Tea

I usually wouldn't recommend spending money on high-end tea. When I have, I haven't noticed a marked difference from cheaper teas. For example, Trader Joe's has some great teas at reasonable prices. You could easily spend an order of magnitude more on tea and not notice a difference.

I'm about to blog about an exception to that rule.

Stuart gave me a very cool teapot for Christmas (Or, as we call it in our homosexual liberal household, "Homo Happy Holidmas."). It's a Bodum assam teapress. With it, he gave me two loose teas from The Tea Stop. The first is China Spring Blossom Pekoe, a green tea with mellow sweet notes. The second, Formosa Tung Ting Jade, is an Oolong with just the slightest tang. They are both really, really good and even blend well together (Yeah, that's heresy, but too bad, it's my tea now.).

The teapress looks like this:

(picture from TheTeaStop.com)

Ten Foods

I came across this list of 10 foods that are supposed to be good for me. So far I've added cinnamon, goji berries, and pumpkin seeds. The berries aren't so tasty, so I throw them in oatmeal or salads. The Swiss chard, beets, and cabbage are probably my next additions. I already like them, I just don't have them too often. I'm so unscientifically a sucker for this stuff.

Burger

A big, big hunk of meat.

Making Mice

It looks fun. You could make hamsters if you used stemless cherries. The author could have used some of yesterday's photo tips for the macro photography though.

And... I'm a little leery of eating something from a site called "Black Widow Bakery" that contains a "Here Lies Your Mom" birthday cake. :)

Seriously though, this baker's work looks tasty.

Recipes

This site has recipes for the indifferent. I love it. A sampling:

One Pot Chicken with Rice.

1 can clear chicken broth
1 can (chicken broth can) water
1 can frozen or canned whole kernal corn
1 can (chicken broth can) diced chicken
1 can (chicken broth can) long grain white rice
Heat chicken broth, water and corn to near boiling.
Add rice and chicken, stir, cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
Stir and season to taste with salt, curry, ginger, garlic or whatever.

Yoga Living?

I found this list at a yoga website. A sampling:

7. When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead-no white mess on the outside of the cake.

8. If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato-it absorbs the excess salt for an instant "fix me up."

9. Brush beaten egg white over pie crust before baking to yield a beautiful glossy finish.

10. Place a slice of apple in hardened brown sugar to soften it back up.

11. When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn's natural sweetness. (ah, an old 1940’s Fannie Farmer trick!)

12. To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water. If it sinks, it is fresh-if it rises to the surface, throw it away.

13. Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.

Kitchen Myths

The cooking truths held dear by so many may be wrong (It's really an interesting page, although more sources would be nice).