Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Teeny Tiny Tea Stuff

These itty bitty tea sets are not for serving tea.  They're adornment!  KittyFisher.com.au has, among other things, these cute little tea-themed brooches, earrings and necklaces, all in the shape of teeny tiny tea-ware. 

It looks like there are two basic designs - strawberries and forget-me-nots.  For the rest of this month they're offering to contribute to the Cancer Council for each sale of the teacup brooch shown here, so I may have to start with the forget-me-not brooch and earrings. 

The complete tea-theme jewelry collection is here.  All prices are in Aussie dollars, so here's a converter tool.  The $20 for the forget-me-not brooch translates to 15.31 'merrycan, which makes it pretty cheap considering they're also offering free shipping.

Mom's Day Carnival of the Recipes

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope all you moms are relaxing today with a nice hot cuppa whatever tickles your fancy.  Whatever you're drinking, sit back and sip while you read The Special Mother's Day Edition of the Carnival of the Recipes, well-hosted at Everything and Nothing, and well-seasoned with "mom-isms".  They made me smile; some of them made me laugh out loud.  Ahhh, fond memories of mom. 

This week's Carnival has some great stuff I want to try:

• Potato Omelettes, from the Common Room - yum
• Michelle's Great Granny's Tea Cakes - Yum
• KeeWee's Rich ‘n’ Creamy Brownie Bars - YUM

And now I gotta dash.  The fam damily is coming here for Mom's Day, and I'll be serving a full-course of chocolate, starting with fudge (what a great appetizer), chocolate fondue with fruit and donuts for our main course, and chocolate biscotti for dessert, served with mocha-coffee, of course.  Ok, ok, we're also having tacos and salad bar.  But hey, chocolate is too a food group. 

Next week's carnival will be hosted by PractiGal. Submit your recipes here, before Saturday noon.

The (Almost) Ultimate Map Resource

When I started my travelogue list / map way back when, I was intent on mapping out destinations to visit where I could have good coffee, good tea, as well as visit roadside attractions and oddities.  I actually started a graphical map that I could click on various locations and get the information about that site.  But my travel project got stalled, partly because it's such a lot of work! 

Enter MapMuse!  This is a still-new resource that offers maps showing locations of specific interests. Check this out:

This puppy here shows locations of independent coffee houses across the U.S.  Pretty cool, huh?  If you click on a dark blob, you narrow it down by region, and you can continue refining your search, right down to the cross streets.

They do have a category for brands -- the perfect resource if you're trying to get into the Guinness World Book of Records by slurping frappaccino at every single Starbucks in every single town in the U.S.

You can also search the category results by zip code, which is always handy.  But this is a great service for folx going into a strange city, who don't perhaps know the streets or zip codes or names of businesses to search by. 

There is no interest group for tea, unfortunately.  YET.  I submitted a request for it, especially for locations serving high tea or afternoon tea.  Once they add tea houses, this will be the ULTIMATE travel resource.

Choco Biscotto - Bet Ya Can't Eat Just One

Biscotto, in case you didn't know, is the singular of BISCOTTI, which comes from either the Latin word 'bis coctum' which means, 'twice baked', or the Italian bis (twice) and cotto (cooked).  Or both.  The story goes that the earliest biscotti were made in second century Rome.  From The History of Cookies by Linda Stradley: "Back then, 'biscuits' were unleavened, hard, thin wafers, which had a low water content. As they contained very little moisture they were the ideal food to store, as they wouldn't become mouldy quickly."

I'm glad to report that my first attempt at biscotti wasn't a total train wreck.  There were a few mishaps (burnt almonds, no cooling rack) but overall the cookies I produced were tasty and crunchy, although they were a bit thick.  I started with the recipe here, and modified it to make the two chocolate variations below.  The next time I try these, I'll use a little less flour, or maybe I'll just follow this recipe instead and see what the differences are.

These turned out well enough that I plan to serve them at our Mother's Day gathering, with some melted chocolate for dipping, which along with the fudge should throw everybody into choco-sugar-shock in short order, and I can rest easy knowing my job is done.  Heh.

Chocolate Chunk Biscotti
4-6 ounces blanched almonds
2 1/2 cups flour
1-2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 tbsp amaretto creamer
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks chopped

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Spread almonds on a baking sheet and toast them in oven until lightly golden. Let cool. Coarsely chop half the nuts.

Mix together sugar and eggs, beating well until the color of the mixture is light yellow and fluffy.  Add vanilla, almond extract and creamer (use milk if you don't have the creamer).  In a separate bowl combine flour, salt and baking powder.  Beat flour into egg mixture and then gently fold in the toasted almonds (hold out a few almonds for topping) and the chocolate chips. 

The consistency should be doughy but it will still be a bit gooey.  Remove to a floured surface and knead briefly, then divide 2-4 pieces.  Roll each piece into a cylinder 10 inches long and about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.  Press down to flatten them into an oval shape about three inches across.  Press slivered almonds into top, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Place the rolls on each baking sheet and bake 15 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned and firm to the touch.  Place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes, and then with a spatula, carefully transfer the rolls to a cutting board and slice each one diagonally into cookies about 1/2-inch thick.  Return the slices to the oven, with one cut side facing up.  Turn them over after about 10-15 minutes.  Continue baking for another 10-15 minutes, or until very firm and crisp.  Cool on wire rack.

Chocolate Cherry Biscotti
See above ingredients (minus the chocolate chips)
1/2 cup finely chopped, well-drained marascino cherries
2 tbsp unsweetened powdered cocoa

Follow the recipe as described above, right up through the addition of the almonds.  Instead of chocolate chunks/chips, fold in cherries and cocoa. 

