Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Cream Cheese Rollups

I swiped this recipe from a good friend of mine.  She always serves this at our card parties and they're a huge hit.  I'm planning to make a tray of assorted kinds when the fam damily comes for 4th of July festivities.  (Update: I guess my friend Alice didn't like the "wing it" situation on quantities, as she emailed me the exact amounts she uses... I've edited the recipe accordingly.  Thanks Alice!)

Cream Cheese Rollups

Ingredients

1-1/2 lb sliced lunch meats such as ham, turkey, roast beef
12 ounces cream cheese at room temp
1/2 cup sour cream
1 lg jar diced pimentos drained
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
Green onion - chopped
Finely grated cheddar cheese
Garlic powder
Large flour tortillas

For the basic rollup:
Mix together cream cheese, pimento,  green onion, grated cheese.  Sprinkle with seasoning salt and garlic powder to taste.  In fact, everything is to taste.  Just wing it -- tasting is half the fun!

Spread cream cheese mixture on tortillas.  Add a layer of meat.  I prefer to keep the meats separate, so one will be turkey, one ham, etc.  But you might want to mix and match.  Just don't make them too thick.

Roll up tightly.  Chill 24 hours.  Slice into 1 - 1 1/2 inch thich pieces.  Serve on a large platter.

Variations:
* Use 1 envelope of ranch-style dressing mix instead of seasoned salt & garlic.
* Add small avocado chunks to the cream cheese mixture
* Spread a layer of guacamole on the meat, or between meats.
* Add bacon bits to the cream cheese mixture
* Chopped ripe olives and / or jalapenos

Tea Party in the Blogosphere

I did a search on Technorati for "tea party" to see what other bloggers are posting about.  Some good, some weird, some are just mentions, and some have nothing to do with an actual tea party at all:

• The March Hare's Mad Tea Party blog - looks brandy new, so who knows if it will really be mad or about tea.  But I like that she says "hubs" too.
• Simon posts about a band called Tea Party, the movie Neverland, and his own creativity.
• There's a meme going around of "things I've done", a great long list that you're apparently supposed to post and indicate which of the things on the list you've done, one of which is "have a tea party".  Must be a popular meme, there are thousands of posts with this on it. Here's one.
• This blogger's daughter had a tea party with a friend
• Valerie hosted a tea party for some friends - no details, and the photo looks like the table was sparsely laid.  Where's your Tea Party Lady, Valerie?  Well, it sounds like weight loss and exercise is the focus here, so I guess lavish food-filled tea parties wouldn't be the thing.
• A history tidbit, via Gleeful Gecko: Today in history the Townsend Acts were passed in 1767. This was a broad import tax placed on English colonists living in North America.  The acts were repealed in 1770, except for the tax on tea, which lead to the Boston Tea Party.
• Alissa brings her stuffed animals to a tea party.
• This kind of eerie waxworks display of Alice in Wonderland's famous tea party with the Mad Hatter, somewhere in Tokyo.
• How to Make a Tea Party - I don't know if it gets any weirder than this

These were the gold --

• Now we're talkin' - Mom, from Old People Blog Too, shares photos from an actual tea party.  Not just any tea party, but a Teddy Bear Tea Party! 
• Great fun at Madison's First Tea Party, complete with photos
• Hannah, the Kitchen Crusader, shares her Tea Party day, complete with a recipe for apple scones that sound delish.

Something Tall & Cool

The summer heat is becoming oppressive.  Yeah, that's an understatement.  Anything over 100 and I feel like I can't breathe, but 110 and upwards sends me into a coma.  I find my afternoon tea ritual difficult.  Hot tea in the middle of a scorching afternoon just doesn't appeal, you know?  And a soda only satisfies so much.

So, I've been seeking out good summer cooler recipes.  Iced coffee and iced tea are now the afternoon norm.  My current favorite is one I found on about.com:

Sparkling Jasmine Iced Tea
* 4 cups water, boiling
* 3 tbs loose jasmine tea
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1 1/4 cups sparkling water

Dissolve sugar in 3/4 cup of water, and boil gently until a syrup has formed. Set aside and let cool. Steep the jasmine tea in the remaining 3 cups of hot water for around 6 minutes. Strain out tea, and let cool slightly.  In a pitcher, combine syrup and tea. Stir or whisk until fully blended. Add sparkling water and cool thoroughly. Serve over ice. Can be served with cinnamon sticks, lemon slices or mint sprigs.  Makes 1 quart

Tea Posur recommends Yunan Gold for a good iced tea.  I might have to try that, because Cindy has been posting about the cocoa flavor of the Yunnan Gold on Cuppa Tea.  And you know how I love the taste of chocolate.

