Teacup Tuesday, Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Teacup, Wreaths For the Door

Welcome to Teacup Tuesday. I am joining the blogs at the bottom of the post and others for this special tea themed blog party day.

I want to share a fabulous Aynsley, England teacup made to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

I really love the dark cobalt blue background. There is applied raised enamel paint on the flag and other areas, and lots of burnished gold trim and overlay. Aynsley is always a wonderful manufacturer and they did a wonderful job on this special occasion teacup.

For more info on the teacup at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos.

This is a fall leaves wreth from the September/October 2008 issue of Victoria Magazine. I love Victoria and was a charter subscriber when they began back in 1988. I also subscribed when they started up again with a new publisher. My favorite!

And from my own front door, a wreath of  fabric leaves and filmy, metallic gold accented ribbon that I made. The white door made it difficult to photograph, but....

Here are the wonderful blog parties I am joining today. Please visit them and enjoy a wonderful day!

Ruth ~ http://antiquesandteacups.blogspot.com/
Teacup Tuesday

Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness

Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday 
Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday

Wanda Lee~  http://silkenpurse.blogspot.com/ 
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
Pam~  http://breathoffreshair-paperbutterfly.blogspot.com/ 
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
Wanda Lee~  http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/ 
Tea For Two and Wednesday Tea For Me and Thee

Trisha~  http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/ 
Tea Party Tuesday

Lady Katherine~  http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/ 
Teatime Tuesday

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Teatime Tuesday 

Crumpets for Tea with Marionberry Jam, Crumpet Recipe

We had crumpets for afternoon tea today. A few weeks ago I mentioned crumpets on Facebook and got several questions of Whaaa???? I guess Yanks aren't too sure what a crumpet is!  A crumpet is a traditional English bread that has a flat side and a "holey" side and are baked on a griddle. But then, you toast them so they have a bit of a crunchy outer texture. They are served with butter and jam or if you like with clotted cream and jam. The butter is especially nice on a toasted crumpet because it oozes through the holes!

These crumpets are actually store bought from a local sort of specialty grocery store in our area, QFC, that carries some unusual things.

But I do make them myself. You can buy crumpet rings or substitute tuna fish cans.

Here is a recipe I found that is a simpler version to the old family one I have which is a bit complicated. These do turn out well.

Crumpets Recipe

1/2 cup warm water (105° - 115°)
2 teaspoons sugar or honey
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups milk

In a large bowl, stir the sugar or honey into the warm water. Sprinkle the active dry yeast over the top and let it sit until it bubbles, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover and let it sit for about half an hour in a warm place.
Grease a griddle or frying pan and the crumpet rings or cookie cutters. Place the rings on the cooking surface and preheat all.
Pour about 3 tablespoons of batter into each 3" ring and cook over medium low heat until set, about 10 minutes. (Avoid cooking them too quickly.) The top should be full of holes when they are ready to turn.
Remove the rings from the crumpets, turn, and brown the other side, if desired, for a minute or so. Repeat until all the batter is used.
Serve warm with butter and jam or clotted cream and jam. Makes 16 crumpets.

From: http://www.greatpartyrecipes.com/crumpetrecipe.html

This is part of my Brit husband's lunch...only missing a large wedge of really aged cheddar cheese...a sort of Plowman's lunch.  Toasted crumpets, ripe local farmer tomato, Walla Walla sweet onion & aged cheddar. He's a happy camper!

Fall Fun Coupon 15% Off and Antique Clay Pipe Bowls

 Hi there. Just wanted to let you know that we are having a FALL FUN 15% off promotion at Time Was Antiques with coupon code 018.  Celebrating the changing season!  Just click the pumpkins above!

