Happy Valentine's Day!

I prepared my tea cart to serve a cup of Valentine's Blend tea to you today.

With the tea, I'm serving these cookies:

 

I found the recipe for these raspberry shortbread cookies here.  I used a seedless raspberry preserve (just Palmers All Fruit that I happened to already have) and they were delicious.  I did include white chocolate shavings as called for in the recipe, but I couldn't really taste them, so I don't think it's necessary.  The only other thing I did was add a 1/2 tsp of almond extract to the cookies to give them a slight almond taste reminiscent of a linzer cookie.  The shortbread cookie recipe worked extremely well with the cookie cutters and wasn't overly sweet, which made it a perfect pair to the jam. 

 

I hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day!

St. Valentine's Day Countdown (1)

Today I'm sharing a scone recipe that, while still a bit of a work in progress, I thought would be a good choice for our theme this week.  But first, I thought I would share about my day...today is my birthday!  For my present I got a snow day :).  I love snow, but I will admit, today's load was a bit much for me.  Here is the view from my front door after I shoveled:

I went out on my back deck to get some of the snow off, and here is the view out back:

So, what did I decide to do on my day off (post-shoveling)--try a new recipe for scones!

I was snowed in, so I used ingredients I had in the house, which did not include cream, and cream scones are my go to scone recipe.  I found the recipe below (though the recipe includes my tweaks) which was cream free.  Overall the recipe turned out really well, except I couldn't get the bake temperature/time perfect.

Chocolate Chip Orange Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
heaping 1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, chilled
2 large eggs
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated orange zest
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips*

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in the butter until resembles course crumbs.  In a small bowl, stir together eggs, orange juice, vanilla extract, and orange zest.  Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine.  Flour hands and work in the chocolate chips and distribute evenly.

With lightly floured hands, take a portion of the batter.  Work flour into the batter until less sticky and able to use a floured cookie cutter.  Cut out with a heart shaped cutter (In my case, one of the ones from my post earlier this week!) and place on a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cook for 10 minutes at 400.**  Serve with cherry jam.

*I might use milk chocolate chips next time I bake these because the scones were not as sweet as I like, but I will admit the semi-sweet chips give them more of a dark chocolate taste.
**As I mentioned before, I had a hard time with the bake time.  The scones with the cutter were much smaller than the recipe called for, and the recipe cooked them at 425.  I think next time I might try at 375 for 14 minutes and see how that turns out.

St. Valentine's Day Countdown (2)

I have one other Valentine's Day themed tea that I will review today.  This is a tea by Harney and Sons, my favorite tea blender.  This tea is called, simply enough, Valentine's Blend.

Harney and Sons' website describes the tea as follows:

"The lore and legend of Valentine's Day has inspired generations to love. We thought the marriage of chocolate and roses might help that cause. China black is the base of this tea so the leaves are dark brown.  It is then blended with rosebuds.  The liquor is light brown.  A romantic combination of chocolate and rosebuds give this tea a unique sweet floral aroma."

This is one of the few chocolate teas I enjoy.  You can definitely taste chocolate, but it isn't overpowering or fake tasting.  I enjoy this tea with just a little sweetener, but with a bit of milk, it tastes a little like a guilt-free hot chocolate.

 



The tea has the faint fragrance of roses and chocolate, which gives the tea an air of romance.  The tea is served in my Old Country Roses (of course) tea cup and saucer by Royal Albert.

St. Valentine's Day Countdown (3)

Today I'm posting a picture of a new garden flag I found at Michael's:

 

If you are near a Michaels, the flags were on sale for 40% off!  I was very excited when I saw it, the Valentine's Day flag I had before was boring and needed to be replaced with a teapot flag!  They will probably go on sale even more soon since Valentine's Day is so close.

 



Here it is in front of my portico.  "May your cup overflow with love"!

St. Valentine's Day Countdown (4)

For today I'm going to review an herbal Valentines Day tea "for sweethearts."  This tea is from Republic of Tea and is called Raspberry Rose Hibiscus.

The website describes the tea as follows:

"Herb Tea for Sweethearts - Every day should be a celebration of love. Raise a cup of this romantic blend with a base of flavorful, healthy Nigerian hibiscus. Sweet, ripe raspberries and delicate rose petals add fruity and floral notes. Enjoy this caffeine-free blend with the ones you cherish."

It is a yummy tea with a nice raspberry taste with floral notes.  The tea is sweet with a slight twang of sour (it is raspberry), so I enjoyed it with a little bit of splenda, but I enjoy my teas on the sweet-side.  The tea is also a lovely (and very appropriate) red.

Because it is an herbal tea, it has been a great tea to unwind to at night this month.  The tea is in the round teabags typical to Republic of Tea.

I am showcasing the Sweethearts tea in my Lady Hamilton cup and saucer set by Royal Albert, which, as you can see, has hearts in the design and is red and gold with roses and other multi-colored flowers.  This is one of my favorite three piece sets (I also have a matching plate). 

St. Valentine's Day Countdown (5)

This week I thought I would go for a Valentine's Day theme.  For my first post, I want to share a Homegoods find from a couple of weeks ago:

I'm very excited to start using them!  I thought the one with the crinkly sides might be fun for a scone.  I already have plans for two other cookie cutters that might show up later this week :).  Can you tell what the shape at the top left of the box is?  Here is a hint--every shape in this set is of a heart.

Tea Samplings, Part 2-- Snow Geisha White Tea

Today I'm reviewing Teavana's Snow Geisha White Tea.  Teavana's website describes the tea as follows:

"Luscious Morello cherries plucked straight from the billowing, gorgeous Sakura tree characterize this Eastern treat. Sip this rare blend of delicate rose petals, soft white tea leaves, luscious cherries and candied cranberry that will take you on a sublime journey of the senses.

Light and refreshing cherry infusion with floral rose undertones"

This pictures shows the rose petals in the tea, including a small rose bud.  If you look really close, you can see a few tiny pieces of dried fruit.

 

It is a very nice floral white tea with an aftertaste of fruit, mostly cherries to my taste buds.  Even though it is called snow geisha, to me it tastes like spring flowers with a hint of new summer berries.  It is a beautiful color and the smell is a delicious perfume.

 

The tea cup displaying the Snow Geisha tea matches the images the tea gives me of spring and is a multi-colored floral Royal Grafton bone china cup and saucer set.  I found this set at the D.C Big Flea at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia last month at a booth with all non-tea stuff (mostly toys actually) for $5.00.  Now I just have to find a plate to match!