Christmas present

Here is what Keith gave me for Christmas:

It's a glass teapot, glas teacups, and a flowering tea called Peach Momotaro from Teavana. The tea comes in a little ball, like this.

As they soak up the hot water, they start to expand and unfurl.

Until pretty soon it opens all the way and looks like a flower.

I just thought this picture was pretty. Even if I did cut off the teapot's head.

Besides being pretty, this tea is really good. It is a white tea with peach, jasmine and chrysanthemum flavors.

Also for Christmas, Keith gave me the Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls (see tea of the week), and some German rock cane sugar. It's a pure sweetener that won't add any other flavors to your tea like regular sugar or honey will.

Hooray for a husband that gives me exactly what I want for Christmas!! I only dropped a few little tiny hints.. like starting a blog about tea..

Still sick

This cold or whatever it is still seems to be hanging on. It's mostly been a cough, but now it's mixing in with some pretty impressive headaches. I'm thinking sinus infection.
Here's what I've been doing to get better:
1. Drinking tea.
2. Consuming vitamin C in various forms.
3. Chain-sucking cough drops. I'm currently on a bag of Ricola mixed berry.
4. Taking random cold and cough medicines with varying degrees of effectiveness.
5. Watching hours and hours of Band of Brothers. I got this DVD set for Keith for Christmas and I have gotten sucked into them too. Who knew I was so into WWII? It's fascinating.
6. Avoiding all things cold, social, and tiring.
7. Trying unsuccessfully to not eat cookies and candy.

I don't know that I would necessarily recommend any of these to anyone else who is sick, since I don't seem to be getting any better. Maybe do the opposite.

Hmm..

Alright, since this blog is supposed to have something to do with tea and photography, I'll share this picture I took last night. I kind of like it, but there's something strange about it. Any thoughts?

Cheesecake- phase 1

So I am in the middle of my cheesecake adventure and thought I would share my progress. This recipe is from Ina Garten and you can find it at
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mixed-berry-cheesecake-recipe/index.html

Here's what I've done so far:
1: Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 TBSP melted butter
1 TBSP sugar
Mix together, pat into the bottom of a spring-form pan and about 1" up the sides.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Then, set it aside to let it cool and bump up the oven to 450

2: Filling

The cast:
2 1/2 lbs. cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs and 2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream (cutest measuring cup ever!!)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
Disclaimer-The olive oil in the picture is just a backdrop. It is NOT one of the ingredients.

Side note: Surely the 1/4 cup of LIGHT sour cream will counteract the large tower of full-fat cream cheese. Right?..

Mix, add, mix, add..

The last step- adding the sour cream. You can also see the lemon zest, and the dark liquid making a ruckus in the corner is the vanilla. Probably should not have used dark vanilla.

Mix, mix, mix..

Then, finally, you pour it into your cooled crust.

Since this is my first attempt at cheesecake, I made a little extra one so that I could taste it before taking it to the family Christmas eve party without cutting into it.

Now it's in the oven. And smelling AMAZING! Too bad the baking process takes an entire day!! I will try to snap a picture of the finished product tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Better-for-you Fried Chicken

Here is my attempt to be like the Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com/) and write up a recipe with pictures. Please excuse the picture fuzziness, as my camera doesn't do well with low light and my kitchen is basically a galley.

This recipe is one of Keith's favorites and I think it's somewhat healthier than regular fried chicken, but I haven't done the calorie count, so who really knows?

First, you cut up your boneless, skinless chicken into smaller pieces. Then, get out two random dishes. I used a bread pan and a strange-shaped bowl. One is for your wet ingredients and the other is for the dry stuff.

The wet ingredients: one egg, some buttermilk (1/3 cup? I don't measure), season salt and ground pepper. Mix together with a fork.

Here are your dry ingredients. You can leave stuff out or add other stuff in as you see fit. You can see that this is a very precise science.

Bread crumbs- I use panko, will be the the bulk of your dry ingredients. Maybe 1 cup? Parmesan cheese will be next- maybe 1/4 cup (forgot to add it to the lineup for the picture), then ever so much season salt, garlic powder, ground pepper, cayenne pepper, and just a little Italian seasoning. Don't overdo it on the cayenne.

