Fragrant and luscious, this tasty tea needs no added sugar. Photo courtesy Choice Organic Tea.
The lychee (pronounced LIE-chee, not LEE-chee, after the Chinese lai chi) is one of the most popular fruits in Southern China. The evergreen grows wild in southern China, northern Vietnam and Cambodia, although there is evidence that it has been cultivated since around 2000 B.C.E.
Lychee tea is highly esteemed in China. Following an ancient process, tea leaves are infused with the succulent juice of the lychee. The lychee is also a symbol of beauty. This tea has delicate woody overtones with a hint of sweet lychee flavor.
Alternative spellings include lichee, litchi and other variations.
Blended with the exotic flavor of lychee fruit and osmanthus flowers, the tea is lush and aromatic. It’s a beautiful tea to drink plain, without sweetener. The lychee supplies its own delicate sweetness, and the tea can be enjoyed hot or cold.
If you want to send a gift to your mother, grandmother, sister, aunt or other favorite mom, today’s the last day you can order with standard five-day delivery. Tomorrow is possible, but it gets iffy to guarantee delivery by Saturday. (Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 8th.)
We’d like to recommend these exquisite, hand-crafted balls of sugar from Chambre de Sucre.
They are stunning with coffee or tea. Even if Mom doesn’t use sugar herself, guests will long remember being treated to them.
This Sucre Rond (round sugar) is available in 36-piece and 42-piece boxes; square-shaped sugars are available as well.
Use candied rose petals (shown above) or freeze-dried rose petals as an easy cake decoration. Photo courtesy Valerie Confections | Los Angeles.
You can bake a stunning Mother’s Day cake without professional cake decorating skills. Do it with flowers!
Just use fresh, candied or freeze-dried rose petals to decorate the sides of the cake. It will be stunning. (Crystallized rose petals are small and crunchy, and not appropriate for this type of decoration.)
You’ll need 2-4 cups of rose petals, depending on the size of the cake (don’t tamp down the petals when measuring them or they’ll bruise).
The only caveat is that you need to use organic rose petals. Flowers sprayed with pesticides should not be eaten.
Buy fresh organic roses at your nearest organic florist or food store.
Freeze-dried rose petals are ready-to-use and much more affordable. You can purchase them at baking supplies stores and online.
Make candied rose petals with the recipe below:
Recipe For Candied Rose Petals
1. Separate 3 eggs; reserve yolks for another purpose.*
2. Whisk the egg whites in small bowl until white and foamy.
3. Brush egg whites on both size of rose petals with a pastry brush. Sprinkle with superfine sugar.
4. Dry on a nonstick rack overnight.
For more of a rose effect, add a teaspoon of rosewater to the cake batter or frosting.
*Things To Do With 3 Egg Yolks: Pastry cream—used for éclairs—is delicious with fresh fruit; French custard ice cream; baked custard; crème brûlée; from-scratch chocolate pudding. For savory uses, make Béchamel, Bearnaise or Hollandaise sauces; mayonnaise; thicken soups and/or make Greek avgolemono soup.
Grandma Hoerner’s Big Slice Applesauce is the chunkiest you’ll find. Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.
Well, “chunky” may not be the most accurate word.
Grandma Hoerner’s makes a specialty applesauce called Big Slice, because the applesauce is mostly large slices of apples, just like in a pie—but stewed to softness instead of baked.
Grandma Hoerner was raised on an apple orchard in Kansas, and began making applesauce in the late 1880s. Her grandson, Duane McCoy, began bottling and selling Grandma’s recipe in 1986. And we really like it.
The applesauce is made from all-natural, slow cooked apples. No sugar is added; the products are sweetened with fruit juice. In addition to the original All Natural Big Slice, Grandma Hoerner’s makes several varieties with added fruits or spices:
Apricot Big Slice
Candy Apple Big Slice
Cinnamon Big Slice
Raspberry Big Slice
Raspberry Jalapeno Big Slice
Strawberry Big Slice
We tried the original Big Slice applesauce, plus the Apricot and Strawberry versions. Compared to the glamour of the compound flavors, the original flavor was the plain sister. Go for the Cinnamon instead.
We loved Apricot and Strawberry, and look forward to trying the rest of the line. And at $5.50 for a 26-ounce jar, they’re a good value.
The products are available at GrandmaHoerners.com. They can be enjoyed as a side or dessert. Packaged in attractive Mason jars, they make inexpensive small gifts and stocking stuffers.
