We said Au Revoir to Babette!

We said Au Revoir, to Babette

Because Babette, had to get to her next destination in Modesto, we had a simple, but beautiful "goodbye" party for her.

My friends Marsha, and Tricia, came to bid her "Adieu," 

by having a Tea together,

 in her honor. 

A good time was had by all, as we had much catching up to do.

And as you can see below, all of the dishes I set the table with, were in blue, to match Babette's dress. 

I thought she would appreciate that, and she did.

And then, quick as she came.......Babette, was off to California, and new adventures with her current host.

 

We had fun, while she was here with us.

Joyce

 

P.S. Please, forgive me for taking so long to post this. I had to leave the State for a few weeks, and I lost some of my photos of this Tea party. Trust me, I had a lot more to share.

 Life is always full of unexpected events, but it's still all good.

 

 

 

Bonjour!

Bonjour!

 Hello, from me, and Babette.

 It's been a busy month here in Baton Rouge. 

I can't tell you everything we've been up to. 

But I can tell you that she, and I have become fast friends, 

and 

we have been all over the place.

This, that I am about to post about, may not seem like it pertains to tea. 
And it doesn't really. 
But it does pertain to "Louisiana," and Babette wanted me to share this with you. 
She was adamant about it in fact. 
Because it seems she loves this State so much. 

She said "it reminds her of all things French."

Hummm.....

Recently though, Babette, traveled with my husband, and I, to a typical

 Louisiana Crawfish boil. 

She was SO excited. 

She jumped in right away, and got herself into all the preparations. 

She was quite the ham actually. 

Babette, was the star of the day it seemed.

"And good for her!"
I thought to myself.

Why shouldn't she be happy? 

She's been traveling all over the United States. She can do whatever she wants.

Yet, she tells me she feels quite "at home," here in Baton Rouge.

And we are happy to host her.

Once we arrived back home......Tea was served. 

Because you really don't do Tea, at a Crawfish boil.

Not unless it's Sweet Tea.

And Babette, being the fancy French lady that she is,

 "was not going to have anything to do with that," 

she told me.

So, we enjoyed a lovely cup of tea at my house, before she settled in for the night. 

However, I forgot to snap a photo of that taking place. 

Which was fine with Babette.

She was already in the mood to relax, and didn't want to bother to pose.

I understand that.

 For now though,

 She asked me to tell you,

"Bone Nuiet!"

Babette, and I, will be back again soon, with more updates.

Babette has arrived!

She has arrived and is already ready for a journey! She's informed me that her name is to be "Babette." Which I though was unusual......but she said it with a firm French accent. So who am I to argue with her? 

I am sure that things will reveal to me from her in this next month. It's a busy month for me for many various reasons, but Babette, has assured me she is up for the madness.

 We discussed the month of her stay the other night over a lovely cup of French tea from the Laudree in Paris. She choose the tea. She said divulged to me that has been before, and likes it there. Interesting. Because I didn't question her as to if she'd been to Paris, or to the Laudree. Or both? 

Today we are preparing to head across the Mississippi River on an adventure in the countryside of Louisiana. I will write more on this later. But for now I must prepare myself, and Madame Babette for the journey. 
For now we must say "Au Revoir." 
We will come back another time and catch up. 
Xxxx

 

Hanging with the Easter Bunny

This last weekend in Toledo was lots of fun--it's Easter!  

I love sitting by a wicker chair, enjoying tulips, and nibbling on chocolate.

I got to hop around with colorful Easter decorations.

More sweet treats, and a beautiful Easter tree.

Hostess loves her animated Easter furry & feathered friends.

Easter dinner over, guests all gone, and finally getting to relaxing over 

a soothing cup of tea in Grandmother's Staffordshire Tonquin teacup 

with my dapper bunny friend.  

And I did earn my Tea Snob Certificate!  I've tasted so many new teas with each place 

I've travelled.  I feel like quite an experienced tea snob now!

Well, I'll be moseying along and soon travelling on to my next destination.  

I'll be seeing you again soon.

Ta-Ta for now!

