Monday, January 29, 2018

Tuesday Cuppa Tea Purple Color Of The Year Teacup Chocolate Bananas Foster Shortcake

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea...the last for January...

I usually don't pay attention to colors of the year...because I am pretty one-eyed with color...

I like any color as long as it's blue...

But I remembered this teacup when I saw that one of Pantone's colors of the year for 2018 was Ultra Violet...

so I am featuring this purple or mulberry transferware cup and saucer...

The pattern is called Italian Scenery and I love the embossed shape in a creamware that is so tactile and with a wonderful nature scene with deer inside the cup.

There aren't a whole lot of patterns with deer on them, but I have always enjoyed deer...and lost a lot of flowers to them...so that attracted me.

Transferware is always a favorite, but I tend to gravitate to blue or red. But the purple is quite fun. The color is also called mulberry, and is one of the 3 least seen colors of transferware, the others being turquoise and yellow.

The pattern was made into the 1940s. The maker, Adams & Sons, had a long history. The Adams family was associated with some of the first Staffordshire potteries in the 1860s, and William Adams started in 1770, then became W Adams & Sons as subsequent generations entered the business.

W. Adams ceased as an independent entity in 1960 when acquired by Wedgwood in the Great Slice & Dice as I call it when so many potteries were swallowed up, but Wedgwood continued some use of the name.

With Wedgwood's subsequent further mergers with WWRD...Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton who were then, in turn acquired by Fiskars in 2015 it's anybody's guess what happens now...

Some transferware pigments at the Gladstone Pottery Museum

So...maybe you have some purple around? I haven't had it much...this last teacup was a favorite purple Occupied Japan teacup from my archives...

And now for a tea treat... I made this and was going to photograph it, but we had a storm related power outage, so by the time the power was on and I had good light...it was gone!

But I found this photo on the website I got the recipe.

Bananas Foster Chocolate Shortcake...is what I call it... is from CookingLight.com

Chocolate Shortcakes with Bananas and Caramel

Ingredients

PreparationShortcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup fat-free buttermilk
Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 teaspoon butter
1 cup frozen reduced-calorie whipped topping, thawed
1/8 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
2 medium bananas, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about 2 cups)

Preheat oven to 375°.
To prepare the shortcakes, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Cut in 1/4 cup butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk; stir just until moist. Knead lightly in bowl 5 to 6 times. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; pat dough into an 8-inch circle on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cut dough into 8 wedges, cutting into, but not through, dough. Bake at 375° for 18 minutes or until just firm to the touch. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack. Place shortcake on a cutting board or work surface; cut along score lines with a serrated knife to form 8 wedges.
To prepare filling, combine 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; stir gently just until sugar dissolves. Cook, without stirring, until pale golden (about 4 minutes), gently swirling pan if needed to cook sugar evenly. Remove from heat; add cream and 1 teaspoon butter, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Cool 5 minutes.
Place whipped topping and 1/8 teaspoon cocoa in a medium bowl; fold just until combined. Split shortcakes in half horizontally using a serrated knife. Arrange about 1/4 cup bananas over bottom half of each shortcake; top each serving with about 1 teaspoon caramel sauce, about 2 tablespoons whipped topping mixture, and top of shortcake. Drizzle 1/2 teaspoon caramel sauce over top of each shortcake.
Shortcake Tips:
When mixing the dough for shortcakes, use a light hand and work quickly for the most tender cakes. If the recipe calls for kneading the dough, knead lightly only a few times so the dough doesn't become overworked.
Use a serrated knife to split the shortcakes. It will cut through the cakes without crumbling them.
You can bake the shortcakes up to a day ahead. Cool completely, and store at room temperature in a large zip-top plastic bag. To reheat, wrap in foil and heat at 350° for 10 minutes.
To freeze shortcakes, cool them completely, place in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag, and freeze up to two months. Thaw at room temperature, then reheat as instructed above.

Thanks for joining me for Tuesday Cuppa Tea! So glad we have power again...

I will be joining...

Tea Cup Tuesday
Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Share Your Cup

Here is the Tuesday Cuppa Tea linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! I am so looking forward to visiting you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Friday, January 26, 2018

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Published 206 Years Ago January 28th

Just wanted to mention that on January 28th in 1812, 206 years ago, Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice was published...

