How to Make Royal Milk Tea

My niece and I were watching the Chinese drama Love O2O and the girls in the series would be drinking or talk about how much they love to drink milk tea. After completing the series, I decided to try and make some as I love tea, and it looked delicious.

I looked around on Pinterest and found a tea recipe from Plum Deluxe that seemed easy to follow and similar to the one they had in the series.

Assam and Darjeeling were recommended, but I have also made this tea with Earl Grey.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Darjeeling tea leaves or 1/2 teaspoon Assam tea leaves or 2 teaspoons black tea of choice
• 1 and 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup water
• Honey or sugar, to taste
• tea infuser

Directions:

1. Add the tea into a small bowl.
2. Boil some water and add a small amount to just coat the leaves in the bowl.
3. In the meantime, heat the milk and water in a small pot.
4. Just before the milk and water start to boil, add the moistened leaves and turn off the heat. Stir them with a spoon to mix them in.
5. Cover the pot and let sit for 4 minutes.
6. Give it another stir and then remove the bags and pour the milk tea into a teapot or mug of choice.
7. Sweeten with either honey or sugar if you’d like.

I loved it and it was super simple to make, it reminded me of how I make my Matcha Lattes. I do recommend using a throwaway bag to infuse the milk with the tea, as it is much easier to put the bags in the milk than trying to pour the milk through an infuser as sometimes heated milk has trouble trickling through. If all you have is tea bags, you can also substitute two tea bags for the teaspoons of loose leaf.

I also used my milk frother to froth it up, you don’t have to but I thought it added a little special something to it. Plus I love using my milk frother.

I highly recommend this recipe and have made it multiple times since (I don’t blog as fast as I drink tea).

For more tea posts, go to Spinach Puffs

For more Recipes, go to Wardrobe Green Bean, Potato Casserole

For more from Plum Deluxe, go to Blueberry Yogurt Oat Scones

Blueberry Yogurt Oat Scones

So my sister and I started Period Drama Saturdays last year during the stay at home orders.

At first we would just have tea but then that grew to adding snacks to our teatime.

One Saturday we were planning on watching Outlander and I had really been wanting to try out some oat scones from Plum Deluxe, and I felt like what better time than the present? After all oats and Scotland seemed to go well together.

But then I started baking and after I had already started mixing my ingredients, I realized my Sour Cream had expired, so instead I had to use a substitute.

From Clueless

I searched the internet and my fridge and ended up substituting with blueberry Greek yogurt. And because I was no longer following the recipe and had some frozen blueberries I decided to throw them in too. That’s also why these scones came out an interesting color.

YUM!

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, grated and frozen
• 1 and 1/2 cups flour of choice
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup of Blueberry Yogurt
• 1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
• 1 to 4 tablespoons milk, if necessary
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 Cup of Frozen or Fresh Blueberries
• Sugar for topping

Directions:

1. Grate and freeze butter, storing in freezer until just before ready to use.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Combine flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in large bowl.
4. Add butter and toss with a fork until mixture is crumbly.
5. Add yogurt, baking soda, and blueberries; mixing until just combined, being careful not to overwork the dough.
6. If the dough is too crumbly and the flour does not incorporate, add a splash of milk to help bring it all together.
7. Turn dough onto a greased baking sheet, and form into a one-inch thick disk. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with sugar.
8. Cut into 8 wedges, placed slightly apart on baking sheet.
9. Refrigerate 15 to 30 minutes before baking (to re-chill the butter).
10. Bake 18 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown and set.

These were good, but not that sweet. Would I make them again? I’m not sure. They weren’t bad, but they were also not fantastic or memorable. I plan to retry this recipe in the future again, but this time I will make sure I have all the ingredients.

In other news, I made this recipe at the beginning of the month, when I had Flat Jane, so that means I’m a step closer to finishing. If only I could catch up on all my other lists. But as for now:

For more recipes, go to Turkish Delight

For more scones, go to Blueberry Rose Scones

For more blueberry scones, go to Irish Blueberry Scones

For more tea posts, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party Music & Party Review

The Magician’s Nephew Tea Party/Book Club: Tomato Hummus Salad

So every Wednesday, starting in October, I have been a part of a Tea Party/Bible Study/Book Club on The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis. This is different from my book club and the Book Club Picks I have been reviewing (and desperately need to catch up on). I also need to catch up on these recipes. Week four we had Tiesta Tea Victorian Earl Grey, Lavender and Earl Grey Scones, Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Hummus Tomato Salad, Pinwheels, and Triple Berry Salad.

