h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ta, Galen! Oh there's nothing like a pot of is there?

Mmm, the is very nice, Galen.

sandwiches
soup
and steamed brocolli as a salad dressed with lemon herb dressing
grilled with roasted garlic on bruschetta
omelette with green peppers and cheese
and eggplant(aubergine) marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and baked....
Now, I'm really hungry.

wow, your garden must be in full bloom of s!
*sips *
nope, there is not a single thing like tea...

I wish my garden was full of s. Those were menu suggestions and a bit of wishful thinking since I don't really feel like cooking tonight.

My favorite s are probably Twinings Irish Breakfast and Wild Berry Zinger by Celestial Seasonings.

How about a nice cup of chai?

That's black tea jazzed up a bit with indian spices and *lots* of sugar.

Oh I love chai! There was a great chai tent (no, actually, a yurt) at a festival I went to....my daughter and I spent pretty much all our time there in between the story-telling and the bands and the middle-eastern dancing and the..oh it was a lovely festy...
drinks happily

I go for a bit of Bolognese too. Also, I can't think of an occasion when I've had a soup that I didn't like.

Hi Bob! *sets to work to cook fresh pot of soup*

Ooh which festival was that Elfida?
A good friend of mine is a festie chaiwallah, although he normally serves up from a tipi.

chai is awesome, as well as yerba mate
its a brazilian tea with milk and honey, its a green tea with other spices... its really good...
my favorite straight tea though is camimile

I could go for that. Ordinarily, I don't fancy much, but lots of spices and milk and honey would probably make it much more interesting.

...haven't tried yerba mate yet, Galen, but it sounds as though I should...
L...It was one of the 'Quest' festivals, where everybody camped out on Newton Abbot racecourse - if your mate was the excellent Chaiwallah there then he would remember keeping an eye on my guitar in between sets and debating what the best thing was to soothe the sore feet of a poor bloke who had lingered too long in the fire-walking pit (ouch! ). We decided fesh aloe vera was probably the answer...

thats too bad, yes yerba mate is really nice... it is not so sweet as chai, and very different spices. i dont quite know how to decribe it, its just really good
yes, spices and milk and honey really make it more interesting, makes it into more than flavoured water

yes...the aloe vera fixed it though (there was a stall selling medicinal plants and herbs and fortunately a beautiful aloe vera plant was right at the front!)
Visited some home-educating friends today just as they were making chai (no yerba mate, though...I'll look out for it in the market where there's a good and coffee seller)
Lime -blossom is very light and fragrant - delicious iced with some mint and a splosh of fresh lime juice, or warm with a little elderflower cordial.

oohhh, lime blossom iced tea sounds absolutely marvelous!
that sounds so incredibly good!

yes, it's very refreshing! My grandmother used to make out of elderflowers...for a (supposedly) non-alcoholic drink, it made the recipients surprisingly giggly!

I've *nearly* made it to the Quest festival at least 4 times now Elfrida!
I'm not sure if my mate was the 'chaiwallah in residence', I'll make sure to ask him next time I see him. Burnt don't sound so good...

Your family recpie for elderflower sounds great!

what is the quest festival?

....It's a really fun gathering of all kinds of people who have some skill or craft to share (or who just want to sit in the chai yurt and chat!)..it's different every year according to who turns up..I think there's a Quest website around here somewhere...just a mo (calls on AskJeeves, obliging soul that he is )

H'm...can't seem to find Quest this year (was a couple of years ago that I went)..
But here's the elderfower recipe:
When the elderflowers are in full bloom, pick about 7 large flower-heads: it's important that you pick these after the morning dew has dried, and with the sun on them (noon is a good time for this).
Not everyone agrees that this is necessary, but if you have the patience, take a fork and comb the flowers off the stems into a big bowl (my Nan used the glazed earthenware bowl that she mixed bread-dough in). (The theory behind this is, the fewer green bits of stem the better.) If in a hurry, just shake the flower-heads free of insect-life and put them in the bowl.