Cucumber Sandwiches

For someone who loves tea (and tea parties) as much as I do, I thought it was about time I learned how to make a cucumber sandwich. You hear about them all the time in connection with tea, but I couldn't help but think that a sandwich made out of cucumbers sounded a little strange to someone who is used to bread, lunch meat, and cheese on their sandwiches. But when I found out that one popular way to have a cucumber sandwich is with cream cheese... well, that changes everything! So here is Marsha's favorite way to make a cucumber sandwich. It's so crisp and fresh! Enjoy!

Cucumber Sandwich

Ingredients:

• bread
• cucumber
• cream cheese 
• seasoning

Directions:

1. Spread your desired amount of cream cheese on your bread.
2. Top with cucumber slices.
3. Season to taste

Marsha's Notes:

• You can used any bread you like. Pictured, I used two mini bagels because it's a little less bread and calories than a full-sized bagel, but you can use anything you like, toasted or not.
• You can also use any kind of spreadable cream cheese that you like. My two preferences for this kind of sandwich currently are plain cream cheese or garden vegetable cream cheese.
• You can season your sandwiches if you want to, but you don't have to. You can try just a little sprinkle of salt, or maybe some pepper, but I really enjoy Everything But the Bagel seasoning, which is ironic because I put it on bagels... so does that makes it just Everything seasoning?
• You can peel or not peel your cucumbers, but years ago working in a restaurant I learned the trick of making your cucumbers slices more interesting by peeling only strips of the skin off and leaving some peel alone (see the edges of the cucumbers shown). Then you get some of the nutrients of the peel, but also a fun design.

Bagels opened and one half spread with cream cheese.

Topped with cucumber slices and sprinkled with seasoning.

Done and ready to enjoy!

Tea Boiling Temperatures

Ever wondered what is the correct temperature to get the best results and most flavorful tea? Well, I did, so here you go!

 

Here is a basic guide for water temperatures:

• Black tea: 212 degrees.
• Green tea: 175 to 180 degrees.
• White tea: 175 to 180 degrees.
• Oolong tea: 195 degrees.
• Pu-erh tea: 212 degrees.
• Purple tea: 175 to 180 degrees.
• Herbal tea: 212 degrees.
• Rooibos tea: 212 degrees.

There is also this chart for steeping times by The Republic of Tea (although most teas will tell you how long to steep them on the package):

Strawberry Matcha Tea

I have tried to branch into the world of matcha tea. It's a very popular green tea that, when made traditionally, has all these fun little cups, whisks, and the like for making it properly. However, just straight, I think it tastes and smells like grass, so I figured I must be doing something wrong, or else it is an acquired taste.

So, Krystal and I went to the Monarch Tea House and I asked the lady to make me a matcha the proper way, just so I could see if I would like it if someone who knew what they were doing prepared it. And I did! Now, granted, it was half as much matcha as they would usually use (to ease me into the process) with lots of fillers, but now I can make some for myself at home and enjoy the experience! So here is what I do...

Marsha's Strawberry Matcha Tea

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop/tsp matcha tea powder, or more to taste (The Monarch does 2 scoops normally)
• 1/4 cup strawberry puree
• milk of choice (I used vanilla almond milk)
• ice
• hot water

Directions:

1. In a large glass (20-24 oz), pour strawberry puree into the bottom of the cup, then add your desired amount of ice (I do about half of the cup full of large cubes). 
2. Add enough milk to mostly fill your cup, leaving an inch or so of space near the top to add your matcha (later) and any other desired toppings. 
3. In another smaller cup, whisk together matcha powder with a small amount of water until frothy and/or dissolved (maybe 1/4 cup of water or so). 
4. Gently pour this over the top of the milk in your larger cup. Top with any additional whipped cream or syrups to taste.

Your strawberry puree should make a pretty red bottom to your cup. When you pour the matcha over the top of the ice and milk, you can watch it slowly swirl down into the milk. So fun!

When you fully stir your matcha, milk and strawberry puree together, you can lose your green color as the red and green mix to make more of a brown, depending on how much matcha and how much strawberry you use. 

This was my matcha from the Monarch Tea House

Boba Tea

I have discovered and LOVE boba tea! It's so yummy! Here is a quick tutorial.