And for something a little different, I wanted to share the photos of some antique clay pipe bowls that I recently sold to a man who is a Civil War enactor and educator who is always looking for interesting items dating up to the civil war period of 1850. I had acquired a lot of antique pipe bowls and a few pipe stems on one of my English buying trips and he was excited to get them. He is also a potter and is planning to try making one so he can demonstrate at one of his education times on a battlefield. The following date from 1780-1860:

 This is a glazed pipe bowl with a corroded copper ring left on it

This pipe bowl is of glazed ceramic and features a hand painted design of a sheep or deer
 

 
This is my favorite as it is a figural clay pipe bowl that is shaped like a horse's hoof.

This set is quite fun. There is an unusual layered or marbled clay pipe. The one with the partial stem has an embossed leaf design along the front and back and the bottom one has a scratched in or scgraphito bird design.
 

This set shows different colored clays and molding techniques and how small the hole in a pipe stem often was.
 

This set included 2 with anchors embossed on them which was a very popular design around the time of the Battle Of Trafalgar in the early 1800s.

So...that's my tale of the pipes. Maybe you'll see them or others the next time you visit a Civil War enactment camp and see an educator at work! My small contributuin to furthering historical knowledge!

Have a great day and have a cuppa with a friend. We are off for a day out today.
Cheers! 

Queen Mum, Glamis Castle, Mey Castle, Teacup Thursday

Hello! I am joining Teacup Thursday with Miss Spenser's and the other wonderful blogs who are participating. I am actually sharing a mug today, because I don't have a teacup to share with the theme I chose.

 This is a loving cup made by Royal Doulton to commemorate the Queen Mum's 80th birthday in 1980, which is my "teacup" for today. This is what prompted my choice:

I would like to show you a portrait of the dowager Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI and mother of the current Queen Elizabeth II who was known as the Queen Mum until her death in 2002 at the age of 102, that I found recently.

"The Duchess of York" by Philip de László, 1925 detail.

 

This is quite the best I have seen. It was in the current issue of  Britain magazine.

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon as a young girl

As a young queen Elizabeth with her husband George VI on my tea caddy always front and center on my kitchen counter that made for the coronation in 1937.

Elizabeth was born at Glamis Castle which is situated in Scotland, 12 miles from Dundee and is reported to be the most haunted castle in Scotland. The castle apparently was the basis of Shakespear's Macbeth.

The Queen Mum's favorite castle was Mey Castle in Caithness, Scotland which she gifted to the nation..

Here is a menu from the Castle of Mey tea room which I found quite fun:

Hot Soups served 10.00 to 4.00pm
with Cheese Scone, Oatcake or Bread and Butter.

• Cullen Skink
• Broccoli and Stilton

Sandwiches

• Aberdeen Angus Roast Beef and Horseradish
• Honey-baked Ham with Mustard
• Caithness Egg Mayonnaise

Salads

• Poached Salmon with Lemon
• Caithness Cheese Ploughman's

Hot Dish of the Day 12.00 to 3.00 pm.

• Mey Selection Aberdeen Angus Beef Cottage Pie
  with Vegetables and Potatoes

Hot Baked Potatoes

• Chilli Con Carne
• Coleslaw and Cheese

Puddings

• Castle Garden Rhubarb Cranachan
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Lemon Meringue Pie

Considered the nation's Queen Mum for her outstanding character as a wife, mother, Christian and for her bravery during the war she is to many, the favorite royal and was sincerely mourned.

Have a wonderful time visiting the teacups being shared. For more info on the Queen Mum 80th birthday loving cup at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos.

Teacup Tuesday Royal Doulton Brambly Hedge, London Taxi Poem

Welcome to the Tuesday blog parties where everything relates to taking tea. I have the list of parties I am joining at the bottom.

This is a boxed teacup and here is a panel from the box. I love it!

As it is looking and feeling like autumn, I am sharing the Autumn cup and saucer made by Royal Doulton, England from the wonderful books by Jill Barklem called Brambly Hedge. I used to teach kindergarten and they were a favorite with the children...as well as myself. The illustrations are fabulous!
For more info on the Brambly Hedge Autumn cup and saucer at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos.

