Something with a cup of Tea

Smoked Oysters, lactofermented dill garlic pickle,
local raw cheddar cheese, croistini, gala apple,
hardboiled egg, and olives.

I needed something to make a cup of tea special.  When we get home from work, we sit down and have a little tea party, so I put together this:

Canned smoked oysters
Lactofermented dill and garlic pickle from local cucumbers this summer
Local raw cheddar cheese from the Eberly dairy
Gala apple
Hardboiled eggs from my favorite local farm
Croistini from a sourdough sub roll from work with olive oil, salt and pepper
Green Olives

This went extremely well with a cup of black tea.

Christmas Morning Hot Chocolate

Scale the recipe up or down from these amounts:


4 C (1 Quart) Milk
2 t. cornstarch
4T Sugar
4 T Cocoa
Dash of Salt


Pour 1/2 C milk into a small saucepan with the cornstarch, sugar, salt, and cocoa.  Heat until it bubbles and cooks for about 30 seconds while whisking.  Remove from heat and let sit for 2 minutes. 


Add remaining milk and heat to 160° while whisking.  Serve in warmed mugs with whipped cream floating on top.


For the whipped cream, I use a very thick (so thick I have to dig it out of a jar) local dairy cream.  In order to whip it, I mix it half and half with milk.  For a several mugs of hot chocolate, I use:


1/2 C Super Cream
1/2 C Milk
1/2 t. vanilla
2 t. sugar
dash salt (for non-commercial milk)


Whip until soft and spoon over hot chocolate.


This hot chocolate has a nice "mouth feel" and is superior to the hot chocolate I make using chocolate chips.

Hermits - Extraordinary Cookies

1 C. Sucanat or brown sugar
1/2 C. Butter, unsalted (one stick)
1/3 C. Molasses
1 Egg

2 C. Sprouted whole wheat flour measure 2 C. if freshly ground or 1 & 3/4 C. if frozen
1/2 t. Baking Powder
1/2 t. Baking Soda
1 t. Cinnamon
1 t. Ginger
1/4 t. Nutmeg-freshly grated
1/2 t. Salt-unrefined
1/8 t. Cloves-ground

1 C. Currants or Raisins (I like currants best)

Mix softened butter and sugar, then add egg until fluffy.
Add molasses and mix.

Mix dry ingredients together and add to butter-sugar-egg-molasses mixture at a low speed.
Add currants and mix briefly.

Spoon onto two parchment covered baking sheets with two strips on each sheet. Smear the dough into 1 1/2 inch wide strips the length of the pans, but not to the edges.

Bake at 350º for 13-15 minutes.

Cool for 5 minutes and then cut into diagonal strips, finish cooling and pack into a tin between parchment paper and store in a cool room.