Simple Pleasures of Tea offers wonderful ways to enjoy a range of teas both herbal and black along with easy recipes for delicious baked treats such as almond cookies, pumpkin bread, scones, and red velvet cake to accompany your teatime. With stories, quotations, recipes, and suggestions, this book will help even the busiest of us find repose and relief in a steaming cup of tea. Learn how to make tea naturally brewed by the sun, mull a cinnamon and nutmeg cider to coax yourself through the autumn months, discover herbal infusions for your health, create a morning ritual with tea to give all your days the peaceful beginnings they deserve. Drink, eat, and pamper yourself to your heart's content. And discover other creative uses for tea giving your plants a cup of tea for nourishment, for example, or treating yourself to a steaming tea facial. Susannah Seton is the author of Simple Pleasures of the Home , Simple Pleasures of the Garden , Simple Pleasures for the Holidays , and coauthor of Simple Pleasures: Soothing Suggestions and Small Comforts for Living Well YearRound . She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and daughter. SIMPLE PLEASURES of Tea By Susannah Seton Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC Copyright © 2004 Conari Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-57324-217-2 CHAPTER 1 "Tea, thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable drink ..."—Colley Cibber On cold winter nights, nothing beats curling up in front ofthe fireplace with a cup of hot tea and a good book. Themug warms my hands; the delicious liquid warms my insidesgoing down. My personal favorite is Earl Gray. I love that flowery,mysterious flavor—but no milk and sugar for me. I like minestraight. Recently, though, I have been drinking herbal teas—besidethe fact that they are caffeine-free, they have all kinds ofhealth benefits. I like to make my own. It's easy—as long as youdon't combine different herbs. Just stick to one herb at a time(professionals call them simples). There's something about makingthe simple and then drinking it later that feels like a bit of a homeyritual to me. Herbal Tea Infusions for your health can be found on pageseighteen through twenty. Simple Pleasures of Tea offers recipesfor a range of teas (herbal and black), along witheasy recipes for delicious baked treats to accompanyyour teatime, alone or with company. Thereare also ways in here you'd never imagine to usetea—giving your plants a cup of tea for nourishment,for example, and treating yourself to asteaming tea facial. Drink, eat, and pamper yourselfto your heart's content. * * * We lift our tea cup—of course it is of the finestold India or Chinese porcelain (egg shellpreferred)—to our lips. Rest—PeaceAmbrosia! We are at one with the gods.They of Olympus with nectar and dampclouds have nothing on us with our sparklingfire and tea inspiring and recreating us. —Alice Foote McDougall SUN TEA Sun tea is great because it has a mellower flavor than brewed tea.Drop four teabags in a quart pitcher of water (the pitcher must beglass). Cover to keep out bugs and put the pitcher outside in the fullsun. After a couple of hours, when the sun is really hot and you aretoo, remove the teabags. Add ice and serve. For a variation, use a peach fruit tea. When the tea is ready, cut upa chilled peach into bite-sized pieces and add to the tea. Serve immediatelyfor a one-of-a-kind refresher." * * * Is it so small a thingto have enjoy'd the sun,To have lived light in the spring,To have loved, to have thought, to have done?" —Matthew Arnold STUFFED BAKED PEACHES 10 fresh peaches, pitted and halved 1 egg yolk 7 tablespoons butter, softened 1 cup of crushed Amaretto di Saronno cookies Remove one spoonful of peach flesh from each peach and puree; setaside. Cream 6 tablespoons of butter in a bowl, stirring in egg yolk,peach puree, and crushed cookies until well combined. Fill each peachhalf with a generously rounded scoop of the mixture. Place the peach halves, open side up, in a large glass casserolewith the remaining tablespoon of butter, and bake in a preheatedoven at 375° for 5–7 minutes or until cookie mixture is lightly browned.Serve peaches at room temperature with crème fraîche or ice cream.Serves 10. GIVE YOUR PLANTS A CUP OF TEA Don't throw leftover herbal tea away—use it to water yourhouseplants. But be sure it is caffeine free; plants like teaas long as it is "unleaded." * * * Green fingers are the extensions of a verdant heart. —Russell Page SUREFIRE RHUBARB - STRAWBERRY CRISP Summer is the time for this treat. 3 cups rhubarb, sliced 2 cups strawberries, whole or sliced juice from one lemon 1 stick butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup flour Preheat oven to 400°. Combine rhubarb, strawberries, and lemonjuice in a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. In a medium bowl, combine thebutter, sugar, and flour until crumbly and then spread over rhubarbmixture. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until crisp is bubbly andtop browned. Serves 6. SIMPL