Steampunk Week: Tea for Two

A while back, I did a post all about my favorite teas. Since then we've moved from our little apartment into a nice house, and the tea stash has also expanded. I won't tell you how many varieties of tea are in the tea cupboard now (yes, we have an entire cupboard dedicated just to tea. Oh, and there's some hot chocolate in there, too).

Here are a few favorites from the current stash:

Celestial Seasonings Country Peach Passion I'm usually not a fan of fruit flavored teas, but I make an exception for peach. This is one of my favorites, though it has to battle The Republic of Tea's Ginger Peach. We don't have any of the latter in the house right now, but it's my special treat when we go to Panara Bread.

Of course, we still have the Ahmad, which is our go-to tea around here. The first box ran out long ago, and I was desperately searching online. The manufacturer's website offers it for £17.50, plus international shipping to the US. Whew! No thanks. That is one expensive cuppa! Thankfully, I ventured into a local Middle Eastern/Mediterranean market that we have about a mile or two from the house, and lo and behold, an entire shelf of Ahmad teas, all different varieties, was right by the front door! I think I wound up paying $4.50 for a box of 100 tea bags, which is much more my speed.

The Ahmad English Tea No. 1 is our standard, but I also found a tin of loose leaf Darjeeling, though I haven't tried that one yet. I should. You know, for science.

Shockingly, one of the best black teas I've found came from HomeGoods. I bought it mostly because of the tins, which are adorable, but the tea itself is fantastic--no cream or sugar required. Not bad, considering I paid $3.99 for three little containers!

The brand is "New English Teas," though generally you won't find it on the box. This is an example of some of their packaging. Each tin is a different flavor (we have Breakfast, Afternoon, English, and London varieties--all very similar). Some packages include one or two of the small tins, plus a longer one. The long ones have bagged tea, and I like to keep that in my locker at work, since loose leaf is not very practical on a 15 minute break in a shared kitchen.

It's not tea, but my last, favorite thing in the tea cupboard is actually a can of hot cocoa mix. When the weather was really cold and I was feeling down, I'd mix myself up the following concoction to get myself going in the morning. It tastes just like my mom's signature cake, and it's very comforting on a bad day.

-fill a mug with milk (I like whole milk but whatever you prefer). Heat in the microwave for 2-3 minutes (less, if your microwave is more powerful than our cheap-o one).

-stir in 3 scoops of Archer Farms mint hot chocolate mix (found at Target. 'Cuz I'm high class like that).

-Add 1/2 packet of instant coffee crystals (I use Foldgers, because it's what we have, but there might be other kinds out there. I don't know. I'm more of a tea/chocolate person).

And that's it. That right there is my absolute favorite thing to have in the morning. By using the whole milk, it's a little more filling than using water or skim milk or whatever other percentage, so I'll just have a cup of that with some banana bread or something and that's a decent breakfast.

Maybe another day, I'll share Missouri's recipe for Italian-style hot chocolate. It's a little more work, but oh my god. You haven't lived until you've had the southern European version of hot chocolate. It kicks the instant kind's ass.

Who am I and what have I done with the old me?

I'm back in Florence. I got here on Sunday afternoon, and started classes on Monday. So far, every day that I've been here I've worked out, cleaned, made my bed...it's kind of scary.

Classes are going well, or as well as first-day-of-term classes can go, when it's all review and figuring out what you're going to be doing for the next four months.

Themost shocking bit of all is that I cooked. As soon as my loans came through, I went grocery shopping, since I was living off of peanut butter (brought from home) and bread (purchased by my new roommate) until yesterday afternoon.

Now, before you get excited, it wasn't anything fancy and it didn't take all that long. But it involved a stove and meat, and did not involve anything out of a box with directions printed on the side, so that qualifies it as "cooking" for me.

I love chicken salad, but you can't get seasoned salt, my key ingredient, in Italy, so I made some adjustments. It was inspired by the fact that I bought the wrong flavor of yogurt and the apples I bought (which were wrapped in plastic and styrofoam) were badly bruised on one side (the styrofoam side), so I had to use them as quickly as possible.

Sophie's Florentine Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
1 medium green apple (I don't know what variety we get here. It's a little bigger than my fist and light green. It's more sweet than bitter, so it's not a granny smith. I don't think it's green delicious, either. If you're in the states, then just substitute your favorite variety. If you're in Italy, then you probably know what I'm talking about because you see mostly this type of apple in the grocery stores and in the markets.)
Mayo (200-250ml; about 1/3-1/2 of a medium sized jar)
1 tablespoon of coconut yogurt (you can add more and reduce the amount of mayo, but none of us like coconut, so I was trying to sneak it in without anyone noticing)
Parsley
Chives
paprika
Basil
cinnamon
nutmeg
rosemary
salt
black pepper

1. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Put in water and heat on low, or low-medium, while mixing everything else.

2. peel, core, and dice the apple into little pieces. Put in a bowl of water to keep from browning, set aside.

3. In a bowl, mix the mayo and the yogurt. Add the spices to taste. I listed them in descending order, so I used a little more parsley than I did pepper. Just a touch of the cinnamon and nutmeg, and rosemary will do. I highly recommend having a taste-tester handy.

4. When the chicken is done cooking (I like to cut it up first so it cooks faster, but you might prefer the texture if you boil it then cut it), drain the apples to remove the excess water, then do the same for the chicken. I ran it under cold water so that it would cool faster. Add the chicken to the dish with the apples.

5. Pour the sauce over the apples and chicken, add additional mayo/yogurt/spices as needed.

6. Chill before serving (I suggest 2-3 hours, but you can also eat it straight away if it's cold enough.

Hope you enjoy!