It is my favorite of her books, I think...and it has spun off so many books...

I just finished reading this ebook, Love Letters From Mr. Darcy by Dawn King and did enjoy it...

I also love this great tea themed Jane Austen tea book by Kim Wilson...perfect for Jane Austen and tea history fans...whoever they might be.....Lol!

I just got out the book to share a quote...and there are very many memorable ones from Jane Austen. The book has all sorts of great information about Jane and tea related quotes taken from her novels. There are also teatime recipes and little snippets of tea lore. All together a fun book.

"I am sorry to hear that there has been a rise in tea. I do not mean to pay Twining till later in the day, when we may order a fresh supply."

from a letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra, 6 March 1814

from page 30 of Tea With Jane Austen

There was also mention of this Wedgwood dinner set...image from Sotheby's...which was bought by Jane's prosperous brother Edward, adopted as heir to the Knight family and subsequently heir to a tidy inheritance...and Jane shopped for this Wedgwood teaset with her brother, which she mentions in a letter to her sister Cassandra....the pattern is a small lozenge in purple with the Knight family crest and was on loan from the Knight family and on display at the Jane Austen House Museum until December 2010, when the cash strapped family had to sell it at auction. I couldn't find the buyer or final sell price, but I hope it went to a loving home and will appear again some day.

Also, which I have blogged about before, Jane Austen's ring, descended through the family, finally went on display in the UK on February 14th, 2014...

After it had been bought at auction by US singer Kelly Clarkson for £152,450 in 2012. BUT...the UK ruled that English had to be given the opportunity to keep the national treasure from leaving the UK, which was done through donations. Enough was raised to secure it for the Jane Austen's House Museum in Hampshire where it now resides.

You can purchase a reproduction if you want from the museum...

Jane Austen Jewelry

Have a lovely day! I am off for a cup of tea and a re-read of Pride And Prejudice!

And join me on Monday for Tuesday Cuppa Tea!

Monday, January 22, 2018

Tuesday Cuppa Tea Ochs! Scottish Tea For Robert Burns

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea... this week a celebration of Robert Burns, whose birthday is January 25th!

Happy Birthday to Robert Burns!

I love this poem of his:

Then let us pray that come what may

As come it will for a' that...

That man to man the world o'er,

Shall brothers be for a'that.

Robert Burns was born January 25, 1759 and lived until only 1796 and is revered as one of the most famous poets of all time, and certainly the most revered Scottish poet and song writer. He is called one of the founders of the Romantic era and also as a social reformer. His works were both lyrical, romantic and full of social and political plain spoken opinions.

A modern view of Edinburgh that Robert Burns would recognize, having changed little...although no longer "Auld Reekie" from the open drains and coal fog that fouled the air during his time...

This is a Burns Tea in the sunroom... with 2 friends from 2017...Scotties from a Scottish tea towel I have...

The heather is from the yard, and the Burns cottage photo in the silver frame from a visit a few years ago...

I managed to find 2 teacups with a Scottish Heather theme... this first one is by Paragon and is called Highland Queen.

The pattern was named for, and bears the royal warrant for Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mum, wife of King George VI and mother of the current Queen Elizabeth II, who has Scottish roots.

The queen grew up at the Bowes-Lyons home of Glamis Castle by Dundee Scotland...

Paragon finally went out of production in 1992 after various mergers ending with the WWRD partnership, when it was discontinued.

This teacup is by Rosina and has a wonderful pattern of different Heathers tied with tartan ribbons...it isn't named. The cup and saucer dates to the 1950s and has the wonderful brushed gold that is seldom done anymore...

Rosina quietly was dropped in the late 1960s by Queen's China who owns the name. Queen's is still in production in a much smaller way than before, but is not using Rosina....this teacup sold last year....

Thistles, Heather and a good luck hoseshoes on the tea towel...

An English hallmarked for 1959-1960 sterling silver coffee spoon with a Scottish Thistle enamel finial by Mappin & Webb, Birmingham...

And a Shelley, England crested souvenir jam jar made as a souvenir of the Western coast of Scotland seaside town of Largs from the 1930s.

But what's for tea??? Scottish Shortbread, of course! Small problem...my shortbread pan is a Colonial Williamsburg reproduction I had been wanting to use, as I hadn't for ages...

