Saturday, September 11, 2010

This time it's HIS fault!

DH's that is. I've been coming up with idea's for cooking with tea and HE has been....husbandly beast! And a tea sipping Scot at that! Well, here I am in a tea mood with the computer still in hand with a good search engine or two.... I had almost forgotten another of my favorite tea stores! Adagio Teas! After HE poo pooed my idea of using some of my mint tea (see Cultured Cup have teas, coffees, chocolates and more!) in our rice, I saw this recipe at Adagio:



Garlic-Mint Yogurt Sauce

Submitted by: Kara Tawa

This is a great dish to serve with beef or lamb, its a traditional lebanese dish.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Serving Size: 1 cup
Ingredients
  • 1 cup strained plain yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon adagio spearmint tea leaves
  • 4 minced garlic
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 sliced cucumber
Directions
In a medium bowl whisk yogurt until smooth. Add remaining ingredients. Refrigerate until use.

India cooks use yogurt, mint, and cucumbers often when serving curries, don't ya know. I keep mint tea on hand from tummy upsets already. As the black plague of gardeners (yes, even mint), why not grab it when I want some for a recipe. Yes, it is generally cut a bit finer that what you would do by hand but....

Now what tea lover doesn't have some Jasmine around? Please! I love a nice gentle cup by itself or with lots of Chinese dishes! Look what you can else you can do with it:



Jasmine Tea glaze for Pork or Chicken

Submitted by: Laurie Hall

jasmine tea is used as a glaze that is especially good on pork

Prep Time: 15 minutes for prep
glaze gets better the longer its allowed to sit in fridge
Serving Size: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 2 spoons jasmine tea
  • 1/4 c olive oil
  • 1/4 c sugar
  • 2 cloves fresh garlic, pressed or chopped
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • balsamic vinegar
  • pepper
  • salt (optional)
Directions
make tea with 1 c. water and strain leaves
add sugar and boil until disolved
add garlic
add pepper
let simmer
put cornstarch in small bowl and mix with 1 tablespoon water to create a paste
while stirring constantly, add the cornstarch paste to the simmering pan in small amounts. continue stirring and adding paste until glaze reaches desired consistency.
remove from heat
add olive oil
let cool
add balsamic vinegar (start with 2 tablespoons) and adjust to desired 'zing'. I use 3 tablespoons
Glaze can be used now but is better if allowed to sit in covered container in fridge.

Can be used to marinate pork before grilling and then basted on a few minutes before removing from grill.

O, tea bag types, all you gotta do for loose tea: cut open the top of the bag!

For these and other recipes go here and enjoy! I did...especially showing DH other people use tea beside just for drinking!

(They too have good teas and other stuff! Again, not getting compensated in any way for this...just sharing. Can you tell who is not a coffee drinker? Humph, should I go see what chiefs are doing with coffee?)

Just another book?

Someone once said, "With knowledge comes power." Maybe the power of understanding can quell fear and misunderstanding. So I stole the following from The Book Trib so I could share a book that is going on my wish list.
.

Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam



911

The intolerance of a few made this happen. Maybe the tolerance of many can ultimately win the future, not just for our country, but the world.  "Where there is hatred let me sow love." 


Maybe this man can say it better. (I took this from his site. Click on the title above or the context below to go there.) 

About the Book

Tea time anyone?

OK, you guys know I love tea! OK, maybe if you don't know me on FaceBook or Twitter, you didn't. Anyway, I not only enjoy tea but I have a "thing" about things that go with tea. I even have a collection of tea pots. Not a big collection because I am picky. Not only must they appeal to me visually but they must, MUST be functional. I was once gifted with a truly lovely teapot. The problem was it tended to put an equal quantity of tea out side the cup as it did inside the cup. It did it every single time! 'Didn't even matter the tea level in it! 

There is another reason my collection is small...$. I imagine this effects the collections of many folk. I also imagine they, like me, are not stopped when they see objects they would thing about adding if not so restricted. 

While reading my email from Teavana, I saw some new Chinese cast iron teapot sets that just took my breath away! 
I must pause for a disclaimer: If I could have posted a picture in FaceBook, this posting would not have occurred as I could have shared the beauty I found. Also 'share FaceBook' let me down!  So I stole a picture from Teavana's website so I could share!

There were others of different colors. Some more elaborate. But this, ah, this just reached out to me! If I had money to fling about, I would have to check out it's functionality but it definitely wins on one of my criteria!  

O, you mustn't think Teavana gears it's pots and sets only to the 'flush'! They do not! It's just line of cast iron pots...I want to share! But seriously, if you are a tea sipper and want to share a 'cuppa' (as DH's friends would say) or some klutz just destroyed your last or you are a collector, this is one of my places to shop (if only 'window shopping')! 

Yes, I do like their teas (plural because they have lots)!

A disclosure? No. This was truly unsolicited! I'm just a tea junky who is also an enabler! Sometime in the near future, I will share some of my favorite teas and places but not now! My cup is empty!