I couldn’t share the recipes in October as I was in the middle of Horrorfest IX, so I am catching up and of course as we used an old Chicken Salad recipe, the next is sides.

This recipe comes from Plum Deluxe. I choose it as most of the food we have been eating has been heavy and I wanted something lighter.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon of White Wine Vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 Clove of Garlic, Peeled and Finely Minced
• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
• Ground Black Pepper
• 2-3 Large Ripe Tomatoes
• 1-2 Cups of Hummus

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper until emulsified. Set aside.
2. Cut tomatoes into thick slices and arrange 3 per plate.
3. Top each tomato slice with a tablespoon of hummus.
4. Drizzle with salad dressing and serve immediately.

These were delicious. I had so many extra though, as I had made too much, and ended up using the rest to make a spaghetti sauce. A great recipe, that I know I will make again.

For more tea posts, go to I Tried Madsen Creations’ Reusable Cloth Teabags

For more recipes, go to Lavender and Earl Grey Scones

For more salad recipes, go to Basic Chicken Salad

My Week With Jane

When I was in elementary school, my brother was in the army and stationed in Hawaii. We took a trip to visit him, but problems with the plane arose and the flight was delayed for a few hours. This was two years after 9/11 so we didn’t want to leave the airport and instead had to wait.

While we were waiting I noticed a lady across the way waiting with a big paper something. Of course being a curious child, I moved closer to look and saw it was a paper boy. Not a cardboard cutout, but like someone traced a boy and decorated it. I was trying to figure it out, when the lady noticed me looking and told me that it was Flat Stanley. A group of teachers had been reading Flat Stanley and passing him around taking pictures and when one had a friend going to Hawaii she asked if she could take him with her.

Wow!

I thought that was the coolest thing. For those of you who don’t know Flat Stanley is a book in which a boy, Stanley, is flattened by a bulletin board, becoming flat, and goes on a series of adventures. One of them is visiting his pen pal by being mailed in a giant envelope.

All I could think was what a great idea and how cool and fun to be a part of something like that.

Well…

Fast forward to Summer of 2020, everyone is glum about restrictions and most of us are not having fun.

When I saw that the Jane Austen Society of North America: East Washington and North Idaho (JASNA EWANID) was doing a Flat Jane.

Look at that!

After all:

They decided for the summer they would be sending Flat Jane about, she staying with the person who signed up for a week and then moving them onto the next home to visit. They then asked people on instagram if they wanted to sign up and I was like, yes please!

This actually became so popular they made several of them. My turn arrived and I was so excited and couldn’t wait to take her out on adventures.

Tea first!

Day 1) Sunday, January 3rd

What a Jane of a day! Today my friend gave me the Jane Austen adaption, Jane in Love by Rachel Givney, and then when I got home I checked my mail and inside was Flat Jane. I am so excited to start all our adventures.

It was great reading the Jane Austen Travel Log and getting to see all the adventures and things people had done. I couldn’t wait to add my own. Sunday I had my niece so I didn’t get a chance to do anything with Jane until later that day.

That night my sister and I did our usual #perioddramasaturdays It was my sister’s turn to pick and she chose Outlander, which I had read the first book but had not seen the TV show. For the occasion I made Blueberry Oat Scones (I’ll share the recipe later), that I had adapted from Plum Deluxe and we had Lavender Flowering Tea.

Flat Jane joined us for tea but declined watching Outlander. She was tired from her long journey from East to West and retired early. She espechially liked seeing the flower created from the tea leaves.

Day 2) Monday, January 4th

Ever since COVID19 Monday night has become Game Night! Jane and I played my new Pride and Prejudice game that I had received for Christmas. She won as I just couldn’t get the exact number to make my remaining half of the couple get to the church. I kept rolling over or under. I was planning to try playing Marrying Mr. Darcy with her, but I didn’t end up getting a chance to. I do plan to review this Pride and Prejudice game soon.

Afterwards, we played a singing board game with my sister, a sort of creating a song to a tune like in Who’s Line is it Anyway? When my turn came up I felt a lot like when Lady Catherine demanded Elizabeth play, as I don’t sing.

It was a fun game and hilarious as the game came with “lyrics” that were just too goofy.

Day 3) Tuesday, January 5th

Tuesday night Jane and I had pizza and watched Strong Woman Bong Soon, a K-Drama I recommend for any Jane Austen fan as it has elements that make me think of Jane Austen’s works.

