What is in your cup?

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

No power by me... storms really did a number here... might be a week more. Slipped into my office at the university just to cool off, work on my lesson,l catch some quick news and then back to the oven of a house I now have!

Newest update... no power till 7/7 - 7/8. Leaving town to find shelter. TTFN!

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Newest update... no power till 7/7 - 7/8. Leaving town to find shelter. TTFN!

Unbelievable!

[Billi]

Originally Posted by lucasfernan89

Side note - see that Germany has banned circumcision for any reason other than medical?

More or less. A court has declared that circumcision is a criminal act, that the doctor commits a "bodily harm/bodily injury". The background is the question what values more, the religious freedom of the parents or the physical integrity of the child. It was the decision of a regional court, so it's not a new law by now but it is assumed that a change of the law will follow this decision.

[Water]

[pdurrant]

I think I must drop in a mod note.

Discussion of whether male circumcision should be banned certainly falls under both politics and religion. Please take any further discussion to the P&R forum.

[Billi]

Sorry, didn't want to discuss it in any way, simply provide the information. You may delete it if it is not appropriate here.

[aceflor]

Champagne in my cup, and much more cups awaiting us this evening. The fiesta started at the first goal, and is well under way everywhere in Spain. I am so, so happy, Spain had my heart from the beginning on and I am delighted they won. DH, although sad Germany did not get to play in finale, is happy too because the best team won, undeniably.

We are now joining other friends at a bodega, if we can even reach it ;-) , everyone is in the streets tonight !!!

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by aceflor

Champagne in my cup, and much more cups awaiting us this evening. The fiesta started at the first goal, and is well under way everywhere in Spain. I am so, so happy, Spain had my heart from the beginning on and I am delighted they won. DH, although sad Germany did not get to play in finale, is happy too because the best team won, undeniably.

We are now joining other friends at a bodega, if we can even reach it ;-) , everyone is in the streets tonight !!!

Congratulations to Spain.

I found some of their football in the tournament a bit boring, but tonight they showed what they are really capable of - great stuff!

Enjoy your night

[Stitchawl]

There she was just a walkin' down the street singin'
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do
Snappin' her fingers and a shufflin her feet singin'
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do

She looked good (looked good) She looked fine (looked fine)
She looked good she looked fine, and I nearly lost my mind.

Before I knew it she was walkin' next to me singin'
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do
Holdin' my hand just as natural as can be singin'
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do

We walked on (walked on) To my door (my door)
We walked on to my door, then we kissed a little more.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pka6mDVQkY0 )


Good morning, everyone (including little Lucas who's probably not so happy to have had a little snipped off the top. Trust me, kid. It get's better, although truth be told, I was so ticked off at people I didn't speak to anyone for a full year afterwards!)

Ahmad's "English Breakfast" tea in my mug, and warm biscuits on my plate... Lots of butter on top, too! Then, it's off to do my chores... milk the chickens, curry the cows, etc.


Stitchawl

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Billi

Sorry, didn't want to discuss it in any way, simply provide the information. You may delete it if it is not appropriate here.

Sorry to be heavy handed, but it's exactly the kind of issue that P&R was created for.

No Coke Zero today. Back to orangeade with zero added sugar,

[ProfCrash]

Water for the moment. Watching Lucas sleep in his crib. It is nice to be home.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Water for the moment. Watching Lucas sleep in his crib. It is nice to be home.

Ah, then you must have power back. Excellent. I wasn't sure you'd be lucky enough to actually get home yet.

Just finished up some more of my Peet's Anniversary Breakfast Blend tea. But it's a gray day and WET. Sigh. I'd be happy to take about 10 degrees (F.) of your heat from our East Coast members. I think it's time for some Lapsang Souchong.

[poohbear_nc]

Guinness! It's below 100 F today .... maybe I should have had a hot drink? ..... NOT!

Don't forget those pictures Prof! Of Lucas in his tea cozy!

[Stitchawl]

Gypsy woman told my momma, before I was born
You got a boy-child comin', gonna be a son-of-a-gun
Gonna make these pretty women, jump and shout
And the world will only know, a-what it's all about

Y'know I am,
Everybody knows I am,
And I'm the hoochie-coochie man,
Everybody knows I am!

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0FJCsOV7CA )

Good morning, everyone! Rain outside, sunny inside. Not so bad, eh? Ahmad's "English Breakfast" tea in my cup, with bacon and eggs, with toast for sustenance. How ethnic is that!?!

Mods: Is Lucas the first full term pregnancy and delivery for MobileRead?
(Yes, I know that he was a couple of days short of 'full term' for pregnancy, but I mean a full 'start to finish' baby.)



Stitchawl

[Stitchawl]

A Nice Cup of Tea
By George Orwell
Evening Standard, 12 January 1946.


If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea.

Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.

Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.

Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.

Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one's ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

(taken from The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 3, 1943-45, Penguin ISBN, 0-14-00-3153-7)


Have a nice cup of tea.

Stitchawl

[CRussel]

Oh dear, Stitchawl. I think there might just be one or two things we would not agree with in that list.

Here on the Wet Coast, it promises to be another grey and damp day, but there is hope on the horizon. None the less, I'll spend today indoors, starting several batches of sausage. I've got three pork shoulders and a fresh ham to debone and convert into sausage of various varieties over the next week or so. First up will be a new one for me, a typical Southern US breakfast sausage in link form. Seasoning will be primarily sage (but with a touch of nutmeg and ginger) and a bit of red pepper for some heat. Stuffed in lamb casings.

In my cup: Fresh squeezed orange juice, and Peet's Anniversary Breakfast Blend is brewing in the pot.