Afternoon tea

Good Morning

Bjørn Baar

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Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea.

0000000000000000 Anonymous Author

Taking Tea Today

Washing Dishes: Emily and Her Tea Set, 1935

Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942)

As if I don't have anything else to do

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Found this on a blog today:
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Rules:
1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
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2 - Go to "Random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
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3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
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4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. Preferably in a square format layout, like a nice old-timey vinyl album cover.
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5 - Post it on your blog.

A tasty failure

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"The Suffrage Cook Book" has some interesting recipes. I thought the Grape Fruit Pies looked interesting — very similar to a lemon meringue pie, but not as sweet. I love grape fruit so yesterday I decided to make one. I stirred and stirred and stirred some more but the filling never thickened. After what seemed as en eternity I gave up and poured it into the shell and hoped it would miraculously thickened while I was beating the egg white. That gave the filling plenty of time to thicken as the egg white also refused to thicken! Finally I poured the gooey egg white over the not thickened pie and left it in the fridge. Several hours later it still was sloppy and I moved it to the freezer.It is delicious! If you like bitter marmalade I'm sure you'd like this pie, but I doubt that it is something for kids or people with a sweet tooth.
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Grape Fruit Pie
First bake a shell as for lemon pie, then make a filling as follows: Mix one tablespoon of cornstarch in a little cold water, and over this pour one cupful of boiling water. To this add the juice of two grapefruits, the grated rind and juice of one orange, the beaten yolks of two eggs, and the white of one, and a small piece of butter. Put all in the double boiler and cook until thick, stirring all the time. When done, put in the shell. Now beat up the white of the second egg with one-half a cupful of sugar until thick, and spread with a knife over the pie. Put in the oven and let brown lightly. Serve cold. This makes a delicious pie.
From "The Suffrage Cook Book", 1915, by L. O. Kleber

Afternoon tea

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"Nobody can teach you how to make the perfect cup of tea. It just happens over time. Wearing cashmere helps, of course".
00000000000000000000000000 Jill Dupleix
000000000000000000000000000 "Old Food"

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Tea. Dutch thee, Malay te, teh, Chinese dialect t'e (Amoy), for Mandarin ch'a whence Portuguese cha, Russian chaï, Persian Urdu chā (10 cent.), Arabic shay, Turkish chāy. The Dutch form has owing to Dutch traders being chief importers (16 cent.) from the far East, prevailed in most European languages. French thé, Italian té, Spanish te, German tee. Italian having also cià. The earlier English pronunciation was indifferently tay, tee (cf. see).
Storm in a tea-cup is 19 cent. for 17 cent. storm in a cream-bowl; cf. Latin fluctus in simpulo (ladle) excitare.
From "An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English" by Ernest Weekley

Taking Tea Today

Five O'Clock Tea

John Hanson Walker (1844-1933)

Afternoon tea

Wimsey gratefully took in the cosy sitting-room, with its little tables crowded with ornaments, its fire roaring behind a chaste canopy of velvet overmantel, and the silver tea-vessel winking upon the polished tray, "I feel like Ulysses, come to port after much storm and peril."
He bit gratefully into a large and buttery muffin.
00000000000000000000000Dorothy L. Sayers
00000000000000000000000000 "The Nine Tailors"

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Yes, I know that this is the wrong kind of muffin!

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STUDMUFFINS
12 large muffins

Combine
1 cup all-purpos flour
3 tbsp. raw sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup chopped dates
½ cup chopped nuts

In another bowl mix
1 egg
3 tbsp. oil
½ cup buttermilk
1 cup lingonberry jam
or cranberry jam

Topping
2 tbsp. muscovado sugar
2 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. rolled oats
¼ cup chopped nuts
2 tbsp. melted butter

Preheat oven to 400º F.
Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and fold until almost blended. Drop 1 tbsp of the batter in each cup, sprinkle some of the topping over the batter. Divide the rest of the batter among the cups. Sprinkle with the rest of the topping.
Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Taking Tea Today

Tea Room Tango

Julius Müller-Massdorf (1863-1933)

Afternoon tea

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And now the Vicar pulled up a chair to the little table in the kitchen window, spread with a check table-cloth, and wondered what his sister was going to say now. He was always wondering that, and with reason, for Miss Dean had a most amazing gift for finding things out if she wanted to.
"But this time I really think you ought to say something, Arnold," Miss Dean had also pulled up a chair and sat down and was occupied in pouring out tea. She always poured out tea in the same way, tipping the teapot backwards nd forwards so as to get the full strength of it.
000000000000000000000000000000 Pamela Wynne
0000000000000000000000000000000000 "The Doctor Decided"
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Cross Eyed Goose

