Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Happy Halloween!

Me and my crones ... err... cronies and our cuppas.

Carnival of the Recipes #63

The Carnival is up at Everything and Nothing.  Check out all the Tricks, Treats and Eats.  For once I found myself drawn to the main dishes.  KeeWee's Hot 'N' Honeyed Chicken Wings sound SO good.  And PractiGal's Beef Stew sounds like something the hubs would love.  Hmmm, maybe it's time to start thinking about dinner.  Damn, too bad I didn't read these recipes before I went to the store this morning.  Then again, the reward for going to the store is good coffee ... it might just be worth another trip. 

Sunday Morning Coffee Treat

I get to go to the grocery store this morning!  In fact, any minute now, before the crowds wake up.  No, I'm not off my rocker, and no, I haven't suddenly developed better feet or more energy or a driving desire to shop.  I just hanker for an espresso treat, and the coffee shop that now sits at the front of my grocery store is my first stop.  Double shot please.  Maybe a latte.  Maybe a squirt of almond.  I'm drinking just enough coffee now to be able to make a fist ... errr... to be able to drive.  And then I'm off to the store! 

Maybe I should get dressed first.

Ingenious IngenuiTEA

It really is.  Ingenious, that is.  This little baby arrived yesterday afternoon, and let me tell you, I was a happy puppy opening my little package.  Adagio's ingenuiTEA is everything it promises to be.  It's easy to use, easy to clean, and it's pretty.  I was a little worried about the size of the rim, but it even fits on my pretty china tea cups, tho I have to be careful not to overfill.  In short, I love it! 

I tested it all kinds of ways, in the nuker, using boiled water, with loose leaves and tea bag, and for the one-cup-at-at-time person, it's just about the best thing since sliced bread. 

It arrived with 3 kinds of tea.  I tried the Jasmine Pearls first.  The smell, ohmigod, the wonderful smell.  I had actually planned to try all 3 last night, but frankly, I got stuck on the Jasmine and couldn't move on.  You know what they say about smell being tied to memory?  Well, it's true, and this tea transported me back to spring days, when the jasmine was blooming on my patio.  I open the sliding glass door to let the fragrance waft into my office and library and I'm in heaven.  Sipping this tea was another little slice of heaven.

The second steeping was as fragrant as the first, though not as strong tasting.  Still good.  The second time around I took the pearls out of the bag.  It didn't seem to matter to the flavor, bag or no bag. 

What I love is how the pearls unfold.  It's a visual treat as well pleasing the other senses.

They start out like this ...

  ... and end up like this

Now isn't that just beeeyootiful? 

On the agenda for this afternoon... Golden Yunnan. 

Chocolate Friday: Brownies!

I posted these pics yesterday on my other blog, and got the brownie bug.  So this week's Chocolate Friday is all about brownies. 

Being a lazy git (and also rather impatient when it comes to getting my chocolate fix), I usually just go for a boxed mix of some kind, and I'm pretty childlike about it.  Unfussy.  Visual.  Meaning that when I shop, I look at the pictures on the box, and I let my "little girl" pick what looks good.  I do usually go for the fudgy rather than cakey, prefering moist and chewy to dry. 

I've tried all kinds of mixes and they're really all about the same.  I add nuts sometimes, and sometimes chocolate chips.  Occasionally I mix some cream cheese into the batter. 

If you're one of those folx who likes to cook from scratch, here are some brownie recipes I found online that you might want to try:

Chocolate and Guinness Brownies - yes, Guinness.  This recipe calls for 1 1/4 C. Guinness stout.  Now, that's unusual.

BCCY's Near Perfect Brownies - where baking good brownies is serious stuff!

Bite-size Chocolate Almond Brownies - from Jacques Torres and MrChocolate.com .  Almond paste!  This could almost tempt me to bake from scratch.

Healthy Fudgy Brownies - if you really MUST be health-conscious.

