A Little Irish Tea!

Remember last month when I made what looked like tasty sugar cookies? And then I had to let you know that my cookies turned out to be more like biscotti? Well, this month, I have made something that is very tasty and came out just as good as I hoped it would. Here is what I enjoyed......my own little recipe for what I am calling Irish Tea Cake.

And here is why and how I did it........
When I was a kid we were often assigned those reports where you had to tell your heritage and so, we would ask our grandpa "what's our heritage" and his answer was usually "Heinz 57". Then a few years ago at our Linn family reunion, a relative who had moved out west sent along the death certificate for my grandpa's grandpa (my great-great grandpa). There, on that sheet was the answer to "what's our heritage"? Noted on the certificate was the name of my great-great grandpa's father - Issaac Linn and place of birth was Ireland. How about that? There's a wee bit 'o Irish in me! But wait, Issaac was married to Mary McVey of Scotland! Wow, we have a wee bit 'o Scottish heritage, too. No more "Heinz 57"!! So with that in mind and St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, I felt I had to share something really tasty and a tribute to that heritage.

I needed inspiration so went to the cupboard and got out some cookbooks we picked up on a trip to England and Scotland many years ago (we never made it to Ireland). I found one that sounded tasty called "Jam Sandwich Biscuits" but I wasn't in the mood to roll out cookie dough. I was looking for something different. I decided to draw on some ingredients from the Jam Biscuit recipe and a cake recipe in one of my favorite vintage cookbooks (several without covers from the earlier 1900's). The names and measurements in the English books were very different from the terms in our U.S. cookbooks and when I saw "Castor Sugar", I wondered what kind of sugar is that? Then I remembered my gift from Shelly in Chookyblue's Secret Santa exchange and found my answer. It's granulated sugar. Simple. Shelly also made a mitt and apron for me. I put on the apron and with spoon in hand, I was ready to go.

I didn't take pics as I mixed this time as this recipe is quite easy and anyone can make this one.

You will need a 9 x 13 pan. Mist with cooking spray and set aside. Set oven temp to 350 degrees. Find a shot glass. You'll see why later.

Ingredients needed are flour, sugar (dark brown and granulated), eggs, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla.

You will also need your favorite jars of jam for filling and some white frosting for icing (I turned to Pillsbury for their vanilla frosting).

Cream together:

1 stick (4 oz.) butter

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

To this mixture add two large eggs and blend well.

Add 1 teaspoon real vanilla. Set aside.

Mix in bowl or in a paper lunch sack ( I do this all the time for my dry ingredients. I get a better blend of ingredients.) the following items:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Add this dry mixture to the sugar/egg/butter mixture. Mix well.

Add 1 1/2 cups Oatmeal (quick-cook variety) and mix until well blended. Dough will be stiff.

The final ingredient is 2/3 cup evaporated milk. Mix carefully until you get a creamy dough/batter that looks like this............and I am here to tell you, it smelled good enough to eat at this point!!

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes in 350 degree oven until cake is golden......... or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (you can't beat those time-tested tricks!).

While cake is still hot take your shot glass and press 12 evenly spaced indentations in the cake top as shown in the photo above. Let cake cool. You thought I was going to tell you to fix a little drink with that shot glass, didn't you? LOL!!

When cake is cooled, fill those indentations with a spoonful of your favorite jam, any flavors you like. Take one cup of white frosting and microwave for 15 seconds. Then drizzle over the cake top and you will get the delicious looking treat in the picture below and at the top of this post!!

It was so tasty, if I do say so myself. My tea choice for the day was Celestial Seasonings English Breakfast Black Tea. It was also really good with a little milk and a dash of sweetner. Now I know some folks say tea isn't tea if it comes in a bag, but this was quite a fine break for what was a very cold day here in Minnesota!! So cold, that later on tonight, I am going to have that Irish Creme hot chocolate mix you see in the photo. And also in that photo is one item for one of you. It's that little book "Tea and Friendship". I am going to take all the names of those who have commented from the January and February teas, add them to the names of Tea and Stitches Followers and those who comment on this tea and I will throw them in a basket and draw a winner of the little book. There might just be a little bit of green fabric that will come along with it, too. Hope you enjoyed today's tea. I'll be posting this month's project next (you'll find it below). It works better to do two posts sometimes and this is one of those times. :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Sandi

Blogger making me sad.......

Blogger is currently not letting me load the pictures for my tea I prepared for today. I have all the text ready and had part of the photos loaded and poof! no more ability to load photos. I tried a new post and same problem. I will try again in an hour. Please come back then.
Sandi

A little Irish Tea! The Project..........

