Angela Webster McRae's Blog, page 15

Aloha Tea's Lava Papaya Tea

I met some girlfriends for dinner the other night, and when I arrived, my friend Amy immediately handed me this bag of tea she got for me in Hawaii. I don’t know about you, but I am always so touched that someone was thinking of me on their vacation!


Not surprisingly, a burst of happy tropical scents greeted me when I opened the bag.


But very surprisingly, there was something tucked inside the bag of tea: these tea bags.


And they were nice drawstring tea bags!


I quickly filled one with the tea, plopped it in a teacup, and added boiling water. I knew from the yummy scent alone that I would enjoy this tea, and I did. It was a bright-pink color, and the taste was pleasantly sweet from the mix of apple pieces, hibiscus, rosehip, papaya pieces, strawberry leaves, pomegranate pieces, cornflower petals, passion flowers, and natural flavors. I loved the tea, and the fact that fillable tea bags were included was such a lovely surprise!

A snowy weekend at last!

Those of you who are blessed with snow every year can't imagine how excited Georgians get when we hear that snow is on the way! I prepared early in the week and made sure I had all the necessities on hand, so by Thursday, I was just doing a final load of laundry, making sure I'd gotten a nice hot shower in, and settled in to wait on the weather. When I woke up on Friday, I looked out through my bedroom window and didn't spot anything at first. Then I went downstairs and opened the front door to find it was snowing and had covered the driveway, and from the second floor (and without my glasses on), that snow blended with the driveway. It snowed steadily for several hours, and while I forgot to measure it, I'd say I got a good three or four inches of snow.

I was curious to see whether my teacup rain chain had collected any snow, but it was mostly just icy by midmorning when I went outside.

The color was definitely more pronounced in the snow, though!

I wandered around for a bit to capture a few photos of things like this mahonia bush, but the frigid temperatures and sleet soon had me headed back inside.

I was headed upstairs to work on organizing my craft room, and I decided that was a good time to test drive the new Lily Pulitzer tumbler I received from my friend Deberah for Christmas. The lid was perfect for keeping me from sloshing tea around amongst the crafting papers, and the tumbler kept that tea hot for hours!

I also tried scoring my latest loaf of sourdough bread in a snowflake pattern. It sort of resembled a snowflake, I suppose, but I need to go light on the flour next time so the scoring pattern will be more pronounced. Still, I was grateful for the beautiful snow and especially grateful that I had electricity and running water the whole time! So who else got snow over the weekend?





 

The surprise of a petit déjeuner

So while I was at dinner with friends the other night, my friend Paige texted to say she'd just returned from Paris and had left something for me in my mailbox. Can you guess what it was? The item on top is a major clue!

Even the sea salt butter from Paris is elegant!

Inside the paper bag, of course, were two fresh croissants. They crisp right up in the toaster oven.

With the fancy butter? Yum. And with some Earl Grey she'd already given me, even better. What a great way to end the week!

A new type of tea wings its way to me

When my Bible study friends came here for tea and cookies near Christmas, our leader, Paige, who is a flight attendant, brought us all some tea from her latest travels. I received this adorable tea tin with some English Breakfast Tea inside, and while it's very good, I was perhaps even more excited that Paige also brought me the baggie at left, which was packed with more tea bags she picked up for me on her travels. She's recently been to Rome, Paris, and London, and she even texted me from Fortnum & Mason the other day to share photos and ask if I wanted her to get anything for me. (Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call a friend!)

I started exploring the new tea bags this week, and lo and behold, there's a type of tea bag I've never seen before, these from Bistrotea.

Actually, it's not really a tea bag but a tea stick! You just plop it into your teacup like a single-use tea infuser. As with lots of loose tea infusers, this one let a few tea particles escape into my teacup, and that was just fine. The Organic English Breakfast Tea was just the brisk mid-morning tea I had hoped for, and I felt quite fortunate to experience some new teas without having to even travel to go get them!

Recommended reading: "Around the Table"

For my first Saturday of the new year, I decided it was time to go antiquing in Marietta. What’s more, I decided to “face my fears” by visiting an antique mall I’d been avoiding for more than a decade. I used to love shopping at the Big Shanty Antique Mall with my mom, and even though she’s been gone eleven years now, until Saturday, I just couldn’t make myself go back to Big Shanty. Well, guess what? It’s not even there anymore! There’s a scaled-down Big Shanty in the area—I guess “Little Shanty” didn’t have a nice ring to it—and when I finally got there with the help of Google Maps on my phone, I couldn’t help grinning. I’d been avoiding something that existed only in my imagination! Isn’t that crazy? (Maybe you all have thought some crazy things too. I sure hope so!) At any rate, I didn’t find anything I needed there, but I had driven right by the Cobb Antique Mall on the way, and there, I found this $4 book that has been an absolute delight to read!


