More tea?

(I apologize in advance if you see this post on my craft blog, too, but I wanted to share it both places.)

Wow. My tea party birthday was such a huge, amazing pile of fun that I’m not even sure where to start. I guess I’ll go chronologically. Beware: this is a long, photo-heavy post. And there’s a lot of sugar and caffeine to go around, too.

I started drinking tea a lot more often in the past few months. I was interested in learning to dry my own mint leaves and such to make tisanes, and my research led me to look for a particular book on tea that my local library didn’t have. Instead, they had Victoria magazine’s The Essential Tea Companion, which is full of information on steeping tea, using fancy dishes, and throwing tea parties. My brain went, “click.” This was May or June, I believe, and I quickly started searching my mind for a good reason to throw a tea party. I decided my birthday was a good choice. It was far enough away to plan, and I knew people would indulge me in honor of my ability not to die before I could ring in another year.

I spent a couple of months hitting up estate sales and thrift stores here and there in search of a hodgepodge of tea cups, cloth napkins, and other accoutrements. I had some early successes, but my search lagged towards the end. Luckily, the day before I had a great score at CMCA Thrift Shop (I would link you, but their website may be compromise at the moment — the store is on Utica, right by Hillcrest). I ended up with 18 beautiful tea cups all within the basic color palette I had chosen (pink, blue, purple, and gold).

Taking a much-needed, pre-party bath.

That’s enough background. On with the party!

My taller half and my mother helped me set up an hour before guests were due to arrive. We held the party at Chandler Park‘s gorgeous new community center. The room was perfect!

My major task the day before and the morning of was cooking and assembling food. Here’s the result:

The rundown (from left to right): paper plates (more on those below); plastic cutlery, a stack of vintage cloth napkins; tea sandwiches: white bean (with chives, basil, garlic and onion) on top, herbed cream cheese (with chives, garlic, onion, paprika, and chili powder) below, and peanut butter and banana on gluten-free bread on the silver platter; two veggie trays, one with hummus in the middle and the other with ranch dip; berries; two boxes of cookies brought by my cousin; sugar cookies; pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes; tea cups; lemonade; assorted tea bags; honey; creamer; and the electric kettle (well, and the boom box).

Here’s a close-up of the dessert/tea area:

I want to take a moment here to talk about the lemonade — yes, the brown stuff in the pitcher is lemonade. Why is it brown?, you may wonder. Did you serve your guests rotten juice? Yes, we did! No, wait, no, we didn’t. Here’s how you take freshly squeezed lemonade (or any other lightly colored, homemade juice) and make it look like tea: when creating the sugar syrup, use raw turbinado sugar instead of the processed white stuff. Isn’t that ingenious? No matter what everyone was sipping at the party, we all looked like we were enjoying tea. I dislike lemonade, but I heard tons of “yum!”s from the crowd, so I will let you know that the recipe came from The Joy of Cooking. The raw sugar was entirely our idea, however. The lemonade was lovingly squeezed by my gorgeous taller half.

Both of the desserts I baked were entirely vegan. The sugar cookie recipe is from the Joy of Vegan Baking, and the cupcakes are my favorite still from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Beside the desserts, I placed the tea cups so guests could choose their own. Then they could either enjoy the brown lemonade or one of the varieties of tea:

The electric kettle on the far right, barely visible, supplied the hot water. I also placed (coconut milk) creamer and honey for flavoring, but I apparently forgot to photo them. Here are the adorable containers:

In front of all the food, I placed little signs denoting what was available. I also placed an informational piece on how to make tea. Here is that and one of my favorite food labels:

My love set out three eight-top tables, at which we seated five each, and cushy chairs, all of which were included in our incredible reasonable facility rental. I didn’t have appropriately sized tablecloths, but we made do. My mother did three gorgeous, springy flower arrangements. I know it’s nearly fall, but tea party just doesn’t scream deep oranges and reds to me.

When guests arrived, I asked everyone to wear a name tag since I had a variety of people there who didn’t know each other: my family, my love’s sister, high-school friends, and Tulsa Craft Mafia gals. After about 30 minutes of mingling, I unleashed everyone on the food. We ate and sipped our tea for about an hour.

This is Kayla, my friend since 9th grade. She is beautiful. She has a 17-month-old daughter who will one day be named the most drop-dead gorgeous creature that has ever lived on this planet. Kayla also knows how to pretty up some tea. Also, don’t let that “Miss” on her name tag fool you. She’s a married lady, so hands off.

This is my love with his sister. Check out her amazing hat. Can you believe my dark Greek man shares so much DNA with this fair redhead? Totally. Just look at their matching smiles and gorgeous faces.