Before we get to March's project, I wanted to give a little update on the project from February. I shared a little sketch called "Time for Tea". Here it is partially finished so that you can see what I have done here. I colored parts of the design with colored pencils (more on that in a minute), then added embroidery stitches. I do the coloring then iron the design which supposedly heat-sets the color. Will this withstand being laundered? I don't know as I have never used it on a piece that I planned to wash on a regular basis. It does work well for small pieces for wall quilts or items to be framed. I like the colored pencils better than crayons as you can get a softer look and so many more colors.

If you double-click on the photo above, you can see that I colored all the little flowers surrounding the heart and the tea cup and saucer. You will also see how awful my stitching looks on the words. I used three strands of floss and do not like it at all. I decided not to rip it out. This piece will become a "teaching tool" on when "choosing how many strands of floss to use when embroidering". LOL!! :-) Three strands of floss worked well on the heart, though.

In this photo, the piece is finished. In addition, to coloring each little flower, I also traced around each petal with an 005 purple Micron pen. Black French knots give me just the look of black-eyed Susan's that I wanted. I used just one strand of floss for all the tea cup embroidery and I am liking the tea cup design so much that I want to find some really nice fabric and embroider the design on dinner napkins. The fabric used here is 100% cotton but I think I might need to look for a poly-cotton blend that might not require so much ironing. I am going to color a tea cup on fabric, then wash it and see if the color remains. I'll let you know the results.

In this photo above, you can see the tools I use when sketching a design and then coloring the piece. My clipboard is clear and so I can place it over my lightbox and trace designs very easily. If I am doing a design in Redwork, I trace the entire design in 005 Red Micron pen. I have multiple Micron pens in various points and colors that I use to trace my designs and for finalizing sketches. The colored pencils I use are Prismacolor Watercolor pencils. Sometimes I color softly with them and other times, I wet the tip on a damp paper towel to get more vibrant color when using the pencils. I also have several other brands of colored pencils but find that the more expensive the colored pencil, the better the results. I love my dollar store purchases but this is one time they do not work.

And here is the design for March........just a little touch of shamrocks. As I sketched the little bouquet, I thought that surely "An Irish Blessing" must have been said many a time by those long ago ancestors of mine. I am glad to know my heritage and share a wee bit of it with you.

This design can be embroidered or you could cut the shamrock shapes from cotton fabric backed with fusible web and then do the rest of the design in embroidery. I am going to work on mine this Sunday afternoon after church. I'll finish it and post it here on St. Patrick's Day. Till then, have a great day!

Tea and Stitches ...........

will be posted next Wednesday, March 11th so that I may bring you a little Irish Teatime just a few days before St. Patrick's Day. Then on St. Patrick's Day, March 17 I will post again with a bit of wee surprise for those of you that follow my Tea and Stitches blog.

Til then, I share my favorite Irish blessing.....

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields

and, until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

A sweet tea to warm your heart...............

Happy Valentines Day! I know it's a week away but I let hearts be the theme of my day today. And here is what I enjoyed this afternoon.........a much needed break from a busy day!!

I decided to have a cup of Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea because I never ate breakfast this morning. I added a twist to it by putting two teaspoons of Nestle Hazelnut Creamora in the tea. I love Hazlenut flavored coffee so thought it would taste good in my tea. It was very tasty and I will try this more often. I had been rather busy today so my first delight with my tea was one of my favorite biscuits. I used those heart shaped cookie cutters and after they were baked, I scooped out the center heart so I could fill it with butter and jam. You already know it tasted really good!! Yum! Then I topped it off with a cookie, two actually. I didn't like the ones with the frosting. I am not crazy about frosting unless it's real chocolate fudge frosting. Everything tastes better with chocolate so I popped a kiss and finished off my tea and headed to the computer to share it all with you. I placed a couple of my favorite Valentine items on my old sewing machine. The little cross stitch piece is one of three that I did in the 80's. My cross stitch period was very short. My daughter picked it up though and so I have passed on most of my supplies and books to her. I have this thing about being "number-challenged" so any hobby with counting in it, is not one that I will excell at. The little bear is holding a tiny valentine that I did in my years of making miniatures. I need to share some pics of my mini scenes and will do that before Valentines Day.
Hope you enjoyed this stop for "Tea Time". I'll be back the first Wednesday in March! See you then.....
Sandi

And just one more thing........the cookie recipe that follows originated in this little gem of a cookbook and as you will read in the recipe, I combined it with one in the Rumford Common Sense Cookbook. Actually, "common sense" should have told me that it might not be wise to mix two without doing a trial run first. Anway, read on and enjoy my "Cookie Recipe" post. :-)

Cookie recipe

In January, my little goodie for "Tea Time" was a plate full of Coconut Snowball mini cupcakes. My recipe was not a recipe as I followed the ingredients on the Pillsbury box. So, I thought this month, I would bring you something made from "scratch". This proved to be interesting........Here we go........

