Over the Moon Smoothie

Over the Moon Smoothie

1/2 cup silken tofu, drained
1 ripened pear
1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup pear juice (or soy milk)
2 Tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups ice

In a blender, combine silken tofu, pear, avocado, and liquid. Add honey and vanilla. Add ice and blend until very smooth.

Serve in tall glasses with a straw. Garnish with a mint leaf and enjoy.

Heartwarming Steaming Hot Tea

"It was George Eliot who earnestly inquired, 'Reader, have you ever drunk a cup of tea?' There is something undeniably heartwarming and conversation-making in a cup of steaming hot tea. . . It is an ideal prescription for banishing loneliness. Perhaps it is not so much the tea itself, as the circle of happy friends eager for a pleasant chat."

Book of Etiquette 1921

LaTeaDa Tea Room, Tillamook, Oregon

A Gentle Cup of Tea

Creating a gentle cup of your favorite black tea can be achieved simply by a home decaffeination process. Black and green teas contain a high volume of antioxidants that strengthen the immune system and assist the bodies ability to fight disease. Unfortunately, these teas also contain caffeine, known to trick the nervous system into believing the body has more energy than a person's reserve source really has. The decaffeination process is simple. To make a delicious cuppa gentle tea, follow these steps. 1. Place tea leaves or tea bag in teapot. Use 1 tsp. tea leaves per one cup boiling water. Pour boiling water over the leaves in your teapot and allow to steep for exactly one minute. 2. Use a strainer and pour off the water. It can be poured down your kitchen drain, but I find that my plants thrive on this tea! 3. Use the same tea leaves or tea bags and pour fresh, boiling water over them. Steep for 3 - 4 minutes. A fresh, decaffeinated cup will be the result. 4. Sweeten to taste (I enjoy using the sweet leaf herb, stevia, for this). If desired, add a splash of lemon or soymilk. As the tea leaves steep, the first thing released is the caffeine. The next is color, and the final, flavor. With this home decaffeination process you will eliminate the caffeine, sacrifice some color, but no flavor. And, you will gain the benefit of a myriad of antioxidants for good health!

Redwork Embroidery

Redwork is the art of embroidery using only one color: red. I used to think the idea was quite boring, as I tend to like selecting color families that work together in a project. But, recently I tried my hand at redwork and have enjoyed both the process and the cheerful finished sampler. The redwork tea towel in the picture above is one I recently embroidered for a friend in the tea towel exchange group I belong to.

Originally, red dyed cotton threads were not colorfast and the colors tended to bleed when they became wet. Embroiderers tended to select other colors or stitch red's in silk threads that would not bleed. Then a red dye was developed in Turkey that did not bleed or fade when washed. Soon, Turkey red thread became a reliable and popular choice for stitching decorative patterns on household items.

In 1876 The Royal School of Art Needlework from Kensington, England produced a booth at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. American women were charmed by the intricate embroidery and were ready to try their hand at it. It soon gained popularity, as more and more stitchers created embroidered samplers and quilts using this process.

Redwork designs range from very simple to elaborate and intricate. Over time, pictures of nursery rhymes, people, buildings, animals, and flowers have been depicted in this art. In times past, squares of preprinted patterns were made available for redwork. These squares cost a penny apiece, thus the name penny squares became a common term when describing these blocks. Completed blocks were used for many household projects, but became especially useful and popular for bedcoverings. Blocks were sewn together and a feather stitch or cross-stitch was used to cover the seam line.

Stitches especially common when stitching redwork are backstitch, outline stitch, and the stem stitch. The stem stitch is also called the South Kensington stitch or the English Kensington stitch, a name that probably took hold because of the popularizing of this embroidery style by The Royal School of Art Needlework in 1876.

An Eye in Common With Our Own

It is hard to believe that anything is worthwhile, unless there is some eye in common with our own, some brief word uttered now and then to imply that what is infinitely precious to us is precious alike to another mind.

~ George Eliot ~

Cochise Hotel, Cochise, Arizona

Conversation

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh ~

 

Friends visiting in a coffee shop ~ Bisbee, Arizona