Jane Austen Birthday Party: Prize Two

Party time!

So I have been planning my Jane Austen 29th birthday party for a few years, and I’m not letting the Coronavirus get in the way. I had always planed a garden party (social distancing check), trying to keep it small (small groups check), and our county has moved a tier down. But even if everything gets on lockdown again and it turns out to be just me, I’m having it!

The party is this Saturday, but I plan to continue sharing everything. I am going to do three games at the part, I’ll share soon: one is to be everyone is given a Jane Austen character and has to guess who, a look at a tea tray or tea/Jane Austen items and they have to try and remember as many as they can, and a Jane Austen Trivia game.

So if we have games then we need prizes! In a previous post I shared one of the prizes being a copy of Persuasion, a tea infuser which I added an anchor charm to, and a thimble with the HMS Cutty Sark on it.

For the next prize I decided to focus on Pride and Prejudice.

After all it is her most known and loved work.

Back in January, I had purchased one of Litographs Pride and Prejudice tattoos when they were on sale. I had originally planned to use them as a giveaway, but then thought they would be perfect as part of a prize for one of the games. I also swapped for a hardcover copy of Pride and Prejudice, and the third thing I decided to add to this was a tea towel I embroidered. As both previous items were purple, I decided to go with the same colors in making this.

This was a lot of work as that gold thread was beautiful but also time consuming as it kept unraveling-but I made it work. I love doing embroidery and I can’t understand why people always seem to hate it, or have their character hate it to show they are “modern” or “intelligent”. Why do we value other artwork but not embroidery? Embroidery is just as artistic as painting, drawing, or sewing. I don’t know, but I hope people start valuing it again. Here is everything all together:

This whole bag came out to $9.88: Pride and Prejudice book $0.49, Pride and Prejudice Tattoo Pack $5, Flour Sack Dishtowel $2.50, and Gold, Green, & Purple Thread $1.89. What do you think, is this a good prize? I still have a day to change it up if not.

I’ve been having so much fun sharing all these things with you, I can’t wait to continue it will all the other party plans!

For more of my Jane Austen Birthday plans, go to Jane Austen Birthday: Prize One

For more Jane Austen parties, go to Jane Austen Birthday: Invitations

For more on Pride and Prejudice, go to Return of the Retellings: Pride and Prejudice, cont.

Lemon Curd

So last month my book club met and discussed the book The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie. Typically we just have light snacks, but as I didn’t have to work due to the quarantine, I decided I would do a little tea party.

In the book our book club had been reading, The Secret Adversary, the two main characters go to tea a few times at Lyons Tea Cafe. I originally wanted to try to make something like the tea shop would have, but then my coworker gave me a whole box of Meyer’s Lemons.

I need to find some recipes.

So instead we had egg salad sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, french fries (pommes pont neuf), Scottish Oat scones, lemon curd, lemon crinkle cookies, and meyer lemon poppyseed cake. Instead of putting all the recipes in one post and making it too long, I decided to break it up and share each recipe separately so that if interested, you can make your own and eat it with a cup of tea and some Jane Austen.

This recipe comes from Epicurious.com and I picked it for my first attempt at lemon curd as it used the whole eggs not just the egg yolks.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup of Meyer’s Lemon Juice
• 2 Teaspoons of Finely Grated Fresh Lemon Zest
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 3 Large Eggs
• 3/4 Stick (6 Tablespoons) of Butter

Directions:

1. Whisk together juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in a 2 quart heavy saucepan.
2. Stir in butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubble appears on surface, about 6 mins.
3. Transfer lemon curd to bowl and cover with plastic.
4. Chill until cold, about 1 hour.

This came out horribly!

Everything looked fine, but when I took it out of the fridge an hour later-it had separated into two parts. I poured it into a jar and tried to mix it up, but then it came out very liquidy-and when you spooned a bit on the scones it just soaked into them instead of garnishing them.

I will never make this recipe again.

For more lemon recipes, go to Ginger Cardamom Meyer Lemon Crinkle Cookies

For more recipes, go to Scottish Oat Scones

For more tea parties, go to Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cake

Green Tea Frappuccino

So I know some of you are thinking…uh didn’t you say you were going to resume reviewing Rational Creatures?

You are all 100% right. However, this weekend I left the hot three digit heat to visit my friend in cool, comfortable degree weather-San Jose.

I was hoping to have the next installment of Rational Creatures ready but it’s isn’t and I don’t want to post a lackluster review for a book that I have been enjoying. So instead I thought I would pause and share a yummy tea recipe that will help you beat this summer (it’s not fall in California until October) heat.

This recipe comes from my sister blog, MysteriousEats, and is a way to make a homemade Green Tea Frappuccino which stars one of my favorite teas:

So I mentioned in Matcha, Matcha, Matcha that my niece and I would go on these faux-around the world trips. One day she wanted to go to Japan so I planned a trip around town and then we ended the day with the tea ceremony. As I had leftover Matcha and I love the Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino-it was a no brainer to use my sister blog’s recipe and make my own.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup of Ice Cubes (Less than 10)
• 1 Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream
• 1 Cup of Milk
• 1 Tablespoon + 1 Teaspoon of Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons of Matcha Green Tea Powder
• 1/8 Teaspoon of Vanilla or Vanilla Extract
• Xanthan Gum (Optional)
• Whipped Cream (Optional)

Directions:

1. Add all the ingredients in a blender.
2. Pulse and blend on high until thorough.
3. Add whipped cream if you want.

It’s absolutely delicious!

For more tea posts, go to I Won the Regency Marketplace Giveaway

For more Mysterious Eats recipes, go to Cheese Round

For more recipes, go to Matcha, Matcha, Matcha

For more Jane Austen quotes, go to Rational Creatures: Elizabeth & Charlotte

Cozy & Comfy Tea Time

So you all know how much I love tea:

In fact for Christmas I got quite a few tea things because my friends and family knew of my love.

But one gift was belated, so I decided to post it separately instead of in my earlier Christmas post. This combines my love of tea and my love of something else that I just adore:

Cats!

So now I can drink my tea and look at this adorable creature. I can’t imagine a better tea time.

For more tea posts, go to You Know Me So Well

For more Jane Austen quotes, go to Life Seems But a Quick Succession of Busy Nothings

For more cat posts, go to I’m a Bit Catty

You Know You Really Love Tea When…

So some people love tea and others love tea.

I’m in the second category.

1. Yep, you know you love tea when five minutes feels like forever!:

2. When cup sizes never please you:

3. Life just doesn’t feel right if you don’t have a cup in hand:

4. When tea pops up in your everyday conversations:

5. When you use it to calm down:

6. Or from saying things you shouldn’t:

This could get ugly, better stir my tea.

7. You aren’t even British, but because of your love of tea people assume you are:

8. Your idea of “going out drinking” is going to a coffee shop and drinking hot tea:

9. You drink tea no matter the time of day or temperature:

10. When it is your tea time you wait for no one and will not be interrupted:

11. You are always offering people tea to drink:

12. You have a huge collection of tea spoons, tea cups, tea tins, loose leaf tea, bagged tea, etc.

13. When you go out to Coffee shops or Starbucks, you are the only one not drinking coffee.

Yep, the Tea Life is the Life for Me

For more tea posts, go to Perfectea, A Perfect Cup of Tea or Tea for Two

For more C.S. Lewis quotes, go to Book Club Picks: Sandcastle Kings

For more Wilkie Collins quotes, go to I Made My Own Teabags

For more Jane Austen Quotes, go to Triple Berry Salad