Advice please

Does anyone know how to make a pot of tea? Do you put the water in first or the tea? Do you heat the pot up before or after you put the tea in?
signed
Domestically challenged

sigh.

put a little hot water in the pot first, swirl it around then pour it out. put a teaspoon of jasmine in and 5 rosebuds. Fill it half full of hot water. Leave it to steep for a few minutes before pouring. you can use the white strainer to keep the leaves out when pouring.

top it up with more hot water as required. this is why you don't want to fill it too much.

happy sipping!

You have time. Do some research.

http://www.librarything.com/groups/tea

How to brew Jasmine tea

How much loose tea for a teapot

Note to self use a strainer instead of spitting out tea leaves. Sneaky...

Also could you buy some rose hip oil (for drinking not putting on my face) on the way home.

no problemo.

is it odd that we communicate this way?

Not at all. I love reading posts on threads of you guys writing each other, or MEM and polly talking, bib and mandy, jp and cat, foggi and espy, lefty and mindy... The list goes on.

#5&6 I'm not odd, he's the odd one.

First of all, you're right MsDonna, HE is the odd one. (I keep an eye on him here so that when something happens I can be the first one on the 5:00 news to say that I KNEW something wasn't right about that man).

And second of all. If you know how to make the tea "Mr. Oh-So-Tea worthy-and-knows-it-all" then you can just make it for your lovely wife who deserves much more than a lowly pot of tea after putting up with YOU.

Would you like a cookie while you wait for the domestic to prepare your beverage Donna?

Why yes thank you Wendy I would like a cookie. Funny thing is, he is in the kitchen at this very moment making me a pot of tea.

oh no i'm not! i'm taking over this keyboard. mwahahahaha!

One so rarely gets to see a case of full-blown psychosis displayed so gloriously.

**Note to self: Avoid the tea at Andrew and Donna's house**

ha. Donna didn't even post a comment after i added to her post in #10. Now i wish that i'd typed something rude.

"Mr.Oh-So-Tea-Worthy". I like that.

Does anyone else think that #7 should have read "lefty and righty"?

#11 thank you Wendy, that was the effect I was trying to achieve. That will teach someone (me?) next time they take over my keyboard.

Is it just me or did anyone else read Sponge's post #9 as HE (Hogwarts express) is the odd one?

And very funny conversation between MsD and MrA!

#15: Either works :)

I live for these threads. They make me smile.

# 12 - Well, it seemed more polite than "crack monkey". I want to support your poor, dear wife, not scar her.

How to make tea:

Get in car
drive to dukin donuts
order tea
and enjoy!!

THATS MY WAY! :)

#19 urgh no. I haven't come across a chain store of any kind that knows how to make tea properly. Normally they don't get the water boiling properly.

#2 is pretty close. Although of course both jasmine and rose are flowers rather than tea leaves, so he's making a tisane, not tea.

You don't want hot water, you want fully boiling water.

Don't leave it to steep too long, it will become bitter. You can add more hot water, but bear in mind it will get bitterer and more dilute over time, generally one refill is the limit.

If you are using bone china cups (and what else could you use) then add the milk to the cup first.

I think that's sufficiently pedantic, though I've probably missed a few tiny details out even so.

#13 MrA:
KIK!

#15 Ron:
I read it as that, too.

#21: Interesting, reading_fox. All these years I've been doing tea wrong. I just dip a tea bag in my cup of hot water. I've never been able to figure out loose tea. I'm tea leaf challenged. *blushing*

Does anyone have advice for keeping cats from knocking our seedlings off of the windowsill? The cats don't want to share. The cats have plenty of space in the window, but they insist on stretching their legs against the seed trays. The things we deal with to start gardening early.

Duck Tape? Wait, that might not be such good advice.

kik! For the plant trays, or the cats?

Both?

We're thinking, jp.

My mom's idea:
You know those horrible sticky things on credit card junk mail, or in gift packs from stores, etc? ("Super glue dots.") She thinks you should stick them to your plant holders.

My reaction to this:
Watch out on putting them on paint. They might remove it.

I'm still thinking.

Can you create a hanging or fixed shelf above where the cats sit?

>#21: Thanks. It's actually chinese green tea with jasmine, but we just call it jasmine. I suppose we are making tisane now that we blend it with the rose.

When i said hot water, that was more shorthand for boiling (cold) water from the kettle. Not straight from the hot water tap, for example (eugh!)

I agree with the refill risk of increasing bitterness, but i hate the thought of throwing a pot of tea away after a cup or two. Isn't it great how being stingy is now environmentally sound? I haven't found dilution to be an issue, since the fresh hot water just offsets the increasing strength of the tea.

No milk, of course.

No bone china, but we do have empty jam jars.

>#23: I use tea bags too. Donna is more la-de-dah. When her boy is making the tea, that is.

I have a one word solution for your problem: electrification.

Edited to fix typo

#28 Donna:
Good idea! I like it.

JP, have you considered one of those cat window ledges? Or creating a cat bed in the windowsill but away from the plant? Some cats seem to really like foam. My cats won't leave it. Maybe it would be enough to distract your cats or make your cats not knock them over so often.

I also like your idea of gluing the cats to the ledge.

Nope, that was kirby's idea. ;)

If I build a ledge, the cats will sit on it. It doesn't matter where, or how narrow. I gave up a whole shelf to them so that they wouldn't knock my plants and other items down, but you know the saying:

If you give a cat an inch, he's going to spread himself across the entire ledge.

No, no. My idea was to duck tape them to the ledge.

Put ducks on their feet?

Ah. My brain is tired. I slept for three hours last night. Sorry, kirby and Donna!

Aww - I wanted to see a cat with 4 ducks on its feet.

MsD... I knwo i am late on the tea issue but my aunt has a tea pot that has a bag in the top and you put the tes in there, boil the water then put the top on the tea. It is really neat and easy to use