Meatless Monday: Purple Potatoes and Quinoa Oatmeal

Purple Potatoes

The DH grew these potatoes.  We didn't know they were purple until he pulled them out of the ground.  They were a volunteer plant that he rescued.  What a great surprise!  They remain purple when cooked, the color a little softer.  And I just LOVE this photo from a style perspective, the color and detail of the potato, his hand, the fabric texture.  Love it.

Oatmeal with quinoa and huckleberries

And here is a recent breakfast - oatmeal blended with quinoa and topped with huckleberries.

Sending Off Summer

I drink tea by my mood and by the season, and I currently find myself sending off my"summer greens" in a farewell (above) and moving into oolongs that are a little darker.

And I'm appreciating this tea set with the little dudes on it drinking tea.  :-)

To Autumn

William Blake (from Poetical Sketches, 1783)

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain’d With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest, And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe, And all the daughters of the year shall dance! Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers. “The narrow bud opens her beauties to The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins; Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve, Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing, And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head. “The spirits of the air live in the smells Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.” Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat, Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

Sharing My Passion

What I love doing - talking about (and drinking) tea!

On Sunday, I had the privilege of sharing tea information and stories with guests of the Tea's Me tearoom in Hillsboro, OR.  Such a fun afternoon!  The biggest compliment was when one kind woman said, "I loved hearing you talk about your passion."  Yes,  tea is my passion!  

Teapots ready to steep loose-leaf tea

Special thanks to the kind attendee who took some of these photos for me!

Then pivoting into yesterday, my work team joined me at the Japanese Garden for a team building event.  We enjoyed a garden tour and my sensei from Issoan Tea School provided a demonstration tea ceremony.  We then served each guest a handmade sweet and a bowl of tea.  I think my team had a fun time.

Kikyo - Balloon flower sweet

Can you guess which one is me?  ;-)

Two really fun-filled and diverse tea days!

Blooming Succulent and Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Snap for winning my Giveaway of a Global Tea Hut package!  It will be on its way soon!  Woohoo!

These images are of a succulent (hen and chick) that's been blooming for a long time this summer. It's happy on the front balcony.  Such a cool plant with amazing flowers.

Meatless Monday: A Late Summer Picnic

All packed up and ready to go!

The weather has been so nice lately, and with our abundance of garden tomatoes...a picnic was in order!

Our neighborhood has several lovely places to sit and snack. I liked this one for the view of the roses and the large grass lawn. The angled sunlight of this time of year is beautiful and golden.

Garden tomato and basil with fresh mozzarella on baguette, one of my favorites

Lemonade with huckleberries

How are you making the most of these late summer/early autumn hours?

GIVEAWAY and Wu-Wo Video

Hi, Everyone!  I'm so pleased to share with you a video of my beloved Wu-Wo tea ceremony.  My friends are in the video and I'm the narrator.  Enjoy!  To celebrate, I'm also hosting a giveaway.  See below.

Click here to watch the video!

GIVEAWAY!  The folks at Global Tea Hut have generously provided me with an extra package to share as a blog giveaway.  (Tea Sage Hut, which I've visited in Taiwan, is the home base for GTH.) The package includes the color magazine, a tea sample and a gift.  It's a very exciting and generous offer!

To be entered into the drawing, leave a comment in this post + one other on my blog. Your pick!  I will announce the winner on Thursday, September 18th.  Good luck!  

Otsukimi, Moon Viewing

Otsukimi is the annual moon viewing festival, celebrated generally on the full moon in September (it's based on a very old calendar system, so this can occasionally fall in October).  I am so lucky to live near the Japanese Garden in Portland!  The Garden hosts a special moon viewing event for three nights.  It's a rare opportunity to be in the garden after dark.

I was honored to be able to help my senpai (Sr. Students) with the tea ceremony demonstrations last evening at the tea house in the garden. We did three rounds.  During the first round, I was a guest and got to enjoy a delicious bowl of tea and the sweet shown below.  During the second round, I made tea.  Here are some photos from the garden and the tea house.

The tea garden, lanterns lit

Special seasonal sweet, named kikuyu, a fall grass that many of us know as balloon flower

Tokonoma with scroll that invites us to stop and listen to the wind in the pine

Flowers

Utensils

Join Me at Tea's Me - Hillsboro, Oregon

My family at Tea's Me

Please Join Us! 