Taking Tea Today

Tea in the Park

Edward Cucuel (1875-1954)

Dreams

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I close my eyes when I walk up our driveway, after picking up the mail, and pretend this is what I'll see when I open my eyes. The June view when the way is lined with lupines, the birds are singing and the wind is warm.
But this is what I see.
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Afternoon tea

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The best kind of rain, of course, is a cozy rain. This is the kind the anonymous medieval poet makes me remember, the rain that falls on a day when you'd just as soon stay in bed a little longer, write letters or read a good book by the fire, take early tea with hot scones and jam and look out the streaked window with complacency.
000000000000000000000Susan Allen Toth
000000000000000000000England For All Seasons


Afternoon Tea Scones
1/2 lb. flour, 1 teaspoonful baking powder, 2 do. sugar, 1 do. butter or "Nutter." One egg. Mix dry things. Rub in butter, beat egg, and add with as much milk as make nice dough--about 1 gill. Roll out 1/4 in. thick. Stamp out with small cutter or lid. Brush over with egg. Bake 10 minutes.
From "Reform Cookery Book"
Up-To-Date Health Cookery for the Twentieth Century. (1909)
By Mrs. Mill

Taking Tea Today

Afternoon Tea

François Brunery (1849-1906)

Afternoon tea

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Tea may be served as an accompaniment to meals or with small sandwiches, dainty cakes, or macaroons as an afternoon ceremony. If it is served with meals and is poured at the table, the hostess or the one pouring asks those to be served whether they desire sugar and cream and then uses these accompaniments accordingly. In the event that it is brought to the table poured, the sugar and cream are passed and those served may help themselves to what they desire. Lemon adds much to the flavor of tea and is liked by most persons. A dish of sliced lemon may be passed with the cream and sugar or placed where the hostess may add it to the tea. The Russians, who are inveterate tea drinkers, prepare this beverage by putting a slice of lemon in the cup and then pouring the hot tea over it. If this custom is followed, the lemons should be washed and sliced very thin and the seeds should be removed from the slices. The flavor may also be improved by sticking a few cloves in each slice of lemon; or, if the clove flavor is desired, several cloves may be put in the teapot when the tea is made.

From "Woman's Institute Library of Cookery", Volume 5
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

Pot Late Anglo-Saxon pott; cf. Dutch and Low German pot, Old Nors pottr, also in Celtic languages. Origin doubtful but possible a monkish witticism from Latin potus from drink. From cooking use come to keep the pot boiling, whence pot-boiler, work done for livelihood, pot-shot, for food, not for sport, pot-luck (cf. French la fortune du pot). From drinking use come pothouse, potboy, pot-valiant, etc.
From "An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English" by Ernest Weekley

Taking Tea Today

The Cup of Tea, c. 1880

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)

Afternoon tea

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Afternoon Tea

My copper kettle
whistles merrily
and signals that
it is time for tea.

The fine china cups
are filled with the brew.
There's lemon and sugar
and sweet cream, too.

But, best of all
there's friendship,
between you and me.
As we lovingly share
our afternoon tea.
00000 Marianna Arolin

Happy Thinking Day

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Those of you who have been scouts or Guides know what I mean. If you're curious about this day you can read more About Thinking Day here.

Taking Tea Today

An Afternoon Tea

Federico Andreotti (1847-1930)

Afternoon tea

FRUIT LAYER CAKE.
This is a delicious novelty in cake-making. Take one cup of sugar, half a cup of butter, one cup and a half of flour, half a cup of wine, one cup of raisins, two eggs and half a teaspoonful of soda; put these ingredients together with care; just as if it were a very rich cake; bake it in three layers and put frosting between—the frosting to be made of the whites of two eggs with enough powdered sugar to make it thick. The top of the cake may be frosted if you choose.

BERRY TEA-CAKES.
Nice little tea-cakes to be baked in muffin-rings are made of one cup of sugar, two eggs, one and a half cups of milk, one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, a piece of butter the size of an egg and flour sufficient to make a stiff batter. In this batter stir a pint bowl of fruit—any fresh are nice—or canned berries with the juice poured off. Serve while warm and they are a dainty addition to the tea-table. Eaten with butter.