Next, heat an iron skillet on medium and heat some olive oil. 3 TBSP?

Then, dip your chicken into the wet stuff.. There you are, parmesan! You missed your group photo.

Then the dry stuff...

Then you put it on the pan. The real trick of this recipe is getting all of your chicken pieces to fit on the pan. Success!
You'll cook them for 5 minutes or so, then flip
Cook on that side for another 5 or so minutes. I usually turn on the oven at the beginning to 375 or so and stick the pan in the oven after the chicken is brown on both sides because I'm psycho about overcooking my chicken so I don't get salmonella. Better safe than sorry.

Here's the finished product:

For this particular meal, I just cooked up some broccoli to serve with it. Other times, I have served the chicken with baked beans, baked butternut squash, potatoes, etc.

Now, go get cooking! My next cooking project? A cheesecake. We'll see how it goes. Or if it goes at all.

Mother knows best

I was chatting online with my mom yesterday. Here's a little snapshot of our conversation:

Mom: How are you this afternoon?
me: so so
Mom: How so?
me: I've been having some acid reflux, I think because of stress
Mom: How does that feel foryou?
me: Sore throat, some ear pain
Mom: Are you sure it's not the flu?

Aah, mothers, why are they granted all the wisdom of the universe? As the day wore on, my 'acid reflux' also manifested itself in a splitting headache, one of the most painful sore throats I've ever experienced, and then losing my voice.

Bottom line- I feel terrible. And I think it's the flu. I have no idea why I thought it was heartburn. Thanks a lot, you germy teenagers.

Wrapping paper

One of my favorite things in the whole world is buying wrapping paper. Specifically Christmas wrapping paper. I remember when I was a kid we would go to the papeleria and they would sell wrapping paper by the sheet. Each sheet was usually about the size of a poster board. So you could buy such a big variety. I would always try to pick strategically so that there would be a good mix of colors, patterns and shapes under the tree. You have to have at least one blue paper, everybody knows that.
I am still obssessed with wrapping paper. The minute Christmas stuff comes out- like, October- I immediately run to the wrapping paper section to see what they have. My mom was always against Santa Claus, so even now I avoid wrapping paper that has Santa Claus on it. The pattern that always kills me? Candy cane striped paper, hands down. I also really love the kind of paper that looks like the background is a brown paper bag.
The problem is that I already have a lot of paper. They sell it in such big rolls here, it takes a while to use it up. I already have one of those under-the-bed bins full of just Christmas wrapping supplies. So here is my plan. I (ok, we, in case my husband is reading) need to have a LOT of kids- at least 5- so that I can go buy all the wrapping paper I could ever want and still get through it all so that I could buy more the next year.
Take away tip: If you need a personal shopper for your holiday wrapping needs, I would like to apply for the job.

Christmas in the classroom

I've done a little decorating in my classroom this year for Christmas and wanted to share my efforts. Here is the first thing I added:
It's a little Charlie Brown-like, but I love it. It's about a foot tall and sits on my desk. You can see my Guatemalan flag and flamenco dancer in the background.

Today we were studying how different Spanish speaking countries celebrate Christmas and I told them about Christmas in Guatemala. I told them that it was a pyro's dream. They were all very impressed with my stories, especially the one about Ryan swinging the string of firecrackers around his head and letting go right before the last one (the bomb) went off. I don't think any of them believed me. But they were impressed at least with my imagination.

These boys were especially impressed. I think they will spend every possible Christmas in Guatemala. Here are some of the other posters that they made today:I even learned a new word today. Apparently copo de nieve means snowflake. I guess I have never had much need for that word in Spanish before.

Cute! Obviously made by girls.. Sorry the picture is a little fuzzy. This one was already hung up high, so I had to stand on my tiptoes and hold my camera above my head. You're right. I absolutely could have stood on a chair.

The Candela one is my addition. I put in this picture, though, so you could sort of see the view outside my window. They are doing construction right outside, so it always looks like a winter wonderland. We haven't gotten any snow in St. Louis yet (at least not any to speak of), but the kids always freak out when they are sitting in my room and look out the window, because they think the world has suddenly been covered in a foot of snow. When they rush to the window and look, though, they can see the still-green grass and I think they are a little relieved, but mostly depressed, that a lightning-fast blizzard hasn't passed through while they weren't looking.

