Tea and Crumples

by Kinard, Summer;

  Sienna looked from Ava to Bethel, who was making her way through the plate of tea treats. She smiled. “Well, the first secret to a good teashop,” Sienna leaned forward and lowered her voice, “is to invent a good recipe for scones.”

  “And cookies,” Bethel added around a mouthful.

  “And to have a good sense about tea, of course,” Sienna finished.

  “And a location you have,” Bethel teased. “Well, at least you have a good pile of stones to get started with.”

  “Well, there you are,” Sienna smiled. “Tea and scones and stones. That should about cover you.”

  “Tea and stones,” Ava said, that small smile lighting her eyes again. “I like that.”

  When she closed the door to the shop that afternoon, Sienna took her time before walking to her car. The afternoon sun shone golden pink against the front glass of the teashop. She raised her hand to trace the quill on the teacup logo, and her hand filled with light. It was a perfect pink cup, radiating gold, almost as though she were its source. Almost as though she were full of grace.

  Epilogue

  “And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.”

  ~John 1:16 RSV

  Oh, good. I was afraid I missed you.” Peter kissed Sienna briefly on the lips. She stood back, and he walked through the door of Tea and Crumples. “The place looks fabulous.” He pulled off his cognac leather messenger bag and set it on a chair near the end of the manuscript table. “I like the new tables.” He grinned across the shop toward where Sienna stood by the tea counter. His smile widened as she came toward him with a tray. “Cozy.”

  “Let’s sit.” Sienna set the tray down at the nearest corner of the table Peter had chosen. “Oh. Just a moment. Let me go and get something I had made for you.” She walked toward the stationery area and returned shortly with a single creamy envelope made from the finest thick cotton paper. She laid it upside down on the table and sat catty corner from Peter. “I’ll pour.” She handed him a cup of tea and looked on contentedly as he stirred honey and cream into it.

  “Well,” Peter said. He reached for Sienna’s hand and held it gently. “Let’s see how it turned out.” He removed a book from his messenger bag. It was covered in plain white paper secured by a single piece of tape. He broke the seal and slid out the book of photographs. They looked through it slowly, their quiet broken only by sighs and small hums. Their fingers spoke for them, tracing favorite scenes that marked their faces with comfort as well as sadness. The last spread was the most beautiful. They held their joined hands into the sunlight on top of a high hill at their favorite state park. The rocks at their feet spelled, Susan Was Here.

  Sienna smiled, and Peter cupped her face with his warm thumbs. “Thank you,” she said. “For sharing this with me. For Susan. For our life together.”

  “For tea,” Peter added. “For the joy of seeing you each day. For breath.” Their conversation had become a prayer.

  “For remembering.”

  “For hoping.”

  “For warm hands.” Sienna raised Peter’s hands and kissed his knuckles.

  “And thoughts.” Peter turned her hand in his and kissed the center of her palm.

  “For this,” Sienna smiled. Peter drew breath to speak, but stopped when he saw that she touched the envelope. She slid it across the table to him and waited.

  Sienna followed Peter’s hands with her eyes as he stroked the smooth paper, paused to smile appreciation at its quality, and picked it up. She found herself praying as he pried a corner and eased open a seam in the top. She prayed by lifting her teacup. She thanked God for remembering and seeing and for miracles that happened before she knew to ask. She asked now, that what she gave Peter would be true. She set down her cup and was certain that the gift had already been given.

  Peter slid the card from the envelope and stared at it. He read out the letterpressed inscription. It was a date in the middle of the following summer. “What is this?” He ran his finger over the numbers, taking them in by touch.

  Sienna smiled and flipped the card over. One word was printed on the other side. She read it aloud. “Due.”

  Notes from Sienna’s Tea Files

  Elizabeth Emily Bannock, 1.5, toddler, food critic: Decaffeinated Keemun with dried cherries, served warm with maple syrup and cream. Round, sweet, fragrant. Happy.

