One of my favorite tea brands and companies is Adagio Teas. They have all the regular teas that you love plus accessories and gifts, but they have a special section on fandom teas.
I started my collection with gifts from friends, and not every tea has agreed with my palate, but they’ve opened me up to try new things.
I have two favorites in particular – The Walking Dead Daryl and Supernatural Survival Tea. I tried the sample tins, and reordered the bulk bags.
There is also an option to mix and create your own blend, which I have yet to try; it is definitely on my to-do list.
In recent days, I’ve been enjoying a morning cup of tea, and I hope to continue with my fandom favorites.
Fandom Sample from Adagio Teas. Represented are Harry Potter, The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, Supernatural, and The Avengers: Civil War. (c)2021The Walking Dead Daryl sample tin with my tea strainer and favorite cup. (c)2021
I have a few go-to teas that I drink regularly or carry with me to conferences, vacations, and other times tea is needed, and honestly when isnt’t it?
They do change over time, so lately my go-to teas are TwiningsEnglish Breakfast Tea and Prince of Wales tea, and PG Tips, all with milk and just a little bit of sugar.
Today was a little different, though. I had an appointment at the mechanic’s. Instead of bringing my own tea, I knew that they’d have tea available, and I was very excited by my choice:
Chai Latte.
At home we don’t have a Keurig, so when I’m here I need to re-learn how to make the tea, but it’s not that difficult.
I really enjoyed my monthly series of Inspire and Friday Food that appeared all through 2020, and I’m planning on continuing it into this year. Inspire will return next week as this week was too full of news to focus on it, although I did find some things in the past week to be inspired about.
Breakfast Casserole. (c)2021
This was a layered breakfast casserole I had at Cracker Barrel. The restaurant is back to a limited menu due to the uptick of covid cases but this is seriously easy to make at home, either from scratch or with a few boxed ingredients.
When I first saw it, I thought it was a too small portion, but its looks are deceiving – it was hot, filling, and the tastes were perfectly balanced.
It is simple, easy, and delicious and while I haven’t tried this at home myself, I have no doubt that I could put it together in short order.
The layers from bottom to top are:
Hashbrown Casserole base
Melted Colby cheese
Scrambled eggs
Bacon
Diced tomatoes
Crispy fried onions
Scallions
Buttermilk biscuit with butter and/or jam on the side
The breakfast of champions. Enjoy it and the beginning of this new year that I’m going to choose to look on with potential and optimism despite recent setbacks.
It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to create in the kitchen, but having quarantine foisting Thanksgiving on us let me make the entire Thanksgiving dinner which I hadn’t done in years. Although to be fair, I do a similar meal for Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Christmas.
This year we did a few things differently. For several years my sweet potato pie became sweet potato casserole, so I went back to the pie version, and it was really good and brought me back in time. We ate it both as a side dish and a dessert (on different nights).
Another dish I made was a new take on my mother’s candied carrots.
Leeks and Carrots. (c)2020
Here are the basics, but use your imagination.
Wash the leeks thoroughly. They are like children in that they have dirt in all the spaces.
Melt a stick of butter in a pan. Add the leeks in and saute them for a little bit.
Pour in a bag of frozen baby carrots (or cut your own carrots into baby carrot size).
Once the carrots are defrosted, add some fresh ground pepper, and then add about 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1-2 cups of orange juice (the amount depends on the size of the pan.
Let it come to a boil, then lower to simmer, letting it simmer for about ten to twenty minutes. It can really stay on the low heat until the rest of dinner is ready.
Serve it with a slotted spoon so the plate doesn’t get too soupy.
The second dish I made just last week. We had cooked chicken tenders in the fridge and because my son cooked them, there was no spice whatsoever on the tenders.
I cut them each into threes or fours and threw them in a wok on medium, adding about half a small jar of Korean BBQ sauce.
I trimmed the ends off of fresh green beans and broke them in half, and added them to the wok, mixing the chicken and the beans until they were hot and incorporated with the sauce.
This was also a way to heat the cold chicken without the microwave. I spooned them over jasmine rice (although any type of rice that you like is the perfect rice).
Chicken, sauce, and green beans in the wok. Almost finished. (c)2020Closeup of the serving. (c)2020
One thing I noticed in looking back, I didn’t cook either dish with oil. Oil has its place in the kitchen especially in sauteeing, but I just used the juice for the first one and the Korean sauce for the second.
As the year comes to a close, start the new year with experimenting with your food. In January, I’ll have some basics to share with you – resources that everyone can use and adapt to their own style and family.