Angela Webster McRae's Blog, page 159

When the tea-scented candle is gone …

 You probably wouldn't drink out of this cup, would you?

Normally I wouldn't either, but after finally using up the candle that was inside when I bought it, I couldn't wait to clean up my new teacup and use it! But … the cup doesn't have a backstamp on the bottom, and that makes me a little nervous. Is this food safe? I don't know, so I emailed the company (whose name I found because I blogged about the teacup when I bought it last year), and I hope they'll write back and tell me my teacup is safe to use. If not … I guess I have a pretty new paper clip holder!

"Nurses at tea," circa 1915-1920

This week I came across a new-to-me old photo on the Library of Congress website, one titled "Nurses at tea." Taken sometime between 1915 and 1920, this photograph shows the Metropolitan Hospital Training School for Nurses on Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island) in New York City.


The images I find on the LOC website sometimes seem rather random. This one is part of the George Grantham Bain Collection and represents one of the country's earliest news picture agencies, which I guess must have been sort of like the Associated Press today.


Are any of you nurses? I'm not, but that was my declared major when I entered college many moons ago, so in another life and another place, this might have been me! (Just curious, did any of YOU end up doing something very different from what you had planned in life?)

Pure Leaf Black Tea With Vanilla

I've enjoyed Pure Leaf's bottled teas before, but I was surprised to see a new Pure Leaf product recently, this Pure Leaf Black Tea with Vanilla in tea bag form!


I found these at Walmart, and the plastic jar of 16 tea bags sells for $4.48. The jar was actually sealed when I removed the lid, and I liked that.


When I removed the seal, I got a nice whiff of vanilla, just as I was hoping. I do enjoy a good vanilla tea, especially at this time of year.

This was a nice brisk (but not too brisk) black tea in a favorite flavor. Nothing overly exotic, just a strong black tea with vanilla, and just what I was expecting. Have you tried Pure Leaf tea in the tea bag form?

A turquoise tea pitcher at a bargain price

When I was shopping before Christmas last year, I saw some pretty turquoise-colored goblets from the Pioneer Woman collection at Walmart and put them on my wish list for family who had been asking what I'd like. I got the six glasses I requested and was pleased. Later, I saw online that there was a matching glass pitcher, but it was sold out and I didn't think any more about it. Then on Saturday, I was in Walmart in Carrollton, searching for Star Wars Legos for my nephew, Matthew, who turns 8 today, and lo and behold, the turquoise Adeline pitcher was on clearance for $9!


The embossed pitcher reminds me of old-fashioned sandwich glass, and it's a nice, sturdy pitcher, so hopefully it will last me for a nice long time. They also had a gold one on clearance for $9, and it later occurred to me that would go nicely with the gold tea goblets I pull out at Thanksgiving, so I may go back and see if that pitcher is still there.

There's even a "Pioneer Woman" stamp inside at the bottom of the pitcher, which I thought was a nice touch. And for my fellow glass collectors, I should probably mention that I also saw some footed dessert dishes in this design in what looked like white milk glass, which would be great additions for those who collect milk glass. (Maybe some of you?)

Rooibos Tea and Black Bean Chili

Recently a friend and I were talking about cooking, and I told her not to forget to treat her tea bags as an extension of the spice cabinet. I believe I first read that idea in a Celestial Seasonings cookbook, which suggested tossing in a cinnamon tea bag when cooking carrots.




I've used tea in dozens of recipes over the years, and one of my favorite ways is to use tea as the liquid whenever I'm cooking chili each fall and witner. I've used green tea, black tea, oolong tea, and lately, I've added a slight touch of sweetness to my chili by using rooibos tea! Here's the recipe if you're up for a new chili recipe yourself.

Rooibos Tea and Black Bean Chili

1 pound turkey or ground beef (I like turkey)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 small sweet red peppers, chopped fine
2-3 tablespoons chili powder, or to taste
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5-ounce) can black beans
3 teaspoons rooibos tea steeped for 5 minutes in 1 cup boiling water


Over medium-high heat, brown the meat, then add garlic and red peppers and cook until garlic and peppers are softened. Add chili powder, salt, and pepper, stirring well. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and black beans and bring to a boil. Add steeped tea and again bring to a boil, stirring well. Turn heat to low and let chili simmer for one hour. Yields 12-14 servings.

My Country, 'Tis of Tea — Utah

I must admit that the thought of unearthing a few tea facts about Utah made me a little nervous. Utah is, after all, the home of Mormonism, and Mormons don't drink caffeine, right? Well, as we say, "It's complicated." What I learned is that some Mormons can and do drink caffeine, while others believe it's best to avoid all hot drinks, including tea and coffee. (Go here to see what NPR had to say about the matter earlier this year.) 

