January 8, 2008

January - Hot Tea Month


Happy New Year!
I hope this finds you all well and enjoying a brand new start in a brand new year. May 2008 be the most prosperous year you've ever lived - spiritually, physically and financially! It's hard to believe we're already to 2008 - life just keeps slipping by.
January is a very favorite month of mine! New Beginnings, my birthday and best of all . . . It's HOT TEA MONTH! Cheers!
I LOVE tea and anything having to do with it. So in honor of this
VERY IMPORTANT DESIGNATION,
this month I plan to celebrate Tuesdays with
"Tuesday's Tea Time".
Today I made scones and Lorna made some mock Devonshire Clotted Cream, we brewed up a pot of my very favorite tea - Constant Comment by Bigelow and had TEA! Dan and the boys even enjoyed the scones, cream and jam. These scones were THE BEST- tender, moist and melt in your mouth delicious and with cream and strawberry jam - mmmmm!
The tea set above is one of my most prized tea sets. It's one of the ones good South Africans use every day for tea - a very important ritual kept promptly at
2:00 p.m. My parents brought it home for me when they came back to the States for their first furlough after I was married. The pot makes excellent tea - something not every teapot does - so I used it today for my Constant Comment.
Basic English Scones
3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
1 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in butter to form rice-size pieces. Add buttermilk all at once. Toss lightly with fork untilmixture holds together. Gather dough and knead 4-5 times. Divide dough in half and form into 6" rounds on cookie sheet. Cut each round into 6 wedges using a sharp knife, but do NOT seperate wedges. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly brown. Serve warm.
Mock Devonshire Cream
8 ounces softened cream cheese
2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
Beat cream cheese with confectioners sugar until blended. Fold in sour cream and blend. Makes 1 1/2 cups. Keep refrigerated.
"Stands the church clock at 10 to 3? And is there honey still for tea?"
- Rupert Brooke (British Literature)

5 comments:

Michelle said...

Denise, I just read this morning that you are going to be one of the speakers at Women of Worth (tea month). I do not have a hat but, maybe I can find one before then. I am so looking forward to listening to you. You are an encouragement to me and I love to draw from your knowledge!!!!! Thank you for being my friend! I am praying for you!

Denise said...

Thank you, Michelle, for your prayers and friendship. You, likewise are an encouragement to me! I appreciate your prayers for me and WOW.

Eileen said...

Denise thank you so much for your comment on my blog. Yes, I truly have been enjoying my grandsons. Though at the end of this month I will be able to enjoy them more. For we will be moving down here the week end of the 25th. I am going home from here Friday the 11th. Pack and back here again. Yes God has given me a rainbow for a reminder different times. I always love to see them I just wish that the picture on my blog would have showed up better. Thank you again and my God Bless each of you and yours in this NEW YEAR!

Eileen said...

Sorry it's me again I was wanting to comment on your tea set. It is beauriful. I like tea a lot too. I have never heard of Hot Tea Month before. Your favorit tea is one of my favorites too. I think that you would be fitting to speak at the WOW, though I have never met you, from what I have seen and read on your blogs you are just the one. May God's blessings be on you as you speak. Thanks again for sharing!

Karla Cook @ Roads to Everywhere said...

How fun! I will look forward to your Tuesday Teas! If I don't forget, I'll post a picture of my "tea set" next Tuesday in honor of your theme.

My mother brought me a china tea pot from England several years ago. It is a beautiful pot--white with violets. So I decided to collect "different but matching" cups and saucers to put with it. So far I have 3 different violet cup-and-saucer sets to "go with" my tea pot.