From "The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) The Whole Comprising A Comprehensive Cyclopedia Of Information For The Home" by Mrs. F.L. Gillette

Taking Tea Today

Tea Time with Fuzzy

Michael Leu

Afternoon tea

Tea Time

Robert Hoglund

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Tea may help your bones

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You might assume that milk, with its calcium content, is the best drinkfor keeping your bones strong. But a new study, described for us by theTufts University team, reveals the benefits of tea-drinking for bonehealth. Researchers in Taiwan studied the tea-drinking habits of over1,000 healthy adults and also measured their bone density.Long-time tea drinkers - those who'd consumed it for six to ten years -had significantly greater bone density in the spine than those who'dconsumed tea for less than five years. And the tea drinkers had greaterbone density in the spine, hip and total body than those who did not drinktea. Interestingly, the type of tea consumed - green or black - wasn't afactor nor was the level of consumption. The number of years oftea-drinking was the key to improved bone density. So go ahead if youenjoy a cuppa - but don't forget that adequate calcium in your diet andregular weight-bearing exercise are both vital for keeping your bonesstrong throughout life.

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To read more about this research, click here.

Taking Tea Today

A Tea Party
Thomas Webster (1800 - 86)

Afternoon tea

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Listen! and hear the tea-kettle sing:
"Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!"
It matters not how hot the fire,
It only sends its voice up higher:
"Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!
Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!"

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Listen! and hear the tea-kettle sing:
"Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!"
As if 't were task of fret and toil
To bring cold water to a boil!
"Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!
Sing a-sing a-sing a-sing!"

Taking Tea Today

Tea Time
Jan Jozef Horemans II (1714-1790)

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During the second half of the century, as Brussels began to occupy centre stage alongside Antwerp, history painting as a form of official artistic expression also began to gain in importance. The middle-classes, however, retained their preference for portraits, still-lifes, landscapes and scenes from everyday life. Jan Jozef Horemans II was widely admired for charming scenes such as the Tea Time. Taking his cue from 17th century genre works, Horemans depicted pleasant scenes with a refined colour scheme. His works do not, however, show any sign of profundity or criticism. His father, Jan Jozef Horemans I (1682-1759) was also a genre painter.

Afternoon tea

The Tea-Gown
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Every one knows that a tea-gown is a hybrid between a wrapper and a ball dress. It has always a train and usually long flowing sleeves; is made of rather gorgeous materials and goes on easily, and its chief use is not for wear at the tea-table so much as for dinner alone with one's family.
It can, however, very properly be put on for tea, and if one is dining at home, kept on for dinner. Otherwise a lady is apt to take tea in whatever dress she had on for luncheon, and dress after tea for dinner.
One does not go out to dine in a tea-gown except in the house of a member of one's family or a most intimate friend. One would wear a tea-gown in one's own house in receiving a guest to whose house one would wear a dinner dress.
From "Etiquette", 1922, by Emily Post
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Read more about "La Belle Epoque" and tea gowns here.

Taking Tea Today

Teatime, 1918
Paul Michel Dupuy (1869-1949)

Afternoon tea

The Every-day Afternoon Tea Table

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The every-day afternoon tea table is familiar to everyone; there is not the slightest difference in its service whether in the tiny bandbox house of the newest bride, or in the drawing-room of Mrs. Worldly of Great Estates, except that in the little house the tray is brought in by a woman—often a picture in appearance and appointment—instead of a butler with one or two footmen in his wake. In either case a table is placed in front of the hostess. A tea-table is usually of the drop-leaf variety because it is more easily moved than a solid one. There are really no "correct" dimensions; any small table is suitable. It ought not to be so high that the hostess seems submerged behind it, nor so small as to be overhung by the tea tray and easily knocked over. It is usually between 24 and 26 inches wide and from 27 to 36 inches long, or it may be oval or oblong. A double-decked table that has its second deck above the main table is not good because the tea tray perched on the upper deck is neither graceful nor convenient. In proper serving, not only of tea but of cold drinks of all sorts, even where a quantity of bottles, pitchers and glasses need space, everything should be brought on a tray and not trundled in on a tea-wagon!
A cloth must always be first placed on the table, before putting down the tray. The tea cloth may be a yard, a yard and a half, or two yards square. It may barely cover the table, or it may hang half a yard over each edge. A yard and a quarter is the average size. A tea cloth can be colored, but the conventional one is of white linen, with little or much white needlework or lace, or both.
On this is put a tray big enough to hold everything except the plates of food. The tray may be a massive silver one that requires a footman with strong arms to lift it, or it may be of Sheffield or merely of effectively lacquered tin. In any case, on it should be: a kettle which ought to be already boiling, with a spirit lamp under it, an empty tea-pot, a caddy of tea, a tea strainer and slop bowl, cream pitcher and sugar bowl, and, on a glass dish, lemon in slices. A pile of cups and saucers and a stack of little tea plates, all to match, with a napkin (about 12 inches square, hemstitched or edged to match the tea cloth) folded on each of the plates, like the filling of a layer cake, complete the paraphernalia. Each plate is lifted off with its own napkin. Then on the tea-table, back of the tray, or on the shelves of a separate "curate," a stand made of three small shelves, each just big enough for one good-sized plate, are always two, usually three, varieties of cake and hot breads.