  Recipes from

  Tea & Crumples

  Crumples Quiche

  For two quiches:

  12-14 large brown eggs (pastured if available)

  1 cup whole milk

  2-4 cups shredded cheddar cheese OR 16-24 oz. crumbled goat cheese

  Pie crusts (We use soy-free frozen shells. But you can use any type, including homemade. Or skip the crusts altogether and make a big pan of crustless quiche, which works best with a glass baking dish, 9” x 13”.

  2-4 cups other fillings (crumbled bacon, wilted spinach, red onions, caramelized onions, broccoli, wilted chard, corn, bell peppers, sausage, precooked potatoes, whatever goes well with eggs and cheese)

  For our Artichoke Heart and Chevre quiche: To the egg and milk mixture, add two cans of artichoke hearts (rinsed, well drained, patted dry) and two 8 oz. logs of local chevre. If available, add another 4 oz. crumbled smoked Farmer’s cheese.

  If using crust, preheat oven to 400°F. Bake the empty pie shells for 5 minutes. Poke holes with a fork in the crust to prevent bubbles after you add the filling. Reduce heat to 375°F. (Or preheat to 375°F for crustless version.)

  If using two pie crusts, place them on a lined baking sheet side by side to catch spills and to provide stability in transfer.

  Add solid ingredients (cheese, meat, veg) to pie shells, evenly distributed between the two or evenly across the bake dish if making crustless version. If you want to add spices, put them in with the solids, or they will just float on top (they will float on top anyway). In a large bowl or very large measuring cup, combine about one cup of milk with a dozen eggs. With fork, beat together egg mixture and pour evenly over other ingredients. I like to use the mixing fork to lift the ingredients and stir them gently, to make sure the egg is distributed well around the other parts of the quiche. If you think the quiches need a bit more egg mixture, beat a little more milk together with an egg or two and add to the other ingredients, stirring gently to incorporate.

  Bake quiche(s) for 45 minutes on center rack. Serves 12-16.

  These are pretty good as leftovers and make great food for academic crunch times, early parenting meals, and parties. We serve about 6 quiches a day at Tea and Crumples.

  Sienna’s Southern Drop Scones

  2 cups all-purpose flour

  3 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

  ½ - 1 teaspoon sea salt

  ½ cup brown sugar (or coconut sugar)

  ¼ - ½ cup granulated sugar

  1 cup half and half, plus extra for coating

  1 egg, slightly beaten

  1 stick butter (or ½ cup coconut oil)

  ½ teaspoon vanilla

  1 cup nuts, chocolate chips, or dried fruit (optional)

  Preheat oven to 400°F. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars. Cut butter into flour mixture until it is incorporated. It will resemble coarse bread crumbs. Add nuts/fruit/choc. chips. Add egg, vanilla, and cup of half and half. Stir with fork just until dough forms. It will probably take less than ten turns.

  Drop onto ungreased baking stone or sheet by tablespoonfuls. Coat tops with half and half. (I add a tablespoon of H&H to the measuring cup that held the egg and use that mixture for the tops of the scones, so it’s sort of like an egg wash). Bake for 12 minutes. Check and return to oven for additional time as needed, checking at 2 minute intervals. Done when light golden brown on top. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from bake sheet.

  Serve warm or room temperature with clotted cream and fruit preserves.

  Variations: for cinnamon pecan scones, add a teaspoon or so of cinnamon to dry ingredients. For
cashew scones, remove granulated sugar and use an entire cup of brown sugar instead. For strawberry scones, add a little cardamom.

  Cheddar-Sunflower Seed Drop Scones

  This is our family’s scone recipe adapted to the savory side. They are like the light, thick biscuits you might remember from your childhood, that nobody makes anymore.

  2 cups flour

  3 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder

  1-1 ½ tsp sea salt

  Freshly ground black pepper to taste (~1/4 teaspoon)

  2 tablespoons mustard powder

  1 stick unsalted butter

  1-2 cups shredded cheddar

  ¾ cup sunflower seeds (May substitute 2 Tablespoons minced fresh chives for another classic variation on savory scones.)

