It’s tea time
I’m trying some new tea- it’s from Africa. Malawi Africa to be exact.
It’s called Mboma Estate BOP. I don’t know what the BOP means, but I’ll find out. It was so inexpensive- $4.50 for a bag of it. mboma estate tea Malawi is a very poor part of Africa.
It doesn’t have that distinct tea flavor of Assam tea, but it has a kind of similar tea flavor; makes a very good iced tea too. The tea leaves are not leaves at all, instead they are little round tiny things- poppy seed size. Photos from Malawi below: Is the man in the first pic collecting Mboma Estate BOP tea? last pic- more tea pickers in Malawi.
Kindle reading
Here’s a good place to take a break! I mopped it out and cut some irises- the ones that are still blooming. It’s our 12 year old WalMart tent and we don’t have the rain flap anymore , but it will do just fine. below: close up of my irises in tent.
trains out back today
Above is the BNSF 5148 (train on the right) coming past the house today. It was going so slow because of the load it was hauling; big white containers that said “Hunt” on them. Someone told me that it’s explosives in the containers when they are going very slow/3 miles an hour slow.
(above photo) is the BNSF 701 n the colors of the gray and red Santa Fe trains. the locomotives are moving to the right and hauling the big white containers.
little bunny
The fur on this little bunny is ruffled from the wind blowing. Haven’t seen a bunny round here in a long time; at least the coyotes haven’t caught this one yet.
St Patrick’s Day dining room table
I had such a pretty dining room table centerpiece for St Patrick’s Day that I wanted to take a picture of it to
remember it by.
Numalighur Estate TgFop1
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This is the last tea I sampled from Upton tea; wrote a post on one every month since November. Just for a quick review:
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Pu-erth tuo cha #1 was for November
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Assam Orthodox GFOP was for December
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China Pu-Erh Mini Squares was January’s, and it was my favorite!
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Earl Gray Tea was February’s
This months tea:
Numalighur Estate TgFop1
It’s another Assam tea; this one is from India like the Assam tea from Dec 24th, 2011 tea post. Love this kind of tea; the kind with a reddish color in your teacup, but I don’t get the slight raison flavor the Upton tea page says it has. Maybe I didn’t brew it strong enough. There’s my teacup I took a photo of. See how red the tea is? You’ll know it’s an Assam tea when your tea is red in the cup. Which of the Assam teas I tested do I like better? I like them both since they are so similar; maybe the first one is a little better since it was brighter in flavor.
Here’s the link for this tea link for this specific tea on the Upton Tea website
Earl Gray Tea
4th tea sample post from the Upton Tea I’ve been sampling. Have been doing one a month. March is the last one.
Earl Gray tea is what I’m drinking this winter. I have two different kinds from Upton Tea. First one is Extra Bergamot Earl Gray which is tea (usually black tea) with bergamot oil in it and this one has a lot of extra bergamot in it; very very fragrant. Upton Tea’s page on this Earl Gray tea When brewing Earl Gray tea I find that if it’s too weak; it makes awful tea, but if it is strong enough- the tea is great.
Bergamot oil is aromatic and goes great in tea. It’s the oil from the rind of the little lemon/orange like citrus bergamot that flavors the tea. The next tea I tried from Upton Tea is Earl Gray Supreme. Earl Gray Supreme tea This one has Assam tea in it.
(below is a photo of an 1873 ANTIQUE VICTORIAN ENGLISH STERLING SILVER BOXED AFTERNOON TEA SERVICE 2nd photo close up of the spoons and tongs for the sugar)The two under the teapot are the sugar bowl and cream jug.
See the small shell spoon? It is called a caddy spoon to measure the loos tea into the teapot. Isn’t that neat! and was common in the 1800’s.
A good chocolate cake
I made a cake without baking powder. I thought all cakes had to have baking powder in them; not this one. Do you know that it cost about 7.00 to make?
Here is where I got the recipe This blogger made the cake too! It was utterly delicious. Some of it I froze in single portions to give away and to enjoy a piece of cake when I want to pull it out of the freezer. The woman who made this cake says you have to use oil and not butter for the cake for the sake of a moist cake. She convinced me.
China Pu-Erh Mini Squares
Third tea review, this one is January’s and its Pu-Erh mini squares cut from one big square.
Below photo- 2 squares I took out of the sample foil bag.
Reminds me of the first Pu-erh tea I tried in November; the round compacted little things, but I think I like this one better. To me it’s a healing tea. I tried it the day after I had the stomach flu (first time in 2 yrs I had that). This tea was a big welcome to me as I only had water in the last 24 hours before brewing this tea.
The color is a rich brown similar to coffee. The taste is smooth and good although totally different from Assam tea. I think I’ll purchase some of this when I finish up all my samples and need more tea. photos below- more Pu-Erh tea from other sources than Upton. One of the squares made 5 ( 5 oz. each) cups of tea.
Below: mountains of Yunnan Simao of China. Wow, is this neat place where this good tea is grown? Must be.