Another reason I asked everyone to wear name tags is because I held a best-dressed contest. Everyone voted for their favorite outfitted party attendee or attendees, and I added up the votes. The winners were:

Holly, the crafty hottie behind Hollyrocks, in second place, and my little cousin Diana in first place. How amazing do they both look? For their efforts, Diana went home with a rubber ducky tea infuser, and Holly got a gift certificate to Tulsa’s Dragonmoon Tea Company (which I’ll have to review someday).

Let’s check out Diana’s full ensemble once more:

No wonder she won with 50% of the votes.

After I announced those winners, we briefly did some birthday things. My taller half kicked it off with a game called, Do You Know Brigid? Ten trivia questions separated the knows from the know nots. My mother won. I meant to exclude her, but my love didn’t want to. She took home a prize she brought to give out to a winner. Speaking of Mom, here I am with her and her mother, too:

We don’t look alike or anything. Afterward, everyone sang to me and I opened a few gifts, which included:

An amazing Alice in Wonderland teapot from my friend Nichole and these way-too-awesome cupcake baking molds from my cousin Charity. Yes, I put them to good use this morning and enjoyed a leftover cupcake and Earl Grey Lavender tea in one of my tea cups for breakfast. My love’s sister also gave me a subscription to the awesome Ready Made magazine. My dad’s girlfriend gave me a gift basket of homemade apple butter, peach melba jam, and a gluten-free, vegan pancake mix. So thoughtful. Holly gifted me one of her terrariums for my desk at work, which I’ve been dying to have. Uber-crafty Tara gave me Loop-d-Loop Crochet. Speaking of my Mafia gals, check us out:

Yes, it is hard work being this hot AND crafty.

And after two hours of eating, sipping, chatting, and playing, it was all over. Mom and my love helped me clean and pack up. We ended up with some leftovers, which is fine by me. We ran out of plastic containers after I threw a bunch away, so Mom took the rest of the baby carrots and broccoli home in a vase:

Clever and weird.

It runs in the family.

I want to thank all of my 14 guests, including my two super-duper helpers, for making this party a reality. I couldn’t have had more fun dressing up and just hanging out with some of my favorite people ever.

Now, for a little honesty: I had planned to include a few things that I had to scrap after running out of time and money. First, I intended to use real plates instead of Chinet. However, not all of the tea cups came with saucers, and eventually I had to give up on finding enough that matched my color scheme and vision. I hate to be wasteful, but it saved my sanity. At least I bought plates made from recycled materials. I also intended to make flavored honeys and put out sugar cubes. These things didn’t happen, and it was OK. I ended up with a nearly vegan tea party that fit my fancy fantasies without breaking the bank.

Speaking of nearly vegan, of the things I made, only the cream cheese sandwiches were not dairy-free. The cookies my cousin brought and the ranch dressing that came with the veggie trays weren’t either, but I ate vegan during the party (with the exception of the honey, but I don’t exclude that from my diet). I’m pretty proud!

And though this concludes the food portion of my food blog, I will now parade a few more vanity shots:

Me with Kayla and Nichole, two of my oldest friends and favorite gals. (I was wearing really tall shoes. In real life, I’m only about 1.5″ taller than both of them.)

Cousins! That’s us in age and height order. Notice that Charity is not wearing heels and towers over us anyway.

Me with my stepsister Kaity, my little sister Sarah (who is an 11-year-old giant), and Dad’s girlfriend Jo.

And me and my love, AKA the best tea party co-host in the world.

I wish you a Sunday filled with peace, love, and half the amount of sugar and caffeine on which I ran yesterday.

Review: Garlic Rose ***

Back to that whole birthday thing. I ring it in every year with a lovely dinner out across the table from the man I love. Lucky me! This year, I decided to hit up the Garlic Rose. We’ve been here once before, when we were scrambling to fill out our passports to try to win a free pair of airline tickets from the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. We lost, but we enjoyed trying a slew of new places. Garlic Rose ended up being one of our favorite discoveries.

It’s tucked in behind the way-overrated Cafe Ole and the delightful Brasserie in the heart of Brookside. Though the menu selections are not super-veggie-friendly, there is enough there for a dairy-eating meat-eschewer. Since it’s my birthday, I didn’t worry about health tonight (though, of course, I still wouldn’t eat anything fleshy). We started off with the bruschetta — pronounced broo-SKETT-uh, just so you know. That’s one of my Italian-speaking pet peeves, right up there with “paninis.”

