Tea and pie...

Mostly, I've been recovering from the grand camping adventure, taking warm epsom soaks and the like to soothe muscles inclined to complain about walking around a state park situated on a mountainside.

But on Wednesday, my husband and I decided to check out the new bakery near some friends' house. And we are not sorry we did. Handmade pies from locally sourced ingredients - we went with the peach, which the gentleman informed us would be gone in a couple weeks. Mmmm. I am a total sucker for peach pie, and this one was worth every cent. My only sadness is that he doesn't make pies in reasonable sizes for smaller households, so this is strictly for time with friends.

Another friend who was visiting brought her birthday gift: flowering tea - it's white tea that literally "blooms" when you drop it in the hot water. I'm so glad she shared. Mmmm. This one was jasmine scented and shaped like a basket of flowers - the handle was made from jasmine, and the flavor was lovely - but I like both jasmine and white tea, so there you are... (Or rather, I like *good* white tea. I had not suspected I was a tea snob until I tried to drink white tea from a teabag.)

With thoughts of tea and peach pie from the night before, last night I decided I *really* *really* wanted a good peach tea. Luckily, while we'd been camping, we found a small tea shop in the nearby town and had picked up an infuser that fits our camping mugs, along with other equipment (like say the teapot). So I pulled out a dried peach from the dried fruit stash, chopped it up and threw in a few hibiscus flowers and a pinch of dried citrus peel. Then threw the kettle on. (Oops - even with a superficial cleaning, the outside of the kettle still gave off a campfire smell when heated. Oh, well...)

Mmmmm.... Peach tea. Yum... And the advantage of this way of making it is that I get to munch on the rehydrated peach bits as a snack once the tea is brewed.