Happy September and Other News

It hardly seems possible that we've entered the month of September already and the official beginning of fall is just 21 days away.  I'll be very sad to see summer go with its long, sunny days, but fall is a beautiful season too.

It was a busy weekend at my house.  My daughter celebrated her birthday on Aug. 28th and we had her and her husband along with our son, Steve, and his family for dinner on Sunday to celebrate. Steve sent Jeremy pictures [below] at the dinner table saying, "Those who move to the western side of the state don't get to enjoy mama's cooking!"  ;-)

Some time ago I got a cookbook from the Wild Plum tearoom in Gatlinburg, TN.  I was privileged to visit the tearoom as well.  Their signature beverage is Wild Plum Tea and one of the ingredients was 5 Alive frozen drink, made by Minute Maid, which was phased out in the U.S. market in the mid-1990's.  I wanted to serve it Sunday but wondered what the Wild Plum tearoom substituted for the frozen drink.  I texted them to ask and they graciously responded saying it was Tang powdered drink mix [marketed in 1959].  I didn't know the mix was still available, but it is. Even though summer is almost over I'm sharing the recipe with you.  It's a great cold drink.

Wild Plum Tea

4 family-sized tea bags [I used Luzianne brand]

2 cups sugar

2 cups prepared Tang Powdered Mix

1/2 cup Lemon Juice

Directions:  In a 1 gallon pitcher, steep tea bags in 1 quart of boiling water for 10 minutes.  In a small saucepan combine sugar with 2 cups of water and boil until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove the tea bags from the pitcher and add the sugar water, prepared tang and lemon juice.  Fill the pitcher with cold water to make 1 gallon of tea.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  10 minutes is a long time to steep black tea and defies the 3-5 minute rule for preventing bitter tea, but Wild Plum tea is not bitter.

On another subject, this coming weekend The Whitney will celebrate it's annual Autumn & Apples Tea, so that means I've been busy putting together 65 favors.

I ordered red plastic apples from Oriental Trading Co. again this year and filled them with a 1.5 oz. jar of Apple Butter from Kitchen Kettle, and some Werther's Caramel Apple candies.  I wanted an apple spreader too but they were all sold out.  

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the newly designed and expanded issue of Tea Time Magazine.  It was supposed to be available on newsstands today and I'm not sure when subscriberes will receive theirs by mail.

I was saddened to learn of Dolly Parton's death a week ago today.  I've watched many Facebook reels and TV programs about her life since her passing. She co-authored a cookbook with her sister that I'm seriously considering ordering.  Her favorite food was potatoes.  She said every diet she ever fell off of was due to potatoes, because she never met a spud she didn't like!  

Have you tried her cake mixes?

Jeremy and family just visited Sevierville, TN [the closest town where Dolly grew up and went to high school] last month and took a picture in front of her statue, never thinking she would die few days later and the whole area would be strewn with flowers from bereaved fans.

Happy September to all!