These are some of the best tomato bruschette I’ve had in town. The tomatoes are never mealy, and the garlic flavor is very well pronounced. Lucky boyfriend. My only complaint is that it should be a little less oily, but that far from ruined the flavor for me.

Our food was ready very quickly, so it actually beat our bread, but I’m showing you the pane first since it typically follows the antipasto course.

It’s a soft, fluffy, delicious bread that you can dip into an olive-oil-and-balsamic-vinegar mix or top with the roasted garlic — the garlic rose for which the restaurant is named. I prefer a little of both.

I ordered the eggplant parmesan for my entree.

The meal was huge — I mean, HUGE. I don’t know how many eggplants gave their lives for this dish, but I can say they went for a noble cause. The breading was divine, as was the tomato sauce. The cheese was a little heavy, but it was tasty.

My taller half had his favorite, the insalata caprese:

I sampled the mozzarella, which is some of the best I’ve had in town. I skipped the tomatoes. Someday I really will tell you about my tomato issues. Anyway, he loved it. It was gone from his plate so fast that I didn’t even realized he’d started on his cheese yet.

Somehow, we left room for dessert.

He had the tiramisu:

and I tried the meatloaf covered in cheese — wait, no, it was actually chocolate bread pudding (which didn’t have raisins or any other dried fruit) topped with a creamy sauce:

He won. Mine was good, but his was stellar. Biga makes my favorite tiramisu in town, but Garlic Rose has something to brag about, too.

All in all, it was a lovely dinner. Our waitress, Victoria, and all the other staff were friendly, helpful, and accommodating. Garlic Rose is a great date place. If you’re ever there for lunch, I highly recommend the Artichoke Hearts and Goat Cheese Salad. It’s knock-your-socks-off scrumptious.

Rating: ** for veggie options and **** for deliciousness. (See this post for scoring guide.)

Garlic Rose lives at 3509 S. Peoria behind Abersons.

And let me say that these pictures came from my new, purse-sized camera, a birthday gift from my love. Thank you so much, baby! Now I can snap away less obviously.

Aged

I turned 25 and 12 months today. Some people call that 26, but I call them uncreative.

Don’t I look more mature?

Tomorrow, I’m having a tea party to celebrate aging and to drink tea while wearing a fancy dress. But back to today.

I have two food highlights to share. One will be in a separate post because it’s a restaurant review, and being organized — at least mentally — is very important to me. Anyway, I didn’t feel like cooking lunch on my birthday, mostly because I spent most of my day baking and pureeing for the party. Instead, I grabbed some tasties at the Whole Foods deli. Behold my amazing lunch:

Mock buffalo chicken salad sandwich and artichoke asparagus salad. Yummmmmmmm! If you haven’t tried the mock chicken salad in its various incarnations, you should remedy that immediately.

This involved spiciness, which automatically made it divine. All I did was sandwich the premade stuff between two toasted slices of Whole Foods’ small batch whole wheat bread. Drool.

The salad is one of my favorites. I’m slightly obsessed with artichoke hearts, and these are always delicious.

So there you go. I’m the kind of gal who celebrates her birthday with artichokes and spicy sandwiches. No surprises here.

Daily eats: September 8, 2010

Here is what I ate today.

Maybe it’s the weather, or maybe it’s the comedown from a long, lovely weekend, but I have not wanted to get out of bed this week. The dark outside my window isn’t helping, either. This morning, I actually thought about changing my schedule so I could sleep longer. Sad. Anyway, when I finally rose and showered, I was too lazy to put forth much effort. A quickie breakfast came to the rescue.

Whole-wheat toast topped with about 1.5 tablespoons of Justin’s Maple Almond Butter and orange juice (about 1.5 cups).

Somehow that tided me over until noon. I don’t know how since I’m usually ravenous by 9:30. Even so, I enjoyed my usual morning tea at work:

Choice Organic Irish Breakfast Tea with about a tablespoon of raw, local honey. The sweet stuff has made a huge difference in me managing my seasonal allergies.

When the lunch hour rolled around, I ate something incredibly tasty:

A spinach salad topped with doctured-up dressing and two yamburgers on the side. Yes, yamburgers. They are based heavily on Gena’s Sweet Potato Chickpea Burgers. The biggest difference is that I used yams from the farmers market, attempted to double the recipe but really just made the proportions off, and possibly undercooked them. Even so, I loved them. They are delicious! I promise I’m not a paid spokesperson for Choosing Raw. She just happens to have posted some very interesting recipes lately, and I gotta eat, ya know.

