chai tea and little bits

Last weekend I hosted a Mother's Day Brunch for all of my mom friends.  We ate outside in our beautified backyard and enjoyed homemade chai tea and various yummy things to eat.  It was so nice for us all to be able to sit down together and enjoy each others company without interruptions (our husbands took care of the kids to provide us this moment of peace).  So for all of you mommies who couldn't join us (and for those of you who did and wanted the recipes), here are some of the recipes for the yummy things we ate.  

I posted about Little Bits quite awhile ago after discovering the recipe in my Mom's recipe box.  Little Bits were treats that my Mom would make for special occasions.  And they taste just the way I remember.  Click here for the post about how to make them.

I also served "eggs in toast" with bacon.  This recipe is from my favorite bread baking site, www.artisanbreadinfive.com.  Click here for the recipe.

Another yummy recipe from the Artisan Bread site is for a spinach stuffed brioche.  I last made this around Christmastime and posted about it back then.  Click here for the recipe.

And last but not least is my recipe for Chai Tea.  The original of this came from online somewhere (I first made this several years ago).  Since then, I've changed a little here and a little there and here is the recipe as it is today.

-----

Chai Tea

makes 4 servings

• 4 1 1/2 in. slices fresh ginger (use vegetable peeler)
• 1 2 in. cinnamon stick
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 heaping tsp powdered cardamom
• 1 6 in. vanilla bean (cut up into 1 in. pieces)
• 1 dash nutmeg
• 1 heaping Tbsp. brown sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• 3 Bigelow Darjeeling Blend tea bags  (I tripled the recipe and did not have ginger.  I used 3 jasmine tea bags, 3 darjeeling tea bags and 3 triple ginger tea bags.)
• 2 cups H2O
• 2 cups milk (for a thicker chai, I like to add in some heavy cream along with whole milk)
•   

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and toss in teabags then all other ingredients in order above. Reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Add milk and/or cream (or half and half) and bring to boil, then take off heat. Strain through strainer or coffee filters and serve hot or in a tall glass filled with ice.

Refrigerate unused portion.