In the picture you can see an old cookbook. It's one of several that I bought at Wit's End Antique Shop last summer. Rumford was a company that made baking powder. There is no date on the cookbook and no copyright. It's just a little book that was probably a promotion to get the ladies to buy Rumford for their baked goods. I found a cookie recipe that sounded good. I also found one in the Sprye cookbook pictured above. I decided I would sort of "combine them" to make a really good cookie. I experiment all the time and usually the results are tasty. I expected the same ........

The recipe is as follows........

1/2 cup butter (or butter flavor shortening)

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs, well beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar, then add beaten egg. Mix in vanilla. Set aside. Mix dry ingredients. Add half dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture. Then add remaining dry ingredients and blend thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonful on cookie sheet or roll dough balls in sugar and bake. You may flatten dough with glass for a flatter cookie. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool, frost and decorate if desired.

That's the recipe I came up with so I began to mix. I creamed the butter and sugar.


Then I added the beaten egg ....................

...........and the vanilla and mixed well.

I set the liquid mix aside and prepared the dry ingredients. Blended them well, then added half the dry ingredients to the butter/egg mixture. Then I added the remaining dry ingredients and blended the dough thorouhly.

The dough was stiff and a bit sticky .........................

..........but I rolled it into balls by "flouring" my hands so I would not have more dough on my fingers than in the cookie balls.

I placed the cookie balls on the ungreased cookie sheet. And here, I must apologize for when I saw the close-up photo of my cookie sheet my first thought was.........gee, they're going to think they'll have to take up a collection and send me new cookie sheets! Guess these have been around awhile. I will make them look like new for next cookie bake. :-)

So, with the cookies ready to bake, I popped them into the oven (yes, I preheated it and it was ready to go) and they looked like this when they finished baking............

Hmmmmmmmmmm........I thought they would flatten a bit when they were baked. Not at all what I was expecting. I had plans to imprint a heart on each flattened cookie (the little one in the lower left of the photo) and fill the heart with red sugar sprinkles. It didn't work. Instead, I just sprinkled red sugar all over the top of the whole tray of cookies. I ate one and it was interesting. Very vanilly flavored and.........

So, I tried another tray of cookies. This time, I flattened the cookies with a glass. I remembered that one of the two recipes I was using had done this. And here's what they looked like this time...............

The cookies were flatter but still not as flat as I thought they might be. I pressed the hearts, tried my red sprinkles idea and stopped at one done.

The rest of the cookies got frosting stars. Much easier although not as bright as the red hearts would have been.

The cookies baked up nice and even, round ones and flat ones and they reminded me of something...............they were kind of dry - maybe too much flour? - and strangely they were crisp - actually "hard as a rock" on the outside but kinda crumbly on the inside. So when I made my tea today, I knew exactly what I would do........ I would dunk those little puppies in my tea. That's just what I did and they were really tasty. And that's when I realized that I hadn't made cookies after all..........I made Biscotti and didn't even know it!! :-)

Now just so you know.......I am a really good "cookie, cake and sweet things maker" but every once in a while my concoctions don't work out quite like I think they will. Someday, I'll tell you about the pizza-flavored chocolate cake I made for my quilt retreat friends. :-)

Hope you enjoyed your visit and a good cup of tea.

Sandi

A "Time for Tea" Stitchery!

Well, it's about time you're thinking. Right? Where has she been. She said tea was at 4:00 and here it is an hour later. Some things came up. I didn't get to my tea until 4:30 and then I had pictures to take, then load and finally here I am. I'll get to the actual tea and goodies in a minute but want you to know that I have a new project for you. Last month I shared my Snowman couple design with you. Here's how far I am on my stitching..............

I was hoping I would get it finished by today but now I will be happy if I finish it by Valentines Day!!

Now since this little blog chapter is all about "Tea and Stitches", I thought it would be fun to stitch up a little piece that would be a reminder to show up here the first Wednesday evening of each month. That's right, you might as well stop by in the evening because then it will be posted on time. :-) Yesterday, this little design popped into my head so I quickly sketched it up and finalized it earlier today.
I am going to trace the design on muslin, then color it with colored pencils, iron it (to set the colors) and add outline embroidery stitches and embellishments. Then I will put it in a frame and you will see it finished - promise - in the tea picture in March. :-)
So, now I have to load the photos for my tea for February. Back in a jif.......
Sandi