My Cup of Tea (Countdown--2)

In today's post I'm sharing a recent find from Ross (which is not my normal haunt, but I went in there the right day!).

I really like getting tea themed dishtowels, and you can never have enough of them!  Between old ones wearing out and just needing a lot when you have a party (especially a tea party, because none of those dishes are going in my dishwasher!) I tend to buy them when I see good ones.

These are also fun to put out for Valentine's day, of course!

Oh, and don't forget about my giveaway here!

Roses, Strawberries, and White Chocolate (Countdown--3)

Rose scented strawberry white chocolate scones--it's a delicious mouthful in more ways than one! 

These are the same scones I served at my Valentine's tea party earlier this week.  I had a little trial and error figuring out the right amount of rose water (and I was determined to have roses in the scones to go with my theme), but I think the version below came out perfectly.  This scone worked pretty well with the cutter, so this is a pretty good base recipe if you want to cut your scones into shapes.

Rose scented strawberry white chocolate scones

 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter, chilled

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp rose water

1 cup white chocolate chips

4 oz dried strawberries chopped

 

Preheat oven to 375.

 

1.  In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut butter into 1/2 inch cubes and distribute them over the flour mixture.  With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 

 

2.  In a small bowl, stir together the cream, egg, vanilla, and rose water.  Add the cream mixture to the flour mixture and knead until combined.  Knead in the white chocolate and strawberries.

 

3.  On a lightly floured work surface, pat out the dough to a thickness of about 5/8 inch.  Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut the dough into hearts. 

 

4.  Brush tops of scones with cream (or egg) and sprinkle on valentine's sprinkles.

 

5.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until top is lightly browned.

 

And enjoy!

 

My giveaway is still going on here if you would like to check it out.

 



Valentine's Giveaway (Countdown--4)

My one year blog-iversary was actually a couple of weeks ago on January 26, but I didn't realize it until a couple of days later.  Since its been a year (now over!), I wanted to thank all of you that come and visit me with my first giveaway.  I thought this week would be a fun time to do it since it is the week of Valentine's Day and also my birthday week! 

I was trying to pick what teacup and saucer to use for the giveaway, and I thought this pink set would be perfect because, well, it's pink!  This set is made by Grace China and was a wonderful Homegoods find (if you've visited before, you probably know that I am completely addicted to that store).

To enter, just leave a comment for this post by February 13.  Make sure that you give me a way to contact you just in case.  I will draw a name for the winner this Saturday (Valentine's Day of course!) and post the name of the winner.  Good luck! 



A Valentine's cream tea (Countdown--5)

Welcome to a Valentine's cream tea!

 

 

Roses are red

but chocolates divine.

Scones and strawberries?

A Valentine's tea time!

 

Please pull up a chair and join me.  All five place settings are rose patterns, a veritable bouquet on the table:

 

(Royal Albert's English Rose)

 

(Royal Albert's New Country Roses)

(Paragon's Victoriana Rose)

(Royal Albert's Lavender Rose)

(Royal Chelsea, unnamed pattern with dark pink roses)

 

Here is a better look at the handpainted cranberry glass water goblets with pink flowers and gold accents:

 



 

I'm also serving a special tea in my Old Country Roses teapot, Harney & Sons' Valentine's Blend.

 

 

This is a chocolate tea with rose petals.  I really enjoy it with cream and sweetener--it tastes a bit like hot chocolate!

 

Speaking of cream and sugar, I have my newest creamer and sugar set on the table. 





 

I found this pink glass set at a local thrift store for 99 cents each!  I think it is MacBeth-Evans Co depression glass in the Wild Rose pattern (also called dogwood or apple blossom, I'm calling it Wild Rose to go with my rose theme for this tea).  In addition to this set, I also found 9 bowls in this pattern for $2.00 total! 



 

 

 

These bowls were perfect for serving strawberries and whipped cream!  I'm fascinated by depression glass, so this was an exciting find for me.  When I saw it in the store I thought it looked like a depression glass pattern I had seen on the internet, so I rushed home and looked it up.  I really think it is the real thing!  If it is Wild Rose, it was manufactured from 1929 to 1932.

 

A cream tea isn't complete without scones, so I made special ones to serve today on my Old Country Roses dinner plate (I like using my eclectic collection of bone china dinner plates to serve tea goodies).

 

These are rose scented strawberry white chocolate scones.  I'll share the recipe later this week if you would like try them for yourself.

 

 

I will be posting every day this week in a countdown to Valentine's day, and tomorrow I have a special surprise planned so I hope you check back in!

 

This week I'm joining:

 

Tea Cup Tuesday ~ http://www.marthasfavorites.com/
Tuesday Cuppa Tea~ http://www.antiquesandteacups.info/

Bernideen's Friends Sharing Tea

 

and Rose Chintz Cottage's Valentines Day Tea 

 



Travels in Houston, TX--Museum District

On my last full day in Houston, I also had time to take their lite rail system to the Museum District.  As you can tell by the name, this part of Houston was full of different kinds of art museums (from cultural, to modern, to fine art) as well as a zoo and a Museum of Natural Science.  There were also a few free parks, which were my first stops in this part of the city.

The biggest park in the Museum District is Hermann Park.

My favorite part of this park was the Japanese Garden with its beautiful pagoda:

(the ceiling)

Outside of the Japanese Garden was also a rose garden:

I ended up doing a lot of walking around this park as I was looking for the zoo.  I never did find it, but the Museum of Natural Science was nearby, so I decided to go there instead.

There were dinosaurs:

woolly mammoths

and a giant armadillo (I was in Texas!)

Also in this part of the museum was a display of petrified wood.  It looked just like a granite countertop!

One of my favorite exhibits showed different wildlife native to Texas, some of which I had no idea was even in Texas!.

(Dessert Bighorn Sheep & mountain lion)



(bobcat)

(buffalo)

(Pronghorn Antelope)

On the third floor of the Museum there was an exhibit on samurai:



and an exhibit on Egypt, including mummies!

My favorite part of the museum was probably walking through a large botanical garden while butterflies flittered around me.

All in all, it was a nice place to visit for a conference.  Other places in Texas would have more historical sights to see while Houston is more big city, but Houston does offer many opportunities to learn (and see) new things.

(Statute of Sam Houston, first president of Texas after it won independence from Mexico and before it joined the United States.  He was also an important figure in the annexation of Texas by the U.S.  Houston was named in honor of him)