This year I managed to catch a few minutes of sun between wind gusts and power outages this week for a small Scottish addition...

I gathered some Heather again, but after such a cold January so far, only our white is blossoming so far, as it blooms earlier than the pink and purple.

And my teacup besides the Paragon Highland Queen teacup, I have a Royal Stafford MacDonald Tartan teacup...

The teacup was made in the 1960s and was part of a series called the Tartan Series that included teacups with designs from many of the Scottish clans...

Royal Stafford was a trade name of Thos Poole and was used from 1951-1980, passed into Maddock who then stopped manufacturing fine bone china awent to hotel and restaurant ware in 1990. Very sad, as they made beautiful bone china items.

I have Taylor's Scottish Breakfast tea today...a nice, strong black tea with an nice flavor....

And my companion for tea today is a tartan Scottie dog tea cozy from Ulster Weavers...so cute!

Ulster is an Irish company, but it's Celtic anyway!

This is Lemon-Vanilla Shortbread from Tea Time magazine, which I shared a few weeks ago at this link HERE,

but here is the recipe I made above in my shortbread mold...from the book and cookbook I have Afternoon Tea by Michael Smith from 1986,

as I couldn't find my grandmother's one I usually make, but this is very similar! I used a lonely Shelley Dainty Thistle saucer for a tea plate...and even with baking spray they didn't come out of the pan well...sigh... The recipe is at the bottom of the post.

Robert Burns birthday is celebrated all over with Burns Night, where whiskey flows and haggis is eaten and generally both the poet and Scots ancestry is celebrated.

There are huge Scottish clubs and societies all over the world where this is celebrated, and everyone is asked to wear Tartan. An example of an invitation:

The evening will usually start with the singing or saying of what is called the Selkirk Grace, attributed to Robert Burns:

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it;

But we hae meat, and we can eat,

Ans sae let the Lord be thankit.

I have used a Victorian era handmade linen tablecloth made in the 1890s in England with a filet crocheted border with the Selkirk Grace in crochet... I hope you can see it, as it was hard to photograph...

It just fits my little tea table. I picked it up in England several years ago, and it is one of my treasures!

A traditional Burns supper...or party...or tea, has several essential ingredients. Basically those are "neeps and tatties" or turnips and potatoes, a "wee dram" of whiskey....which is where some of the all male celebrations get a bit rowdy, and last but not least, Scotland's national dish...haggis! Haggis is a sheep's intestines stuffed with...okay, you don't want to know. I tried it, and DIDN'T like it!

Part of the dinner is the Address To The Haggis attributed to Robert Burns which is very long...I guess you need a few wee drams to appreciate it... after it is bagpiped into the room with much ceremony and toasting... Here is a sample:

Address to a Haggis

Fair and full is your honest, jolly face,

Great chieftain of the sausage race!

Above them all you take your place,

Stomach, tripe, or intestines:

Well are you worthy of a grace

As long as my arm.

You powers, who make mankind your care,

And dish them out their bill of fare,

Old Scotland wants no watery stuff,

That splashes in small wooden dishes;

But if you wish her grateful prayer,

Give her [Scotland] a Haggis!

Walnut Shortbread

The pastry is soft and must be handled with care. I made mine in a food processor, my first, a gift from our daughter for Christmas...so much easier!

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups flour

1 cup finely crushed walnuts (I prefer Pecans actually)

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

generous 1/2 cup confectioner's (powdered sugar)

2 small egg yolks..or egg substitute

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Sift the flour and crushed nuts together into a bowl. Make a well in the center. Mix the softened butter to a paste with the sugar and egg yolks and place in the well. Gradually draw the flour into the center and mix into the butter forming a soft dough. Roll out on a floured board approximately 1/8 inch thick and cut into 2 inch squares, and transfer carefully to baking pan.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 16-20 shortbread biscuits. There are not too sweet, perfect with a cup of tea.

The Burns Night celebration evening is of course ended with Robert Burns famous song For Auld Lang Syne, preferably to the sound of bagpipes. Much fun and good food is enjoyed. Sometimes even Burns teas are given, by those not overly fond of the whiskey...that would include me!

My friends and I thank you for joining me for tea! I will be joining: