Friday, January 25, 2013

Winter-time Reading with Tea

When the temperatures are frigid outside, don't you love staying indoors with a good book and a cup of hot tea? 


One of my Christmas presents was a Barnes & Noble gift card.  I could spend hours [and lots of money] in that book store!  The [Unofficial] Downton Abbey Cookbook is one of the items I got with my gift card. 


 
There are twelve chapters, but I couldn't resist jumping ahead to chapter 8, Tea at Downton Abbey, when I saw it listed in the Table of Contents.  Hosting a Downton Abbey tea is definitely on my "to do" list!  Some of the recipes in the tea chapter are:  
Mrs. Isobel Crawley's Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches
Mrs. Patmore's Madeira Pound Cake
O'Brien's Crumpets
Sybil's Ginger Nut Biscuits
Anna Bate's Chocolate Crumpets 

[Internet Photo of Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham]

The book contains both upstairs and downstairs recipes, and the author states while the elite upstairs residents may seem like miles - rather than feet - away from the downstairs inhabitants,  both share an appreciation for good food.  I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this cookbook! 

A special thanks to my friend, Angela, at Tea With Friends blog for writing a post about English Tea & Cakes.  I got it with my gift card too.  I think one could gain weight just looking at the scrumptious photographs!   


Lastly, I purchased the January/February 2013 issue of Victoria when I noticed the cover said, "An Invitation to Tea."  


Pages 77-81 are about "Winter's Warming Cup" which, of course, is tea.  The issue also features an article about tea caddies, titled The Allure of Antique Boxes.  


Right next door to Barnes & Noble is a Marshall's/Home Goods Superstore, so you know I couldn't leave without checking to see what merchandise they had pertaining to tea.   Come back on Monday and I'll show you!

5 comments:

  1. I'm staying home today, since we're getting freezing rain (yuck!) so a cup of tea and a good book sounds really good to me! Enjoy your new books, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you found next door, too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I looked at my coupon to use it (with membership discount too) on this book but the coupon had expired. I have to pay more attention to their coupon dates as they don't last long. The DVD's for downton 3 arrive on the 29th!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the review of the Downtown Abbey book, as I had been wondering what it was like! And I'm glad you found the tea magazine I had blogged about. Although now you've got my curiosity up about what you found at the Marshalls/HomeGoods store ... !

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am "iced-in" here today. No school. It's a pajama day here. A good book and a cup of tea for me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What fun treasures and on a cold day you have that right, a good book and tea is perfection.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting my blog. If you would like to leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!