Numi Organic Tea – Rooibos Red Mellow Bush

Today, I completely forgot to eat breakfast on the way to class, and so I stopped by the campus center for a bagel and some tea. They had a large selection of Numi Organic Teas, and so I picked the Rooibos Red Mellow Bush from their list. I had never had rooibos tea before, and so I figured I’d give it a try instead of my usual black, green, or chai teas.

I looked up rooibos tea later on in the day and found these neat tidbits. Rooibos tea is made from the rooibos bush that grows in South Africa. The tea is made of the rooibos’ little needle-like leaves. Other names include redbush tea, South African red tea, or simply red tea. In South Africa it is common to drink rooibos tea without milk, but instead with a slice of lemon and sugar or honey.

River Thai Cuisine

Hans and I got home from work last Tuesday and didn’t feel like cooking, so we decided to use one of our Restaurant.com coupons and go out to eat. I got the coupons for a great deal – the website was having a promo at the time and was offering $2 for a $25 gift certificate! The only requirements were that you spend at least $35 minimum and that you tip 18% on the entire bill. So yeah, you should definitely check that out sometime. They have deals like that all the time.

We drove half an hour from home to get to Thai Shangri-La, a restaurant in Old Bridge, only to find out, to our horrifying dismay, that it was closed! What a coincidence, open every day EXCEPT for Tuesday. We were devastated (and incredibly hungry). We had our hearts set on Thai food, so a quick Google search on our phones revealed to us that there was a Thai restaurant with great reviews about 12 minutes away.

River Thai Cuisine
50 Main St.
South River, NJ 08882-1225
Telephone Number: (732) 698-2225

Chicken with Garlic Sauce

So Hans has recently gotten into this show called “The Big Bang Theory.” The show mainly revolves around physicists and roommates Leonard (the most normal one) and Sheldon (the arrogant/unbearable one) and their uber-geeky adventures. Alongside them are their friends and fellow geeks Raj (the pathologically shy one) and Howard (the pervy gross one). Pretty girl and Cheesecake Factory waitress Penny moves in across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon and hangs out with them on a daily basis, despite the inability to understand any of their geeky references, and Leonard falls hopelessly in love.

The show is so laugh out loud funny (especially to nerds like Hans and I), though it’s annoyingly male dominated for the first couple of seasons. Things perk up when they add Bernadette (the book-smart, but slightly ditzy girlfriend to Howard) and Amy (the female version of Sheldon) to the cast. Then at least after that its not a sausage fest, and television can finally admit that the diverse community of girl geeks exists.

Turkey BBQ Sloppy Joes

Last Friday night, Hans and I had our good friends Casey and Erica over at our apartment for dinner. It would be our last hang out in a while since Casey was leaving the following week on a trip to Africa for his internship, and Erica was leaving for Miami on vacation. I wanted to make something great for them, so I  decided on making sloppy joes. My friend Yesenia told me all about the great sloppy joes that her mom makes for her family, so I was craving them.

I never made sloppy joes before, so I looked up a recipe online, and found one by Rachael Ray – BBQ Chicken Sloppy Joes with Pickled Slaw Salad. The prospect of the BBQ sauce was most exciting! It is my ultimate favorite condiment, and there have been a few BBQ sauce loves in my life.. Sweet Baby Ray’s, as well as Jamawn Woods’ BBQ sauce that was used at his short lived restaurant Soul Daddy. (I was really sad to hear Soul Daddy closed in all three locations, but I really really hope he puts out that sauce in stores because I will sooo buy that shit in a heartbeat.) So the thought of making my own homemade BBQ sauce was what made the decision.

Maeda-en Gold Genmai Cha Brown Rice Tea

Hi everyone. Welcome to Tornado in a Teacup. In the last couple of months, I started getting into loose leaf teas, so I figured I’d use a blog  to record the different teas I try out.  I really don’t know too much about tea, so maybe I can take you along on this journey as I learn more about things. I’m pretty excited.. I’m hoping to get a few books on tea, the different kinds, the history, etc., hopefully you’ll learn along with me. I’ll also be adding some posts about food – stuff I make at home, great meals I come across during my many shenanigans – as well as posts about things I find interesting.

So here’s my first post!

I went to Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket, the other day with my mom, her friend, and my best friend Mark.

This is Mark, with a bag of mochi. Stick them in a waffle maker for great waffles! Awesome with Nutella!