Three recipes from Now You're Cooking:
Peanut Butter Brownies
Cherry Brownies w/ Chocolate Cherry Icing 
Espresso Brownies - uses coffee liqueur (yum), but also uses powdered instant coffee, not actual espresso.  Ick.

Is your mouse waddling yet?

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

My brother has been experimenting with pumpkin seeds for years, trying out all kinds of flavors.  I think he's finally reached some kind of pumpkin seed guru status.  This is the recipe he likes best.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
2 cups pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
Garlic salt

If you're using the seeds from your Halloween pumpkin, rinse the pumpkin goo off the seeds and pat dry.  You want the seeds to be as dry as possible. 

Place them on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 250 degrees for 15 minutes or so.  This is to dry them out so they'll absorb the sauce.

Melt the butter and combine with wooster sauce.  Transfer the seeds to a bowl and pour liquid over.  Mix well.

Return seeds to cookie sheet.  Bake at 275 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn them over with a spatula.  Sprinkle with garlic salt.  Then bake for another 30 minutes or until crunchy.

Other flavor options: cheese (use the powdered mix that comes with macaroni & cheese mixes), soy sauce (use sparingly!), mexican spices.  There are a million ways you can make these.  Anybody got any more ideas?

Traveling with Tea

Cindy of Cuppa Tea & a Blog has been traveling, but she's back home now and has posted some of her experiences with traveling with tea.  Some good tips there for the tea-loving traveler. 

I'm looking forward to hearing some of her travel stories as well.  Hopefully she'll give me some more great places to put on my travel itinerary!

Tea & Coffee Art

Two offerings from the art department this morning.  First, the tea...

I've had this picture posted in my tea room for years now, and I occasionally get emails asking the source.  I'm sorry to say I have no idea.  I don't know who the artist is, I think it came off of a greeting card, but I'm not even sure about that. 

Anybody know anything about this picture?  I just love the feeling of it, it reminds me of sweet childhood dreams.  It's especially dear to me because of the dog in the chair. 

Next, a cool coffee posting from Rick Lee, one of my favorite photoblogs: Coffee at Lord & Taylor.  This is just the first pic, click to see the bigger and the rest.  The ice cream sandwich looks yummy too, but this elegant coffee setting really pleases my eyes.  Go have a look at the whole blog, if you have time.  All scrumptious!

Carnival of the Recipes #62

The Carnival is up at Fishtown Chatter.  Be sure to stop by and see the great collection of recipes this week!

Some notables:

• I'm going to have to try Caltechgirl's Halloween Pumpkin Cake.  I just happen to have some leftover pumpkin stuff from my pumpkin scones baking frenzy, so this will be perfect!
• something called Potica Bread (Yugoslavian Christmas Bread) from Mélange (shown in the photo here, which I just had to steal because it made my mouth water, complete with coffee...) and
• ohmigod, Chrissy's Chocolate Chip/Toffee Cookies sound SO good.  Heh, I thought the Carnival post said Chocolate Chip COFFEE cookies, so I was a little confused.  No coffee in this recipe, wha?  Gotta get new glasses.  Or get some glasses.  Heh.  No matter, there's chocolate chips and Amaretto, two of my favorite things! (I would add a bit more of each to make this the perfect recipe...)

Yummm!  Enjoy~

Celebrity CTC News

A few choice celebrity tidbits from Women's Lifestyle Magazine.  I'm not generally a celeb-voyeur, but I like to know when they do or say something related to coffee or tea. Or chocolate.

• Tom Hanks Switches From Coffee to Tea - this is not an either/or question for me, but he should have had his coffee black to keep the fat down.
• Gwyneth Paltrow Serves Tea & Biscuits (for charity)  What a gal.
• Pamela Anderson, Endowed By Espresso?  (Thanks to Cafe Metaphoric for this booby chuckle)
• Jerry Hall Has Rival Over for Tea
• Madonna Asked to Fetch Tea - whoops!  That's not the receptionist, that's THE Material Girl!!