Red, White, and Blueberry

Welcome Friends! Did you know that June is National Iced Tea Month? I decided to take this week's tea party outside on the front porch. There are no fine bone china teacups and tea pots, no three tiered tray, and not even a lace tablecloth. To celebrate summer, I have a large pitcher of freshly steeped and iced blueberry green tea served in a Kerr's canning jar.

I recently purchased this color bowl from one of my favorite nurseries. I'll have to remember to take my camera with me the next time I visit.

To go along with our refreshing iced tea, I made some fresh blueberry streusel muffins. My kids could hardly wait for me to finish my photo shoot and sink their teeth into these wonderful treats. I will have the recipes for the muffins and the iced tea at the end of this post. I hope you give them a try.

And here's this week's tea trivia. Ice tea was invented in America by an Englishman who lived in Calcutta, India. Richard Blechynden was selling hot tea at the St. Louis 1904 World's Fair. No one was interested in drinking hot tea on a hot day, so he poured the tea over ice and served it in tall glasses. The rest is history. Now you know!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

1/2 C sugar

1/4 C softened butter

1 egg beatened

2-1/3 C flour

4 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 C milk

1 t vanilla extract

1-1/2 C fresh or frozen blueberries

Streusel:

1/2 C brown sugar

1/3 C flour

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 C butter

Directions

In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well. In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, alternating with milk. You may add more milk if the batter is too thick. Add vanilla extract, then fold in blueberries.

For streusel, cut butter into sugar, flour, and cinnamon until it becomes coarse crumbs.

Fill 12 muffin cups with batter. Top with streusel mixture.

Bake in preheated 375 degree F oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 1 dozen muffins

Iced Blueberry Green Tea

1 C fresh or frozen blueberries

1 C sugar

1 C water

Juice of 1/2 lemon

8 C steeped green tea. You may use black tea or white tea.

In saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool. Strain syrup in a strainer, crushing the blueberries with a spoon. Squeeze lemon through strainer to catch seeds.

To steep tea, boil 8 cups of water and steep 8 bags of tea for 10 minutes. Remove bags and let tea cool.

In a large pitcher, combine blueberry syrup with tea and refrigerate until cold. Serve over ice.

I'll be joing a week's full of blog parties with the following hostesses

A Stroll Through Life

Lady Katherine Tea Parlor

The Plumed Pen

Artful Affirmations

Rose Chintz Cottage and Inspiration

Martha's Favorites

Between Naps on the Porch

Designs by Gollum

Thanks for visiting the Lace and Ivy Cottage.

Till next time,