A rosy find

"A rose is a rose is a rose," said Gertrude Stein. Well, yes. Unless it's a handpainted rose. A great big pink one. Vintage. In perfect condition.

And on a tea trivet! The little blue postcard announcing the estate sale on Parks Avenue arrived last week. The blue postcards normally stop coming by this time of year, and yet this is the second one I've received in as many weeks. How fun! I got to the sale a little late in the morning so my expectations of finding anything were low. Then I glanced across a few tables and immediately spotted this gorgeous old tea trivet. The price was right, and the design was definitely calling my name.

I have a feeling a number of teawares probably slipped on out before I arrived, but I think one reason I keep finding tea trivets is that they look like orphaned saucers and are so easy to pass by. (Tea fanatics, however, know that these pieces were used to keep hot teapots from scorching the tabletop.) This one is 6-1/4 inches in diameter, but what usually catches my attention is that the "saucer" is standing a slight bit off the table, even casting a shadow, like here.

Some trivets have ball-like feet, but this one has a simple circular rim on the underside to hold it aloft. This may well be my most favorite tea trivet yet!

The office Thanksgiving luncheon

Just for fun, I thought I'd share a brief tour of what Thanksgiving looks like at the offices of The Times-Herald and Newnan-Coweta Magazine!

You know a luncheon is coming when the counters in the break room begin to fill up with plastic cups and gallons of tea and lemonade from Publix.

We love to eat at my workplace, and all throughout the year we have events such as a chili cook-off, soup fest, and quite a few hot dog and hamburger lunches in the summer where all we have to do is show up and eat! Thanksgiving and Christmas mean potlucks. Thanksgiving is the one time of year that, instead of gathering together in one location, we set up foods by department. At the entry to the news department yesterday, the offerings included some beautiful savory pinwheels and yummy looking pies.

Pork loin and other crockpot meats were simmering on this table. We have often said it is hard to work when you're salivating over the food fragrances wafting through the air at 10 a.m.!

Downstairs in graphics and advertising, I was hearing lots of oohs and aahs over the turnip greens and sweet potato casserole and macaroni and cheese.

One of the most festive displays was by my co-workers in graphics. Isn't this pretty? I assumed it was a group effort but soon learned my friend Debby is the owner of *all* that lovely Thanksgiving decor.


I was particularly impressed by the very honest signage our Jonathan, a young single guy, included next to the gorgeous and yummy cake made by his mom.

In classifieds, I found the delicious crockpot meatballs made by my friend Rhonda! She makes hers with pineapple and they are dee-lish. Wish I'd saved room for the cheese dip and strawberry cake, which I hear were great!

In circulation there were even more delicious foods and yet another lovely presentation. (Clearly, I am going to have to work on the newsroom folks getting a little more spirited with our presentation next year.)

I was so full from lunch I had to set aside my saucer of desserts to take home and enjoy later (here it looks like a platter but it's the angle of the photo!). My friend Deberah's Caramel Apple Cupcakes were getting great reviews, so I stopped mid-meal to go nab one before they all got gone. (The rule around here is, if you snooze, you lose.) I also got a slice of Jonathon's mom's cake and the sweet potato casserole with coconut milk made by Christine.

And that concludes our tour, ladies and gentlemen! My own contribution, by the way, was a totally made-up recipe, Cheesy Squash Corn Muffins. You know those Cheese and Broccoli Muffins I wrote about recently? I was craving some the other night but had no broccoli. I wondered if squash and onions could be substituted, and I loved the results! The folks who tried them yesterday were kind with their reviews (Sarah said it tasted "like a squash casserole, but in a muffin"), so here's the recipe in case you need another Thanksgiving bread/veggie for your own menu!

Cheesy Squash Corn Muffins

1 (8.5-ounce) box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 large squash, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
2 eggs
1 stick of butter, melted
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an iron skillet with cooking spray and add chopped squash, onion and garlic. Cook on high for about five minutes or until onions have started to become translucent. Turn off heat.

