Rosey Tea and Pumpkin Pie

Tea in a basket.  This should actually be called a Tisane.  I collected from our gardens, Red Zinger hibiscus flowers and buds, lemongrass, some kumquats and a couple of allspice leaves.  Pour boiling water over and there's your tea.  Well, not exactly.  I just used a bit of zest from one of the kumquats.  I'm going to make a Starfruit Chutney and add the remaining kumquats to that (I love the word - just something about it, reminds me of an old W.C. Fields movie, where he calls Mae West, "My little Kumquat" in his inimitable style.

My daughter, granddaughter, and her Silkie chicken joined me.  It was a ladies' tea.  With leftover pumpkin pie.  Those hibiscus flowers and buds made the lovliest rose color in the pot.

Actually, there was one piece of pie left, and two custards with whipped cream.  With the extra pumpkin pie filling I baked two souffle dishes in a bain marie (larger pan filled with water in which souffle dishes are sitting).  For the pumpkin pie this year I used what was left after my soup, defrosted, dumped into the blender with some cream cheese, eggs, cream, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, bourbon, and of course, the inevitable ground Wattleseeds.  They're finding their way into all sorts of dishes lately, as part of my ongoing experiment in using the suckers up.  In this instance, the flavor was there, not pronounced, but a presence bringing the usual pumpkin pie spices up a notch.  I added extra cream and cream cheese as I wanted a less dense pumpkin, more cheese cakey kind of thing, but not.  If you know what I mean.

 

This tea was also fine iced.  I just looooove the color.