A guest at our St. Patrick's Day event requested the recipe for the Irish Cream Bundt Cake. She said, "the pound cake was scrumptious. The texture was light and reminded me of old-fashioned sponge cake. The chopped nut topping was so good!". We are happy to share the recipe.
A recent dessert offered during our Strawberry Afternoon Tea included fresh berries piped with almond cream. This yummy cream filling is delicious and decorative piped into the berry, or simply served over top of sliced berries. Enjoy the bounty of fresh summer berries with this special almond cream topping.Shitake Pate
½ lb. Shitake, coarsely chopped
½ lb. Button Mushrooms, halved
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ t cayenne
½ t nutmeg
2 - 3 T fresh lemon zest
1 t salt
½ t ground black pepper
2 T cooking sherry
2 T Balsamic vinegar
3 T hazelnuts (or substitute pecans), roasted at 350 for 15 minutes and coarsely ground
Sauté mushrooms in the olive oil and then add garlic and sauté another minute. Add spices. Put mixture in food processor. Add sherry and vinegar and process, being careful not to over process. Mix in the hazelnuts. Serve with crackers or crusty bread.
This refreshing summer mint cooler is the perfect way to chill down during the dog days of summer. It's the perfect way to use some of your mint harvest, and a flavorful way to share with neighbors and friends. Tasty, minty, refreshing, and fun!
It's time to harvest that summer crop and turn it into a batch or two or three of refrigerator pickles! And we have the packet mix perfect to accomplish that mission! Order on line: Choose from Bread and Butter Pickle Mix for the person with the sweet tooth in the family. Or perhaps you want original Dill pickles, we have the perfect dill pickle mix too! and if you prefer a little spice in your life, we suggest the Hot Pickle mix. It's zippy, but let it marinate in the fridge a little while, and oh boy, it's hot.
Refrigerator pickles! Quick and easy! No canning. For the Dill Pickle Mix, we like to use a nice variety of veggies from cucumbers, to zucchini, to carrots, onion, and cauliflower. Whatever your garden is producing right now, turn it into Dill Pickles!
When we use the traditional Bread & Butter Pickle Mix we prefer to slice cucumbers and sweet onions. Simply follow the instructions on the packet, mix the prepared spice packet with sugar and vinegar, add your veggies, and wait 24 hours for delicious pickles perfect for your next outdoor gathering or picnic.
The packet of Hot Pickle Mix spices also lends itself to any variety of veggies. cukes, onions, zucchini both green and yellow, carrot rounds, and more. We notice that once the packet of spices is mixed with the sugar and vinegar (recipe on the package), it is first a 'zippy' blend, but let it marinate a week, and it becomes even zippier! For those that like it 'hot', this blend is for you!
Sweet Basil Julep
Debbie Hartman, of Thyme with Debbie has graciously shared the recipe for American Fruit Bread with Rosemary that she served at the Cooking with Mediterranean Herbs Class. Chockfull of yummy fruits and nuts plus the added boost of the fresh rosemary made this bread (served as mini muffins) a real treat. The muffin is very moist, but the addition of the orange marmalade with infused rosemary took it up a notch.
We recently hosted a special cooking demonstration and tasting session that featured the herbs of the Mediterranean region. We were pleased to welcome Debbie Hartman of Thyme with Debbie as the instructor and culinary wizard for this program. With Debbie out front in the tea room, and her husband George coordinating things in the kitchen, it was a working team that provided an enjoyable evening for our guests.
The first course featured Greek Oregano, with flavor descriptors such as peppery and spicy. Oregano can be added to summer veggies, pasta, pizza, cheese and cream sauces, chili and Mexican foods for example. Debbie shared this beautiful appetizer plate that featured Mediterranean Herbed Olives (notice the rosemary skewered olive!), along side a potato appetizer, and a herbal goat cheese spread served with crackers and cucumber slices. The goat cheese was garnished with freshly zested lemon and a few oregano leaves to nibble.
The discussion continued onto Rosemary, which grows with abundance into a showy bush in the Mediterranean region. Described as piney, pungent, and spicy, Rosemary adds well to meats, poultry, veggies such as eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and beans, along with fresh fruits and baked goods. Here Debbie prepared a lovely Orange Marmalade with Rosemary served alongside American Fruit Bread. The fruit bread was moist and tasty, and included cranberries, raisins, dates, nuts and of course, rosemary.