Now, I don't usually go for fruity teas, but when you're drinking it cool, fruit flavor is really nice.  Try peach tea over ice.  Garnished with fresh peaches and it's the perfect afternoon treat. 

The same applies to flavored coffees - better over ice.  Nice to know deCadmus agrees with me on this. 

More summer drinks:
* Spiced Iced Coffee
* Green Mountain Iced Coffee Recipes
* French Mint Tea - This should be called citrus mint tea
* Blackberry Summer Dream - more of a coffee smoothie, from Audrey at CoffeeSage

Now all I need is an assortment of tall glasses. 

Stay cool!

Tea Tunes

I have this little routine I do in the mornings.  I get my coffee ready and then sit down for a scroll through my favorite sites.  I load up Keep the Coffee Coming first, because then I can set the tunes a-playing in the background while I visit other sites.  Kat usually has a good selection of oddball stuff that's just suited to my oddball tastes.

This morning - a TEA THEME!  Three tea tunes, and two cool vintage tea photos.  I'm so tickled!

At the top of the tea tune list: Tea for Two by Blossom Dearie.  Most people have heard of this song, but I'll bet you haven't heard this rendition.  Next up, When I Take My Sugar to Tea by the Boswell Sisters.  Lastly, a bit of fun with The Kinks and Have a Cuppa Tea. 

I don't know where she gets these, but I tip my cup to you Kat!  Great job!

Carnival of the Recipes #45

The Carnival is up at Note-It Posts.  For further Friday chocolateyness, check out the Bourbon Whiskey Cake (with chocolate chips), and Armywife's Chocolate and Guinness Brownies.  Guinness and chocolate??  I can't wrap my brain around that.  I'll just have to try it and see how it tastes.  Many many more taste treats, go check it out!

Chocolate Coffee Friday!

I think I may do this chocolate thing every Friday.  I looked around to see if there was such a thing as a Carnival of Chocolate, but I couldn't find one.  Maybe I should start one!  Well, for now, here are some chocolate & coffee combo recipes I found that sound delish:

White Chocolate Coffee
http://coffeetea.about.com/od/chocolaterecipes/r/whitechoc.htm
This recipe takes cocoa to a whole new level.

Black Forest Coffee
http://www.cooksrecipes.com/beverage/black-forest-coffee-recipe.html
My mouse started waddling the minute I read this one.  And hey, I just happen to have some leftover maraschino cherries!  Whaddya think?  Too rich for breakfast???  Naaaaah.

Chocolate Coffee Cake
http://www.ineedcoffee.com/99/08/tradition/?page=2
Not really a "coffee cake" recipe.  The cake is made separately, and then dunked!

Chocolate Coffee Truffles
http://www.recipelink.com/ch/2000/november/cookiequeen1.html
Lots of coffee and lots of chocolate!  Sounds delish, but maybe a bit labor intensive for a lazy-bones like me.  Also, I have no idea what "real chocolate jimmies" are.  ?? 

BCCY's Near Perfect Brownies
http://bccy.blogspot.com/2002/10/brownie-near-perfection-achieved.html
One word: YUMMMM. 
I wonder ... how about adding a teensy little coffee to the recipe?  Double Yummm?

That's it for now.  Still waiting on the Recipe of the Carnivals posting, so maybe there will be some yummy chocolate recipes to add later.

MOMCAB Mufflets

MOMCAB stands for
Mandarin Orange Maraschino Cherry Almond Banana
and Mufflets are mini muffins

This is a recipe I stole and modified.  It originated from the Old Fashioned Living forum as a recipe for chocolate orange banana bread, but I over-saturated on chocolate recently, so I thought I'd do something more fruity.  Plus, I wanted tiny muffins I could serve for tea.

I must have really hit on something here, because my aunt came to visit and stole a bunch of them!  These muffins are great in the morning with my coffee, and also make a great afternoon tea tasty. 

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3 TBSP vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 tsp orange extract
1 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup orange juice
4 TBSP sour cream
3 very ripe bananas (2 cups puree)
1+ cup mandarin orange slices
Maraschino cherries

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs, and mix in oil, orange and almond extracts, orange juice and sour cream.  Add to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon.

