Category: Personal & Round Ups

There are some books that you correlate to certain things – food, drink, smells… it has as much to do with the book itself as the experience of reading it. For me, Pride and Prejudice (and all of its modern day spinoffs), make me want to host a tea party. Thus, inspired by this week’s review of Longbourn, I thought I’d do a round up of some tea time treats from the blogosphere.

For those of you unfamiliar with traditional English tea, afternoon tea is usually accompanied by finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and little cakes. I won’t say that any of the below tea time treats are traditional English, but you can certainly enjoy them in your own afternoon tea.

The second set of links are to food and beverages either infused with tea or are a blogger’s take on a popular tea.

I haven’t gotten to try everything on this list, so if you make any of the below, be sure to come back and let me know how you liked it!

Tea Time Treats 

1. Almond Poppy Seed Bread (from Books n’ Cooks)
2. Cranberry Walnut Scones (from Books n’ Cooks)
3. Grapefruit Scones (from Confections of a Foodie Bride)
4. Green Goddess Tea Sandwiches (from Joy the Baker)
5. Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies (from Hot Polka Dot)
6. Petit Fours (from Vegan Yum Yum)
7. Raspberry Lemon Balm Jam (from The Way to His Heart)
8. Vanilla Sugar (from Books n’ Cooks)

Tea-Infused Goodies

1. Chocolate Earl Grey Caramels (from Vanilla Garlic)
2. Coconut Iced Tea (from Jenn Cuisine)
3. Dark Chocolate Early Grey Cupcakes (from Desserts for Breakfast)
4. Earl Grey Chocolate Pots de Creme (from Gourmande in the Kitchen)
5. Earl Grey Oatmeal with Cardamon & Honey Cream (from A Better Happier St. Sebastian)
6. Earl Grey Tea Latte (from Gimme Some Oven)
7. Green Tea Ice Cream (from Annie’s Eats)
8. Lemon, Ginger, and Orange Earl Grey Flavored Sugars (from Taylor Takes a Taste)
9. Sweet Tea Bourbon Cocktail (from Joy the Baker)

I’ve had quite the busy weekend! I started the weekend off with a couple of projects to use up some goods in my fridge and pantry. First, I made and froze (in 2 Tbs. portions) some basil pesto to use in one of my favorite winter comfort foods – baked ziti with spicy Italian sausage, tomatoes and spinach.

Then I moved on to a nutty, coconut-y granola. I had intended on making it weeks ago for friends who recently had a baby, but we had trouble finding a time to get together so a freezable breakfast it was. Worked out well for me – I enjoyed the granola mixed with yogurt for breakfast yesterday, and will probably have the same thing every day this week. I enjoyed it that much.

After pesto and granola, I spent several hours making a cake, which you’ll read about here on Wednesday. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is or how it turned out – you’ll have to visit on Wednesday to see. We finished off Saturday with board games at a friend’s house.

On Sunday, I did some errands and visited with a friend who was in town for the day. I made a roast chicken for dinner (one of my first ones!) but forgot to snap a photo. However, I did remember to take a picture while prepping… of my afternoon cocktail. 🙂 Bakers Royale posted a recipe for orange sage vodka tonic this week. I immediately amended my grocery list so that I could try it out. Yum! I might have had two on Sunday afternoon. I might have texted my mom, saying to bring me more sage leaves from her over-producing plant because I might be making this every weekend. This cocktail might become a problem.

I finished up the weekend with a bit of blogging and playing with photos while Hazelnut slept. Yep, can’t believe you’ll have two blog posts this week!  On that note, I’m going to read for an hour before bed. I wish you all a very good week.

(Note: These photos were taken via Instagram. Follow me @booksncooks). 

On February 17, a couple of weeks before anticipated, Sophie turned our family of 2 into a family of 3. We’re overjoyed that she’s finally here and can’t take our eyes off of our perfect little angel.

The proud dad won’t put her down; the new Grandpa is planning trips to the beach and historic sites; Grandma is spoiling her with cute outfits and making beautiful quilts for her; and her great uncles are shopping woot like crazy and planning her first cooking lesson (stuffed cabbage and Polish bow tie cookies). And her mom is enjoying every minute of it.

I’ve got a couple of posts started, including a wonderful guest post by Lynsey Lou’s, that will be out shortly.

In addition to being on Facebook, Books n’ Cooks is now also on Pinterest (check out the books on my to-read list, some of the recipes I’ve bookmarked to try, and a bunch of cool book-related and foodie crafts).

I also attended my first food bloggers conference this year – Mixed. It was such a great weekend of networking with fellow food lovers and sessions on all aspects of blogging – from photography and food styling to videography and ebooks. I met some amazing people and came away incredibly inspired, with lots of ideas for the new year.

But without further ado, I give you the top posts of 2012 – both my favorites and yours.

In the Kitchen: Personal Favorites (I couldn’t keep the list to just 5)

• Strawberry-Feta Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Vinaigrette
• Chicken Enchilada Soup (Crock Pot)
• Mixed Berry Salad with Vanilla Syrup
• Citrus Martini
• Almond Poppy Seed Bread
• Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies

In the Kitchen: Reader Favorites – You guys apparently really like my sweets

• Chocolate Cake Batter Cookies
• Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Mix
• Caramel Macchiato Cupcakes
• Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels
• Pretzel S’mores

In the Kitchen: Recipes Made or Tried That Didn’t Make the Blog (either the photo wasn’t pretty enough, it was eaten before I could photograph, or a friend made the recipe)

• Dark Chocolate Earl Grey Cupcakes from Dessert for Breakfast – Love love love the Earl Grey flavor in the icing. This will definitely be made again!
• Blueberry Crumb Bars from Sweet Remedy – The dessert fairy dropped these off one day. Let’s just say that my husband didn’t quite get his fair share of the package. 😉
• Caprese Salad on a Stick – now I’ve seen this idea several places, but a friend made it for a joint baby shower we threw earlier this year. Simple, easy to make, and tasty. What’s not to ask for. (Link goes to the blog post where she originally found the idea, but again, it’s everywhere).
• Coconut Zucchini Bread from Two Peas and Their Pod – I had sent this recipe to my mom when she had an abundance of zucchini. I only recently pulled on of the loaves she made out of the freezer. Moist and sweet, I like it better than my family recipe.

Off the Bookshelf: Personal Favorites

• The Bronze Horseman Trilogy (The Bronze Horseman, Tatiana and Alexander, and The Summer Garden) – I had read the first book before, but reread it and finished the series this year.
• The Night Circus
• Shadow of Night (second book in the All Souls Trilogy, following A Discovery of Witches, read in 2011)
• The Graceling Realms Series
• The Invisible Bridge
• The Lover’s Dictionary

Off the Bookshelf: Reader Favorites

• The Hunger Games Series
• The Vow
• The Bronze Horseman
• Brothel
• The Wilder Life

The Hunger Games review is the only one on this list not published in 2012, but I felt the need to highlight it as it was the top book review for 2012. Also, like last year, my Nook-ADE Tutorial (for getting library books onto your Nook), Nook screensavers, and my tutorial on removing books from your Nook were the top book-related posts of the year.

What were your favorite recipes and/or books read from 2012? Leave me a comment – I’d love to check them out in 2013.