From the website home page:

Welcome to Brambly Hedge

Brambly Hedge is on the other side of the stream, across the field. If you can find it, and if you look very hard amongst the tangled roots and stems, you may even see a wisp of smoke from a small chimney, or through an open door, a steep flight of stairs deep within the trunk of a tree. For this is the home of the mice of Brambly Hedge. The mice of Brambly Hedge live together in a close-knit community making best use of what each season has to offer.

 Now this doesn't relate to teacups necessarily, other than the link of taking tea really being popularized in the UK, but I came across a poem to the London Taxi:

The London taxi is a relic

For which my zeal is evangelic.

It's designed for people wearing hats,

And not for racing Bonneville Flats.

A man can get out, or a lady in;

When you sit, your knees don't bump you chin.

The driver so deep in the past is sunk

That he'll help you with your bags and trunk;

Indeed he's such a fuddy-duddy

That he calls you Sir instead of Buddy.

Ogden Nash (who else??!)

All because I was looking at the September/October 2009 issue of Victoria magazine with the title The Return of our British Issue, for which I was highly delighted.

I am joining the following tea time blogs today:

Ruth ~ http://antiquesandteacups.blogspot.com/
Teacup Tuesday

Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness

Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday 
Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday

Wanda Lee~  http://silkenpurse.blogspot.com/ 
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
Pam~  http://breathoffreshair-paperbutterfly.blogspot.com/ 
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
Wanda Lee~  http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/ 
Tea For Two and Wednesday Tea For Me and Thee

Trisha~  http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/ 
Tea Party Tuesday

Lady Katherine~  http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/ 
Teatime Tuesday

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Teatime Tuesday 

 

Lighter Side Of Queen Elizabeth II Video

I just came across the video on The Royal Channel at Youtube and love it! You usually see the more serious side of Queen Elizabeth II, but this is her lighter side and quite fun.
 

Fall is here...September in Full Swing, Fall Tea Caddy Microwave Lemon Curd

If you had any doubts about fall having made it's appearance, here in the Pacific Northwest you just need to walk outside and look around. The leaves are turning and today at least the fog and rain clouds were lingering around the peaks in Olympic National Park all day and have been drifting lower as the day aged. 

 This is a Sadler, England tea caddy in fall colors that I love. Tea caddies were (an still are in our house) an important item for storing the tea that is essential to most Englishmen's well being. I couldn't believe it when I found my DH's favorite black tea, Ty-Phoo Tea from England at our new Grocery Outlet that we visited for the first time yesterday. We usually have to get it from a Brit food importer!!! So, tea caddies are essential in our home.

Tea was originally a drink for the wealthy and was kept in locked tea caddies. That has evolved over the years to be just a tin, box or jar with a nice fitting lid and a pleasing pattern and/or shape to store tea on a counter ready to hand for the various tea times in a tea drinking home. There is early morning tea with a biscuit (cookies to Yanks), Elevenses...can be with another biscuit, then afternoon tea...with, guess what! a biscuit! Then after dinner tea...which nowadays is becoming a decaf or herbal. For more info on the Fall Tea Caddy above at Time Was Antiques, click on the photo.

I have recently received 2 emails asking for the Microwave Lemon Curd recipe I published in a newsletter back in 2003, so I wanted to share it here. Lemon curd is a popular staple of tea tables because it is so versatile. Lemon curd is great on scones, in tarts, on crumpets and muffins and can even make an unusual tea sandwich.


Microwave Lemon Curd

8 tbs unsalted butter
grated peel of 3 large lemons
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar


In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar lemon peel and juice until well blended. Whisk in the melted butter. Microwave on high 4-6 minutes, whicking often until the curd has thickened enough to coat a wooden spoon. Can be stored covered in the refridgerator for up to a month...but mine has never lasted that long!


Have a great day and don't forget to have a cup of tea with a friend! 
Cheers!