Tea tips and Raspberry Flavoring Recipe

Sometimes I think my hubs is simply brilliant.   Southerners drink a lot of tea "ya'll know".  We make full pitchers of tea all the time but it gets frustrating when the tea bag falls into the boiling water and has to be fished out after those 3 precious minutes of steeping.  I walked into the kitchen recently and saw that my cleaver hubs had come up with a super simple solution to that problem.  He simply clipped a clothes pin to the paper tag!  Geesh, why haven't I thought of that before?

While I'm talking about tea, which I usually prefer iced and unsweet, here's a little raspberry flavoring that is also nice to have occasionally.  Especially hot.

Raspberry tea flavoring:
To 1 1/2 cups water brought to boil in the microwave,
Add 1 cup defrosted frozen (or fresh is you have them) raspberries and allow to rest 2-3 minutes.  Pour liquid through a strainer to remove pulp.  Add a little to your cup of hot tea (and sweeten if you like) keep remainder in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

P.S. Hot tea is best when you pour the hot water over the tea bag in your cup or tea pot and allow it to steep for 2-3 minutes.  Take the tea bag out after that to keep the tannin taste down.

Tea Party with love.

The big girl grand and I traveled to a tea party with an aunt last week.  It was wonderful.  My Aunt greeted us with big hugs and smiles then guided us to the dining room where she had prepared a lunch of Chicken Salad sandwiches, tomato tartlets (she shared her recipe with me and I’m sharing it with you at the bottom of this page),  fresh fruit salad, carrot sticks and ice tea.  We ate a leisurely lunch and talked a lot then moved to the sun room for dessert and hot Yorkshire tea and of course…more talking.   The Lemon Coconut Cheesecake was divine and perfect with the tea.  My cousin runs Windy Hill Farm Bakery out of Weatherford and made this cake.  It was really delicious! If you are anywhere near Weatherford of the DFW area, she does deliver!  Now, join us and feast your eyes on the photos.

Tomato Tart

fresh banana, green grape, blackberries served with sweet dressing

   

 

Tomato Tarts-

• 1 8 oz ricotta
  2 lg eggs beaten
  2 oz diced ham
  3/4 c shredded parmesan
  1 tsp basil
  1 tsp oregano
  1/8 tsp salt (I heap mine)
  1/4 tsp black pepper
  Mix well.
  Sliced smaller size tomatoes
  Bake tart shells (I use my pie crust recipe) @ 450 for 8 min.
  Reduce heat to 350. Fill tart shells with mixture and press in small tomato slice in each. Bake for 20-25 min.