Earl Grey Shortbread Bites.

Just a warning. These aren't healthy...

I am fascinated by using earl grey tea to bake tasty treats. These shortbread bites are not only simple to make, but wonderfully yummy. Like, melt in your mouth yummy. I got the idea from a book I found in mom's collection, "Simply Homemade Food Gifts." In the book, these little cuties are made with colorful sprinkles folded in. I thought it would be fun to try to make them with tea instead (since, you know, I adore tea). They turned out wonderfully, and I'd definitely suggest you give them a try if you are in need of a very quick treat!

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbs sugar (I used raw sugar and it worked fine)
1/2 cup butter
2 bags earl grey tea (I used Twinings)

Mix flour, sugar, and butter together until it becomes crumbly. You will probably want to use some type of mixer for this. Add the earl grey tea (make sure it isn't a "full leaf" variety--you want something with very small bits of tea), stir, and form the mixture into a ball. Knead it well, then roll or flatten it onto a cookie sheet. This is tricky... or at least, it was for me. I ended up doing this in small chunks, as I had a really difficult time getting the dough to stick together and not crumble. Cut this into squares (approximately 1/2 inch to an inch), and separate squares onto the cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for 12 to 14 minutes. Mine baked closer to 12 minutes.


Let cool. These will keep for several days in an airtight container, or you could freeze them for later!

Shopping, a lemonade recipe, and the purge.

 Yesterday, I went on a shopping trip with my father and Mark (happy Father's Day, by the way!). It wasn't the type of shopping trip I'd go on with my mom. Instead, we went to Strawberry Fields (a natural food store with great selection and not-so-great prices), Am-Ko (an Asian food store--highly authentic and awesome prices), and World Harvest (a store with tons of food from around the world, as well as gourmet and unusual foods). If you are ever in the Champaign, IL area, all of these stores are located very close to the U of I campus, and are definitely worth checking out.

At World Harvest, I got these "If You Care" gloves--just to check them out. I love wearing gloves while cleaning and washing dishes, and these gloves seemed like a pretty awesome investment. They are fair trade, ethically-sourced, and biodegradable. All of that sounded pretty great to me. They seem to be of very good quality, which is great, because they were five dollars. I like to spend my money well.

Unfortunately, they are bright green, which doesn't exactly match my kitchen!

Also purchased yesterday:
- Peanut oil
- Textured vegetable protein
- Arrowroot powder
- seaweed sheets (for making sushi!)
- washcloths
- rice noodles
- soba noodles
- and more!

Overall, it was a great shopping trip, and a wonderful way to spend a Saturday. And did I mention that we went to the Golden Wok Thai/Chinese Restaurant, too? We got vegetables and tofu. Yum.

Let's see. I've been doing some other interesting stuff lately, right? Oh, right, I made some delicious lemonade the other day. The old fashioned way, of course. Here's the recipe I used from the book, Back to Basics:

1 quart water

4 lemons

1 cup raw sugar (I used a little less)

First, juice the lemons. Then, put the peels on a bowl, and cover with the raw sugar. I only did these with half of the peels, because I used to other half to infuse vinegar. Let sit for 30 minutes, then pour one quart of boiling water over the sugar and peels. Let cool. Combine with lemon juice. Taste, and water down as necessary. I probably added at least a cup and a half of water, because it was so sweet. But either way, it is absolutely delicious.

Now, for the purge.

I really don't wear makeup often. Mostly because it's expensive (I won't buy products that have been tested on animals, which is difficult and guilt-inducing, because many of the products within these products have been tested), and adds a lot of time to my morning routine. Still, I own a lot of makeup that has been gathered through the years (pretty gross, now that I think about it). Same with hair supplies. Having been no-'poo for almost seven weeks now, I have not been using any products (hairspray, mousse, etc.) whatsoever. And lotions, creams, powders, etc. with gross ingredients just freak me out. It's time to purge. In favor of more natural alternatives (I've been looking up homemade versions of these things!), I am attempting to rid myself of most of these products. The problem I'm facing is, what on earth do I do with all these stuff? I'll let you know how it turns out...

Blueberry Pie.

My favorite fruit? Blueberries. Unquestionably. I love blueberry everything. It should come as no surprise, then, that my favorite kind of pie is blueberry. Maybe it screams summer to some, but I will gladly eat it any time. In fact, I made it for my family last Christmas. As usual, it was delicious. Here is my recipe. I've experimented with several recipes to find what really works for me. I got my original recipe from Fine Cooking magazine, so I'll go ahead and say this is loosely based on their recipe.

(Sorry this isn't the most glorious picture. I promise it tastes delicious.)

You'll need:

- 2 pie crusts (Go ahead and admit it, you'd rather buy pie crusts than make them)
- 4.5 cups of blueberries (honestly, I just use frozen ones half the time and thaw them out slightly)
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 tbs brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- pinch of cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg white, for the crust

Procedure:

I make my pies by combining all the filling (so, everything but the egg white) in a sealable container, then shaking it up. Some people just kind of layer it in the pie. I have no experience with that, so I can only speak for my own way, which I do because Mom has always done it this way! With that in mind, assemble your filling and dump it into the bottom crust, which should of course be lining the pie dish. Next, I "paint" around the edge of the crust with the egg white. I prefer lattice crusts, and I'd like to think it really is quite simple to do. Basically, I just cut the other crust into strips using a pizza cutter, and I weave them in and out. After this is done, I "paint" the entire lattice with the egg white, and sprinkle sugar on it. This part is completely optional. I just think it's tasty. Bake it at 375 degrees, checking every thirty minutes or so. In the end, for about an hour and thirty minutes. Now, I like to wrap the edges of my crust with foil after about the first twenty minutes to keep them from burning. Let me know if anyone has any better solutions!

Enjoy your pie!

Valentine's Day Inspiration: Muffins

 For Valentine's Day this year, I was a little busy spending time with Mark. We fried up some tofu and had a wonderful (and spicy) meal. Maybe I'll post the recipe for it at some point. But for now, here is some Valentine's Day fun, although a little belated.

 I love Earl Grey tea. And I love muffins. And I love making cards. All of these things combine into one sweet little idea: Earl Grey muffins and muffin cup cards. Save this one for years to come! Notice anything similar about the heart on the card and the muffin cups? Yep, I used a muffin cup to make a card. I cut a heart out of it and glued it into some red cardstock. Fun and cheap, right?

 Now, as for the inside of the card, it's lined with some light grey (think Earl Grey) cardstock, and a cute skinny heart is placed right in the center. Just for some added love.

 I highly recommend serving these with a cute heart-shaped bit of butter to keep the Valentine's Day spirit coming all day long. Speaking of these muffins, here's the recipe:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 Earl Grey tea bag (I used Tazo full leaf and crushed it up so that the pieces would be manageable)
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
2 eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla

Combine the sugar and butter, add the egg. Add flour and ear grey tea. Add everything else. Mix. Bake at 350 for about 24 minutes.

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day!