Mix butter and eggs in a medium bowl, then add cheese and vegetables. Blend well. Stir in milk, add cornbread mix and stir just until combined. Use an ice cream scoop to fill paper baking cups nearly to the brim. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tops are just starting to brown. Cool in pans. Yields 12 corn muffins.

The Teeny-Tiny Tea Set

The other day I was looking for new tea books online and came across a new miniature boxed set from Running Press, The Teeny-Tiny Tea Set. These are the sorts of sets you see on racks near the cash register at bookstores like Barnes and Noble, which is where I got this one.

There's actually quite a lot packed into this little (3x3x2-inch) box. There's a full miniature tea set, a guidebook, a doily and stickers so you can personalize the tea set as you wish. You can see the tray of my tea set (about 2 inches wide) has a spot on it, and the quality is -- how do I say this? -- every bit as fine as I expected for $8.95. Those stickers will certainly come in handy! (Actually, I'm going to save them and let my nieces do the decorating next time they come for a visit.)

One of the most interesting sections of the 32-page book was on tea tasting terms, words like "brassy" (according to this guide, it means bitter or sharp) and "pungent" (strong but not bitter) and "coarse" (strong but of poor quality). This set is recommended for those 12 and older. Most of us surely qualify, and I think this would be a unique stocking stuffer as well as a fun addition to a tea lover's collection. And that's all of my teeny-tiny review!

A Mary Little Christmas

Many of us are fans of Mary Engelbreit's cheery artwork, especially when it features teatime. Last week at Michaels, I took advantage of a 40-percent-off coupon (which was actually upgraded to 50 percent off at the register) to buy this set of three ornaments, regularly $9.99, for just $5, which I thought was a great buy. There is also another set featuring three more similar designs, in case you're looking for teapot ornaments and have coupons!

There was also this cute single ornament, and again quite reasonably priced. Most of the ornaments on my teacup/teapot Christmas tree each year are three-dimensional, but I don't guess I have any objection to flat ones as long as they feature teacups or teapots!

And this particular ornament is not by "Mary" but it sure made me "merry" when I found it: the Wedgwood teacup and saucer ornament. Thanks to ParTea Lady's blog post here, I headed to my nearest Tuesday Morning store and, following her fine example, found the last one of this delightfully discounted ornament. It may be my favorite this year!

Mango and Ginger Scones

Do you have a favorite spice? I think ginger has slowly been replacing cinnamon as my favorite spice. My husband recently came home with a gift of some Ginger Peach Green Tea from Republic of Tea, and I have been enjoying cups of it every night. Over the weekend I decided to use up a mango I had sitting in the fridge by combining it with candied ginger in some scones, and the results were quite yummy. Fresh out of the oven, the hot fruit flavor accented by the zippy ginger was just a great fall combination. I'm also planning to try these with a teaspoon or two of powdered ginger for those times when candied ginger isn't available. In case you'd like to try these yourself, following is the recipe.



Mango and Ginger Scones

2 cups all purpose-flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons margarine or butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup candied ginger, diced into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup fresh mango, diced into 1/2-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a scone pan with cooking spray. (My scone pans are from Williams-Sonoma, and I heartily recommend them!) In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add pieces of chilled margarine and combine using a pastry blender until the mixture consists of pea-sized crumbs. Stir in the ginger and mango until well coated with flour mixture.

In separate bowl, whisk milk and egg. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until blended. Spoon batter into pan and bake for about 17 minutes or until lightly browned. Yields 16 mini scones.

Tea Tasting Saturday #46 - Golden Tip Assam

Assam is a tea I've tried just once before, and it was not a good experience, so I was curious to see what I'd find this time. Perhaps I just tried an inferior tea, but this week's sampling was a much more pleasant experience!

Category: Assam Black Tea

Purveyor: Harney & Sons

Dry leaf appearance: Skinny little bits of leaf that were so reddish brown and golden in color, I was reminded of rooibos tea!

Wet leaf appearance: Finely chipped mulch.

Steeping temperature and time: 1 teaspoon of tea, 200 degrees, 4 minutes.

Scent: I've never tasted beer but I have smelled it, and since that is what this dry tea's scent reminded me of I was rather cautious about whether I'd like it. To my surprise and delight, the steeped tea had nothing like that smell, bringing to mind some of the earlier teas I've sampled, those roasted teas with a fruity finish. I found it quite interesting that the dry and steeped tea scents were so very different this time.

Color: Copper penny. I steeped this tea for only four of the four to five minutes suggested, and it turned dark very quickly.

Flavor: Yippee! This tea tastes nothing like that yucky Assam I tried a few years ago. This had a pleasant but very brisk taste, more of what I consider a "traditional" black tea taste. There was a bit of astringency that could probably be offset by a little milk, but this was still very good and a tea I'm certainly willing to try again.

Additional notes: Oh, please tell me you *do* have the book so you can read the wonderful intro to the chapter on Assams! (Tea plantations alernate with gas refineries there? Who knew!) And here's what Michael Harney says about this particular Assam made of pure golden tips: "Created within just the last thirty years, the tea is so rare that it is made only on commission. I have to place an order before the harvest has even begun."

Next week's tea: Mangalam Assam

New RTD teas

A visit to the discount store Big Lots turned up two new ready-to-drink (or RTD) teas, as they are now called. I love the packaging of this Bigelow Mocha Chai Latte Creamy Spiced Black Tea ($1 for 10.5 ounces). Somehow, I couldn't quite get past thinking I was drinking watery chocolate milk. When I tasted it slowly and thoughtfully, I realized I actually like all the flavors (and with 30 grams of sugar in the drink, of COURSE I liked it!). So while the tastes were all pleasant enough, I think I simply prefer my chai latte to be hot. But hey, now I have a pretty bottle for some future craft!

Next up: Function House Call Honey Green Tea (70 cents for 16.9 ounces). This was interesting because it says "Created by Physicians." And the little box on the front of the label says "Boost your immune system with this daily defense against the common cold. This formula, rich in vitamins and powerful macronutrients chlorella and beta glucon, keeps you healthy." Then on the side it says, "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." But enough legalese. How did it taste? It had a pleasant and fruity flavor, and it's made with cane juice instead of sugar. Having tried quite a few of these type drinks in recent months, I have to say today's "healthy" teas and waters are all starting to taste alike to me, and so far there's not one that really stands out above another.

Big Lots also has a new canned tea that is tangerine flavor, but I wasn't willing to spend $2 on four large cans of something I'd never heard of. I guess $1 is my maximum for discount store RTD tea sampling! Have you tried any new RTD teas lately? If so, I'd love to hear about them!

On footed teacups

The footed teacup, I must confess, has never held much charm for me. I've got a friend who collects footed teacups exclusively, but I generally prefer that my teacup park its derriere firmly and quietly in my saucer and stay there until it's time to get up. I've always thought footed teacups were show-offs, mavericks, the look-at-me drama queens of the teacup world.

And yet, I came home with three of them yesterday. Why? I was visiting an estate sale and came across this set of three for $15 and thought they were simply beautiful! They are nice and large and, footed or no, the colors greatly appealed to me.

The yellow seems sunny and springlike, and the blue is a slightly darker hue of that pretty robin's egg blue I've been so smitten with for the past year or two.

All three sets were in great shape, and both the cups and saucers are marked Napco (National Potteries Corporation).

But the cup and saucer sets were really my second best buy of the day. The first was this bag of rhinestone jewelry findings for $1! There's a lime green rhinestone button that would make a great ring or brooch, and six of these lovely rhinestone balls, my favorite vintage jewelry embellishments in the whole world. There's also about a yard of rhinestone trim, which I'm sure I'll find a nice use for someday. I'll think about it while I'm sipping tea and becoming friends with one of my new *footed* teacups.

Tea forté oolong and Italian tea biscuits

Over the weekend I bought quite a few Christmas gifts for tea friends. I won't spoil the surprise by showing them all now, but I can tell you that I had to search a little harder at my usual haunts (T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, Marshalls and Ross stores) for tea goodies. Two of the T.J. Maxx items I bought intending to give them as gifts, but then I got worried since I've never actually tried these before. So, purely for quality control purposes, I decided to sample some new tea and some new tea biscuits. This Tea forté Ging Liu Silk Oolong caught my eye because of the elegant packaging and the fact it was just $5.99, when these retail for $20-22.