Sunday, September 21st

Tea's Me in Hillsboro, Oregon

2 pm

Afternoon Tea

Tea 101 Class

$25 (cash or check)

RSVP to (503) 547-8617

I'm delighted to be partnering with Julie of the Tea's Me to offer a Tea 101 class. Julie will provide a delicious afternoon tea menu and of course a pot of tea! I will discuss the history of tea (fascinating and scandalous!), types of tea and photos from around the world, tips for brewing, a bit of etiquette and my forecast for tea's future. Please join me!

Bat Brew

I was brewing some tea with friends in a park last evening, in a quiet clearing circled by tall pine trees.  It was dusk and the light was fading. (The mosquitoes were making themselves known.)  My fellow tea fanatics and I heard this rustling noise above us and spotted bats flying overhead.  Soon, we could hear their clicking sounds (they were using "echo location") and an occasional squeak. It was so cool!  After about 5-10 minutes of this other-worldly show, they disappeared.  As my DH recently said, "Nature participates."  Yes, and in very cool ways!

The photo above is of the brewing session.  We're drinking a tea from Global Tea Hut.  It's a "Kingfisher Jade" - Tsiu Yu - hybrid that was developed in Taiwan, one of the "Three Daughters of Taiwan." I liked it very much. It's a lighter oolong, on the greener side but not without some depth.

Chai Blossom - Really Good Tea Mocktail

This tea mockatil is really, really good!  It's perfectly refreshing on a hot day, and the warming spices will help it transfer well into the fall and winter, too.  The recipe comes from Bon Appetit.  I made the following variations:

• I used loose leaf tea with chai spices
• I used fresh lemon juice (because I had it from the lemon twist), but I think lime juice would be great 
• I used 1/4 cup sugar instead of 1/2 cup; I like tart drinks and I found it to be the perfect amount for me

I can think of so many variations!  I think grapefruit or blood orange would be interesting near the winter solstice.  If you like citrus and you like chai, you'll love this!

Summer Flash

Summer is starting to give way to fall here and it's promising very nice weather this long weekend!  Sunshine and mid-to-upper 70's. I think of this as summer going out with a flash of glory as fall nudges it along.  I'm drinking a Japanese green tea in these photos, feeling a sense of urgency to drink up my "summer teas".  Of course I can (and do) drink this in the winter, and yet it's more what I crave when the sun shines long. 

While my tea is green and fresh, the colors of these photos suggest a fall scene. These transitional periods are very interesting times.  I find them full of energy and opportunity.

What teas are your drinking as we make our way from one season to the next?

Passion Fruit and Coconut Curds

Coconut and Passion Fruit curds

From West Coast to East Coast, these curds connect me to special tea friends.  The passion fruit curd began as a conversation between two mutual tea friends.  One had a  vine full of the exotic fruit.  The other wished she could grow her own to make passion fruit curd.  Alas, she didn't have the climate for it.  Very soon thereafter, a box of fresh passion fruit (just picked from the California garden!) arrived East of the Mississippi.  Wow!  The longed for passion fruit curd became a reality.

I had a chance to visit the maker of the passion fruit curd recently and it was spectacular!  She has also been experimenting with coconut curd and I tell you, it's also stellar.  Some of each came to my house. I've been eating these (regularly) with a hearty cookie.  Literally finger-licking good!  Also wonderful with scones, of course.  Thank you to both of my friends for sharing this bounty with me.  XOXO!

Sunshine on the Water

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely, sunshine almost always makes me high.

~John Denver

(Now we'll be singing that song all day!)

Thinking of my family today and the happy times we spent recently at the ocean where we took these photos.  

"Chief Encouragement Officer" - Thoughts on Marriage

The DH and I enjoyed a few quiet moments together, sharing an herbal tea, as part of our anniversary celebration

The DH (dear hubby) and I recently celebrated 18 years of being married.  It feels good, really good.  I know you're thinking, "Why, Steph you must have been married at 14!"  Not quite that young, but as grown up as I thought I was at the time, I had so much to learn.  It's a serious thing to be an adult living in a committed, conscious relationship with another human.  The DH and I still have our challenges.  But they're much fewer and more preventable now,  if we each stay conscious about our own "stuff".