Assam Orthodox GFOP
From November 2011 to March 2012 I am reviewing some samples of tea from Upton Tea in Massachusetts. Here’s the 2nd one- December’s.
Assam tea gives a bright reddish/orange/brown color in the teacup. I’ve had it before, but didn’t know until now it was Assam tea. this tea on the Upton website It’s a very popular tea and I can see why; real tea flavor. A few years ago I tried a canister of Yorkshire tea and it had this same color in the teacup as this tea- now I realize that Yorkshire tea was Assam tea!
Nov. 28th was last months tea. I don’t know how to link to the post on WordPress. Hope I can figure it out in 2012.
PU-ERH TUO CHA #1
(photo taken when I took out the little tea balls from the package). I thought I’d try out some different teas from Upton Teas Upton tea site . Here is the one I tried first, the one in the photo- PU-ERH TUO CHA pu-erh tuo cha tea page on Upton . From now till March 2012 I will be brewing a few samples; one a month since I ordered 5 different ones.
Small tuo chas (compressed cakes) of black pu-erh tea, with a weight of approximately 3 grams each- an ideal size for one or two cups.
This quote was taken from the Upton page. By the time the kettle whistled, I still didn’t know how much tea this nugget made, but I got more than Two 5 oz. cups of tea from it! I counted 6 or 7 cups (I like it strong) and on their page they say one ball only makes 2 or 3 cups. It’s a smooth tea and I like it very much as well as reading about the origins of it on the tea page. Has an earthy, slight mossy flavor.
$1.50 sample packet gives you 6 little tea balls for 6 pots of tea. (photo below taken from Upton page). Surprised that something good can come from China? I was.
English muffins
This is my favorite brand of English muffins- Thomas. Newly Weds are in the cooler section of the supermarket, those are great too- and expensive, so I got the King Arthur recipe and tried making my own. king Arthur’s English muffin recipe
I only made a 1/2 batch and froze most of them. You get that pulled look from parting them with a fork. Never use a knife on English muffins. I was surprised to find out that you cook these in a frying pan or pancake skillet.
I used a cast iron pan, but the middle doesn’t get done, so I baked them for 10 minutes afterwards. They make great Egg McMuffins. Mine don’t have dough conditioners or preservatives like the expensive store ones, and mine taste just as good, or better.
I didn’t cut these out like cookie cutter cookies, instead I rolled them in a ball and let them rise for an hour. A guy on U tube did that and I think they turn out better.
Homemade Ravioli
3 different ways I make ravioli… scroll down to see all 3.
1st way I make it: meat filling and heat it up in a crockpot.
Here’s my ravioli taken from the freezer. The ravioli’s are made with: egg yolk, milk, a little olive oil, salt and flour. You ‘ll find that 2 egg yolks make 2 medium size helpings on a plate. I get those sealing marks by using a fork around the edges.
For the filling I put all this in a little Oscar blender: left over meat from 4th july shiskabobs, garlic, little olive oil, salt, did I put in some breadcrumbs? Can’t remember.
I take them out of the freezer and put them in my 2 qt. crockpot with a can of diced tomatoes. Delmonte brand is the freshest tasting, but the most expensive . I have some chicken raviolis in the freezer too for my next crockpot dinner. I’ll just add some chicken broth to them and skip the tomatoes. I also make a good white creamy garlic sauce too!
2nd way I make ravioli:
The above were made by hand, but this little plastic manual ravioli maker makes good ones too. I like ricotta filling with garlic that I crush from one of those garlic hand crushers and a little salt and parsley. Take a look below.
The filling is ricotta cheese and garlic that I spun around in the little chopper. Parsley is sprinkled on top.
You put another slab of noodle dough on top of the first photo and press the plastic gadget together and this is what you get. I cut them and then boil the raviolis, not too long- fresh noodles only take a few minutes to boil compared to hard store pasta.
Oil the plastic gadget and they come out like a charm.
The tricky part is getting that noodle dough thin enough. The thinner the dough, the better the ravioli patty. I made a flour/milk/butter / garlic sauce for these raviolis, kind of like an alfrado sauce, but didn’t add any cheese.
3rd way I make ravioli:
It’s the folded over method, similar to the first one, except I fold em over and only seal 3 sides. I sprinkled Italian seasonings on the ricotta clumps after I took the photo.
After you fold the dough over, put your finger between each one to press on the dough to show you where to cut. (below)
cut em and I trimmed off the excess part on the non-folded end after I took the photo.
Seal the 3 edges
Don’t boil them too long, only needs a few minutes because the noodle dough is so fresh.
Japanese Shishito peppers
Brought these Shishito peppers in today. Isn’t neat when you look around in the garden and suddenly see something all ready to pick? I thought these were hot, but as I was looking them up online, they are a mild pepper. go here to read about more about them I’ll try them for lunch made like the link shows you. I was giving the kale (above peppers in photo) to the hens, but today I’m going to cook it and eat! look what she does with these little mild peppers! I’ll have to try it.
never ending box cars
Aren’t these called box cars? They are never ending! I wish I knew what was in them. A while back I had a photo of the brown cars and I mentioned that I wondered what was in them. A reader commented that they were for hauling grain, but it was on the train page instead of an individual post, so I didn’t have a place to put his comment which is just another word press glitch that someone knows the answer too , (wish it was me!).
