dose of olive oil and sprinkle it with salt and garlic powder. I then put it in the oven at 350 until the cubes are golden brown and crispy, giving them a stir every once in awhile. Rodney actually likes to eat the resulting croutons alone as snack.

White Bread

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F)

1/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup refined coconut oil

5 cups bread flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1. In a stand mixer, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.

2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Let the mixer knead the dough for 5 minutes or so. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

A warm slice with my homemade Apple Jelly and a cup of Tulsi Tea. 

And Along Came Marilyn

Today I went to a Church Bazaar with my friend Gladys. I did not plan to buy anything, but then I saw this one lonely teacup. Again it is not floral and it only has the smallest bit of purple, but she was only $2 and the minute I picked her up the name Marilyn rang through my head. I found that a bit strange because I have a first cousin once removed named Marilyn and this teacup does not remind me of her one bit! Still I picked her up and brought her home. And here she is:

As you can see my inaugural tea with Marilyn consisted of cake and a teabag of genmicha tea. Genmicha is my favorite green tea. I love the taste of the roasted brown rice. As you can see it does not brew up very dark. The taste is subtle, but it is lovely. The cake consists of two of my Grandma Alice's recipes. They are from one of her cookbooks. I would tell you the name of the cookbook but the pages with that information are long gone. I think they were a church cookbook because it is one of those cookbooks with the names of the ladies who contributed them under the recipe. Here are the recipes as they are written in the book:


Chocolate Frosting

1 C. sugar
¼ C. cocoa
¼ C. butter or oleo
¼ C. milk

Mix thoroughly, bring slowly to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. As soon as it reaches a full rolling boil remove from heat, cool, and beat.

Mrs. J. A. Kehborn

Lazy Daisy Cake ~ marked Very Good by Grandma H.~

½ C. milk
1 T. butter
2 eggs
1 C. white flour sifted
1 t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
1 t. vanilla

Scald milk to which butter has been added and keep hot while making other ingredients. Beat eggs until light and foamy. Add sugar an beat well. Sift flour, salt and baking powder, add vanilla and hot milk, stirring carefully. Bake in greased pan in 375 ° oven.

Mrs. Dewey Slater

I will warn you that these two are maybe not the best combination. The frosting is a bit too dense for the cake. Still it is mighty tasty!  I did add a pinch of salt to the frosting, just to bring out the flavors. Also, these make a 9x9 inch cake. I plan to make more of Grandma Alice's recipes in the coming months. They make very good companions to a cup of tea,

The New Addition...Gertrude.

In my quest to develop a tea set of my own I have started collecting tea paraphernalia. On Saturday the DH wanted to run to Goodwill to see if he could find a meat grinder.  I figured this would be a good time to look for another teacup and saucer. I found several pink flowered sets, but I have been trying to find purple flowered sets. Eventually I found this cup:

   

Now you might notice that it does not have flowers. If you look really close you can see some purple berries. I thought it was really charming, so I picked it up. It did not have a saucer with it, however. So I needed to find a saucer at some point. I figured I might find one at some point in the future, but then I found this saucer on a different shelf:

I thought it matched the cup pretty well. Here are some pictures of them together:

  

See they both have fruit and gold. They also have similar colors. But if you look at there bottoms you see this:

 

Still, they look really good together. I did look them up online. I think that one of these saucers are the actual saucer that goes with this cup:

  

I think it is more likely the one on the right. I was not able to find a cup to go with the saucer. 

I have decided to name this teacup set Gertrude. Here is a picture of Gertrude's inaugural use:

I had Earl Grey tea and Pumpkin Biscotti. The teapot you see I have had for a long time,  but I just found it again last week. It had been packed when I moved in with my husband and I just found it. It was a very nice little tea party.

Meet Emily

I love tea and would love to throw a tea party. There is one problem with that; I don't have a tea set. I have a plan to remedy that, however. My plan is to collect used sets with purple flowers on them. I told this to my mother and she gave me this one:

I think it is quite pretty. I am calling her "Emily". I don't know why I felt it needed a name, but it just feels right.  Today I christened her with a small tea party for me. I made Irish Scones and topped them with Rhubarb Jam and whipped cream. Yes, I know it show be clotted cream, but it is hard to find here. I do have a recipe for it, but it makes a lot. Here is a picture of my little feast:

It was very tasty. I think I will have it for breakfast tomorrow too...