{bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

 

I do really love my iced tea.

I will tell you how I make it.

Put about six teabags, from which you have removed the paper tags, in a container —  tempered glass (like a quart mason jar), enamel, or plastic. Do not attempt to make your iced tea in a normal glass pitcher, because it will break; do not think you can make good iced tea without boiling water.

I do love PG Tips or Barry’s for my cup of regular hot tea; I enjoy Upton Tea for a special pot (try the rose congou for a real treat; the Chief loves his Temple of Heaven Gunpowder green tea).

But for iced tea, I admit I really just find Lipton — normal old Lipton — to give the best balance of very strong but not bitter. Sometimes I put some Barry’s in with the Lipton, but I’m telling you: all snobbery aside, Lipton makes the best iced tea.

Okay, pour about a quart of boiling — really boiling, not almost boiling, not previously boiling — water over your tea bags. Let them steep in there for as long as you like! Many times I just leave the bags in.

It’s best if you can let it cool before fixing yourself your drink, but if you must have it immediately, just make sure your glass (also tempered — I swear by these Duralex glasses (affiliate link) — I’ve had them for ages, and they stack) is full, completely full of ice.

Regardless, you need much more ice in your glass than you think you do. These are the two pitfalls that leave people lukewarm about iced tea:

1. their tea is not strong enough to start with and

2. it doesn’t end up cold enough.

If you’ve left your container of tea to steep until it’s at least cool or maybe you’ve even popped it in the fridge and it’s cold, you can add water to dilute it, as the initial concentration is… concentrated. Maybe another cup of water will do the trick. If it’s hot, the ice that melts will dilute it — so pour it just below the top level of your ice.

The fatal thing is to have a few pathetic slivers of ice in a watery pool of weak tea.

So, strong tea and lots of ice!

I like mine sweet — either I put sugar in the container as I’m making it or I add my spoonful to my glass and stir vigorously.

 

It’s definitely the best drink ever. Every drink wishes it were iced tea and is sad it’s not.

On to our links:

Marcel Marceau started miming to save children during the Resistance.


The Holy Stairs in Rome will be renovated.


I’ve never read a critique of a poem quite like this one: How T.S. Eliot Predicted the Coming of Male Millennials


Fathers, protect your children spiritually. 


Family structure matters when it comes to protecting children from abuse.


Our friend Patricia recommends, for fun listening for the children, an old-fashioned series from a radio program: She says: “Lil’ Orley and …

…the Cricket

…the Haunted House

…the Bubble Gum

…the Happy Bird

…the Barn Dance

…the Adventure with the Cloud

…Adventures with the Parade

… and, as the ads say, so much more! You can find a lot of them on YouTube.”

Here’s one:

 

From the archives:

Our audio book recommendations (good ones in the comments too!).
My secret to cleaning cast iron pans — and believe me, getting stainless steel pads will change your life, scrubbing-pots-in-general-wise —  you will be released from the dumb plastic-scrubber-of-futility fate.

Today is the feast of St. Clare. We went to Assisi and walked in the little cold convent where she lived in complete poverty, following St. Francis — and where she struggled out, ill, bearing the Host that caused the attacking Saracens to take flight. If you can ever go there, go!

 

 

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