The salad itself was 2.5 ounces of organic baby spinach, and I made the dressing from about a tablespoon of tahini, two tablespoons of Newman’s Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing, and 1.5 teaspoons of the most flavorful, nasal-intruding Dijon mustard ever. Yum! The yamburgers were delicious enjoyed in concert with the salad and dressing.

I never did manage to wake up today, which didn’t make me a very useful employee. Don’t tell. During a quick jaunt to return some library books, I stopped at QuikTrip to get some coffee. I figured it had to taste better than the Java Dave’s executive crap sludge coffee service at the office.

Yeah, not so much. QT, I love your gas prices, your commitment to the community, your efficiency, and your fee-free ATMs, but I prefer my coffee a little less bitter, burnt, and acidic. I had maybe half a dozen sips before throwing it out.

I was feeling a blood sugar crash approaching when I got home, but instead of finding something too naughty, I had an unpictured banana. It was yellow. You can imagine it.

In the evening, my love and I enjoyed dinner:

That’s baked brown rice with mushrooms and white bean dip, both from the Joy of Cooking, as well as some baby carrots (Bunny Luv! Flashbacks to my childhood). I topped the dip with some nutritional yeast and both dishes with plenty of black pepper. The rice especially was incredible. We used shiitake mushrooms from Mushroom Planet, a vendor at the Cherry Street Farmers Market. If you’re local, you have to try some of her fungi. I am especially enamored of the maitakes. So, so good.

Have I mentioned my birthday is Friday? That I’ll soon finish my climb over the hill that is 25? I hope 26 treats me well. Anyway, I decided to bring cookies to work tomorrow in celebration. Other people bake on their own birthdays, right?

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles. Oh mama. This is one of my favorite quick, easy, and unbelievably delicious cookie recipes. Snickerdoodle is a bit of a misnomer since they do not have the crunch or the cream of tartar bite that the name usually implies. Instead, these are pure, chocolatey heaven. I had two. Ok, three. And the batter equivalent of at least one more.

Also, look at how differently my two cookie sheets bake these things:

They don’t even look like the same kind of cookie.

So that was my Wednesday in food. It was a fairly balanced day, if you ignore all the cookies, but who would want to do that?

Review: Cafe Samana *****

I will remember 2010 for many reasons. Restaurant-wise, it’s the year Cafe Samana entered Tulsa and, therefore, my life.

It’s a small restaurant with both a clean and an eclectic interior. I like the low-key, unfussy ambiance.

But the real draw is the drool-worthy menu.

Vegetarians and vegans, rejoice. Here is a fresh, healthy option that will sate you (us) and the meat eaters in your life. On the menu pictured above, I have consumed (in order of deliciousness) the Cherise, the Roasted Veggie, the Samana BBQ Wrap, and the Beer Bratwurst. I’ve also nibbled the BellaWitch and enjoyed a mango wrap that was the special one day. I split the Hummus & Veggies on one occasion and have tried two different soups and the top three sides. Yes, I may have a Cafe Samana addiction.

My taller half and I decided to make it our lunch destination on this incredibly pleasant Saturday. Sadly, the most delicious thing there was not on the menu.

I keep him.

However, there is a whole slew of other tasty choices.

I ended up with the Beer Bratwurst (with the vegan cheese option) and red pepper and tomato soup on the side, plus iced tea (chamomile and rosehip today) to drink.

The bratwurst is probably my least favorite thing I’ve tried to far, but considering the unbelievable deliciousness of everything else, that’s not much of an insult. The truth is that I was never a huge bratwurst fan, but they were out of falafel, and I am trying to make my way through everything vegan on the menu. This dude was very close to the real deal. The bread was incredible. The sauerkraut is also quite good, though maybe a little salty in such a large quantity, but this is coming from an avowed salt disliker. It is absolutely delicious on the Cherise, Samana’s amazing tempeh Reuben. In fact, you must go there immediately and order one. The Roasted Veggie (with or without the cheese) is also an acceptable choice. You can finish reading this post later.

The soup, however, was flippin’ perfect. It was both smooth and flavorful. I may or may not have dipped half my bratwurst into the soup.

My beloved ordered the BellaWitch and the Fruit and Yogurt on the side (and water, no ice). I took a tiny, cheese-free bite of the sandwich, served on the same delicious bread, and goodness me, it was tasty. At first, he was daunted with how to approach it, but he quickly squished it together. The blue cheese was one of his favorite parts. I didn’t sample the yogurt, but he liked it. He noted it wasn’t as tart as he often likes, but neither was it cloyingly sweet. The fruit, he added, was a perfect complement.

Rating: a big, fat ***** for veggie options and ***** for deliciousness. (See this post for scoring guide.) Do I sound too biased? Then check out avowed meat-lover Scott Cherry’s review in the Tulsa World.