We've worked hard at making our marriage good and that includes seeking outside help for enrichment and for managing the tough times.  One of the most valuable lessons I've learned is that what my partner needs most from me, and me from him is to be each other's "Chief Encouragement Officer."  He doesn't want or need me to be his mother.  Nor should I be.  I've learned over time that's not my job.  Instead, it sure feels good to have a life partner on my side to believe in me and cheer me on through it all.  That's what he wants from me, too.  We sometimes disagree or need to hold one another accountable.  But for our marriage to work at its best, the ratio of encouragement/praise/thanks/celebration/support/dreaming far outweighs the complaints and dissatisfaction.  And here's the real secret - it's up to me.  Where do I put my focus*?

If you've been in a long-term relationship, what is your #1 tip for going the distance?

*Please note - I'm not suggesting we overlook destructive behaviors.  

Sanctuary

From one of my favorite authors, Alexandra Stoddard:

"The 'art of tea' is a spiritual force for us to share."

and

"If we could make our house a home, and then make it a sanctuary, I think we could truly find paradise on Earth."

My Brew This Morning

I have a mix of folks who read this blog...first, of course, there's Mom and other family and friends.  :-)  Then there are people who enjoy Afternoon Tea.  In addition,  some readers  are interested in Chinese or Japanese style tea.  And then there are the "all of the above" readers.  I try to write about a mix of topics, to hit on something interesting for everybody now and again.  

Today's article is for those of you who are interested in dipping your teapot in the water of "small pot" or "gong fu" style brewing.  I wanted to show how easy it is to get started. This is how I brewed this morning. (Here's another similar posting.)  I'm brewing an Alishan tea (a high mountain oolong, very aromatic).  I pre-warmed this small little porcelain pot in a bowl and poured out the liquid into the bowl so that the pot could sit in the bath and stay warm while it brewed.  The towel is used to blot the bottom of the teapot before I pour.  I'm not using a serving pot here (also called a "fairness pot") because I'm pouring straight into my cup.  That's it!

And then again, there's always more. A few tips:
* This style of brewing uses a lot more tea and less water (in proportion) than a typical large teapot.  That means the steeping happens fast and you'll want to pour off quickly.  I typically pour off the first brew between 30 seconds and 1 minute, depending on the tea.

* These little pots each have their own pouring quirks.  Play around until you know how to minimize drips.  And keep a towel handy.  Drips happen.

* For a starter pot, I suggest glass or porcelain.  That way, you can use it with a variety of teas.  

* In the brewing style above, I will generate a fair bit of water in my small bowl quickly and need to dump it into the sink or a larger container.

* Be sure to look at the leaf - both dry and wet.  And smell the tea.  These things will enhance your enjoyment.  

* Try to brew in this style when you can focus on the experience.

* Just Go For It!  The spirit of gong fu brewing is to practice,  learn and improve.

What other questions do you have or what other tips would you give?

Hello Kitty Chabako (Traveling Tea Box)

My friend is serving a bowl of matcha which she has made using her Hello Kitty chabako set

I recently spent a glorious Oregon summer afternoon in the company of a tea friend and fellow chanoyu student.  She is my senpai (senior student) and invited me for a hike and tea.  Well, that's perfection!  

Me, in the Tree House

We decided to wear yukata, casual summer kimono.  The sun was out, there was a light breeze, we were in nature and on our way to have tea.  I was definitely in my happy place!  We hiked in the Hoyt Arboretum to the Tree House.  It's a small grove of trees that form a canopy over a secret hideaway.  There we settled.  We began with a  picnic of tea eggs and onigiri (sticky rice balls) with roasted barley herbal tea.

Onigiri

Then it was time for the tea (matcha) and sweets! My friend brought her fun chabako set.  A chabako is a portable, lidded box that contains the necessary equipment for making tea - bowl, tea container, scoop, whisk, sweets container, etc.  All you need is a thermos and you can host a traveling tea ceremony!

This wasn't any ordinary chabako set (not that any are really ordinary).  This set was brought to life by my artistic friend who put her skills to good use! She used Hello Kitty as her theme then made and re-purposed items in creative ways to make a whimsical and yet functional chabako set!

My friend and the basket that held the thermos and chabako box

This natsume was originally a toy from a vending machine!

Setting things out to make tea

Whisking tea

The Hello Kitty chawan, tea bowl

There are so many details that I'm leaving out, yet I hope you can get the idea of how clever this chabako kit was and how lovely of an afternoon!  It is an experience that I am still savoring.