Gifts, Recipes, Repurposing and International Tea Day

Yesterday I drove down to the area where I grew up to have lunch with some high school girlfriends.  My life-long girlfriend, Sandy [since 7th grade], was there and brought me a belated birthday gift she had made for me - a cute tea-themed tote bag and a HomeGoods gift card.  Thank you, Sandy!  My Trader Joe's tea-themed tote bag that I've carried to work since 2018 is ready for retirement.  Distance prevents us from seeing each other as often as we'd like, but we have scheduled an outing to Swan House Tearoom and Jeffreys Antique Mall in Findlay, OH next month.

A friend of hers, who I've gotten to know through tea, also sent along the cutest denim bag filled with 40 handmade all-occasion gift cards.   What a labor of love!  Thank you, Lois!

Ironically, the restaurant the girls chose to go to yesterday was Mexican and I've been experimenting with Hispanic recipes since last week.  Timing was perfect.

My hubby and I try to eat more fish and poultry than red meat so last week I tried a good recipe for Fish Tacos using seasoned, baked cod and flour tortillas.  I love wild caught cod from Costco. The tacos were good, but I've got another recipe to try using blackened fried fish with corn tortillas.  I ordered two taco racks from Amazon to make preparation easier and I'm anxious to use them. Even after being married almost 59 years there's still kitchen equipment to be purchased.

On Monday, I experimented with making Creamy Chicken Enchiladas.  I used a recipe that called for canned Cream of Chicken soup mixed with sour cream, but when I make them again I'll use a recipe from Joanna Gaines' cookbook [and season 2 of her cooking show] where the cream sauce is made from scratch.

At the restaurant yesterday, I noticed Seafood Enchiladas on their menu.  Doesn't that sound  good?   Now to search for recipes in my cookbooks.

For Mother's Day, my daughter-in-law tucked a package of granola in my gift bag made by Bowerman's in Holland, MI.  It was SO good sprinkled on my Kashi whole wheat shredded cereal or steel-cut oatmeal every morning, that I ate it all up.  That sent me searching through my cookbooks for a granola recipe.  I've never made it before but it's quite simple to make.  I found a recipe that sounded good in an Amish cookbook I acquired in 1997, and made a batch this morning.  I'm not a gardener, so my kitchen is my happy place where I can prepare good food.  Have you tried any new recipes lately?  Do you enjoy experimenting with recipes?

Below is a picture of it fresh from the oven.  It turned out good, but I will make a few tweaks to the recipe the next time around.  The oatmeal, honey, almonds and cinnamon are healthy, the brown sugar and butter not so much.  ;-)

In 2012 I purchased a set of light blue Madrid Depression glass dishes at an antique mall.  Below is a tablescape picture using of some of them.

Fast forward to this past Easter, when I was assembling Easter baskets for The Whitney.  While shopping for supplies at Target, I saw cute light blue egg cups in the dollar section.  My mind immediately flashed to my light blue Depression glass dishes and how perfect they would be for holding clotted cream for scones at each place setting.  It's always fun to repurpose things and who knows I might use them for egg cups sometime too.  There were only seven in the bin so I took what they had.  I'm looking forward to using them. 

In closing, today is International Tea Day.  The United Nations observes the day to highlight the significance of tea, its cultural heritage, economic importance, and health benefits.  Enjoy your cuppa!   Blueberry Green tea is in my cup -  Chinese green tea with lemongrass, blueberry and vanilla.