As a matter of fact, everyone I have spoken to about this race has been very enthusiastic. Renninger's has even offered a prize to the person who has the best race day hat.
So far, we have a venue, two celebrity judges, a couple obstacles, a starting and finish line, judges badges and winners' medals, and a pair of ramps.
Our judges will be Niki Philips, better known as Lady Hawk, from the Game Show Network's show Steampunk'd
and Renate Goodwin, the drummer from the band The Cog is Dead.
One part of the obstacle course is a series of three to five, tall, brass candle sticks with precariously balanced teacups and saucers on top. The RC teapot racer must weave in and out of the row of candle sticks, preferably without sending any teacups to their doom. So far, I have 4 candle sticks and enough cups and saucers to get us started and have a few back-ups, for the inevitable crashes. I discovered this is a great way to get rid of cups with tiny chips that I had been hesitant to throw away in the past. I knew they'd come in handy someday.
The most recent addition to the obstacle course I'm putting together is "The Chasm of Death".
It's #Teapot Tuesday. The featured teapot today is an unusual thrift store find. The sugar bowl and creamer stack neatly on top of pot, as does a bell. I chose this pot to go with the book Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, because the wooden handle sticking out to the side is often a feature of chocolate pots.
" 'To be sure,' I said. I took two cucumber sandwiches and one of the macaroons, then made a show of studying the chocolate pot." -Cecy
French Macaroons Ingredients 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar 1 cup almond flour 3 large egg whites, at room temperature 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar Pinch of salt 1/4 cup superfine sugar 2 to 3 drops gel food coloring 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, almond or mint extract
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour into a bowl. Discard any almond flour that will not pass through the sifter. In a large mixing bowl, at medium speed, beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Increase speed to high and gradually add the superfine sugar. Beat for about 5 minutes. Gently fold the egg mixture into the almond mixture. Add food coloring, if desired. Fold coloring into the batter until an even color is achieved. 1 1/4 inch circle can be drawn onto the parchment paper to assure all the cookies are the same size. Use a 1/4 inch round tip on a pastry bag to pipe the batter onto the circles. Tap the bottom of the baking sheet firmly against the counter a couple times to release any air bubbles. Let the cookies sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on humidity. Bake 20 minutes on double baking sheets (one baking sheet on top of another helps protect the cookies from heat). When cookies are cool, fill with jam, lemon curd, or buttercream frosting. Cucumber sandwiches: 1/2 Cup of softened butter (one stick) 3 Tablespoons of finely cut chives 1 English cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced 1 Loaf of thin sliced, white bread Mix butter and chives in a small bowl. Remove crust from two slices of bread. Spread the butter mixture on one side of one slice of bread and place cucumber slices on the other slice of bread. Place the butter bread, butter side down, on top of the cucumbers and press down lightly. Sandwiches can be cut in two triangles or 4, depending on how dainty you would like them. "For the life of me all I could do was nod and smile inanely and hold out my cup. She took this for acceptance, and poured me a cup of chocolate from the most beautiful chocolate pot I have ever seen." -Kate Nutella Hot Chocolate: 1/2 Cup of Nutella 4 Cups of milk Place Nutella and one cup of milk in a sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk until Nutella has melted and become completely incorporated into the milk. Add the other three cups of milk and continue stirring until desired heat is reached.
Teapot racing is the latest craze to sweep through the steampunk community. It is a remote control car obstacle corse with a lot of creativity thrown in.
The racer must contain a teapot, but other decorative touches are up to the owner of each vehicle.
The sport was started in New Zealand, so let some New Zealanders show you how it's done:
I saw some videos of teapot racing on Facebook and showed them to Blaze, who was immediately excited. There didn't seem to be any question about it, we had to make a teapot racer.
A couple days of brainstorming later, we decided we wanted to be Tea Pirates.
We started out with the cheapest toy, tin tea set we could find.
Then, Blaze spray painted the entire set black.
We found a good deal on a remote control monster truck on Amazon. It was listed as used, but had in fact, never been taken out of it's box before. Only the box had been damaged.
Blaze was very excited to take it out for a test drive as soon as it arrived:
The body of the car turned out to be easy to remove, leaving a platform that was perfect for attaching the tea tray.
The little tin tea tray was not only the perfect size for this, but it was flimsy enough that putting holes in it for screws was no problem.
Blaze enjoyed doing the big stuff like spray painting and bolting on the tray, but then it was my turn to take over. I have fun doing the tiny detail work.
We named our ship (modified monster truck) the Earl Grey and decided it needed a crew.
The crew consists of Captain Green, his daughter, Jasmine, Mr. Brewer, and Mr. Baker.
The completed teapot racer:
They mostly raid ships belonging to the East India Tea Company.
While I was busy working on decorating the Earl Grey, a few days ago, Blaze was outside creating an armada of magnolia leaf ships that looked like they were about to attack the house. Destroying that fleet of leaf ships is what Blaze wanted to do as soon as I told him the teapot racer was complete and he could play with it.