Chicken pasta

So here is a new recipe that is so easy and tasty that I make it probably twice a week. It's basically pasta with some kind of meat, some vegetables, and parmesan cheese. I'll write up the chicken version here.
Ingredients:
Pasta
Onion
Garlic
Spinach
Tomatoes
Chicken
Parmesan cheese
Lemon zest

1. Start a pot of water boiling for the pasta. Add salt once it starts boiling.
2. In a skillet, sautee some whole cloves of garlic (maybe cut in half), and a small onion, minced, in some olive oil over low heat.
3. Add 2 cubed chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cook through on medium heat.
4. Remove the garlic chunks.
5. To the skillet, add a bag of spinach and let it wilt down.
6. At this point, add the pasta to the water, if it is ready. Right now I am using no yolk egg pasta to bump up the protein. You could use whatever kind you have handy.
7. Add cut up tomatoes to the chicken and spinach. I like to use grape tomatoes and cut them in halves or quarters. If I only have a big tomato or a roma tomato, I just cut it down to size.
8. Once the tomatoes are hot, add the whole mix to the drained pasta. and mix it together.
9. Add about 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese and mix it in. I also like to add some lemon zest to brighten up the flavor- about 1/4 teaspoon.

*I've also made this pasta with bacon instead of chicken and it is AMAZING!!

Research

Did my research. Posted it in the sidebar to the right so you could all benefit from my findings. Obviously, the list isn't exactly 100% accurate, since it all depends on the quality of the tea/coffee, how long you steep/brew, etc. But it's a decent ball-park figure.

Confession

Ok, so here comes the confession I promised. I bit the bullet and undertook the challenge to count all of my teas. Final count?

27 different flavors of tea.

That is, of course, until I go buy more. Or get more for Christmas.
Here is the breakdown:
2 white teas (no caffeine)
2 red teas (no caffeine)
10 green teas (some caffeine)
10 black teas (can't drink after 2pm if I want to sleep that night)
2 herbal teas (no caffeine)
1 oolong (research required)

NPR

I was listening to NPR today on my way home from work. Michele Norris was interviewing a lady, Toni Morrison, about a book that she compiled, called The Black Book. That part is irrelevant- interesting,yes. Important, yes- but irrelevant to what I'm writing about. As I was listening to them talk, I started to think about how I would love to be on NPR some day. I wondered if it would be unnerving to know that your words would be recorded forever. I wondered if they let you do retakes if you suddenly start to stutter or lose your mind. I wondered if they cut out a ton of stuff that you said and just splice together whatever they wanted to make it sound like you said what they wanted you to say.

Then I started thinking about what I would want to be on NPR for. (Sorry, I never learned real grammar.) I wouldn't want to be on there for something lame, like as a witness to some event. So here are the things that I would want to be on NPR for:
1> Writing a New York Times bestseller.
2> Being named the best Spanish teacher in the country.
3> Winning American Idol.
4> Opening a groundbreaking, award winning, instantly successful chocolate or coffee shop.

Oh man, I have a lot to accomplish before I can be on NPR. I had better go.

PS

Wait! Wait! Can I add chocolate?!?!?! I have to add chocolate to my list. Specifically peppermint bark. And See's candy. And dark chocolate covered blueberries. And anything Perugina. And lots of other chocolate that I can't think of right now.

Embarking

Well, I've finally taken 'le plunge' into blogging. I am looking forward to having a platform to record all of my random thoughts about life.
Here are 5 things that are making me happy right now (in no particular order):
*My Christmas tree. I put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving and have the lights on every minute I'm home. My electrical bill is going to be through the roof!
*My robe. It is perfectly fluffy and warm.
*My man. Always full of fun and surprises. I love that I can be myself with him.
*My tea collection. I have a scandalous amount of tea. Soon I will count all of my flavors and fess up to how much I actually have. And then I will go buy more.
*My job. Believe it or not, I've come full circle from hating it to loving it. I am a high school Spanish teacher and my 140+ students give me no end of joy and amusement.