When I removed the lid, I saw that another inner metal lid was included, which struck me as a nice touch. The tea smelled very fresh, and when I measured it out I noticed the various green shades of the leaves. I steeped a cup and oh boy, was this good! It had a delicious flavor that reminded me, somehow, of some coconut oolong I've tried before. On a cold, rainy evening, this definitely hit the spot. "Multiple steepings encouraged," it says on the package. I happily obliged!

These Marabissi Italian biscotti da té (tea biscuits) came in several flavors, and I got the Rosemary ones. These had just the right, faint touch of rosemary, and they were thin and crisp and delicious, particularly with the oolong tea. So, it turns out I could have gone right ahead and given these as gifts. But why risk it when I hadn't tried them myself?

A funky new tea infuser

At a Ross store over the weekend, I came across a new style of Trend tea infuser for $1.99, so of course I had to get it and give it a whirl. Something about the design reminds me of a baby rattle!

When I took it out of the package, I realized that the "loop" at top of the package is simply a wiggledy-jiggledy rubber piece that functions like the string on a teabag.

I put about a teaspoon of loose tea in the bowl of the infuser, and the top locked easily into place.

But did it work? Yes indeed! And with very little "tea debris" left in the cup. Nice, and I certainly can't quibble with the price!

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Yesterday after church, I decided to try a Martha Stewart cookie recipe I first came across a few years ago. This recipe is made using ground Earl Grey tea leaves, and it is super easy to make.


With just six ingredients, these whipped up in no time. I substituted lemon zest for the orange zest, simply because I like the pairing of Earl Grey tea and lemon, but I'm sure the recipe would be good with orange zest as well. If you read through the recipe, you'll see that it calls for you to make a log out of the dough by rolling it up in parchment paper, then insert the log inside a paper towel tube to freeze for an hour before slicing and baking. I thought that was a great tip for getting uniformly shaped logs of cookie dough, so I'll be using this method on other slice-and-bake cookies.

The result? A very tasty lemon and Earl Grey tea flavored cookie with the texture of shortbread. Delicious! (And if you're out of parchment paper, as I was, lightly butter some aluminum foil and it will work just fine.)

Tea Tasting Saturday #45 - Kairbetta Frost Nilgiri Tea

It's funny how the strangest things can trigger a memory! When I first opened this tea, I noticed the small bits of leaf and it reminded me of some of those coffee-ground-looking teas I've had before. Once the water hit it, though, this tea reminded me of flakes of fish food. I've never eaten fish food, but I can attest that this tea is a good one!

Category: British Legacy Black Tea

Purveyor: Upton Tea Imports

Dry leaf appearance: Very fine particles of tea leaf.

Wet leaf appearance: Fish food!

Steeping temperature and time: 1 teaspoon of tea, 212 degrees, 5 minutes.

Scent: The dry tea smelled like bark, but the steeped tea had a much more complex scent with an almost fruity/floral topnote. Almost the faintest whiff of gardenia.

Color: Golden honey! I wouldn't have thought of this comparison had I not had a jar of honey out on the counter behind the teapot.

Flavor: This is perhaps a strange word to use to describe a taste, but the first one that came to mind was "bright." And then, "clean," which is not to say the other teas I've been tasting were dirty. Maybe it's just that the weather outside is bright and sunny and fresh and autumnal, and that's rather how this tea tastes! Had a good bit of astringency, though, so I may try this one again and adjust the amount of tea and/or brewing time.

Additional notes: According to the Harney book, frost tea is made during the cold months from December to February in the Nilgiri mountains of southern India. "The cold weather also allows the factories to wither and oxidize the teas more slowly as well, further developing the aroma compounds to draw out their attractive fruit, floral and spice notes."