From "Etiquette", 1922, by Emily Post

Taking Tea Today

Tea Time, c. 1910
Robert Emil Stübner (1874 - 1931)

Afternoon tea

I've found more recipes where you are supposed to beat the dough vigorously. The other day an axe was recommended today the recipe mention a biscuit-beater. I've been searching the web for information regarding biscuit-beaters, but so far I haven't found any pictures. Answers.com gives this explanation though:

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A traditional Southern biscuit that dates back to the 1800s. Whereas most biscuits are soft and light, beaten biscuits are hard and crisp. The classic texture is obtained by beating the dough for 30 to 45 minutes until it becomes blistered, elastic and smooth. The beating may be done with a mallet, rolling pin, the flat side of a cleaver . . . Any heavy object that will pound the dough into submission. One can also use an old-fashioned beaten-biscuit machine, a contraption with wooden or metal rollers reminiscent of an old-time clothes wringer. The dough is passed through the rollers, which are operated by a hand crank. This method takes no less time but saves on the wear and tear of the baker. After the dough is beaten, it is rolled out, cut into small circles and pricked with the tines of a fork before being baked.

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BEATEN BISCUIT.—No. 1.
One quart of flour, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder sifted with the flour, a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a large heaping tablespoonful of butter, milk enough to make a stiff dough. Beat with a rolling pin or in a biscuit-beater for ten or fifteen minutes until the dough blisters. Roll out about half an inch thick or less, prick well with a fork and bake in a quick oven.

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Nobody who is running a home need to pay to get exercise. But if you don't think you need the hard workout here is a recipe that doesn't require muscles.

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LAPLANDS.
Half a pint of flour, half a pint of rich milk, a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, three eggs beaten separately and very light. Mix the flour, salt and milk together, then the yolks of eggs, and lastly the whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Have a gem pan very hot, butter well and fill with the batter and bake in a quick oven twelve to fifteen minutes. This quantity will make fourteen gems.

From: "The Golden Age Cook Book by ",1898, Henrietta Latham Dwight.

Taking Tea Today

Tea Time

Laura Logan

Laura has been kind enough to let me use her painting today.

Afternoon tea

"Tea is nought but this:

First you heat the water,

Then you make the tea.

Then you drink it properly.

That is all you need to know."

000000 Sen Rikyu,

000 Zen Tea Master, 1522-1591

Taking Tea Today

Ancient Chinese Tea Technology

A day in my life — part two

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It has been a lovely and sunny day — I love the fact that it still is light when we take tea at five.
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Life and I have on collision course lately — I haven't been feeling well and of top of that, life has poured unwanted things in my lap. So in an attempt to tell life who is in charge I've started, very slowly, to carry out things that I — not life — want to do.
If you've been here before you now that I love books — and that I have far too many. Keeping track of them is a problem, not to mention how to store them. I've been looking for a program to catalog them, but they are either too expensive and too complicated — or too simple. So a few nights ago it occurred to me that I could give my books a blog of their own (not public). It really works, at least for me, the question is how long it will take me to type in the information about thousands of books.
I started with English fiction and so far I've worked my way up to Huxely. I give each author a post of her/his own. I add links, information I might have about how I got the book and sometimes what I think about it. Here are a few examples:
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I label each post with the authors name so when I go to "Edit Posts" I can see (and click on) all the authors. If I only remember the title I type it, or one word from it, in the "search blog box". I think it will work.

