I just couldn’t pass this one up today. Read a blog post about Sweet Tea Pie which is a recipe in a new book from Martha Hall Foose. The author of the post, Angela McRae, found an error in the recipe concerning the crust. She was able to hunt down another version of it in a newspaper article and discovered that the crust ingredients and amounts as listed were twice what they should be. Just a note to the wise.
Why I am interested in this is due to tea being one of the ingredients that makes up this cream pie. Just sounds so interesting it just might make me get the ingredients and make the pie. I don’t cook much these days so that’s really saying something. I just love all the new recipes coming out with tea as an ingredient. I just may have to start cooking again, especially if I can cook with tea.
Go to her post and you will find the recipe listed. You won’t have to buy the book but from what I read on Amazon, it might not be such a bad idea. The title is Screen Doors and Sweet Tea
Filed under Tea by on Jul 1st, 2008. 
Wow! This one is all over the news. In a study out of Greece, they have found that drinking green tea gives you improved blood vessel function 30 minutes after drinking. These findings were presented in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation.
Our source says that what is happening is improved function of the endothelial cells that line blood vessels. With improve function, there should be a decreased risk of atherosclerosis. That’s the clogging of the arteries.
In the course of the study, they found that the subjects has “significantly increased artery widening (dilation). The best increase was at the 30 minutes point. You can check out our source to see how they tested that.
Just makes drinking tea better and better. Add in a little red wine and some dark chocolate now and then and you have some real healthful additions to your diet. Tea just gets better and better.
Source: Green Tea Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
and a link to the study itself: The acute effect of green tea consumption on endothelial function in healthy individuals
Filed under Health Benefits of Tea by on Jul 4th, 2008.
I found a couple different blogs with interesting information concerning tea today.
The first addresses Ginger Tea which actually falls into the herbal tea type instead of the regular teas I usually talk about here. But this seemed interesting. The author of the post lists quite a few benefits to having ginger in your diet. I admit the ginger tea did seem interesting as the ginger was mixed with peppermint to make the tea. Check it out at this post: Ginger Tea and the Benefits of Ginger
The second blog has posted several different recipes which include tea as an ingredient. I believe I have posted a link to this blog once before. The recipe that caught my eye this time was one for Green Tea Zucchini Bread. What could be better than a way to make use of all that zucchini at this time of year than to make it into a sweet bread that includes green tea. I can hardly wait to try this one.
You might want to just generally check out the blog for uses of tea with food: Tea with Friends
Filed under Tea by on Jul 8th, 2008.