Tea Sandwich Recipe Review

We tried a tea sandwich from one of the Laura Childs' Teashop Mystery books: tomato cream cheese tea sandwiches. I think the cream cheese didn't get soft enough, as we really couldn't blend the cheeses together into a smooth spread. We'll try it again, with less cream cheese, and perhaps green onions added instead of the finely diced regular onion for aesthetic appeal. It was a bit on the bland side, so we may add a smidge of salsa to our tomato to give it a little kick.

R.I.P. John Harney

John Harney died last week. Let's all raise a cuppa' to him.

Cooking with Tea

As part of our reading and reviewing of the Tea Shop Mystery series, we are going to test some of the recipes that are included in each. Last night, we made the chicken cooked with tea recipe included in "Sweet Tea Revenge." It's a simple recipe with only a handful of ingredients, including two tea bags of the cook's choice. We opted for orange pekoe, as we worried that an earl grey or other tea would interact in an unpleasant way with the soy sauce also part of the recipe.

It was hard to discern any tea taste to this dish. Flavors were dominated by the soy sauce, although we used considerably less than the 1/4 cup for which the recipe called. However, that makes it an easy recipe for cooks serving non-tea drinkers.

Tea Fiction: The Tea Shop Mysteries

We realized in May that the tea cupboard was crammed to almost overflowing, so a moratorium on tea purchases was declared until we finish up some of it up.

But to make that more palatable, we decided to catch up on the Indigo Tea Shop mysteries by Laura Childs. We were four titles behind, including the latest. So June became tea mystery month. 

We'll save the reader reviews for our sister blog, BookTeaCatDog, and only discuss the teas and recipes that feature in the books. We're saving the current hardcover for the future.

We're halfway through the third, so stay tuned for our tea-focused review.

Crafting With Tea

Tea can be used to dye natural fibers. The results can be either faint and light or strong and deep, depending on how long one steeps the item and the strength of the tea.

Here is a Fortune Cookie Bag, a pattern by Josephine Woo published on Interweave Crochet 2009. The initial soak produced a light wash of color, so I dyed the bag a second time in a stronger tea concoction. Then it was shaped, laid flat, and air dried.

I used Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool and Patons Classic Wool.

Undyed 

Dyed

What a versatile little leaf.

Tetley British Blend

When I first moved to England, I enjoyed discovering the different items in the grocery store that were so common place there and so unusual here in the States. The first important difference that I noticed was that Tetley tea came in round pouches rather than tea bags (now we call the sachets). Of course, I bought and drank that in England, so that when I saw Tetley British Blend in the grocery store here in April, I had to buy it. That's what we've been drinking in the parlor the past 6 weeks, a strong, sensible, no-nonsense cup of tea. But then, we're not tea snobs; we think you can find a good cup of tea in unlikely places, and Tetley British Blend is a strong, caffeinated way to start the day.

Tea Cookies

There are probably hundreds of cookies and biscuits that are sold as perfect for tea. Here's one easily available in many grocery stores. While it's very sweet, we don't mind one bit because they're called English Tea cookies.