Chai it… and you’ll like it!

This time of year (and anytime, really!) I adore a nice cup of hot Chai tea. Soothing and uplifting all at the same time, this tea is a perfect pick-me-up. In the past, I’ve always bought organic Chai tea bags and brewed the tea that way. But after Diane’s post, I really wanted to try making my own loose Chai tea. Unfortunately, Mountain Rose Herbs was sold out of several of the spices I needed. Rats!

Not being the patient type (at all), I proceeded over to Amazon where I found a loose Chai that I absolutely adore. This mix has a wonderful balance.

Frontier Loose Organic Chai Tea is fair trade certified and absolutely delicious. I’m hooked! I’ve been making it in my French press and it works beautifully. Best of all, this tea is priced for less than what I could buy the spices and make it myself, and it qualifies for Amazon super-saver free shipping. Yes!

I’m up to my ears in tomatoes!

Do you remember these? Some of them were finally ready to be canned today.

I chose to do half of them with an Italian herb seasoning (recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving).

And the other half went in au naturel.

There’s my fluke… right over there… in the bottom right corner. Yep. I canned him, too.

Here’s a batch of tomatoes all blanched and ready to peel, core, and quarter.

According to my very scientific calculations (guess-timation – you’ve heard of this method, right?), I canned somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 tomatoes today.

I should warn you, I have an unnatural affection for canning jars.

And lately, I’ve become quite obsessed with seeing these jars fill up.