The maiden voyage of the Earl Grey was not a gentle one, but nothing fell off, so I'm pleased.
Watching the teenager and I build our racer has caused my husband to become interested in building one of his own. He hasn't started work on one, yet, but he has a good idea, so this story may have a sequel in the future.
This week's impulse purchase was little picture frame chalkboards at Michael's craft store. They were only $1.19 a piece. They came in a very unattractive grey color, but that didn't bother me, because I have some spray paint and metallic leaf paint leftover from other projects.
The frames were just hot glued to the chalkboard, so separating the two parts just required a little pressure (one had already come apart while still in the packaging, which is how I knew this step was going to be easy).
I sprayed all the frames with black plastic paint. I have found that other paints adhere better to plastic if a layer of paint intended for plastic is used as a base coat. I left one frame solid black and used a variety of metallic paints on the others.
When the paint was dry, I used Super Glue Gel to reattach the chalkboards to the frames.
These make great reusable labels for food at a potluck, cocktail party, tea party, or buffet.
It's time for the second installment of #Teapot Tuesday.
This time, the featured teapot and all of the dishes are Noritake China, made in Japan. The pattern is "Candice". My husband inherited these, his mother's best china, when she passed away.
The featured book for this tea party is Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
The passage from the book, which provides the perfect menu for a tea party, is the reception at the British Museum for the opening of the Angels Over England exhibit.
"And then, with more enthusiasm, she said, 'Food!' She descended on the canapes like a small, smut-nosed girl in a too-large leather jacket who has not eaten properly for sometime. Enormous quantities of food were immediately crammed into her mouth, masticated and swallowed, while at the same time, the more substantial sandwiches were wrapped in paper napkins and placed into her pockets. Then, with a paper plate heaped high with chicken legs, melon slices, mushroom vol-au-vents, caviar puffs, and small venison sausages, she began to circle the room, staring intently at each and every angelic artifact.
Richard trailed along behind her, with a Brie and fennel sandwich and a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice."
- Chapter 9
The menu:
Mushroom Vol Au Vents
Caviar puffs
"Little Smokies" sausages (little venison sausages are not so easy to find, so little smoked sausages were substituted)
Brie and fennel sandwiches
Melon slices and fresh strawberries
The Beast of London gingerbread cookies
Mint green tea
Orange juice for people who do not wish to have tea
The mint green tea was chosen because of the green colored restorative drink that Richard is given.
"Richard knocked back the green liquid, which tasted of thyme and peppermint and winter mornings."
- Chapter 10
Puff Pastry Cups (needed for the next two recipes):
Defrost frozen puff pastry dough. It should still be cold, but no longer frozen. I took my dough out of the freezer and placed it in the refrigerator over night, then may the pastry cups in the morning. You can also just set the box of dough out on the kitchen counter for a couple hours to defrost.
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Make egg wash by whisking 1 egg yolk with 1 Tablespoon cold water.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface.
Use a 2-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter to cut as many circles as you can out of the dough. Then, use a 1-inch circle to cut a smaller circle out of the center of half the larger circles. Brush the large, solid dough circles with the egg wash and place a ring-shaped circle on top. Make the edges match. Move the completed dough cup to a parchment covered baking pan and brush the tops with egg wash.
Bake for 12 minutes. Let cook for 10 minutes, before scooping any excess pastry from the center of the cups. I found that a grapefruit spoon is a very handy tool for removing the excess puff pastry without damaging the cup.
Mushroom Vol Au Vents:
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 pound mushrooms, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 heaping tablespoon of finely cut fresh chives
3 Tablespoons brandy
1/2 Cup heavy cream
3 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Additional fresh chives for garnish (optional)
In a large frying pan, saute the mushrooms in the butter and olive oil until they start to soften. Add garlic, chives, and brandy. Cook until all the liquid has evaporated, stirring all the time. Add cream and parmesan cheese. stir and cook until the cream thickens. Remove from heat. Add salt and pepper. Spoon mushrooms into the puff pastry cups and serve.
Caviar Puffs:
4-ounces softened cream cheese
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
4-ounce package of thinly slice smoked salmon, cut into 12 pieces
Black caviar
Fresh dill for garnish
Mix cream cheese, lemon juice, and pepper together and use the mixture to fill 12 puff pastry cases. Roll up a piece of salmon and stick it into the cheese in one pastry cups. Place a dab of caviar (about an 1/8 of a teaspoon) in front of the salmon. Garnish with a small sprig of dill, also stuck into the cheese.
Roasted Fennel:
2 fennel bulbs
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of course sea salt
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut each fennel bulb in half and remove the core. Cut each half-bulb into 4 wedges and place them in a bowl with the olive oil. Toss until well coated with oil. Spread the fennel on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake 30-40 minutes.