Next week's tea: Golden Tip Assam

Behind the Scenes with Taste of Home

I'll bet many of you are familiar with Taste of Home's magazines and cooking products, so I thought you might enjoy a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it's like to spend a day serving as an assistant at the Taste of Home Cooking School, since that's what I did yesterday. The annual event is presented locally by Newnan Utilities and my employer, The Times-Herald and Newnan-Coweta Magazine. Here I am at far left with the other assistants for yesterday's show: Deberah Williams, Susan West, Lori Binion, Leah Griffin (youth assistant) and Mary Ann Durrough. It was a great group of ladies to work with!


Our day began bright and early at 8:30 a.m. at the Coweta County School System's Centre for the Performing and Visual Arts. The local school system built this magnificent arts center a few years ago, and it has been a terrific addition to our community. I was there just Monday night to see Montana Repertory Theatre's fantastic production of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird."




A lovely autumn theme was used to decorate the stage, with lots of harvest fruits, hay bales, pumpkins, a large "window" constructed by the arts center's staff, and even a swing with a quilt spread across the back.


After meeting my fellow stage assistants, we got our marching orders from Culinary Specialist Michelle "Red" Roberts, who has been the presenter for the local cooking school for many years. Here, she shows Susan how to prep the Flank Steak Santa Fe, which was cooked jelly roll style and tied with butcher's twine.

My friend and colleague Deberah found time to chop vegetables for her dish and also ...


... to snap photos for her blog Finesse, which is here.

We also got to meet Kay Rainwater, a lovely woman from neighboring Fayetteville, who is a field editor with Taste of Home magazine. She's served as a field editor for about eight years, she said, and began by submitting recipes. Later on, she was asked to review new cookbooks and do things like go to local stores and report on the company's wares, their availability, how they were displayed, etc. I had always wondered what a "field editor" did, and she definitely made it sound quite interesting. During the show, she got to help demonstrate the Caramel Apple Twist, a breakfast bread stuffed with caramel bits, tart apples, almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon. This one somehow disappeared from backstage before I got to sample it but certainly smelled heavenly while it was baking!


I was surprised yesterday morning to find that I would bake an actual one-layer chocolate cake which would be decorated onstage at the cooking school at night and later given away as one of the door prizes. (It's a shame I couldn't win, because it was presented on a ruffled amber glass cake pedestal, which was given away along with it. Beautiful!)

Michelle has the organization for this thing down to a science, so backstage there was an orderly flow to the work. Whatever we needed was right there on hand, clearly labeled, and with loads of cooking and baking equipment for us to use. Have you ever seen so many measuring cups?

Here's Lori prepping some of the ingredients for one of the dishes she prepared.

And here's Susan prepping one of her dishes.

It's almost showtime, and you can see the seats are starting to fill up. The center seats 1,000, and this event sells out every single year. I sure hope I get asked to help again next year!

New Christmas cookie recipes

Any cookie monsters reading today? If so, I thought now might be a good time to give you a heads up about some great new publications. First, and of most interest to tea lovers, is a special issue from Better Homes and Gardens titled "100 Best Cookies." My friend Joanie at Hastings pointed this one out to me one day, and I loved the cover and immediately envisioned spelling out the name of the magazine I work for in cookies next year! But when I got home and began reading through the magazine, I was delighted to find a feature titled "Brew, Then Bake" about infusing cookies with coffee or tea! The tea-infused cookies include Jasmine-Orange Meltaways, Earl Grey Bocca Di Nonna and Chai Crescents. A huge yum to all those, which are surely candidates for the treats I'll be baking!

Next up: The wonderful women who gave us "Cookie Craft" a few years ago, Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer, are back with a sequel, "Cookie Craft Christmas," and it is delightful! I have not made a single bad batch of sugar cookies since learning their techniques, and now they have me eager to make some truly decorative Christmas cookies. Cookie placecards ... a 3-D sleigh ... lovely red poinsettia cookies with bright gold dragées ... Yes, I've already been stocking up on cookie sprinkles and gel food coloring!

Finally, the latest Martha Stewart special issue is a winner, and Holiday Sweets will join her other special issues I keep from year to year. Although the magazine isn't limited to cookies (there's a gingerbread cake that looks amazing!), the cookie recipes and cookie packaging ideas are what most appealed to me this time. Some of the cookies are individually packaged in paper envelopes lined with wax paper (template included), and they are adorable! I hesitate to keep plugging Christmas ideas when Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, but I also know these holiday issues tend to sell out and you can't wait 'til Dec. 15 to find them!

