A Pot of Tea in Bed

The weekend got off to an excellent start with Cuisine magazine arriving in Friday's mail. It's the mid winter issue, full of braises, soups, and lovely slow recipes for the perfect excuse to stay at home all day. And an even more perfect excuse to go back to bed on Saturday morning with your tea tray, and do some serious meal planning.

The tea tray in bed was a daily ritual when I lived alone in Vancouver. I served myself proper tea with a gingernut if I had one, or a handful of almonds and dried apricots. As I was taking this photo, I was struck by how little the tea tray had changed in 15-odd years, and how much of what is important to me is still alive in this ritual.

Nana's blue cup and saucer have been part of my tea ritual for at least 30 years, possibly longer. She gave me two cups and two saucers. One survives. It's called depression glass, recycled I think from medicine bottles or something like that. I've looked for more pieces like this, but nothing quite matches the clear intense blue and the simple elegant lines of this cup and saucer. I suppose just like nothing quite matched up to the intensity and elegance of my Nana.

The fish-print teapot came from Chinatown in Vancouver in 1989. It cost $8, and it has the rare distinction of having a spout that doesn't drip. I won't buy a tea pot unless I'm satisfied it isn't a dripper. You'd be surprised at how many kitchen stores don't want you to test the drippiness of their tea pots. But the owner of the dusty old shop where I bought this tea pot was quite happy for me to take her tea pots out to the kitchen and find one that suited me. This has been a truly faithful kitchen friend. The best $8 I've ever spent.

The milk jug was 50 cents in a potters' cast-offs sale. I can't remember the potter's name, but she was incredibly fussy about what was suitable to put in her gallery on Granville Island, so she had some fantastic sales over the years. I don't care that this jug doesn't have a handle and does have a gimpy lip... it's beautiful, and holds the perfect amount of milk for three cups of tea.

The only new things on the tray are the tea cosy, which will surely be an heirloom some day, and the latest issue of Cuisine, which will join my rather large collection, and be taken to back to bed on cold, wet weekend mornings, and cooked out of year after year.