In a separate bowl mash the bananas with a fork.  Separate the orange slices into small bits.  Puree with a hand mixer or food processor. 

Note: I used canned mandarin orange slices that were already quite soft and mushy.  I also like having fruit chunks in my muffins, so I left the fruit mixture a little bit lumpy. 

Add fruit to batter, stirring gently, and pour into greased muffin tins.  Fill each cup 3/4 full.  Place cherry on top of batter, pressing down lightly.  Bake at 325 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Variations: Add chopped pecans or walnuts.  I used one whole maraschino cherry per muffin in this batch, but my next batch I plan to dice the cherries and add a bunch to the batter.  I also want to try this with cranberries instead of cherries.  But then it would be MOCAB instead of MOMCAB. :)

I made a dozen full size muffins too, just for grins, and I set the cherry in the center, then covered it with another dollop of batter.  As you can see in this photo, the cherry sank to the bottom of the muffin.  It was kind of nice to serve that and have the cherry be a center-surprise.

More Coffee Art

A few cool coffee-ish artistic offerings this morning...

Three coffee paintings by Larry Stevens (via INeedCoffee.com).  Shown here, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.  I would love to have this hanging in my kitchen, but I couldn't get to Larry's gallery to see about prices.  Prolly out of my range anyway.  Discount Prints is more my price.  Heheh.

Digital coffee art by Audrey at Coffeesage - Snowflake Peach.

Dueling Neon - coffee photo by Rick Lee.  I love Rick's blog.  It's a regular stop on my morning coffee&scroll.  If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to go when you have plenty of time to browse.  It's a visual treat.

The Green Tea Fad-Wagon

This is one of those things that really burns my buns and sends me into a full-fledged soap-box bitch-fest.

The other day I got a flyer in the mail advertising Lipton's new Green Tea "high in antioxidants"! 

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a tea snob anymore.  I don't totally shun tea bags.  But Lipton green tea bags? 

You know, most of the research - even tho it's confusing and conflicting - indicates that you have to drink 4-5 cups of green tea per day in order to get any benefit from it.  And that's talking about fresh green tea leaves.  4-5 cups per day!! 

I just can't imagine a Lipton green tea bag could possibly contain enough fresh green tea to do anybody's body any good.  Even if you drank 10-12 cups of the stuff. 

The straw that broke my back this morning though, was reading a post on EspressoNinja.com. 

Starbucks corporate sent us the new promo materials for the next new frappuccino. They are expanding the Tazo tea line to introduce the Tazo Green Tea Frappuccino blended Creme.

So does anyone else think it looks like guacamole in a cup?

No, but it does piss me off.

The green tea fad is right up there with the fat fads.  Anybody remember when everything in the grocery store was marked "low cal"?  And then we moved to "no sugar".  Then it was "non-fat" or "low fat".  And now everything is marked "low carb".  Even things that weren't high carb to start with are marketed and packaged as low carb foods.  It drives me CRAZY!

The fact is we're jumping the gun a little here.  The jury is still out, the research isn't conclusive yet.  The signs are good, but more study is needed.  But still, they're selling us on the idea that green tea will prevent all kinds of cancer, help us lose weight, live longer, quit smoking, make our sex life better and clear up acne!  Playing on our fear of death to make a buck.  It pisses me off.  but the truth is, if we didn't buy this stuff, they wouldn't keep trying to sell it to us.  Don't do it!  Don't jump on the wagon!  Don't buy just because somebody said it's a magic cure.  Don't buy the hype.  Just say NO to the fad wagon!!

Now, can we go back to drinking green tea because we like it?

Oh, and if you think you can get around the 5+ cups per day by taking green tea extract as a vitamin supplement, read this:
* Green Tea Extract May Promote Tumor Growth

More green tea articles:
* Green Tea - How much should I drink?
* The Biology of a Cup of Tea
* White Tea is Healthier than Green Tea

Keeping it HOT!

Coffee or tea, keeping it hot (or cold) is always a problem.  I drink fast, but you know ... sometimes you get on the phone, or you gotta let the dog out to pee and then they end up chasing a baby bird which you have to rescue by standing on a precarious chair to reach the nest while the momma bird is flapping around you and the dogs are barking and ... well, you get the idea.  By the time you come back to your cuppa, it's lukewarm. 

I saw these cool products / gadgets on HGTV last night.  They were covering the 2005 International Home & Housewares Show and they had a section on coffee / tea products.  Some very cool stuff!  I had to start a whole new wish list!!