Cafe Samana is at 3807-F S. Peoria Ave. Their hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays.

Sullying my morning

Today is not off to a good start. I passed out early last night with a migraine, so I did manage to wake up almost on time without the aid of my alarm clock. However, once I was showered and dressed, things did not go according to plan. The dog woke up in a bad mood, apparently, and decided to be willful and not pee on the dewy grass. This, my friends, is why many people recommend having stupid dogs. Smart dogs may learn quicker, but one of the things they learn is to be a royal pain in your ass. For reference, this is the little craphead herself with her BFF the Grinch (explains so much about her):

Ten pounds of stinky, stubborn fury.

And here’s a picture of her being a creeper:

And here she is dressed in her native Ewok garb:

And here’s a video of her from this past winter’s snow storm:

Anyway, typically she accompanies me to the farmers market on Saturday mornings. It’s one of her favorite things, and one of mine, too. So I decided not to ride my bike this morning so I could take her along. Instead, she acted like the little female dog that she is and got herself in trouble. I do not hit my dog, but this is one of the mornings that I really, really wanted to. Instead, she got a “time out,” which is 30 minutes alone in the bathroom. That is, after she FINALLY peed. It took 15 minutes. Usually she’s done in less than five in the mornings.

Anyway, I left her behind, and by now it’s a few minutes after 8:00. I decided to speed through the market so I could still make my 9 a.m. yoga class, located about 20 minutes from my apartment. I’m doing well until I make my weekly stop at the Coffee House on Cherry Street‘s outside booth. He fills my cup a little less than halfway and realizes he’s out of coffee. So I go inside to have it filled up the rest of the way. The people in front of me are chatting up the barista, a local singer, so much that I wait 10 minutes just to get my joe topped off. This little exercise in patience — a virtue I do not have — makes me even crankier. I want to apologize to the staff at my favorite coffee place for my curtness. I know it wasn’t your fault.

So, long story short (too late), I don’t get home until 20 minutes before my class starts, which wasn’t enough time to unload my produce and get there at a respectful time. I don’t think it’s OK to be late to class. Sigh. I haven’t been to class in, gosh, more than a month. The Y branch was closed for two weeks due to electrical damage, and then, as soon as it reopened, I injured my arm. I think the universe may have been conspiring to keep me on arm rest for another week.

On the upside, I did get some great buys this morning.

Before you is just a sampling of each item since I didn’t want to dump everything out. I bought (from top row) summer squash (three of each color pictured), three medium-to-small yams, 1/4 pound of shiitake mushrooms, eggs for my taller half, and about a pound of green beans. Add to it $2 for my coffee (which includes tip), I spent $18.75 today. I would have liked more, but I’m on a budget.

It’s going to be an absolutely gorgeous day, so I’m hoping to do something outdoors with my amazing lover man. Maybe a walk on the trail? Or a trip to Woodward Park? Or borrowing a bicycle for him to pedal alongside me? We’ll see once the beast emerges.

A big Dilly — ***1/2 over all

Back in ye olden days (i.e. last year) when I still worked in downtown Tulsa, I would often steal away to eat lunch at Dilly Deli. They have a grilled portobello sandwich that is drool-inspiring (the Michael Roy — try it!). Since I now work on the other side of the world, I only go there on weekends now. Tear. Yesterday was such a weekend day. After rising early to pedal to the farmers market, I was famished and ready for a meal around 10:30, so we brunched it.

Irish oatmeal (the Sophie) with half the container of brown sugar and strawberry slices, with hashbrowns (I ate a little more than half), fresh orange juice, and coffee alongside. It was perfect! For all you vegan/lactose intolerant readers, their oatmeal is made with water instead of milk. Yay!

My beloved taller half tried to keep it healthy, too, with their homemade granola (the Beau) topped with strawberry yogurt and strawberry slices, coffee on the side. We both drink it black, like our souls. Or something.

Dilly Deli has several good vegetarian options, and many things are easily veganizable. Check out the menu by clicking on the categories on the top of their website. If you’re ok with dairy and/or eggs, I recommend the Meg (add avocado unless you’re allergic like my love) and my beloved Michael Roy (there goes the drool). They always have a veggie soup and tasty salads as well. Brunch/breakfast has lots of options, too, with pancakes, bagels, muffins, French toast, and the above-mentioned dishes. Try it out if you haven’t.

Over all, I give it *** on the veggie-options scale and **** on the tastiness scale. (See this post for more info on the scales.)

Dilly Deli is in the Blue Dome District at 2nd and Elgin.