The Brie and fennel sandwiches in the photograph are just made using plain thin sliced white bread. They were alright, but not as good as I had hoped. The next day, I tried making them again as grilled sandwiches, and they were beyond amazing! As DH said, "What isn't better when it's fried in butter?!" But, this is incredible, warm roasted fennel with melted Brie oozing out of the edges of the sandwich!
There was nothing sweet mentioned in the description of the reception, but I like to have something sweet at a tea party, so I took my inspiration from "London Below" and made boar shaped gingerbread cookies to represent "The Beast of London". London Below seems quite old fashion and gingerbread seems like a very old fashion type of cookie to me, which is why I chose it.
Blaze attended a chemistry class for homeschoolers this morning at Wakulla Springs State Park.
The mom who hosted the activity did a fantastic job of taking a subject that could have been confusing and presenting it in a simple way that children of all ages could understand. She also provided a fun hands-on activity for the children to do in small groups.
They learned about acids and bases, using red cabbage juice to test the PH of a variety of substances.
After the lesson, everyone, even the wildlife, took refuge from the heat (the heat index was over 100 degrees F. yet again today) in the spring water.
One of the pages I follow on Facebook claims that #TeapotTuesday is a thing. We have several teapots, so I decided I'd play along, by posting literature based tea party ideas. It's too much work to do every week, but I figure I can do it once a month, until I run out of teapots to feature. This week, we have a plain white "Betty" style teapot with teacups and plates from the "From the Deep" dinnerware collection for a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, theme. There are no little sandwiches at this tea party, because Nemo is described as serving no bread.
“I must say, however, that there was neither bread nor wine..." "Amongst the dishes which were brought to us, I recognised several fish delicately dressed; but of some, although excellent, I could give no opinion, neither could I tell to what kingdom they belonged, whether animal or vegetable.” This is a chance to be creative with seafood. The seafood does not have to make this tea party prohibitively expensive. A couple cans and a small package of lox is all I needed to create this. I included seaweed in our food by making sushi and using rice crackers that included tiny bits of seaweed (found in the International foods section of our regular grocery store).
"My cook is a clever fellow, who excels in dressing these various products of the ocean. Taste all these dishes. Here is a preserve of sea-cucumber, which a Malay would declare to be unrivalled in the world; here is a cream, of which the milk has been furnished by the cetacea, and the sugar by the great fucus of the North Sea; and, lastly, permit me to offer you some preserve of anemones, which is equal to that of the most delicious fruits.” I substituted a large English cucumber for the sea-cucumber mentioned in the book. The cucumber was used both in the sushi and as a substitute for crackers or bread. The foods served at a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea tea party do not need to have a single culture of origin, since the Nautilus travels around the world. Products of the sea are the unifying theme. A map of Nemo's travels during the course of the book. Our Menu: Homemade sushi (ours have thin strips of lightly steamed carrots, thin strips of fresh cucumber, and avocado as the filling) Hummus with bell pepper octopus, served with sliced cucumber and rice crackers for dipping Rice crackers with cream cheese and lox Crab cups Cucumber slices with curried shrimp Coconut Macaroons Chocolate sea shells Black tea Sushi Rice in a Rice Cooker 1 1/2 Cups sushi rice (rinsed two or three times) 2 Cups water 2 Tablespoons sugar 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar 1 teaspoon salt Cook 1 1/2 cups of rice with 2 cups of water. When the machine beeps, indicating that the rice is done cooking, add the sugar, vinegar, and salt. Stir until it is all blended together. Let cool until you can handle the rice with your hands. Dampen you hands with water when handling sushi rice or sticky rice, to keep the rice from sticking to you.
Curried Shrimp
3 Tablespoons of Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (I have found that it is easier to grate if frozen)
1 4-ounce can of tiny shrimp, drained
Additional cilantro leaves as garnish (optional)
Mix everything together and served on crackers or cucumber slices.
Garnish each appetizer with a single cilantro leaf (optional)
Can be made a day in advance. Refrigerate in an air-tight container and stir before using.
Crab Cups
4-ounces of softened cream cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
dash of Worcestershire sauce
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 can (6-ounces) of crab meat, drained
dash of salt
2 boxes (15 cups each) of frozen mini fillo cups
extra green onion for garnish
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Use a mixer to beat the cream cheese, mayonnaise, and Worcestershire sauce together. Add the green onions, garlic, crab, and salt. Mix well. Place the fillo cups on a cookie sheet. Fill each cup with crab mixture and bake for 6 minutes.
Garnish with thin circles of green onion. I used three per cup.
The crab mixture could be made a day in advance and kept in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
“He discovered a coco-tree, beat down some of the fruit, broke them, and we drunk the milk and ate the nut with a satisfaction that protested against the ordinary food on the Nautilus.”
Coconut Macaroons
1 14-ounce bag of sweetened coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla.
In a separate mixing bowl, beat eggs whites and salt with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Use a rubber spatula to fold egg whites into the coconut. Spoon mounds of the coconut mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet, leaving about an inch between mounds.
Bake 25 minutes.
From the 1954 Disney movie of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
