Tag: Christmas breakfast

Christmas Breakfast Tea

I’m trying to choose the perfect Christmas breakfast tea. My family celebrated early this year so I’m planning a relaxing morning for the 25th. Hot tea sounds warm and friendly. So does a fire, but I don’t have a functional fireplace.

Orange and Spice, Peppermint, and Chai all sound festive. But Earl Gray and English Breakfast tea are delicious with a scone or biscuit. The many varieties add to the appeal of tea. I can choose whatever matches my food or my mood. The question is what to have on hand.

Another question is whether I should choose based on health benefits? For a holiday, I lean toward choosing based on taste, but my health may end up benefitting anyway. Obviously, a wide variety of teas will have a wide variety of possibilities for both taste and health benefit.

Peppermint is a favorite Christmas flavor appearing in candy canes, ice cream, and mocha. I often drink peppermint tea. It contains no caffeine and calms my digestive system. I don’t know of any studies showing peppermint tea has this effect, but there are both animal and human studies showing peppermint oil can have an analgesic effect on the GI tract. 

Orange and Spice reminds me of the cinnamon sticks and orange peel I used to throw in boiling water while we decorated the Christmas tree. A blend I like has black tea in addition to orange zest, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and allspice. The caffeine is welcome as a morning drink and black tea offers some documented health benefits.

I also drink an herbal blend without black tea. That eliminates the caffeine and helps me limit the amount of black tea I consume. While it has proven less problematic for me than green tea, black tea is considered higher histamine.

Chai tea also contains black tea and some of the same spices found in orange and spice. While the caffeine content may be a concern for some, the amount is less than that found in coffee. I’ve had delicious chai tea milkshakes and I’m eager to try a chai latte martini. Perhaps I’ll save the chai tea for Christmas evening.

Earl Gray is a blend of bergamot and black tea. Its distinctive taste makes it a staple in my pantry. The bergamot changes the flavor profile just enough for it to feel special enough for Christmas breakfast.

English Breakfast Tea has breakfast right there in the name. It’s typically a robust blend of black teas that will pair well with milk and sugar. My big question is whether a cup of tea can actually calm any situation like it seems to in British and Australian TV shows. If so, maybe it’s best saved for a holiday when the family will be around.

The bottom line is that most teas contain beneficial herbs and teas that are high in polyphenols with antioxidant properties. Drinking a single cup of peppermint tea may calm my tummy, but it would take regular consumption of these drinks to have a significant overall health effect.

That leaves me free to choose the flavor that will bring me the most enjoyment for Christmas breakfast tea.

Stay Calm and Carry On

Stewart is Ready for Christmas Breakfast! Are you?

Santa Stewart
Stewart is ready for christmas breakfast! Are you? Since the Christmas shopping season starts earlier and earlier each year, I’m wondering if you’re experiencing less rush and more relaxation? I mean, it stands to reason that if we start shopping earlier, we should finish earlier, right?

So far it’s working that way for me because I’ve decided to keep things simple, but my grandog Stewart is way ahead of me. He has already donned his Santa hat, delivered his presents and moved on to picking out his outfit for Christmas breakfast. (He’s leaning toward this gray hoodie. What do you think?) Stewart prefers to focus on the food at all occasions so I guess it’s natural he would want to rush through every other task and get ready for the meal.
Hoodie

This is Stewart’s first Christmas with us, so we had to explain to him that our traditional Christmas meal is breakfast rather than dinner. I don’t think he really understood pancakes, biscuits & gravy or anything else he heard until we got to the word bacon. That one he knows. He immediately perked up and became the most obedient dog ever!
pancakes
bacon

Before my sister would agree to go gluten-free, she needed to know how it would affect all the traditions to which she’s attached. Christmas breakfast was one of those traditions. It was important to her to know that she could still have biscuits, or moonrocks as we call them when my mom does the baking.

My sister was pleased to find out that biscuits and gravy could still be on the menu. In fact, we haven’t found anything in our traditional family meals that can’t be made deliciously gluten-free. If you’ve been looking for a gluten-free biscuit recipe, give this one a try:

Success, Biscuits!
Makes 6 – 8

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup unblanched almond flour
1/4 cup sweet white sorghum flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp tapioca flour
2 tbsp arrowroot flour
2 tbsp potato flour
2 tbsp potato starch
2 tbsp beet sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp buttermilk
Cooking oil spray

Preheat oven to 400º. Spray baking pan with cooking oil spray.

In large bowl, combine brown rice flour, unblanched almond flour, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, potato flour, and potato starch. Whisk together until well mixed. Add sugar, salt, and baking powder and mix well. Use a pastry blender to cut shortening into the dry mixture until it forms pea size chunks. Stir in milk and buttermilk until all the dry ingredients are mixed in and begin to form a ball. Beat with a spoon for 30 seconds.

Divide dough in half. Place half the dough on a piece of wax paper and lightly flatten with your palm. Place a second piece of wax paper on top. Roll until 1 inch thick. Using 2 more pieces of wax paper, repeat for the second half of the dough. Remove the top pieces of wax paper from both sections of rolled dough. Turn one of the sections over onto the top of the other to create a second layer. Use a two inch biscuit cutter to cut the dough into circles.

Place cut biscuits 2 inches apart in baking pan & bake at 400º for 18- 20 minutes. Remove to cooling rack. Serve warm.

biscuits
Christmas breakfast is best enjoyed in your PJs with a cup of piping hot coffee and the ones you love. Don’t tell Stewart. He really wants to wear his hoodie.