Ice cream and tea, the perfect combination!

This post is not about a restaurant I went to, and then the meal I re-created afterwords.  It's about two things I love, and I just morphed them together.

Back in February, I had a tea party.  Not just any tea party, but one where a good friend of mine came in, set everything up, made all the tea, and served all of my guests.  Karin has been a good friend of mine since I met her at a similar party at my friend Shelby's.  Karin works for a home-sales company called Tealightful.  It's a wonderful way to host an afternoon party with your friends and/or family.  Karin pretty much comes in and does all the work.  But you all know me... I can't just sit back and do nothing.  The night before, I decided to make ice cream to serve as dessert.  Not just ice cream though... my special touch was adding in my favorite tea: Chai.  I followed the directions for my ice cream maker's cooked vanilla ice cream.  While simmering the cream (which takes like 30 minutes), I tossed in a tea bag of Spice is Nice Chai to simmer away with the cream.  The outcome:  pure heaven.  Well, almost.  I did make it a wee bit strong (learned wee while in Scotland), and there was just a touch too much sugar.  So, the next time I make it, I will make it into pure heaven.

I am thinking of trying to make a sorbet with some of the herbal teas.  I don't think citrus will work too well with cream, but sorbet would be perfect.  At the tea party we made a Sangria tea punch with Sangria herbal tea and a bottle of Moscat di Asti.  It was wonderful.  The Moscat added a perfect amount of sweetness to the very fruity sangria tea.  I think I could "kick it up a notch" (thanks Emril) by turning it into sorbet.  If I do try it, I'll be sure to let you know how that turns out.

About this tea I use... Tealightful. It is a great tea product made in Rochester, NY.  I had to move to Virginia to find it, when all along it was right under my nose every time I visited my husband (well, boyfriend at the time).  He grew up in Rochester, about an hour or so drive east from where I lived in Buffalo.  All of the tea they make is sold in a loose leaf style, and you get it in packages of 4oz.  When you are ready to enjoy your tea, you brew it to the directions on the package in a brew basket, or a tea filter of your choice.  I usually use my brew basket and then compost my leaves after making the tea.  It pretty much eliminates the waste.  My favorite tea is the Spice is Nice Chai tea.  So far it is the best tasting one I've had.  I did try one from this little tea shop in downtown Fredericksburg, but their flavor was really off.  (I sorta think the owners are a bit off as well).  The tea is also very affordable.  It's similar to buying food in bulk...  when you buy tea in individual tea bags, you pay a good premium.  When you buy tea in loose leaf form, each cup of tea is only a few cents.  I don't know the exact math, but I think it's like 30 cents or less per cup.  I encourage you to visit their website and see what it's all about.  It's a great cup of tea to enjoy while reading my blog.

Lee's Retreat at Blue and Gray Brewing Co., Part I

Just over a week ago, a few of my friends and I decided to try out Lee's Retreat at the Blue and Gray Brewing Co.  It was a special girls night to blow off some steam and forget all of our nursing school stress.  We had a blast.

The night started out at my house with a glass of Passion Fruit Lemonade iced tea... a special tea from a company called Tealightful.  (Highly recommended if you enjoy drinking loose leaf tea! Check out their website).  We headed out together to the restaurant.  One fun tidbit... in order to get from my house to the restaurant you need to drive on Rte 1, Rte 2 and Rte 3 (not quite in that order). 

The restaurant is located in a very interesting area.  It's located in an industrial center, very close to A. Smith Bowman Distillery.  There are also some pretty cool train cars that have been converted into a museum by some very dedicated volunteers.  It's just a short drive away from Downtown Fredericksburg. 

We started with appetizers.  Two of the girls love calamari, so we has some Coconut Calamari.  It was my first time ever trying the stuff.  I loved the taste of the batter, but I wasn't too keen on the texture of the fish itself.  Also, I really had trouble looking at the whole squid things.  This is a personal feeling, I think I'll skip that from now on...  but at least I can say I tried it.

Dinner time!  I ordered the "A Pub Above Sheppard's Pie."  It is made with a special lamb stew, served over red bliss mashed potatoes.  Check out this picture of how pretty it looked!  All I can say is AMAZING! 

Let me start with the stew.  It's a lamb stew made with the in house Stout beer.  Stonewall Stout is named for one of the famous Civil War Southern Generals.  He was killed here in Fredericksburg, by his own men.  His arm was amputated and rests today at one of the local historical homes, Elwood, on the Wilderness battlefield.  (That's enough civil war history... if you need to know the rest of the story, go to a library.  I'll spoil the end for you... we still have 50 states, so the North won).

Anyways... sorry for the tangent.  As I was saying, the lamb stew is made with Stonewall Stout, lamb, corn, carrots and what I think are snow peas.  The sauce of the stew had a nice rich flavor from the beer.  The corn added a touch of sweetness, as did the carrots.  The peas were really good as well.  I did eat some of them, but I did leave some on the plate as well.  The lamb was so tender and wonderful.  I could taste how all of the flavors were absorbed into the lamb.  I think that is why I like cooking with lamb, it's a great piece of meat that will pick up it's surrounding flavors.

The stew was served alongside a good helping of red bliss mashed potatoes.  I really enjoyed the mashed potatoes.  They had a wonderful flavor to them that was almost sweet.  I think I could taste garlic in them as well.

On top of the potatoes sat a marinated lollipop lamb chop. The marinade had a lot of flavor, salt, garlic and a few other spices.  It all went very well with the chop.  Unfortunately, the chop was a little overdone for my taste.  If you ever watch me eat a steak, you would swear it was never cooked.  I'm not that crazy with lamb, but I do like it more on the medium-rare side.  This one was definitely more to the medium-well to well side.  None the less, the flavor was still amazing and it was an artsy touch to the plate. 

To go along with my meal, I enjoyed a glass of Stonewall Stout.  The saying is correct, "I'd give my right arm for another Stonewall Stout."  I really enjoyed it.  I am a fan of stouts.  I've tried some really bad ones in the past, but this one is great.  It starts off a little bitter and then the taste matures in your mouth to a wonderful coffee flavor.  I almost think I can also get a hint of chocolate as the taste continues to mature.  It's a perfect combination.  (perhaps this is why I like sour patch kids as well... the bitter start, the yummy finish).

So, I recommend you do like my friends and I did, and visit lee's Retreat.  It was a nice retreat from the stress of nursing school for us, and can make a wonderful retreat for you.

Here's the website:  Lee's Retreat.  Here's the website for the Brewery: Blue and Gray Brewing Co.  Their address is: 3300 Dill Smith Drive, Fredericksburg, VA 22408.  Phone: 540-371-7799.