Tea with a Few Friends

I've been enjoying tea with some friends at Elaine's Tea Shoppe.  

More and more guys like me are having tea these days, and when Dr. Marvin Scheer and his friend came in, I just had to join them. (Tea with another Doctor, although not Dr. Who!)  These gents enjoy tea, treats, and a chat regularly and it was fun to hang out with them for the afternoon. This day it was cinnamon apricot scones and gluten free chocolate chip shortbread cookies. 

Then one day Elaine's long time customer and friend, Karen, came in for tea and a chat.  There's certainly a lot of tea and chatting going on there!  Elaine often keeps company with regulars who come in for tea, and sometimes the shop feels like the Cheers of tea.  

Then, I got to join in for our Black Tea Tasting.  It's part of a three part series, and when one attends all three tastings:  one on Black Tea, one on Green Tea, and one on Whites and Oolong, they become a certified "Tea Snob".  I am hoping to become an official tea snob after the last tea tasting next week.  

In this class, we tasted all the basic black teas side by side, which really helps in understanding the difference between the teas.  We examined the leaf and learned how to properly prepare each one.  We all wondered what the mystery tea was, under the cup at the end.  Can you guess?  It was Lapsang Soughing!  Boy is that tea smokey, and so, hostess keeps it covered so it won't taint the other teas.  I have to say, it was one of my favorites, as well as the final tea-- Golden Monkey --always the best for last.  

I got to pour all the teas for the tasting, which was great fun!  We tasted Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling, Yunnan, Sikkim, Ching Wo, and the two listed above.  Wow, I'd certainly had my fill of tea by the end of the day, but it was fun and I learned a lot!

Looking for more adventures next week, and maybe some fun with the Easter bunny this weekend.  I'll show you my Tea Snob certificate when I've earned it.

Ta-Ta for now!

That's What Friends are For!

That's What Friends are For!

My sister, who made this teapot-shaped scrapbook, calls them the Tea Coven. This is a group of friends who have been gathering for tea since 1993 or so. When I wrote my book, "Come to Tea!" they're the ones I practiced on. We would dress up in Victorian garb and have picnic teas at Victorian historical sites. They've been very indulgent over the years! And while we've been through a lot of life since then, for most of us our original point of contact was Doctor Who. Julie and I went to college together and Kathleen and Steff met in secretarial school, but the group coalesced around a love of the longest-running "children's" program on the BBC.

Doctor Who celebrated 50 years on TV in 2013 and I hosted a viewing party at the time, but I knew I had to host a proper Whovian tea to welcome this particular Traveling Teapot!

For the tea table, I started with the lovely exploding TARDIS fabric that arrived with the Teapot, and used my Blue Willow cups and saucers along with plain white plates. That lemon curd in the foreground has just a hint of ginger in it and was homemade by a friend. And that's clotted cream next to the homemade blackberry jam. We also used the Dalek creamer and TARDIS sugar that now travel with the Teapot.

The Traveling Teapot was filled several times with Cream Earl Grey. For my decaf drinkers, I offered Bromley decaf black tea. We enjoyed a variety of tea sandwiches including chicken salad and cucumber, Cream Scones (fresh from the oven) and that cake in the background is Emily Dickinson's Coconut cake (a recipe that's been featured on Tori Avery's website). Ms. Dickinson and I share a birthday so I was drawn to the recipe. It was quite good with tea since it's a bot on the dry side, but it was lovely with a bit of lemon curd!

So here we all are, hats and scarves and all. Who would have imagined that something so random as attending a Doctor Who meeting would have been the seed that grew our friendships?



Cheryl@TeaTimeTutorial

Lunching at The Pandorica

Lunching at The Pandorica

Once upon a time, there was a lovely little tea room in Beacon, New York called "The Cup & Saucer Restaurant & Tea Room" (it's still listed on Adagio Tea's TeaMap as such). It offered lunch and afternoon tea and was very popular until the neighborhood changed. Owner Shirley Hot said that with the influx of hipsters to the area, her tea room wasn't doing as well. She realized she had to re-invent her restaurant before "progress" took its toll. One day, after binge watching Doctor Who, she noticed that the bathroom door looked remarkably like the front of the TARDIS. Shirley said she knew nothing about hipsters but she, being British, knew about the Doctor and so two years ago, the Cup & Saucer morphed into the Pandorica.