• This 1914 sheet music for a song called "At Our Tango Tea" is from the musical "The Girl from Utah." This Edwardian-period musical was about an American girl who ran away to London to avoid having to become the newest wife of a wealthy Mormon man. Here are a few lyrics from the musical, and I'll let you decide whether Broadway needs to resurrect this one. 

“At Our Tango Tea Last Week”
"Ev’rything is Tango in this world of sin;We have Tango eatables and Tango drops of gin.Last week at our church we had a Tango Tea affair,Ev’rybody filled their Tango Little Marys there.Listen, brethren all and in a world I’ll tell to you a few things that occur’d.
Chorus:
At our Tango Tea last week,Ev’rything was novel and unique.Little Missis Jones wore a Tango dress.What you couldn’t see of her of course you had to guess.Miss Lucinda Greene did the Tango bow,Someone caught her bending and she’s with the angels now.We had Tango tea, and without a doubt,It was so very weak it couldn’t Tango thro’ the spout.”

(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Dhatfield)
• Ever heard of the "Utah teapot"? Wikipedia says it is "a 3D computer model that has become a standard reference object (and something of an in-joke) in the computer graphics community. It is a mathematical model of an ordinary teapot of fairly simple shape, that appears solid, cylindrical and partially convex." The Utah teapot, or Newell teapot, dates to 1975 and gets its name from the fact it was created by a British-born computer graphics researcher at the University of Utah, Martin Newell. He needed a simple mathematical model of a familiar object, and his wife suggested their tea service since they were having tea at the time. It's nice to know that tea has influenced even the world of  computer graphics! (I wonder if we'll be able to print one of these teapots anytime soon?)


• Apparently somebody in Utah was drinking tea back in 1904. I found this advertisement in the January 9, 1904 issue of the Salt Lake Tribune, and it advertises Tree Tea, a Japanese tea and "the tea all Utah drinks." Who knew?

Divinitea's Plum Ginger Tea

A few months ago, a new friend gave me some samples of Divinitea tea blends to try. This week I got around to sampling the Plum Ginger tea, and oh, is it good! The blend contains organic black tea, organic ginger root, and natural plum flavor.

Years ago, a local tearoom had a popular blend called Snow Monkey Plum that I just loved, and this tea tastes just like I remember that one tasting. It's rich and plummy and has a nice sweet finish. Sipping this tea was like reconnecting with an old friend! Are any of you fans of plum-flavored tea?

My November column in The Coweta Shopper

For the non-local readers, my November column is up at The Coweta Shopper. Click here and zoom in if you'd like to read it. (And a special "thanks" to those of you who do!)

The 99-cent parfait glass

At least, I *think* it's a parfait glass. All I know is that this 3-3/4-inch tall cutie was 99 cents at Goodwill on Saturday, and I loved it and found myself wishing, not for the first time, that you could "order" things from Goodwill as if it were Amazon.com.
I have not mastered the art of photographing etched glass, but I hope you can see the ribbed stripe on this stretch of the glass.
And I plopped a napkin in here so you can see that the design really does stand out in real life. I think if you love teacups and teapots and teawares, collecting glassware almost naturally becomes a secondary passion. I am going to be on the lookout for more of these petite little glasses. I saw similar-sized pieces listed on eBay as "parfait glasses," so I'm going with that unless I learn otherwise. Now I need about five more and I can make mini-trifles in time for a holiday tea!

The perfect new needle book

When I was at a local quilt show last month, I spotted a kit for this cute teacup-shaped needle book and bought it. I didn't get around to making it, however, and so when I was in Wisconsin a few weeks ago and had a little time to work on a few easy quilt blocks I'd brought with me, I didn't have a needle book but improvised and found myself sticking needles in my blouse, the chair, or anything else handy when I needed to set aside a needle for a few minutes. Probably never a good idea. Also, because I hadn't thought to pack any straight pins, I held my paper-piecing project together with other needles. Do you know what happens when you try to use needles in place of straight pins and accidentally poke the business end of a needle instead of the eye? Pain. Pain is what happens. So I came home determined to get this needle book stitched up, and I made it during the Falcons-Packers game on Sunday afternoon!

It was super easy to make, and because the flowers and leaves were pre-cut and pre-infused, it didn't take long at all to steam iron them and stitch them into place.

If you're not a stitcher yourself, you might like to know that this needle book is a "book" that opens and allows you to store a few pins and needles inside on one of the "pages." (I have since added some straight pins, by the way, to prevent further injury!)

And even the back of this needle book has a cute feature, its own little tea bag! I am not at all a meticulous stitcher, so I was delighted that this project was so easy and came out so well. For those of you who'd like to stitch one of these for yourself, I was pleased to see the kit is now available from the designer in her Etsy shop! for more information.