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click to enlarge
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The book by Ruth Cobb (above) is the book I came to think of when I found "Highways and Byways in Surrey" by Eric Parker this morning. I have been looking for information about Ruth Cobb without success. She seems to have illustrated children’s books — but I find nothing about her. There is another Ruth Cobb, a watercolorist, but she is American and I believe this Ruth Cobb is British.
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So typing titles into my new blog is what have occupied me this afternoon. When I needed a break I moved books to my new bookcase. Some of you might remember that I made a bookcase for my summerhouse in September. I have been looking at our "last" wall here, for a while, wondering if I could do something similar. So some days ago I went on a hunt for something I could use for a bookcase. I found some board, not planed but I figured that it won't show once I get the books up.
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Afternoon tea

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Some days ago I tried the Fruit Cookies from "The Cookery Blue Book", I wrote about last Sunday. Since cookies lasts forever (or until they walk out by themselves) in our family, I divided everything by two, which gave me 12 hearts.
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½ cup raw sugar
85 g butter
1 egg
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup raisin & mixed fruit
1 tbsp orange juice
1¾ cup flour
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp allspice
¼ tsp cloves
½ tsp cardamom
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I made rather stiff dough and filled my heart shaped tins with the dough. Baked them for about 15 minutes in 200°C. If you like spices you can double the spices without problems.

A day in my life — part one

Time again for “A day in my life”.

The last one, Jenny said yesterday.

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It would have been nice to stay in bed this cold morning — but once I had the fire burning it was great to listen to the radio and checking out Gutenberg. Even if there were no finds today it is always nice to look at the books.
There were some interesting books though, like Pictorial Photographers of America. Three books from 1920 to 1922 with a mixture of very good and not so good photos.

Bookplate by Alfred Cohn, Brooklyn, N.Y.

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Another interesting books was "Highways and Byways in Surrey" by Eric Parker with illustrations by Hugh Thomson. The book was written in 1908, I'd love to visit Surrey today with the book in hand to look for all the places described. I probably would be disappointed so it might be just as well that I can't go.
This book reminded me very much of a book my mother and I looked at yesterday — more about that later today.

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Godalming

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I was also happy to find quite a few books by Oliver Wendell Holmes. I borrowed his "Over the Teacups" some years ago (not much about tea, if somebody thought that) but this is a book to go back to — which I'm able to do now.

Taking Tea Today

The Tea Cup

Harold Gilman (1876 - 1919)

Afternoon tea

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Whole-Wheat Puffs.—Put the yolk of an egg into a basin, and beat the white in a separate dish to a stiff froth. Add to the yolk, one half a cupful of rather thin sweet cream and one cupful of skim milk. Beat the egg, cream, and milk together until perfectly mingled and foamy with air bubbles; then add, gradually, beating well at the same time, one pint of wheat berry flour. Continue the beating vigorously and without interruption for eight or ten minutes; then stir in, lightly, the white of the egg. Do not beat again after the white of the egg is added, but turn at once into heated, shallow irons, and bake for an hour in a moderately quick oven. If properly made and carefully baked, these puffs will be of a fine, even texture throughout, and as light as bread raised by fermentation.
From ""Science in the Kitchen", 1893, by Mrs. E. E. Kellogg

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Ten minutes might not sound much — but to beat something vigorously and without interruption for ten minutes is something that, I'm sure, was left for the maid. As we all know the working class could beat anything for hours without getting tired. What a blessing today's electric equipments are!
Have you ever wondered how slow a slow oven is or how to know when the oven is hot? You get the answer in "Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Management", 1916, published by the Ministry of Education.

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2. Kinds of ovens:
(1) Slow.

(2) Moderate—white paper browns in ten minutes.

(3) Hot—white paper browns in five minutes.

(4) Very hot—white paper browns in one minute.

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3. Rules for baking:
(1) Heat the oven according to the recipe.

(2) Put the food in the oven, usually on the lower shelf, to get an under heat first, then toward the last of the cooking, set it on the top shelf to brown.

(3) Watch carefully during the baking, but in opening the oven door, be gentle and quick.

(4) If the oven gets too hot, set a pan of cold water in it, or leave the door slightly open. If browning too quickly, cover the surface with brown paper.

(5) Cook the food according to the time required by the recipe, or until it is done, as shown by some test.