  1 cup half and half

  1 egg, slightly beaten

  Preheat oven to 400°F. Sift or stir together first five ingredients, including mustard powder, if using. Cut in butter with pastry blender or with a butter knife and fingers until mixture looks like bread crumbs. Add in cheddar and seeds, stir to mix. In a measuring cup, mix together half and half and egg, then add to dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until just wet, around a dozen strokes (maybe a few more if you let the toddler measure the cheese and have more volume in the bowl).

  Drop scones by handful-sized globs onto baking dish. Makes 8 big scones or 10-12 normal-sized ones. Bake for 14 minutes, then check. I added two minutes for my oven, but you should check at 14 mins. When light golden brown, remove from oven. Let rest a few minutes, then eat.

  Sienna’s Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

  1 cup unsalted pastured butter, softened

  ⅔ cup sugar

  ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

  2 cups all-purpose flour

  ½ teaspoon sea salt

  1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped

  ½ cup seedless raspberry jam

  Mix together flour, salt, and thyme in a bowl and set aside. To the bowl of a stand mixer, add softened butter, sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping the bowl often, until creamy. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed, scraping the bowl often, until well mixed. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

  Preheat oven to 350°F.

  Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets covered in parchment. Make indentation in center of each cookie with thumb. Fill each thumbprint with jam. Bake 14-18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand 1-2 minutes on cookie sheets, then remove to cooling racks. Cool completely, then serve or store in airtight containers for up to a week (if they make it that long). These freeze well, too. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

  Acknowledgements

  My first taste of hot tea was brought to me by the man who would become my husband. He returned from a semester abroad in the United Kingdom smelling of cold winds and warm leaves. We toasted our engagement a few years later with tea poured in cobalt blue Depression glass cups. I still have the battered red Twinings tea tin from those first days exploring tea lore and life together. It’s spackled with stickers from the varieties of leaves it’s held in the nearly twenty years since. That tin still resonates with the first time I thought of Tea & Crumples and spoke its name across the tea table to the man I love. Thank you, Andrew, for tea together through our sorrows and many, many joys. I pray that God will grant us many more years of seeing each other’s faces above our cups.

  Andrew introduced me to tea, but my friend Cathy Smallwood taught me most of what I know about it. A tea master, Cathy drew me into a pocket of community from the first moment I walked into her teashop to rest from the rigors of graduate school. If I say something wrong about tea, blame me, but credit dear Cathy for any good tea sense you find here. Credit her also with the sense of intimacy that permeates the shop. Her warm hospitality and spiritual grace made me see it was possible.

  My children patiently bore their mother’s muttering to herself, scribbling book notes on their refrigerator art, and forgetting to pour their tea on occasion while I wrote this book. Thank you, children.

  And thanks to Elizabeth Turnbull, my editor, for believing in me and loving this book as much as I do. You are the best book midwife ever.

  Tea & Stones

  A preview of Book 2 in the

  faith, tea, love collection.

  Chapter One

  The Farmer’s Almanac says this will be the hottest July on record.” It was May, but Ava liked to plan ahead.

  “Even more reason for us to do the mudslide, don’t you think?” Sage’s voice came across the speakerphone with a crackle. Ava couldn’t hear the next part of Sage’s speech, but she’d heard it often enough to guess. The environment, Ava! Water conservation, Ava! Vacation Bible School shouldn’t waste so much water, Ava! The line crackled again. “And it behooves us as Christians to set an example. I mean, what’s a little mud, when the Israelites had to slave in mud pits for generations?”

  “Sage, honey,” Ava said smoothly as she slowed to turn down a wooded gravel lane, “you know I always support your creative teaching plans, and you’re right. It makes more sense to let the kids play in the mud for the lesson on asking God for a redeemer. But why are you telling me? Go present the idea to your pastor.”

  “You know how he is. They’ve done water balloon fights on the first night of Vacation Bible School for ten years, no matter the lesson. He doesn’t want to hear a new idea.”

  “Maybe you can present it as an old idea. Oh, I know! Put the mud in kiddie pools and have them make bricks!”

