Pineapple Sage Iced Tea

Pineapple sage grows quickly and soon was the dominant plant growing straight up the middle of my herb pot....what to do with all of this sage?! Summer in Boston, and a house without central AC does not exactly lend itself well to something like a roast chicken with pineapple sage....so I soon found Rita's recipe for Pineapple Sage Iced Tea! Perfect!

I made a single batch of this tea, and it was gone within the afternoon! I doubled the recipe and it came out great. I'm posting the single batch recipe here. I've also made this with lemon and with lime, both taste great, so use what you have on hand.

Pineapple Sage Iced Tea

1/2 cup packed pineapple sage leaves

1/4 cup honey

1 lemon or lime

1/2 pineapple juice (freeze into ice cubes - optional. Also optional, the mini ice cube tray below, but c'mon how cute is it?!)

1 qt. boiling water

 Start by boiling 1 qt. of water. While waiting for the water to boil,  firmly pack the sage leaves into 1/2 cup (note that I haven't yet filled or packed the 1/2 cup in the picture below).

Juice 1 lemon or lime ( Oh how I love my mini juicer from Brimfield!)

In a large saucepan, combine the pineapple sage leaves, honey, and juice (more or less to taste) from 1 lemon or lime.

 Pour the boiling water in the saucepan and let steep for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, the leaves are wilted and the tea is a nice, light, golden color.

(If you're making this as a hot tea, strain out the leaves at this point, and you may want to reboil the tea to get it nice and hot)

For iced tea, strain your tea right into a big pitcher!

Serve with pineapple ice cubes, a sprig of mint, and you are ready to be refreshed! 

Enjoy!

Brimfield Antique Fair...May 2011

I'm trying to catch up on all of the adventures and pictures over the last couple of months, and I am excited to share my finds from my third trip to Brimfield. It is seriously an addicting adventure!

The day started early for the drive from Boston out to Brimfield.

 We parked in J&J again, which I find easy, and gets us right in the heart of the action. 

Last time we were here, I feel like I rushed through some of J&J, and wished I had spent more time there. So this time I made sure to really get saturated in the J&J field, and it paid off!

I went in with a few things in mind that I was looking for, a lemon reamer or juicer, any fun cooking related 'something or others', but besides those items, I wanted to just have fun!

No, it's not a lie, we had fun :)

You can find just about anything at Brimfield...

The Queen needed a bath apparently...

Looking for Vintage?

How about something more...

I see London I see France...

 

Ok, so what were my finds?? The things that made the cut?

Well, I got a STEAL on this Frye clambroth glass Juicer!  I love that it has steep walls, the smaller walled juicers aren't deep enough to actually hold all of the juice you really want.

Vintage tablecloths are always nice...

So then I found these glass items/inserts...hmmm what are they?

The vendor I bought them from had them on his $5 table, I loved them, so nabbed them. He said he didn't know what they were, but all he sold was depression era glass...

Well, with a lot of research, I have found that these are perfume trays by the India Glass Company in the "Cracked Glass" Pattern and are fairly rare! Price I saw them being sold for online? $165 EACH! Score! 

Other finds included a small pink lemon reamer, a set of apple shaped lunch plates with matching teacups and green "block optic" sherbet plates to go with the sherbet glasses I found last year at Brimfield.

Great vintage recipe booklets, with some great, usable recipes!!

Here's the full table shot of the rest of our loot!

Remember I spy? 

I spy with my little eye...a blue owl candle holder, an old man, a hobnail box, and 1920s glass cameos.

Another successful day at Brimfield! 

A Special Note: A very rare tornado affected many in the Brimfield, MA area recently. Lives were lost and homes were destroyed.  Brimfield, MA and the surrounding areas are a beautiful part of the state and my thoughts and prayers are with those who were affected by this tragedy.

Back in the Saddle...almost

So I am going to get back in the blogging saddle....sort of.

I don't have a baking story, but it's just been too long, and I really want to get back to writing, pictures, and baking!

Today I finally made my way over to the Public Garden here in Boston...

...it is the prettiest time of year in Boston and I can't help but take pictures of all the glory! 

Last year the Garden was in full bloom on Marathon Monday, but due to the crazy winter we've had, the full bloom was delayed a few weeks this year...

Some of the trees were just past their prime today, as were some of the tulips. 

All were still beautiful though. 

I could have stayed there all day, but I figured 118 pictures was probably enough!

You can't precisely plan exactly when the Garden will show all of its colors, but this couple sure lucked out, and they're wedding pictures will be beautiful...

Even through the rain, the colors were beautiful.

This tulip amazed me, it was as if someone dipped a paint brush in bright red paint and just swished this one petal...amazing.

Happy Mother's Day!!