Bottlecap Art ~ CreativiTea

Our annual Holiday Festivi-TEA this year featured a fun and easy craft followed by an elegant tea party to reward ourselves for all our hard crafting work! This year we transformed bottle caps into charming pins or useful magnets. We cut picture designs from recycled Christmas cards but if you would like a spiced theme, use a whole star anise and mustard seeds to create a charming pin.
To make these little gifts, you will need: Christmas card fronts, pins or magnets, bottle caps, a one inch hole punch, and Mod Podge brand dimensional magic. Simply punch out cute faces or scenes from the cards. Double face tape them into the bottle caps. Add a coating of Mod Podge, popping any bubbles that may appear. Allow to dry 3 hours. Add a magnet or pin to the back and enjoy! This craft was declared one of the easiest ones we have done over the years!

Tabletop Teapot Tree

This delightful little tabletop tree decorates one of the rooms in the tea room. It hosts a wide variety of tea themed ornaments accumulated over the years. Not only ornaments though, if you look closely, you might discover a unique shaped tea strainer, actually too small to really be functional for making tea but simply perfect as an ornament on a tea themed tree. There are even a few pieces of jewelry that have been used to decorate this tree. This little montage of pictures will give you an idea of some of the ornaments that can be found. Years of collecting have produced a fun and cheerful tree that elicits many comments from tea room visitors. You'll find a colorful Mary Engelbreit teapot or a sweet teapot kitty. Even a clay teapot carried back from Peru as a souvenir many years ago has found a special spot on this tree.

~Holiday Teas~

Our three tiered tea trays are decorated for the seasonwith ribbons and bows and tasty tea party treats. Shirlee, the newest member of our family of rosemarians (welcome Shirlee!), shares the tea tray bedecked in its holiday finery. Sandwiches on this particular SereniTea Wednesday included Cranberry Chicken Salad, Cucumber and Radish with a Herbed Cheese on Puff Pastry Rounds, Queen Adelaide Ham and Chicken Salad with Curried Tomato Butter, and Basil Pesto with Marinated Tomatoes and Goat Cheese on Baguette Slices. Oven fresh scones and tempting desserts completed the tantalizing array of goodies. 'Tis the Season.

Let the Celebrations Begin!

The tea room is decorated for Christmas with twinkling lights and tabletop trees in place. Our first holiday tea for the season was featured on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

The Menu:
Apple Cranberry Salad

Artichoke & Swiss Cheese Puff Pastry
Cucumber and Dill Sandwiches
Brie and Raspberry Rounds
Toasted Red Pepper & Cheese Stars
Tuna Salad with Mixed Sprouts on White Bread
Orange and Cranberry Mini Muffin

Traditional English Cream Scones
Cinnamon Chip Scones
Mock Clotted Cream, Lemon Curd, Jelly
Orange Slices and Pineapple Cubes

Miniature Black Forest Cake
Pumpkin Mousse in Phyllo Cups
Earl Grey Christmas Tree Cookies

May you enjoy the holiday season with many opportunities to take tea!

Herbs in the Cookie Jar

Years ago, 1995 to be exact, my mother Bertha Reppert, herbalist extraordinaire, and I (Nancy) compiled an article for The Herb Companion. Mom wrote the verbiage and I provided the assorted herbal recipes which the editor subsequently titled "Herbs in the Cookie Jar". Dear friend, Valerie, recently alerted me to the on-line presence of this article. You can find recipes for Nancy's Mint Cookies, Sweet Remembrances Enchantmint Brownies, Saffron Cookies, Rosemary Shortbread and many more if you visit The Herb Companion . What fun to see a reprise of this long ago combined mother/daughter effort!

Holiday Magic by Marj

Our most recent special event at The Rosemary House welcomed sister Marj who shared tips on decorating, gift giving and entertaining for the holidays. This fast paced evening was a load of fun as Marj demonstrated one clever idea after another. Then as each idea was shown, she drew an attendees name out of the bag and everyone left with a treasure. These pine cones had their tips dipped in glue and then glitter was added. Package in an old mason jar with some batting and you have a charming snowy centerpiece.
Old recycled Christmas lights in an apothecary jar tucked in the corner of the bookcase, is both instant decor and quietly elicits fond memories of Christmas past. A simple hearth basket laden with greens from the garden, pine cones and a few white roses that are in water picks and you have a stunning entryway arrangement for winter or New Years.