  “Huh. That might work.” The sound of shuffling papers and scribbling came over the line. “Thanks, Ava. I wrote it down.”

  “Got the bee out of your bonnet?”

  “Well, one of them. I still have a blog post to publish before Jonathan wakes up from nap. Did I tell you I found the stainless steel straws?”

  “Found them? I thought that’s all you used.”

  “It was, and then Jon-o hid them all. He toddled off with them every day, and I had no idea where they were going. Turns out, it was the air vent. I got them out with a magnet.”

  Sage waited for a response. Ava was distracted by the curve of the road. She had to go slowly over the gravel, and it looked as though there was a runner up ahead.

  “Ava?”

  “Yes. Good thinking on the magnet. What did you do in the meantime?”

  “That’s today’s post. It’s about how sometimes it’s okay to use paper or even-“ Her voice dropped to a stage whisper. “Plastic straws in a pinch.”

  “You’re going to get mail from that. Hang on a minute, Sage. I have to pass a runner. Oh, glory! He’s not wearing a shirt. Just a sec while I avert my eyes.”

  Ava had rules about propriety. She might not be able to get the world around her to behave appropriately, but that wouldn’t stop her from staying modest. She slowed even more as she approached the runner. The man was running along the right side of the road, his bright blue headphones contrasting a thick, dark head of hair. The dappled sun made his bare golden shoulders glow. Ava drew a deep breath and turned her head to watch the left side of the road as she passed.

  “I heard that breath! That nice looki--?” Sage began.

  A thump interrupted her. Ava screamed. She slammed the brakes, set the engine brake, and jumped out of the car.

  The running man was curled up on the gravel in front of her. His eyes were closed. Ava made the sign of the cross and knelt beside him. “Oh, Lord have mercy!” she said, touching his face. “I ran over you!”

  “Only a little bit,” the man drew a shuddering breath and opened green brown eyes. Ava sat back on her heels and watched as he lifted himself on his elbows. The man blinked slowly. Ava prayed under her breath. The man prayed under his breath. It was the same prayer. He smiled. “Well, if I’m going to get struck on my way to work, I’m glad it’s by a fellow Orthodox.” She started to return his smile, but the gravity of the situation hit her stomach
in a cold wave.

  “I’m so sorry for hitting you. It’s just…” She bit her lip. It wouldn’t do to tell him she was avoiding looking at his bare chest. Especially since she was looking at it quite thoroughly now. “So sorry. I just lost track of you, I’m afraid.” She watched as he sat up and brushed gravel off his side. “You missed a spot,” she said, reaching out automatically to remove a few pieces of grey stone from his arm. It was a well-muscled arm. Maybe he needed help with his other one. His skin was warmer than the stone. She squeezed the rock in her hand and blushed. “Oh, dear!” Ava said, snapping to. “Can I give you a ride somewhere? I was just heading in to meet someone, but I’m a bit early. I can detour.”

  The man stood and shifted his weight slowly. He raised his hands and smiled. “It’s okay.” He made steadying motions toward her with his hands. Ava stood up and looked him over for injuries. A few small cuts, but nothing serious. She scanned his shoulders and neck and looked into his eyes. “I’m okay,” he said. “Just a little stricken.” His small smile brought warmth back into her.

  From the car behind them, Sage hollered, “Ava!? Ava! Is he okay? Give him some of the calendula gel I gave you!”

  “Would you like some, um, calendula?” Ava asked. “Or a ride or,” she looked at the piece of rock in her hand, “some basaltic quartz mixed gravel?”

  “I think I’d better walk back to my work now. It will keep soreness at bay.”

  “You’re sure?” Ava asked.

  “I’m sure.”

  “Well, if anything goes wrong later, my name is Ava Stone. Here.” She handed him the gravel and dug in her blazer pocket for a business card. She found one and set it in his open palm on top of the rock. “I would be glad to help in any way I can. Insurance. Calendula. Tea. Hot tea, I mean. Proper tea. It’s the least I could do after hitting you.”

  He glanced at the card and smiled. “I might take you up on it.”