Dessert featured Louisa's Cake, a lovely lemon ricotta cake and Roasted Applesauce with Sage. Sage is a dry earthy flavor, also considered savory, spicy, and perhaps astringent. It blended well with the delicious variety of apples in the applesauce.
This yummy appetizer was the hit of the recent garden party we hosted for a group of herbal enthusiasts traveling from Ohio. This savory baked cheesecake served with crackers is fairly easy to make, serves a crowd, and provides a beautiful addition to any party. Garnished with edible flowers on top and edged with freshly snipped parsley, it is a feast for the eyes!
This beautiful peony blossom, Itoh Peony 'Garden Treasure' was presented to us and proudly shared from a fellow gardener. At first glance, this blooming treasure looks silken, but only upon touching the supple petals it is confirmed to be a real life specimen. The large golden yellow double flowers are 6" across with soft red centers. The plant blooms May and June, and the stems are notably strong as the peony stands proudly upright. The pretty little cakes are being served in the tea room today. They feature fresh raspberries, freshly zested lime, and lime curd atop a white frosted white cake. Such a lovely burst of spring color, both in the garden and in the kitchen. 
Rhubarb has been in abundance in the veggie box we receive weekly from Spiral Path Farm, our certified organic local farm that offers membership in their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) endeavor. Not really experienced with working with rhubarb, it has offered a new adventure in the kitchen. I found a recipe for Rhubarb Nut Bread in my well worn and tattered (so tattered it no longer has a cover) Penn Cumberland Garden Club A Bountiful Collection Cookbook. No longer in print, it features recipes, crafts, and gardening tips from members of the club. 
The newest issue of TeaTime Magazine is hitting newsstands right now, including tea rooms, gift shops (yes, even The Rosemary House), and mailboxes near you. This May/June 2018 issue includes an article written by our very own Susanna Reppert Brill entitled 'A Feast of Flowers'. Susanna shares hints and tips on how to incorporate edible flowers into your afternoon tea menu both as colorful garnish or flavorful additions to tea bread or floral butters. As a subtle nod to our 50th anniversary, she even included mom's famous rose petal sandwiches! When The Rosemary House was first opened, our mother would host tea parties in the garden, free of charge, to local women's clubs and church groups in an effort to promote the business. She would serve herbal tea of course (hot or iced depending upon the season), fresh strawberries with vanilla powdered sugar, sesame crackers made using Waverly Wafers, and rose petal sandwiches. To this day, they are still served in the tea room on special occasions. We are so pleased to be included in this nationwide magazine. Kudos to Susanna!
The #1 one product that just flies off the shelves at The Rosemary House is our very own ROASTMARY®. This was one of the first seasonings on our shelves and it was, and still is, a winner! Our mother's dearest friend Teresa Kuentz, was an excellent cook with an Italian heritage who always used garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary in her cooking. That winning combination formed the basis for this timeless seasoning. My mother (saving on the cost of long distance calls) would write to Teresa and ship a batch of the blend for tasting and tweaking. Teresa would then phone with an instruction - more rosemary, or less salt, or more pepper, and another batch would be made and sent off for the taste test, until finally, she had her dear friends stamp of approval.  |
| Bertha and Teresa (L) shared smiles, laughter and busy hands when they were together. |
In the 1995 article that mom penned, which now appears online in Mother Earth Living here, the story continues that, as a young girl, Nancy always lamented the fact that the cookie jar was filled with compost and not cookies. Well, mom's words describe it best: When she was growing up, my third daughter, Nancy, was the one who bounced home from school shouting, “Let’s make cookies, Mom!” I think I frustrated her often by using the cookie jar for kitchen composting; maybe that’s why, even today as a busy businesswoman herself, she’d still rather bake cookies than just about any other activity I can think of. She began developing cookie recipes at a fairly young age. In her tearoom, she is known for her rich sweets.
Years ago, we're talking in the mid '90s, dear old mom wrote an article titled Herbs in the Cookie Jar for a herbal themed magazine. Over the years, the magazine changed hands, and the article has been resurrected on the Internet by the Mother Earth Living magazine. It was a thrill to find mom's words in this magazine alongside recipes that Nancy has served in the tea room. After contacting the magazine, we have graciously received authorization from Jessica Kellner, the Editor-in-Chief to share the article. Follow the links to find each recipe (clockwise from the left) Lavender Cookies (recipe below), Black Pepper Chocolate Balls, Coriander Date Cookies, and Saffron Cookies. 