From the folks behind Reminisce magazine, this 2011 book is titled Around the Table: Fond Memories of Food, Family and Friends. It shares so many sweet stories of mealtimes past, and of course I was hooked as soon as I flipped it open and saw this picture of a little girl celebrating her eighth birthday on May 4, 1948. That’s my birthday! (Well, not the year, but the date is right.) A Suzanne Jones of Granbury, Texas, writes, “The girls were delighted with being served from the silver tea service seen on the counter at left and using the demitasse cups of ‘fine china.’” The author later owned the tea service, which was given to her daughter as a wedding gift. Isn’t that lovely?


LeeBerta Graham of Paso Robles, California, shared a charming story about Willard’s, the upscale restaurant that her parents once ran in Beverly Hills. There, she and her younger sister, Wilda, got dressed up for their “tea parties.” They didn’t drink real tea but had Kool-Aid instead! Yesterday, my little neighbor friends visited and had Swiss Miss hot cocoa in their “teacups,” so I understand. With lots of lovely stories, vintage photos, and period advertisements, this book is one that I think many of you would enjoy as well.

A fabulous new piece of teatime art

Shortly before Christmas, the doorbell rang, and it was my seven-year-old friend Adelaide, bearing a gift. I love to receive her artwork and have a nice collection of it on my refrigerator, so I stood there and studied it with my usual response, which was something like, "Oh my goodness! I love it! Now tell me about it!" (That's a great way to make sure I understand the artist's intent.)

I was, frankly, a little concerned that Adelaide appeared to be lying on a gurney, but she explained that this was her sleeping (thus the zzzz's) and dreaming and …

She was dreaming of having a tea party with me! (That's me on the left, lest you wonder.) Now, I don't guess I've ever had a friend tell me she was actually dreaming of having tea with me. Isn't that absolutely charming?

Happy New Year!

 

Enjoying some new Christmas gifts

It is always delightful when friends surprise me with a gift I just love, and that was the case with several goodies I received this Christmas. My friend Andrea surprised me with an extravagant bag full of gifts, and my favorite of the many lovely items inside was this pink pottery mug as well as some tea blended in her hometown of Carrollton!

The London Fog tea tastes even better, I'm sure, because it was sipped from this pretty mug made by a woman in Haiti. I love that Andrea was also supporting a local ministry to Haiti by choosing such a gift, and the fact that it's beautiful *and* useful makes me so happy.

When I found a pretty box from my friend Susan waiting at my front door one night before Christmas, the first thing I noted was that it weighed a ton. When I opened the lid, I could see why: it was the Dolly Parton pan I had been wanting!

Everybody loves Dolly, and I couldn't help wanting one of these pans as soon as I saw them and realized they said "Jolene, please don't take my pan" on the back. Hilarious! I told Susan I'd been coveting one of these pans, and she said she knew that because I'd mentioned it on Facebook over the summer, and she'd ordered it for me that day. I'll have to be more careful of what I post online about things I want (I mean, someone might go get me that Italian villa I'm hankering for), but boy, what a fun gift. Tea and kitchen items are always welcome gifts. Did you get any fun tea and/or kitchen gifts for Christmas this year?

My Primuline collection grows …

Remember Rebecca, the lovely lady who sent me those longed-for Primuline teacups and saucers a few weeks ago? Well, when I arrived home from my dad's after our family's Christmas Day celebration, I had a second package from her waiting, this time with nine more pieces, including a spare saucer to go with the cup-and-saucer sets she sent earlier and …

Eight of the gorgeous gold-rimmed dessert plates! Years ago, my mother surprised me with the plates at Christmas. This year, Rebecca has surprised me with the matching dessert plates.

And my favorite Christmas dessert is Daddy's coconut cake, some of which I brought home with me and promptly enjoyed on a new Primuline plate. While Christmas was different this year without my beloved Alex, the day was still a good one, and I continue to count my blessings—including the greatest one, the gift of a Savior, as well as earthly blessings like a kind stranger who gifted me with teacups and saucers and dessert plates. I hope your Christmas was a good one too!

Merry Christmas!

 

"For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."— Luke 2:10, 11
Merry Christmas, tea friends!