Sooooo Mrs. Bennet

Jane loved the pizza (she definitely wishes they had that back in Regency England) and I think I swayed her to my line of thinking about the K-Drama…but she might have been humoring me.

Well…

Day 4) Wednesday, January 5th

Flat Jane joined us for our weekly Tea Party/Book Club/Bible Study on The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I think she enjoyed it, although it was unlike any bible study she has ever been a part of.

For these chapters we visited the beavers and had: Chami Winter Apple Spice Tea, a loaf of Dutch Crust Bread, trout, chicken (for the non-seafood eaters [me]), boiled potatoes, and marmalade rolls. Of course I had to explain to her the joke about boiled potatoes.

I will be sharing the recipes as soon as I catch up with The Magician’s Nephew posts. 

Day 5) Thursday, January 6th

After the Book Club/Tea Party/Bible Study I thought Jane would be interested in going to a regular bible study. She enjoyed it and marveled at my cat pen, amazed at how it looked and wishing they had such easy things to use when she was writing her novels. I plan to show her an Austen adaption tonight, but am still trying to decide which one…should I show her one I love or one I hate so we can both make fun of it? Decisions, decisions…

Hmmm…

I finally decided to show her one I hate, Austentatious (2015)

This is the worst Jane Austen adaption I have ever seen. We started with the first one and then she caught up to me with the second to last episode. After we watched the whole thing she was very confused about the whole thing and how it even matched up with what she wrote. Same Jane, same. If interested, you can watch it on tubi or you can read my past reviews: We Are Family: Austentatious, Episode 1 (2015), Big Girls Don’t Cry: Austentatious, Episode 2 (2015), I’ll Be Watching You: Austentatious, Episode 3 (2015), Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Austentatious, Episode 4 (2015), Call Me, Maybe: Austentatious, Episode 5 (2015), Drive Me Crazy: Austentatious, Episode 6 (2015), Make Me a Match: Austentatious, Episode 7 (2015), Take a Chance on Me: Austentatious, Episode 8 (2015), and Achy Breaky Heart: Austentatious Episode 9 (2015). 

After we watched the series, we had a cup of tea before bed. I had purchased two Jane Austen inspired teas from NovelTea Tins, Pride and Peppermint and Sense and Senchability. I had run out of Pride and Peppermint as I had used the last of it in the tea advent calendar swap I made for a friend, so we drank Sense and Senchability. Jane loved it and was amazed at all the different Jane Austen inspired products that we can purchase today.

Day 6) Friday, January 7th

Today was a shopping day as Jane went with me to visit a local Vintage/resale shop as I was on the hunt for a purple teacup for my friend’s birthday this month. I found this adorable claw-footed one under $10.

We then stopped off at the grocery store to pick up a few items and Jane was amazed at all the food for purchase and the prices! Plus we came upon many things she had never heard of before protein powder, lactose free milk, Greek yogurt, every kind of chocolate you could imagine, and more.

Day 7) Saturday, January 8th

Saturday turned out to be a shopping day as well, as my sister needed to visit Jo-Anns and Hobby Lobby in the next city over (we have a small Jo-Anns and we do not have a Hobby Lobby). I agreed as long as we stop at one of my favorite restaurants, the Tea Bar and Fusion Cafe. They have the best foods and teas. Jane loved the HoneyTea Latte I bought for her.

Afterwards we went to Hobby Lobby where we looked for fabric for a book sleeve I’m having made.

I was looking for a dark fabric, but Jane spotted this beautiful china blue vase printed one that I just couldn’t say no to.

We only visited a quarter of the store and Jane was amazed at everything they had there.

Afterwards we went to Jo-Anns and looked around the different fabrics and of course I had to show Jane all the muslin they had.

Mr. Tilney mentions purchasing muslin for 5 shillings a yard in Northanger Abbey and that was a good deal, but Jane was amazed that today she could purchase muslin for half the price he paid (converting how much 1800s shillings would be worth in our money).

Day 8) Sunday, January 9th

It was time to say goodbye to Flat Jane as I had her for the week and she is about to journey on to stay with another friend. I helped her pack up and will drop her off tomorrow for her journey to the East Coast.

As Jane is going to visit another Jane Austen fan I couldn’t resist sending one of my Quill Ink Jane Austen Inspired Magazine Cover Cards. If you are interested in getting some for yourself check out her Etsy shop.

If interested in having Flat Jane visit you then contact JASNA EWANID to signup. I recommend it as it is a lot of fun.

For more Jane Austen, go to Is Emma Jane Austen’s Only Mystery?