Since I added the powdered cocoa at the end, it wasn't fully blended, and the result was a sort of marbled look which I liked.  But if you want a darker, more even look, combine the cocoa with the sugar and eggs and beat together to get an even texture/color.

Enjoy!

The Cups of Persuasion

I've been obsessing on all my Jane Austen movies lately, watching them over and over again.  I have 3 versions of Pride and Prejucide on DVD, as well as a paperback and the audio book on cassette.  I have 3 versions of Emma on DVD, and 2 versions of Sense & Sensibility.  I just watch them over and over.  The hubs thinks I'm nuts of course, and won't sit still for even 5 minutes of all this "old stuff".  But I love it.  I love the stories, the manners, the clothes, and I especially love the tea and china rituals.

Today I watched Persuasionwith Amanda Root playing Anne Elliot, long-suffering and submissive, who finds love in spite of her interfering friends and disapproving family. I like this version, even though it does take some liberties with the story.  But the changes are obviously attempts to simplify the story, which does get a bit complex, and at least they haven't messed too much with the key characters or main events.

What I want to share here are the special moments in cups

This is one of my favorite cups.  We see these large two-handled cups used at Mary's (Anne's married sister) for breakfast, which I assume means they might contain coffee instead of tea?  I tried to find cups like these online, and even bought a book about antique china, but I couldn't find anything about them anywhere.

The only time we see the smaller teacups from the china set being used is when Anne is nursing her nephew.

This is from a wonderful scene in the movie, where Anne, while visiting her sister Mary, takes tea with her in-laws the Musgroves, and spends the entire time listening to everyone's woes and complaints over their cups. It's a wonderful illustration of Anne's patient nature, and her role in the family. 

And of course, the blue china cups are beautiful.

Ok, ok, this isn't a teacup.  This is from a scene in one of the public houses in Bath, where apparently you drank these healthful waters from a tin cup.

A quiet moment in a public shop.  I like to think there might be hot chocolate in this cup.  Anne doesn't seem to be aware of anything, however.  She sips in a bemused state, thinking about her beloved Captain Wentworth.

Book Review: Coffee

I enjoyed Kenneth Davids' Espresso book so much I decided to sample some of his other work.  This book, Coffee : A Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Enjoying, now in its fifth edition, will probably keep on going like the EverReady bunny.  It's that good.  Not too esoteric, not overloaded with coffee jargon meant only for the most elevated barista, this is a book for the every day joe who likes a good cuppa joe.

It covers a little bit of everything about the holy bean: from growing, to roasting, to grinding and brewing, with a little bit of history, culture and health thrown in for good measure.  There are two chapters on espresso, so if you don't need the kind of in-depth information in the Espresso book, you can get the brief skinny here. 

I highly recommend this book.  I think even coffee experts would find it informative and interesting.  Davids' style is amusing and easy to read.

Next purchase for me will have to be his book on coffee roasting, and that will complete my little collection. 

Mexican Mocha Coffee

Ay-ay!  Mustn't forget that it's Cinco de Mayo!!  So you get two posts from me today.  Seeing as how it falls on Chocolate Friday, we'll be serving Mexican Mocha, the chocolate version of Mexican Coffee.  Best served in large mugs and only when you have nothing important left to do for the day.  Sip, relax, and kick back, Mexican-style.

Mexican Mocha Coffee

1 large cup of strong black coffee
1 jigger tequila
1 jigger kahlua
1 squirt chocolate syrup
top with whipped cream if you like

If you don't have chocolate syrup, you could melt some chocolate chips, or use 1-2 tablespoons powdered cocoa.

ENJOY!

Chocolate From Days Gone By

I haven't had much time to blog lately, but I'm determined not to miss another Chocolate Friday.

Yesterday I went in search of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management and found a wonderful resource for old and out of print books online: Project Gutenberg.  Some of them are complete html with illustrations and everything.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Beeton's was only available in plain text, and something called Plucker, and the text only was sadly sans pics, but I downloaded it anyway. 

I love this kind of stuff.  I love peeking in on days gone by and seeing how they lived and what they valued.  The other great find was this: Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes and Home Made Candy Recipes, by Miss Parloa and Mrs. Janet McKenzie Hill. 

This is an amazing collection of chocolate recipes from different women, collected and presented with a few pictures and lots of references and definitions and explanations.  I can't seem to find the original publish date, but both women were born in the mid 1800's so I guess somewhere in the 1880's.  I've only browsed through 20 or so of the recipes, but I feel as if I stumbled on a gold mine.  A chocolate gold mine.  I know, it's public domain type material, and this isn't the only source, but this is MY first discovery of it so let me enjoy the special moment.

I can see there might be a small problem finding modern day replacements for some of the ingredients.  Since the book was written/compiled for Walter Baker & Co., most of the recipes call for specific Baker products.  Since Walter Baker & Co was absorbed into the Kraft General Foods Corp. in 1927, some of its products are still being made.  But I suppose there are sources now for just about any choco/cocoa products that could be used as substitutions.

Anyway, this is where I'm going to start.  Fudge was my mom's favorite thing, and I'm hoping to serve these for our Mother's Day gathering, in honor of my favorite woman.

Cocoa Fudge

½ a cup of milk
3 level tablespoonfuls of butter
2 ½ cups of powdered sugar,
6 tablespoonfuls of Baker's Cocoa
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Mix all ingredients together but vanilla; cook, stirring constantly, until it begins to boil, then cook slowly, stirring occasionally, eight or ten minutes, or until it makes a firm ball when dropped in cold water. When cooked enough, add the vanilla and beat until it seems like very cold molasses in winter. Pour into a buttered pan; when firm, cut in squares. Great care must be taken not to beat too much, because it cannot be poured into the pan, and will not have a gloss on top.