Teaching friends and a crafting exchange

a fun afternoon -- making English toffee with friends 

A couple of friends and I get together about once per month or 6 weeks, as both a social get-together, and as a teaching moment, sharing, with one another, something fun that we know how to do. We are just an informal, small group of women, who enjoy cooking and crafts.

To give you an idea of what we do: in July, we met at one friend's house where she showed us other two how she makes her delightful green pepper jelly. In September, they came to my house and we made rosemary vinegar together. This past Saturday, we met at the third friend's house and she showed us how she makes her fantastic English Toffee. Yummy, yummy stuff!

In November, I am hoping we can gather at my house, again, this time to craft/prepare gifts for the holidays. The plan is for each of us to come up with one craft/recipe that we've made as gifts before, and arrange for the supplies for all three of us to produce that gift item. By the end of the afternoon/evening, we should each have produced 3 different gifts, suitable for gifting in the holiday season.

For my own gift-craft, I'm thinking of bath fizzies, packaged in home-sewn sheer fabric bags. And as just a quick and fun item, to add on, I have some rubber stamps and ink pads, for us to make to/from gift tags.

With this crafting exchange, we'll share our knowledge, have some fun creating and chatting, and get a few more small gifts taken care of for the holidays.


If you'd like to put together your own crafting exchange, the plan for one is quite simple. Find 2 friends who would enjoy such an afternoon. Have each person:  come up with a home-made gift idea, make one sample (to show each other how it will turn out), and put together the supplies for each person in the group. Our group also brings snack-y foods for some time to just sit and chat a while.

Orange-spice tea for a penny per teacup

 

I still have a nice supply of good tea, from my husband's generous gift last Christmas. However, I've been fancying a cup of orange and spice flavored black tea, reminiscent of Constant Comment, if you're familiar with that tea. Here in the Seattle area, there's also the well-known Market Spice tea, I believe named for the Pike Place Market. Anyway, it's a nice orange, spice and black tea blend, perfect for a chilly autumn afternoon.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we are about to enter the fresh orange season. Oranges may be available year round, but in late fall and early winter I often find them at rock bottom prices. If you remember, I use my orange peels extensively. I infuse vinegar with the peels. I make candied orange peel in sugar syrup. And I zest the oranges (using a veg peeler and my food processor), to save in the freezer for baking and tea.

Our limited grocery budget now means that my afternoon tea has to either come from my current supply, or be cheap, cheap, cheap! Here's my version of orange-spice tea, using dollar store black tea, orange zest, ground cloves and cinnamon and a bit of sugar.


In a small teapot (about 10 oz.), I infuse about 1/2 teaspoon of frozen orange zest in a full pot (10 oz) of water. I do this by microwaving the water and orange zest for about 1 minute 20 seconds. The orange zest is slower to infuse than tea, so I give it this first infusion.

Next, I add 1 cheapo black tea bag and a tiny pinch of ground cloves, plus 1 slightly larger, but still tiny, pinch of ground cinnamon. I microwave this infusion for about 40 seconds, and allow to steep for a minute or two.

I add a bit of sweetening (sugar, stevia or honey), and reheat my infusion, as needed. I have 2 lovely teacups of orange-spice black tea, for the cost of a cheap bag of black tea, a penny's worth of sugar and spices, and the zest of an orange that I might otherwise consider as garbage.


You can bet that this year, of all years, I'll be making the most of every last orange peel that comes my way. I still have a small amount of zest and candied orange peel in the freezer from last year, but that supply is going fast. I used some of the orange zest in a batch of cookies this past weekend, along with chopped dried cherries, pecan pieces, nutmeg and chocolate chips. Oooh yum! I'm glad that it's cookie baking season again!