Shirley's gamble paid off, because Old School and New School Whovians have found their way to the Pandorica. The Traveling Teapot and I took advantage of a lovely sunny day and drove down to Beacon to visit the Pandorica. The restaurant offers lots of traditional British food--I had delicious Bangers & Mash for lunch--and much of it has a Whovian theme as you can see from the menu. Of course, if you're going to have a Doctor Who lunch, you need to have a Doctor Who dessert and I just had to have Fish Fingers and Custard!

The Pandorica has two different kinds of Fish Fingers and Custard: the appetizer is really fish sticks and she really serves it with custard because patrons complained that the lemon aioli she originally serve them with wasn't custard! The second type, seen here, is actually french toast fingers with custard and was very yummy.

While the Traveling Teapot just got to sightsee this time, I'm sure it felt at home with all the Whovian touches and Shirley says she has one, too. Naturally, I had to enjoy some tea with my "fish fingers." and tried the house Darjeeling which was very nice indeed.

The Pandorica tea list includes something for every taste including Rose Chocolate (black tea), Who Sencha (green tea) and Rooibos Colada. Shirley is starting to blend her own line of Whovian teas which will eventually be available online. When I told her about our group, she immediately went to Facebook and asked to join!

The Traveling Teapot will finally get to be the star of the show next week when I host my friends. She'll be glad it's just been vacationing so far!

Cheers!

Cheryl@teatimetutorial.com

Team Darjeeling

Lots More Teapot Friends

Not much happening as hostess recovers from the flu.  But, she did get out a bit and took me to Elaine's Tea Shoppe to hang out with some more teapot friends.

 

This is the Tea Cottage.  All those tins are filled with tea for service in the tea room with Elaine's homemade scones or her baker Beth's fabulous shortbreads.  Let's see... which tea shall I enjoy today?

 

OMG!  Look at all the teapot friends lined up on display on this shelf.  They let me lead the pack today.  These are Elaine's favorite collection of pots, those she just can't part with.  There are gifts from friends, her mother's teapot, her grandmother's, and some very unusual characters.  I feel right at home!



And here are more of the collection, but these are now for sale.  That's me on the top, not for sale, but just meeting the gang.  There was another whole shelf of teapots on the opposite wall of the shop, which almost came down one day since the neighboring business had hammered on the walls enough to make the mounting screws come out of the wall.  That was a panic!  But with the help of a customer, all teapots were saved before the shelf fell--thank heavens! 

This is the blue display in the shop, and so, I seem to fit right in here! 

So many new friends that will eventually find their way to someone's home for that special tea time.  I wonder where they will all go...

 

Just waiting for hostess to get back in the full swing of things, and then we will meet some lovely people enjoying tea.

And, of course, I'll serve.



One Last Trip to Downton Abbey

Team Darjeeling

One Last Trip to Downton Abbey

The TARDIS  has landed in upstate New York safe and sound! She paused for just a moment and then Vorrrped off to 1925 Yorkshire to visit some old friends at Downton Abbey.

Cousin Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton) knew the 9th and 10th Doctors when she portrayed the Prime Minister of England, Harriet Jones.

Lord Robert Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) made the 11th Doctor walk the plank as pirate Henry Avery!

And that artsy Simon Bricker (Richard Grant) relentlessly hounded the 11th Doctor as Dr. Simeon, aka The Great Intelligence.




When the TARDIS returns to 2016, she'll be celebrating the last episode of Downton Abbey with some lovely Namring Estate second flush Darjeeling from Upton Tea Imports on Sunday evening. Are you planning a viewing party?

---Cheryl

My Almost-Tea with Grandsons

Team Darjeeling

My Almost-Tea with Grandsons

For my last experience with the Traveling TARDIS, I'd made plans to visit my grandsons in Sacramento for a tea and Doctor Who sharing.  We'd been trying to find a date the entire month so now it was set! The boys are 9 and almost 12yo and great Dr Who fans.