Nice tea with a funny name

First impressions really do count. Last week, I was placing an order for my "Saturday Tea Tasting" teas for the rest of the year. I wasn't able to find them all at one company, so I had to look outside my comfort zone of tea vendors. Some of the teas I needed kept turning up at TeaGschwendner, a company I first read about on Steph's tea blog, so I ordered three of the teas from there. To my surprise, my quickly-shipped order included this free Teelamass, which is the company's name for its specially designed measuring spoon.

That was prize enough, but TeaGschwendner also included a sample of its Cinnamon Apple fruit tea. Imagine a saute pan full of apples, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, slowly caramelizing on the stove. That is the smell that greeted me when I opened this sample. Soon, I had a delicious apple red cup of tea to enjoy.

And in case you're like me and wondering about this, I had to google the name of this company to find out how to pronounce it. The web sites seem to differ on where the emphasis goes, but the most popular version was "TEA-gesh-WEND-ner." I'm very impressed with my first transaction with this company. Have any of you ordered from them, and if so do you have any recommendations?

A new treat for scone lovers!

Now some of you will read today's post and say "Yippee!" and some of you will read it and say "Yucky!", but I must tell you I was completely thrilled when my friend Deberah called me into her office yesterday and presented me with a delightful new treat. It was a can -- yes, you heard me right -- a can of Blueberry Scones!

Perhaps, like my husband, you are asking why "the queen of made-from-scratch," as he put it, should get so excited about canned scones. Well, first of all, it's something NEW! Canned scones! Who knew there even was such a thing? Deberah found them at Whole Foods and says the maker, the Immaculate Baking Co., is known for its wonderful cookies. Naturally, I got home from work and popped these right in the oven. It's extraordinary to me that scones have gone so "mainstream" that we can now pop them right out of a can, just like biscuits! I have to believe this is also a testament to the ever-increasing popularity of tea and teatime.

Now I prefer a made-from-scratch biscuit and, if you come to tea, I'd probably prefer to serve you a made-from-scratch scone. But what about those times you'd like a scone and you've run out of milk or eggs? Or what about when a friend comes by on the spur of the moment? Wouldn't it be great to have a can or two of these in the refrigerator? And of course the big question was: How do they taste? And the answer is: Pretty good! Now, these will never be confused with homemade scones, because they've got that light, airy, sort of spongey texture of a *good* canned biscuit. That said, I enjoyed mine with some berry flavored jam and I was quite pleased. The blueberries tasted like blueberries (because they are), and I also liked that the scones were made with whole wheat flour and have no trans fat. If I wanted tea and scones on a moment's notice, I would not hesitate to bake a batch of these again sometime!

If tablecloths could talk

Do you ever get so familiar with the furnishings in your home that you don't even see them anymore? I do. The other day, for instance, I walked by the dining table and realized I had exactly the same table decorations that I've had there since Easter, a lavender flower arrangement and a pastel rose-design teapot I've been using as a planter. That just wouldn't do, so over the weekend I spruced things up a bit starting with a vintage tablecloth more suitable for fall.

First, I placed the teapot tablecloth on the table diagonally (which is, of course, what we do with square-ish tablecloths when we have a rectangular table). Next, I looked for some bric-a-brac in autumnal colors. A slightly dusty flower arrangement was fetched from a cabinet in the garage, a brown teapot was brought down from its perch atop the kitchen cabinets, and some brown teapot salt and pepper shakers were brought out of hiding from an old family secretary (the piece of furniture, not the office worker). The tablecloth is my favorite piece, though. It's something I came across earlier this year and has just a few small worn spots, which indicate someone really used it.

When I see vintage linens advertised as "still in original package" or "never used," it makes me kind of sad. Sure, it's great for today's shopper that something is still in mint condition, but my goodness, why didn't the original owner just live a little and actually use it? Many of you no doubt have read the wonderful Emilie Barnes book "If Teacups Could Talk," but I think that if tablecloths could talk, they'd have some pretty fun stories as well!