Boba Tea

Ingredients:

• boba
• tea mix
• ice
• sweetener, if desired
• creamer

Directions:

1. Boil your desired amount of boba according to the package directions. My basic boba says to boil for 5 minutes, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes before rinsing off with cold water.
2. Blend 1/4 cup tea mix with 6-8 oz of hot/boiling water in a boba cup. I used water from either my Keurig or instant hot water tap.
3. Add cooked and rinsed boba to your tea mixture in the boba cup.
4. Add any desired sweeteners or flavorings.
5. Top off the entire cup with ice. 
6. Fill any remaining room at the top of the cup with milk or creamer.
7. Close the water-tight seal over the straw hole and gently shake the cup to mix it all together.

Using my hand-whisk to mix my tea powder mix with hot water.

Boiling my boba.

Add boba to tea mix, sweetener or flavoring, fill entire glass with ice.

Top off any remaining space with creamer or milk.

Shake and done!

Marsha's Notes:

You do need a boba cup and straw for these drinks. I got mine off amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0924MJTJV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

You will also need to either brew your own desired tea, or use tea mix (kind of like hot chocolate mix, only it's tea, sweetener and creamer all in powdered form, often called "milk tea"). Milk tea is the most traditional kind, but there is also other mixes you can try, like the fun purple Taro, or many non-tea flavors like cookies n' cream or peach, which you can use with boba pearls or not. It's up to you. I got mine on Amazon, here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072R1G8BH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

You also need boba. There are lots of different kinds to pick from... some you cook on the stove... some are "bubble pearls" or "popping pearls" that are more for cold fruity teas and require no cooking... The kind of boba that you cook comes in different kinds and flavors too, like regular tapioca, brown sugar, rainbow, and lychee. Here are some I have gotten before on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CR06BO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

These are the kind that come in a "juice" and you just scoop them out with a slotted spoon and then add them to iced tea.

Tips for fruity teas and popping boba:

If you have the time, brew your desired tea like normal and let chill in the fridge. Then just add your ice, sweetener and boba. If you are going to be making fresh hot tea and don't have time to let it cool, then brew your tea twice as strong as normal so when you add it to ice and the ice melts, it doesn't water-down the drink too much.

For Mother's Day, we all had boba as a family! I was in the middle of making the boba when I took this picture, so all I have done is dissolving the taro and milk teas into hot water. You can see my boba pearls cooking in the pan on the stove in the background. As you can see, the milk tea is a pretty tan color (just like my Mother's Day boba plush!) and the taro powder makes that pretty purple milk tea.

Dirty Chai Tea Latte

I really love chai tea latte, and so I mixed things up by adding some additional flavored syrup to it and a splash of strong coffee to make it dirty. The results were amazing!!! So I don't forget, here's the recipe.

Dirty Chai Tea Latte

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbl Mystic Chai Latte powder mix
• 8 oz hot water
• 1 pumps Jordan's Skinny Syrup Cinnamon Vanilla
• 1/4-1/2 cup cold brew coffee

Directions:

1. Using very hot water, mix the chai powder until completely dissolved. 
2. Add syrup flavoring and cold brew coffee to taste. Stir and enjoy!

Marsha's Notes:

To get very hot water, I used my Keurig.

I just poured in about "an inch" of cold brew into the latte, so how much I used is a bit of a mystery, but I imagine it was about a 1/4-1/2 cup. You can totally adjust all of this to your tastes. Like more coffee flavor... add more... need more chai... go for it.

I get my chai powder from Sam's Club in a big container. Other chai mixes will probably work just as well, so use your favorites and adjust the flavors as needed.

To save on calories and sugar, I used Jordan's Skinny Syrup brand, the cinnamon vanilla flavor for this drink. You can use any flavor you like or even leave it out. You can sometimes find these in stores, but I order mine from the Internet.

Here is my post on how to make your own cold brew coffee... but they also often have premade bottles of cold brew in the grocery store right by the milk and coffee creamers. The flavor of coffee beans you use in your cold brew could also impact the flavor and require some adjustment for this recipe.

How to make cold brew- https://1brother2sisters.blogspot.com/2020/07/cold-brew-coffee.html