Boat of Life

Loved this.  Sums it up really.  Saw it on India Knight's blog:  indiaknight.posterous.com/ and it is a quote from Jerome K Jerome .

Books

Am so excited.  My two favourite writers have got new books out:

Always rewarding, funny, clever.












And my other favourite: brilliant, beautiful, observant:

While I was waiting for the paperback to come out I have been re-reading The Travelling Hornplayer which I am loving again.

Tea

I have been musing today about tea and how much I love it.

We are rather besotted with tea in our household.  My husband and I are both incapable of conducting a conversation before we have a cup of tea in the morning.   Tea really must come from a pot (or at a pinch one of those infuser things) and because the first cup is always the best a large tea cup is essential.  Teabags and coffee mugs are for picnics in the paddock.  Milk in a jug.  I love my mixed up collection of breakfast cups and am always looking for more....(way too much time spent on ebay UK).  The other thing is an enamel tea pot:

Purists may argue that the finest bone china is the best, but nothing can beat tea from an old enamel pot.  I had the extreme good fortune of marrying into a tea-loving family, and my wonderful mother-in-law gave us this funny old brown teapot that she found in a second hand shop.  Unassuming though it is, great tea comes from this pot. I always use a blend of Bushells Blue Label and Twinings English Breakfast which I mix together and put in a cannister.  It is a good everyday blend and you can buy the tea at the supermarket and god forbid if I ever change the mix because the sensitive palate of my dearly beloved instantly recognises the subterfuge.  We have Irish Breakfast when in Melbourne because it is stronger and you can't taste the water so much, and  I love Twinings Lady Grey in the afternoon (no milk). 

I love my daggy ski hat tea cosy that I bought in New Zealand too....

And I think it's important to have a sweet morsel with your tea in the afternoon.  Today it is Sultana Cake:

500g sultanas

1 tblsp golden syrup

125g butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tblsp grated lemon zest

1 teasp vanilla essence

1 1/4 cups SR flour

1 teasp bicarb soda

1/4 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 180.  Butter and line a 20cm square cake tin.

Put sultanas in a saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to the boil and simmer 2 minutes.  Drain then stir in the golden syrup.

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, then add zest and vanilla.

Fold in sifted flour and bicarb and add the milk, stirring gently.  Add the sultanas and fold evenly.  Put into prepared tin and bake for approx 1 hour until a skewer comes out clean.  Cool in tin.

Coffee I could possibly live without, but tea, never.....