These box cars are different that the brown ones… maybe for livestock? I don’t know, but they appear to be never ending as you can tell by these photos!
The ladders remind me of hobos hopping on the train which I only read about in books from the 1930’s.
Plums
It looks like a good crop of plums this summer! I didn’t prune this year because I over due it each year. Good thing I didn’t prune this tree!
He’s always up to something
This little guy is costing us too much money! That’s the trouble with pets, but we took care of him and he will heal up and be good as new.
memorial day 2011- a tribute to the spies
Do you have your flag out today? We do. I’ m thinking about the spies; the good spies during WW2. This post is dedicated to all the American, British and French spies who did a big part in winning the war. I’ve never thought about the spies contribution before seeing this movie. I don’t know, just never thought of it; seems the focus is on the soldiers usually.
Can’t get this movie out of my mind- Carve Her name With Pride. It’s a 1958 movie about Violet Szarbo the British spy. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051454/ It might be on u tube. Some clips of the movie are there, don’t know about the whole movie.
Violet Szarbo- (down below) the British spy who helped win WW2. Died at 23 yrs old. She should not have took that 2nd mission since the Germans tortured female spies horribly.
Starbucks molasses cookie
I finally made a good Starbucks molasses cookie. I’m talking about the molasses cookie from Starbucks that I had 9 years ago in Monroe WA. They must have another supplier now because recently in Seattle I had one and it wasn’t even recognizable as the 9 yr. ago molasses cookie that was dark big and flavorful from Starbucks. recipe I used, but changed a little Here’s how I changed it:
4 changes I made to the recipe:
First change- instead of 3/4 butter, I used 2 TBSP of butter and almost 3/4 lard.
Second change- instead of the 1 cup brown sugar, I used 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar
Third change-instead of the 2 1/2 cup flour, I used only 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of it was graham flour.
Fourth change- I added cloves! Online somewhere I found a few of the ingredients: cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, but also cloves was listed, so why not put it in?
Super moon march 19th pic
Last night’s super moon does look brighter and closer. Here’s the view I had and it kept shining in my window all night. I took the doggie out between 2-3 am to go potty and and the sky was so lit up!
just more curtains
This was my last window that needed some curtains, so I used the curtains that were already hanging on a different window (the window I put the olive Wal- Mart tablecloth curtains on). These curtains have a cotton brick red paisley print which I picked out specifically to go with the sofa cover that has a little brick red stripe in it. Material was 5 or 6 yards for 15.00 total price. Walmart took out their material department so there goes those great deals for when you need 5 or more yards of material.
These curtains won’t get wet if the sprinklers hits the windows in the summer because we can’t open the windows- they are broken. I neglected these two windows for a long time, so long of time that we just got used to the bland window blinds in the first picture, finally they have curtains on them!
Before this window, they were on another window:
I took em off this window to put the olive Wal-Mart curtains up here. On this window the ruffle was high and pretty compared to where they are now; (the top page photo) where I had to spread them out to cover two windows instead of one.
sourdough crackers
Don’t yawn yet, although this must be about my 6th post on crackers, but I can’t resist! I have some sour dough bread starter that I have kept going for a year now and it’s that starter that makes these crackers so good.
For starters they are good with puréed avocado/ lemon juice/salt. those are poppy seeds on top of this batch.
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Turn oven on 375 first of all. I put about 4 tablespoons worth of sour dough bread starter glob in a mixing bowl with some wheat germ and oat bran and white flour.
- add a little water and salt.
- mix it around with a butter knife to form a ball.
- roll out on a floured wood cutting board.
- divide dough into 4 parts after I roll it out
- roll 1 slab of dough out at a time and sprinkle poppy seeds and salt into dough. try to get the dough thin. Use round cookie cutter to make em round like photo. Sometimes I just cut in squares. I didn’t even have to poke holes in these.
- After they are in oven for 5 minutes, I butter each one lightly, then cook for another 7 or 8 minutes.
- I store these in a big enough glass jar.
plastic honey containers…
These plastic honey containers should be banned. I’m still working on getting the honey out to store in the jar; luckily the plastic container cuts easily enough with a knife, but when I bought the honey at the farmers market in autumn it looks so golden and smooth…. I forget that honey hardens in the months to come!
New Curtains
This is a Wal-Mart vinyl tablecloth made into curtains; like it? The busy olive pattern on the curtains was just right for the all brown suede look alike sofa cover. It’s cheaper than material at only $5.00 for the longest size tablecloth in the package. If you make curtains out of Wal-Mart tablecloth’s, make sure you get the biggest size for more curtain for your money.
red carnations
pansey wreath 1995