So up at 6am to shop for ingredients for vegan foods, baked Cranberry Orange vegan scones, and was packing the bag of dishes, treats and supplies- when I got the text at 8am, cancelling!  My son works from home, had a big video to do that afternoon and the computer died, kaput.  He needed to shop for  a new computer and get it up and running for the project- no time for a tea party.  As we all know, life intervenes- or my new favorite- 'We make plans and God laughs'.

We were all so disappointed, but then, inspired by Martha's virtual tea party earlier this month, I suggested we talk on the phone about Doctor Who memories and favorites, I'd share a picture or two of what I'd planned, and then we can get together again in few weeks, minus the Traveling TARDIS.  And that's what this is about- my Almost-Tea with my grandsons.

The TARDIS is serving Roasted Almond Fruit tisane into vintage blue mugs, with pure cane sugar cubes if desired.  The vegan savories are almond butter and lettuce sandwiches(vegan bread of course, not so easy to find in a grocery store!), Spicy Coconut Tofu Strips and Teriyaki Tofu Sushi from a local company Tofu Yu, which I know the boys love.  They are quite tasty, even I must say.

The place setting is decorated with Dalek napkins (from the Gentlemen's Tea table), a Doctor Who Exhibition coaster (more on that in a bit) and a small tin of Adagio FandemBlends Dalek tea, another inspiration from Martha.  The scones were tasty if a bit dough-y, but very appealing-looking.

Our sharing on Dr Who memories and favorites was good fun.  My son remembers staying up late  on Saturday nights with dad, sharing a big bowl of popcorn with parmesan cheese and tabasco sauce, and watching Doctor Who on a local PBS station.  That would have been the era of the 4th and 5th Doctors, Tom Baker and Peter Davison. The grandsons' favorite doctors were the 10th Doctor for his spiky hair and the 11th Doctor because he wears a red bow tie and fez.  The 12yo has a good friend who has "all the Doctor Who episodes on DVDs!" 

I shared going to the Doctor Who Exhibition in 1995 with my husband, their grandpa.  We were driving along a small country road in rural Wales and saw a hand drawn sign for a Doctor Who exhibit!  Being on an adventure and huge Doctor Who fans, we swung off into the small town and visited the museum.  There were dusty old Dalek models, Cybermen models and other pieces from the show- all very hokey by 1995 standards but so FUN!!  Of course there was a store and we bought everything we thought we could carry home.  I've given some to each of the boys and all I could find now were these coasters.  This is such a wonderful memory of my time with a very silly and quirky guy- it brings a huge smile to my face.

And so ends my time with the Traveling Tardis.  It has been great fun sharing tea and wonderful Doctor Who memories and events this month.  A highlight for me was the Gentlemen's Tea and my Whovian breakfast with Martha.  She is such an inspiration in her research, creativity and culinary skills, not to mention a wonderful host in her home.  Thank you, Martha!

Colleen

Back in Ohio! Frogtown?

Team Oolong

 

Tardis Teapot has arrived safely back in Ohio and will reside with me, Elaine, for awhile.  I will admit that I know absolutely nothing about Dr. Who, so I'll just let Tardis tell you of his travels, adventures, and encounters over the next month.

Well, I have arrived again, and I believe I've been to this state before.  But I have greeted this new hostess, and will have a bit of a look around this new home.  This looks like a sunny breezeway, and I can tell already hostess loves tea.  Look at that teapot birdfeeder ready to go outside as soon as weather breaks.

 

I arrived with lovely gifts from Martha, my last hostess.  Boy!  Did we have fun!

She sent chocolate and candy and lovely cards and a beautiful silver teapot magnet. 

Ooh, ooh, ooh, hostess just opened another of the gifts to find a very cool tea tin with a picture of me on it and a wonderful smelling tea from Adagio.  I think that will be our first pot of tea later tonight!  

 

So, let's see who else lives here...

There's a beeeeuutiful teapot and cup of Staffordshire transferware in the colored Tonquin pattern.  Hostess tells me that was her grandmother's china and remembers many Christmas and Easter dinners on that china.

