Tea Time Magazine and Beautiful Chintz

I just KNEW when I opened my mailbox and saw the July/August issue of TeaTime magazine that I'd love it. I love chintz and quickly flipped over to the article "A Summer Hat Tea Party" that the front page was taken from.  It is just lovely!  The chintz tea set is beautiful.  I enjoyed reading through the recipes as well--especially the summer hat peach pies (adorable) and the blueberry buckle.  I tried the blueberry buckle recipe this past week.  We enjoyed it for breakfast for two days (we liked it better cold).  It was not only easy but super yummy.  Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of it.  Just trust me....it was good.  Anyway, the magazine was a great issue.  I learned a lot about Darjeeling (very interesting), spoons (looking forward to the next feature on miniature and soup spoons), and found some ideas on tea party themes.  I made some scones for hubby's work from a previous issue of TeaTime (raspberry lemon scones).

They were a little involved to make and had rich ingredients but turned out really well and were very tasty.  I liked that the recipe used fresh raspberries and had a sugary lemon topping that was tart/sweet on the top and had pretty flicks of lemon zest.  I send them off with lemon curd.  Yum!  Check out their website http://www.teatimemagazine.com/ if you'd like to find out more information, get some free recipes, or perhaps order their bimonthly magazine (*credit* The picture at top is the front cover of TeaTime magazine and is their work and property.).

Fancy Sugar "Cubes" for Tea Tutorial

A tea is really fancy when there are many little, pretty details. Yes, sugar cubes are fancy--but these sugar "cubes" will make your tea more so, and let's face it, can a tea ever be too fancy? It is actually quite simple to make these pretties, and I know you will be pleased with your efforts.
For each sugar color, I used the following ingredients: 1) 1/2 cup of white sugar, 2) one drop of food coloring [Don't use more than one little drop of food coloring, or your colors will be too deep. Pastel colors are always more delicate and pretty for a tea.], and 3) 1 teaspoon of water.
Mix the water and coloring with the sugar thoroughly. The sugar will be damp. Press the sugar firmly into pretty, small-sized candy molds. Clean any excess sugar off around the tops of the molds so that sugars have no "furry" edges after they harden.
Allow to harden at least 12 hours in the molds. Wiggle the shapes a bit then pop them out of the molds onto a plate. They will have shrunk in size some and should come out easily. Let harden several hours more decorative shape up.
Put on a pretty plate or into a clear sugar bowl for your tea!

"Tea Time Tidbits" Special Posting #7

Well, today around 2:00 a thunderstorm was brewing outside, so I decided it was time to brew something inside--some tea, of course! I announced to the kids that we would be having a tea party, and a tea party we had! It was simple with black tea with milk and sugar and some Walker's petticoat shortbread cookies, but who needs something fancy to have a tea party? I was in the mood for my blue flowered teacup and saucer that I found in Canada the last time we were there. It is a rather modern company, but I love the old, chintz-like look that it has. For my son, well, I used the most "masculine" teacup I have--a Royal Albert design that has grapes scattered on it and says "Grapes" on the inside. I suppose now that he is getting older I really must find one with a hunting scene or fish or dogs or something. Then, though she's almost six, the smallest member of the family used the smallest teacup and saucer to match her little appetite, and one that is indeed her's. It is a petite, delicate, almost transparent teacup and saucer with an understated gold trim that comes from France. We each had two petticoat sections, and while it rained outside, we had a most enjoyable time!