Ben’s Amazing Chai Recipe
Published March 28, 2017 by Ben Holt
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Lately I’ve been trying out a few specialty recipes! Here’s one for authentic Indian chai. Hundreds of thousands of Indian women make this daily, and I can see why. It’s delicious.
I’ve tested my chai on quite a few Indians, all of whom said it was very good. Because they were all nice people, I don’t know if they were being totally honest or not. Advice is welcome!
Use the genuine spices when possible, or just the powdered kind.
-- 6 cups of water
-- 1/4 tsp (or 1 tbsp grated fresh) ginger
-- 1/4 tsp (or ten whole) cloves
-- 1/4 tsp (or one stick) cinnamon
-- 1/4 tsp (or 6-8 pods) cardamon
-- 1/4 -- 1/2 tsp (or 8-15 whole) pepper(corns)
-- 1/4 tsp (or one whole) nutmeg
-- 6 bags black tea
-- 1/2 cup brown sugar
-- 2 cups whole milk
The amount of pepper drastically changes the character from mild to very spicy! Nutmeg is my own addition and optional, but commonly used in Indian cooking, and I love the flavor.
Crush/grate/pulverize spices that need it. I use a plastic bag and a hammer.
Put spices in water, bring to boil. Simmer half-covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat, put in tea bags, let sit for 5 minutes.
Remove tea bags. Add brown sugar and milk, heat until just about boiling, serve hot! You can strain out the excess spices, or leave the “sludge” in the bottom of your cup like Jill does.
Science Fair
Published March 14, 2017 by Jill
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We enjoyed a nice science fair this week with our co-op. 
Alice Photography
Published February 8, 2017 by Jill
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The joys of a subject who sits still…
unsuspecting visitors
and pirates!
A Birthday Tea in 1993
Published December 7, 2016 by Jill
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So I have been going through old journals. Yes, I have stayed up too late some nights because I just can’t put down this fine literature! One journal, however, has some decay in the back. I guess that is what happens if you sticky-tac some candy and a crab claw in the back of a paper book…genious! So I am now trying to type out some of these entries so I can throw away this moldy book…
Here is the entry after a lovely birthday celebration for my friend Sara. Apparently I had not much exposure to tea, for everything very much impressed me very much!
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8/26/93
Since all I talked about yesterday was Sarah and that crap, today I’ll talk about our trip into Boston.
I arrived at the Sargents at 2:00 in my mothers red flowered dress and $.50 Chinese shoes. Erin came soon after and we got ready to go. First, before we left Sara had to clean off the blueberry pie crust off the seat because Ben had spilt it this morning going to a friends house. Christine sat in the trunk, Sara, Erin and I in the middle, and her parents in the front.
It was about an hour long trip and finally we arrived at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel! We dove around a little looking for a parking spot. We found one about 1 block away and parked there. As we were walking down to the entrance, this blue car kept going by with loud rap music on. We named them “mac Daddy and Tito”. One of them waved to me and then to Erin. Anyways, we went through those turning door things and entered Heaven. We went up to the second floor where Mr. Sargent was offered a jacket to wear because he just had on a shirt and tie. We were seated in these couches and given menus. We ordered and then went into the bathroom to check it out. It was like a mirror central, with mirrors everywhere. There were even little folded towels to use to dry your hands. We used the pretty bathrooms and went to get our tea. When the tea was served, they put a little strainer thing over the cup while they poured and it caught all the leftover spices and stuff. You were given a pot of your certain tea also. The cinnamon tea people only got one big pot because so many of us ordered it. The tea was great, it tasted just like hot balls or cinnamon bears. After about 5 minutes our goodies arrived. We were given this plate of awesome cakes and stuff. We had banana bread, chocolate cake, vanilla pound cake, chocolate covered strawberries, fruit cake, with oranges and kiwi…and a blueberry scone. The gave us this great little jam, raspberry jam, we put it on the pound cake. We each got this little cup of cream. It was like butter..it was so good that Erin and I would eat it plain.
When we were done eating we put all the jam into Sara’s camera case and left “megans guest house” room. We went out into the lobby and took some pictures afterwards. At this time we were back outside going back to the car. We got to the right place but UH OH, no CAR. It was toed! When Mr. Sargent first said that it was toed Erin and I thought he was kidding.
We had to walk 2 miles (15 blocks) now in our dress shoes to get to the Museum of Find Arts. I enjoyed the museum a lot. We spent about 1 and ½ hours there. As we were leaving Sara was reading this brochure while walking. Of course she didn’t know where she was going and she ran into this light pole! It was so funny. In the car on the way home Christine kept putting the window brush thing next to us and for some reason we found that sooo funny. Then we went to the Sargent’s and had pizza and went swimming.