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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

The Tea Spot Meditative Mind Shortbread Cookies

April 30, 2016 by Mary 13 Comments

The Tea Spot Shortbread Cookies finished on a plate with a cup of tea.

The Tea Spot Meditative Mind tea sachets package.When our kids were in grade school and high school, I would make homemade cookies on Sunday afternoons for their lunches during the week. Those were the days I went through a LOT of butter. And they’re both slim as can be now while a pound of butter lasts forever in our household with just my husband and me.

But every once in awhile, a little sweetness with butter really cuts through the mustard of life!

So last Sunday, I made these DELICIOUS tea-infused shortbread cookies, with the added touch of white chocolate chips!! Rich and buttery with the sandy texture of shortbread that contrasts wonderfully with crunchiness of the white chocolate chips, as that’s what they become. These little cookies, quick to make, will bring unmatched sighs to whomever you’re sharing with, should you decide to share.

Meditative Mind tea sachets from The Tea Spot in our recent spring MARY’s secret ingredients boxes will not only calm your mind but will also make your knees wobbly, it’s so relaxing. When you take a close look at the contents in your sachets, there’s actually miniature rosebuds visible in each bag. How cool is that??

Maria Uspenski, started this company as a way to spread the word (and products) about the restorative benefits of fine herbal teas when she was recovering from cancer. She is writing a book due out in the fall titled Cancer Hates Tea. Thankfully she is fine now and 10% of her sales are donated in–kind to cancer and community wellness programs. The Tea Spot is a Colorado–based, Certified B Corporation, woman-owned and operated business.

This tea, finely ground with a mortar and pestle and blended in the cookies, adds just that extra touch of mystery taste you will LOVE.

The Tea Spot Meditative MInd tea in a white porcelain mortar.

Meditative Mind tea – before grinding. Just look at that cute rosebud!

The Tea Spot Meditative MInd Shortbread Cookies finished cookies on a cooling rack.

THE TEA SPOT MEDITATIVE MIND SHORTBREAD COOKIES – makes 24 – 30 cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 Tbs. cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground fennel seeds, ground with mortar and pestle or in a clean coffee grinder
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1 Tea Spot Meditative Mind tea sachet, remove the tea and grind with mortar and pestle
1 rounded cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

The Tea Spot Meditative MInd Shortbread cookie dough in bowl.The Tea Spot Meditative Mind Shortbread cookies on baking panBeat butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer until smooth. In another bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, ginger, fennel, cardamom, and tea. Add to butter mixture and beat on low speed until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set 1 Tbs. balls of dough 1 in. apart on sheets and flatten slightly with a floured glass.

Bake until cookies are light golden on undersides, 15 to 18 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through baking. Transfer to racks to cool.

Serve with LOVE and a cup of Meditative Mind tea and go straight to heaven here on earth!

Store in an airtight tin or container.

Filed Under: Desserts, Tea time Tagged With: cookie recipes with tea, cookies with tea, Meditative Mind, shortbread cookies, The Tea Spot

An Amazing Birthday!

December 4, 2013 by Mary 24 Comments

There are birthdays and then there are BIRTHDAYS!!

This was a BIRTHDAY!! and not even a milestone year.Four young adults cooking in a kitchen

First of all, all four of them (my two sons and their girlfriends) planned, shopped and made the complete dinner, fire in the fireplace, and Polish style entertainment, plus an awesome gift this past Saturday.

I got a KITCHENAID!!!!
Mary Frances totally surprised, receiving her KitchenAid gift.
A beautiful blue one that looks so pretty sitting on my counter upstate.

Remember when I was trying to win one? Well I have a confession to make. I have a white one but we keep it in the NYC apartment and then when I want to bake upstate, we haul it up and then haul it back. So I wanted to win one to be able to have it in both places.  I know it’s a bit spoiled but hey, I do like to use it. So now, no more of that. I have a big beautiful blue one sitting on the counter there. Yipee!!

The way they gave it to me was so great. I had come in from working in my studio while all of them were in the kitchen cooking and they said, “ Mom, your birthday present is here in the kitchen, you just have to find it.” At first, I walked right near it but with all of the commotion going on, I didn’t notice because they put it in the place where my white one was all through the holiday. Then when I saw the beautiful blue machine, I literally screamed! What nice, thoughtful kids!! I am so, so lucky.

And here’s what they made for dinner.
Roasted eggplant salsa with Parmesan pita chips with a straight-up martini.

Roasted eggplant salsa, Asian style, served with Parmesan pita chips and my martini!
Pernil finished on the grill on a board ready to serve.

Pernil – Puerto Rican style pork shoulder, slow roasted in the oven and finished on the grill.
Dinner plate with peril, sautéed kale and Swiss chard with Jasmine rice and black eyed peas.

Jasmine rice with saffron, black eyed peas, (from dried), onions and green peppers along with sauteed Swiss chard and kale in olive oil with garlic and white wine.
Homemade shortbread cookies topped with Polish hazelnut chocolate chunks.

Shortbread cookies with Polish chocolate hazelnut chunks on top.

EVERYTHING was sooooo delicious!!!

After appetizers and cocktails we had their entertainment portion of the evening. We celebrated the Feast of St. Andrew  – Andrzejki  – as it is called in Polish. Always celebrated on November 29 or the 30th,  depending on what region in Poland you are from as it is either celebrated on the day or the eve. You melt wax and pour it through a hollow key handle into a bowl of cold water. The wax solidifies while you douse some more water on it. You then take the wax shape that forms and look at its shadow and interpret it. It is a prediction for the upcoming year. Mine was my face, Steve’s face in glasses and Australia. Steve’s was emu – an animal native to Australia.
Feast of St. Andrew celebration from Poland. Birthday celebration - wax of me from Nov 30, 2013 Birthday celebration - Australia from Nov 30, 2013

Maureen!!! – here we come!!!

These kids did so much work to make an awesome birthday celebration for me. Besides planning the menu, shopping and cooking, they went to ten places to find the keys with holes in the handle and finally found them in an antique store in Millerton.

Here are all of our wax shapes.

Wax shapes and keys for the feast of St. Andrew celebration.

It is great to be loved!

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat Tagged With: Australia, eggplant salsa, Feast of St. Andrew, pernil, Polish celebrations, pork shoulder roast, rice and black-eyed peas, shortbread cookies

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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