Included in the workshop was a quick lesson on bow making and a few holiday treats including this unique and flavorful combination of Brie cheese and gingersnaps (try it!) The faux silver platter was a dollar store find and the silvery decoration was recycled from a helium balloon display. She easily had 30 other hints, tips, shortcuts and fun ideas making this class a holiday favorite.

A New Book for the collection

It's always fun when your mailbox offers a package. This week we received our copy of By The Hearth. It is a compilation of the first five years of the fall /winter articles from The Essential Herbal magazine. Written by contributors to the magazine this books features a pleasant assortment of all things herbal. The chapters include: In the kitchen, Herbal First Aide (including pets), gifts and crafts from The Stillroom, Traditions and close up view of Single Herbs. The Rosemary House is represented in the book with articles on Cranberry, Kelp, Saffron and our family Christmas featuring our recipe for Byron's Potato Filling. With over 230 pages of solid information it is a joy to see that the book is very well indexed so that you can search by writer, topic, herbs, or recipe. Congrats to editor Tina Sams for this fine book. It is going to give me many fine evenings of inspiration!

Japanese and Russian Gardens at Hillwood

Shown here are additional views of the modified Russian country home with its interesting architectural elements and picturesque views of the winding and tranquil Japanese garden. Both were favorite features of ours at the Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens during our September Traveling Herb Seminar. Our 2011 Traveling Herb Seminars have not been announced yet (check out our events calendar in the early spring) but we are in anticipating a trip to various NYC herb gardens.

Hillwood Estate and Gardens

This montage of photos from our Traveling Herb Seminar this past September highlights the Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens, the home of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. She designed this home and garden to remain a museum and their aptly named slogan is "Where fabulous lives". The outside gardens have many "rooms" including a Japanese garden, a Russian area, a putting green, cutting gardens, quiet areas to sit and relax or visit and so much more. The inside of the home features an amazing collection of Imperialistic Russian Art and 18th C French Art and furnishings. This museum is well worth the visit if you are in Washington DC.

Many thanks to our friend JP for taking these photos and sharing them with us!

Miniature Pumpkin Cheesecakes

Pumpkin Cheesecake

1 c. crushed gingersnap cookies (approx. 20)

3 Tbsp. butter, melted

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 c. pure pumpkin

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 32 miniature muffin cups with paper cups.

Combine cookie crumbs and butter in small bowl. Press small amount onto bottom of each paper cup. Bake 3 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, spice, and vanilla in mixing bowl until blended. Add eggs; beat well. Carefully spoon into paper cups. Bake 20 minutes until set. Cool on wire rack. Remove tarts from pan; refrigerate.

If desired, garnish with a small dollop of whipped cream and a dusting of zested chocolate or finely chopped pecans.

The Fall Tea Tray!

You can tell the seasons have changed... the tea tray takes on a spicier look! Shown here, a recent afternoon tea service for SereniTea Wednesday. We started with a homemade Butternut Squash Apple Soup. Yummy! Local and organic butternut squash produced a warm and comforting cup of soup. The tiered tray was presented next, and it featured:

Sweet & Savory Cheddar Sandwiches

Mixed Pepper Squares

Crescent Chicken Salad Triangles

Tuna & Egg Salad with Lettuce

Sweet Radish on French Style Cheese Spread

Traditional English Cream Scones

Walnut & Raisin Scones

Mock Cream, Jelly, Fresh Fruit

Pumpkin Nut Roll

Almond Candy Bars

Millionaire's Shortbread

all accompanied with endless pots of piping hot tea. Enjoy!

Preparing for winter

For as long as we can remember Mechanicsburg has had quite a few albino squirrels, catching the attention of anyone that is lucky enough to spot one scampering around the area.A special thank you to Zachery who snapped this photo out the van window one afternoon last week. The squirrel appears quite busy gathering acorns and creating his winter stash.