 

A bit of Asian flair here with a bamboo handled earthenware pot with a lizard on the lid.  Along side is another bamboo handled contemporary square design set.  In the background is hostess and hubby on their trip to Sri Lanka to visit tea estates, and to the left is one of the interesting friends they met along the way.  On the right is a pear shaped tea caddy.  Looks old with ivory inlay at the keyhole, but she will probably have to take it to Antiques Roadshow to see if it's real or a replica. 

 

Wow!  I love the company here!  Another Asian inspired pot with two different but coordinating teacups made by a local artist of some notoriety.  And, of course, what's not to like in a bowl of stone and wooden shaped hearts.

 

My favorite companion might be this old English stoneware pot with metal cozy painted with an exotic orchid on front.  Man, it has character, just like me!  Hostess says she owns Wild Orchid Teas, so, I'm guessing that it's one of her favorites, too.

And, I think I'm going to be quite comfortable here in Toledo, aka, T-Town, Glass City (the glass capital of the world), and Frog Town (as it was once part of the Black Swamp).

See you again soon!  xoxo, Tardis



Little Girls' First Tea Party

Team Darjeeling

Little Girls' First Tea Party

Years ago when my youngest granddaughter was 3 (she's now 19yo), I started sharing teatime with her- a pot of Earl Grey tea, her favorite, making her cup with a little tea and a lot of milk and sugar. As she got older, we'd go to Afternoon Tea at tearooms around the Bay Area and discuss the food, the tea- what was good and not so good.  We'd talk about school, friends, family and it all created a very special bond between us.  She's now away at college and I miss her and those times. 

Earlier this week I hosted a small tea luncheon party for my dearest neighbor girls and their mothers. Holly is 5yo and Caitlin is 3yo and they are cute as can be, full of curiosity and energy and very friendly.  Neither of them had "gone to tea" before so they were very excited, and I certainly thought it's time to introduce them to this wonderful experience.  Neither of their moms had "gone to tea" either, so it was new for everyone.  They were welcomed at the door by Godzilla and a special teapot sign.

For the table I mixed  the themes of blue TARDIS with Valentines and my Rose chintz dishes, which were a gift from my husband many years ago.

We started the meal with Eve Hill's Kensington Palace scones served with whipped butter and homemade Strawberry and Lime jam (a gift from Holly's mother, jam-maker extraordinaire!).  The girls were drinking a tisane served in the traveling TARDIS teapot, Roasted Almond Fruit, from my friend Roberta's shop Experience Tea.  (These mothers would never have approved of caffeine tea and milk and sugar!) This tea is so delicious hot or iced- it's now my take-to-work cold drink. We grownups drank a lovely Kenya Hand Rolled black tea from Robertson Tea- light but complex in flavor, somewhat reminding me of Yunnan Golden Bud.  

I'd worried about savories, sandwiches- what to fix for little girls still in picky-eater ages?  Martha helped by suggesting sandwiches with sprinkles, and I thought- everyone likes bacon and eggs, so the menu developed from there.  

Our savory course included teapot-shaped peanut butter and chocolate sprinkles sandwiches, egg and bacon tarts and turkey roll-ups with cheddar cheese and apricot jam.  The teapot sandwiches were of course a big hit (chocolate sprinkles!), but the others, while appreciated by the moms, were only nibbled by the girls.  Oh well, thankfully none of us had high expectations around them eating.

The sweeties included Salted Caramel chocolate cupcakes (my favorite Farmer's Market baker), Jammie Rodgers cookies, a gift from Martha, and homemade lemon bars.  As expected, these were a much bigger hit with the girls and their moms all around.

The girls were by then antsy in their seats, so left the table to play with toys in the toy chest and run around in the living room.  They did have to be reminded on manners a few times, "please", "may I leave the table" (they are little girls after all), but they and their moms were wonderful guests and we had a great time.  We all enjoyed sitting at the special table, eating special food- as I heard one of the moms say to her daughter.

Now I'm planning to invite them over for tea and books.  I completely forgot to read one of my children's tea books!