tea

lemon teacake from emma block’s tea and cake

~ jama ~ 51 Comments

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I’ve long been a big fan of illustrated cookbooks, often adding them to my collection without ever intending to make any of the recipes. I’m content to ooh and ahh over the beautiful art, happily satisfying my visual cravings.

But since we’re all about tea and England this winter, I thought it would be nice to try something from Tea and Cake: Recipes for the Perfect Afternoon Tea (Hardie Grant, 2011), which features the lovely watercolor and paper collage work of London-based illustrator Emma Block.

Emma was actually commissioned by the publisher to do the illustrations while in her last year at university; the recipes themselves were created by a team of recipe writers whose names, oddly enough, do not appear on the cover of the book. But Emma’s name is there, front and center, and she definitely deserves the spotlight, because it is her work that really makes this book shine.

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a winter tea for you and me

~ jama ~ 57 Comments

“When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?” ~ Muriel Barbery (The Elegance of the Hedgehog)

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Brrrrrrrr!

Hello, Cutie Pies. Happy New Year!

Baby, it’s cold outside. This winter’s shaping up to be a real cracker. It’s so cold around here we have to open the refrigerator to heat the house. So cold, a cake I just baked and set out to cool frosted itself. 🙂

Mr. Cornelius has taken to sleeping in oven mitts,

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and is mad for fuzzy scarves (nice fashion statement, eh?).

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But where are my manners? Please make yourself comfortable and have a nice spot of tea. There now, better?

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mrs. tiggy-winkle comes to tea

~ jama ~ 48 Comments

 

Just in case you were wondering, the reason we usually look so spiffy around here is because we have the best washerwoman.

Her name is Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and she hails from the Lake District. Do you know her too? A tidier, more conscientious “clear-starcher” you’d be hard pressed to find. The other day, when untimely Spring (?) snowflakes were drifting down from the sky, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle chanced by to deliver a freshly laundered stack of tea towels and table linens.

We couldn’t very well turn her out in a snowstorm, so we invited her in for tea. Coincidentally, Cornelius and I had just baked a fresh batch of Littletown-Farm Carrot Cookies. Every Easter we get into a “Peter Rabbit mood” and crave carrots. We found the cookie recipe in Peter Rabbit’s Natural Foods Cookbook, and since we’d made Fierce Bad Rabbit’s Carrot-Raisin Salad from that book many times before, we thought the cookies would also be a good bet.

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“Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle’s hand, holding the tea-cup, was very very brown, and very very wrinkly with the soap-suds; and all through her gown and her cap, there were hair-pins sticking wrong end out; so that Lucie didn’t like to sit too near her.”

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hangin’ with mr. tea, or, a warm tale for a cold winter’s day

~ jama ~ 44 Comments

 

Mr. Cornelius and I have a new friend in the Alphabet Soup kitchen. His name is Mr. Tea, and so far, he’s taught us that:

  1. It’s socially acceptable to take your pants off in public.
  2. It’s also socially acceptable to wet your pants.
  3. Another name for tea infuser is “Hot Pants.”

Come along on Mr. Tea’s first adventure. So many cups, so little time!

Mr. Tea arrived in a Christmas stocking and immediately stole our hearts.

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carlyle house cauldron tea and tour

~ jama ~ 41 Comments

Happy Almost Halloween! 

‘Tis the season to practice your cackles, dust up your brooms, and sip strange brews.

Is he hiding a biscuit in his vest?

This past Sunday, Len and I headed out to the historic Carlyle House in Old Town Alexandria to attend a Cauldron Tea. I’m always happy to steep myself in the fun of a seasonal tea and this one came with the chance to tour the beautifully restored 18th century Palladian-style home of one of Alexandria’s founders, John Carlyle, a wealthy merchant who apparently knew how to invest his shillings and have a really good time.

We arrived a little early, so we strolled around the lovely 3/4 acre garden, which showcases plant materials available to Carlyle during the time of his residency. We were greeted by the chitter chatter of hundreds of birds, no doubt exchanging Sunday pleasantries and engaging in mini-debates (we are a swing state after all). I’d been to Old Town countless times, but never knew this sweet little haven was here. Perfect spot for a tête-à-tête!

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