New tea for my tea cup 9 - "home-mixed" lavender tea

A few years ago I was served an Earl Grey tea with lavender in connection with a brunch. And I just fell in love with this flavour combination with this flowery note.

But can you buy this specific tea combination any where in Vejle and the surrounding Denmark ? NO

I have asked in many tea shops, so after a while I gave up and decided to make my own version of Earl Grey tea with lavender.

So you buy the Earl Grey tea at your "normal tea pusher" and when you buy dried lavender at a health shop selling food and herbs.

My preferred flower flavour level is: mix 100 g Earl Grey tea with 3½ tablespoon dried lavender. Leave it to infuse for minimum 24 hours, before you make your new cup of tea.

Test your preferred level of lavender and Earl Grey starting with 1 or 2 tablespoons of lavender and actual make the tea to taste it. You can always increase the amount of lavender flowers, but it is impossible to reduce the level after mixing everything together !!!!

Flower power tea for the girls :-))

UPDATE 25 September 2014:
This lavender tea is also be my contribution for the monthly blogging challenge Tea Time Treats, which is hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Janie from The Hedge Combers. As theme for September, Janie was selected Mediterranean food. Lavender fits in my opinion perfect into this theme

Planning afternoon tea in the garden

This coming Monday afternoon, which is Whit Monday, I will serve afternoon tea in the garden (hopefully the weather will be perfect warm and sunny) for the last round of birthday guests.

I have planned to serve the following tea menu:

• various teas like Earl Grey with lavender
• sparkling wine
• sandwiches with two different fillings (cucumber and egg)
• scones
• strawberry pie/cake
• muffin with elder flowers
• meringue with lavender

Are lemons sweet or sour ?

Interesting and funny after-work session this afternoon with focus on misleading your brain about what you are actual eating. After a short introduction we were divided into two groups, each group eating a specific tablet.
The group I was in got a red tablet, which we slowly should shallow. This gave us a taste impression of sourness, liquorice and onion. This tablet is blocking your taste buds towards acid/sour taste. The other just got normal sweet candy.

After we had shallowed the different tablets, we were each served a slice of lemon, which we should bid into. The other group having eaten a normal sweet candy found this lemon slice to acidic and sour, as anyone would expect. My group had the impression we were eating a slice of sweet of orange, so we kept eating our lemon slice to great disbelieve of the other group.

The other group now got the opportunity to shallow the acidic blocking tablet. After this we tried, how the taste of tomatoes was sweet and less freshing to eat, while strawberries (without sugar addition) became very, very sweet, and we simply could not stop eating these lovely tasting strawberries.

The effect of these tablets is around 2 hours, so the evening meal afterwards was interesting as well. The salad with sweet corn and cranberries left you with quiet a sweet impression, and the Pepsi Max was overly sweet and almost un-drinkable. Luckily you could also have plain water for the meal.

New family members in the kitchen garden

Last week-end was a busy time in my little garden as the weather was warm and sunny :-) I was busy, while Hannibal the Cat enjoyed a relaxed life style combined with some fresh mouse sushi.

I had three points on my to-do-list !!! Cleaning and painting the lower out-side part of my house blue. DONE

Buy tomato and chili plants and plant them those on my terrace on a south facing wall. DONE
I went to the local food market I found Saturday, where I found a chili plant with medium strength of the sort cayenne. I also found three different tomato plants. A Greek tomato, a "plain" red cherry tomato and a yellow cherry tomato called "Clementine".

Extending my herb collection with tarragon and basil in out-door pots. DONE

I still need to find a new rosemary plant for my herb collection.

My fig tree had a tough winter, so it is still behind with it growth. However, I can find fig fruit with different size, from very, very small to one single fig with a good bigger size like this one.

And my potatoes are growing and growing. So I wonder, when I will be able taste my own home-grown potatoes ?

Beginning of elder flower season

The season for elder flower is just beginning here in Denmark, which you also can see out here in Danish blog land. This means, that the Danes will be out collecting elder flowers for their own home-made elder flower cordial. It also means, that buying citric acid powder or vinegar acid powder in your local supermarket, can become an impossible mission, as this is one of the ingredients in home-made elder flower cordial. 

I went bicycling this evening in the local country side to check the status of blooming elder flowers. It is still in the beginning of the season. So I should plan to "empty" the shelf in the supermarket for citric acid in the coming days, before you get similar ideas :-)

I picked two elder flowers for my evening tea. First you make your usual cup of black tea. Afterwards you infuse this cup of tea with one-two elder flowers for 1-2 minutes. It gives you a refreshing flower flavour.

New tea for my tea cup 8

Refreshing, summerly green tea with mint from Mariage Frères is a new tea, which I am enjoying at the moment in my tea cup. Good natural taste of mint :-)

I am starting to plan, what kind of small treats in form of sandwiches, scones and cakes, which I will serve for afternoon tea next Monday afternoon in my little garden. Hopefully the weather will be OK = no rain, so we can sit out-side sipping tea and champagne. This will be the last celebration of my birthday this year.

Salad with asparagus, goat cheese, apple and nuts

A wonderful morning row on the fjord, sunshine, no wind and no waves. We started rowing at 6.08 and was back again in the boat house at 10.02 after 27 km rowing incl a coffee break, which is quiet a good time for such a distance.

So I will eat an easy lunch in the little garden relaxing with a good book.

Ingredients:

• ½ pack of baby spinach leafs
• 1 apple
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cucumber
• some walnut and pine kernel
• ½ bunch of asparagus
• 75 g fresh goat cheese
• dressing of pomegranate balsamico