Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week we eat pie, drink tea, and pay way too much for peppermint bark. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Paris tea at Harney and Sons
433 Broome St, New York, NY 10013, and online
Welcome to the New Year! Please, come and sit down and have a cup of tea with me. It’s been quite a wild and stressful ride in 2021, and I am very grateful that you have been by my side through all of it – from an escape to sunny Los Angeles to the lowest of mental lows. The end of the year really packed a double punch, when I got hit with COVID-19, followed by an online harassment campaign that was unfortunately so creepy and stressful I couldn’t even write about it. My only goal for the New Year right now is to fill it with more moments of stopping and savoring. Right now, I’m doing that by starting my days with a hot mug of “Paris” tea from Harney and Sons, capped off with steamed milk. This is my favorite blend of tea, and it smells so nice that I like to throw a sachet in my makeup bag for perfume. According to the side of the box, it’s black tea, mixed with a little bit of oolong, and scented with black currant, vanilla, bergamot oil and a hint of caramel. It’s essential that you buy the Paris tea (and all Harney & Sons tea) in the pyramid sachet form, which will come in the pretty tin boxes (and at a slightly higher price point than the paper bags or loose leaf tea). Each sachet is supposed to make two cups of tea, but for me it makes the perfect strong breakfast cup that wakes me up in the morning.
Key lime pie at Pie Corps
77 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Now that I have opened this letter with this lovely scene, I will tell you how I really started my New Year’s, which is by getting out of bed at 2pm and eating a $7 slice of key lime pie while reading self-help books on a soggy park bench in the rain amongst discarded cigarette butts. I really love key lime pie, but every time I try to make it at home and I look up a Highly Rated Recipe they try to tell me all it’s made out of is lime juice and egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk but every time I do that it turns out tasting like… way too sweet and sticky. What is the secret of key lime pie, somebody tell me please. Anyways the sticker shock of this slice of pie left me reeling (I thought it’d be $5 at most) but to its credit this is one thick, dense, beautiful slice of pie, topped off with whipped cream swirls and sitting on a lovely crust. I ate it for a few good minutes and barely made a dent, and then I put the remainder in a takeout box and ran around town all evening with it in my tote bag, and when I got back home I was really excited to eat the other half and it was just as perfect as I remembered. So this was definitely worth it for some good purse pie. You can probably also freeze whatever you don’t finish eating but I prefer the Tote Bag Method.
Peppermint chocolate chunk cookie mix at Trader Joe’s
A seasonal item, so if you see it stock up.
The fact that this peppermint chocolate chunk cookie mix only has a two out of five star rating on Trader Joe’s Reviews.com only makes me like it more. I love a cookie mix with a little controversy, and also this one is absolutely delicious. Ignore all the reviews that say that the mix is too dry; all you have to do is put on your plastic cooking glove ajumma-style and mix with your hands. I really love Trader Joe’s cookie mixes; to be honest sometimes I think they turn out better and more cravable than baking from scratch, and also I am normally way too lazy and frugal to gather special ingredients for cookies, like the corn ones. This cookie has not only peppermint candy bits but also white chocolate chips and regular chocolate chips. Make sure not to overbake them, though; they definitely firm up a lot as they cool, so ideally they should not be browned at all.
The Original Peppermint Bark at Williams Sonoma
Currently on sale for slightly less expensive!
I have been eyeing this candy-striped box of peppermint bark at the Fancy Kitchen Store Williams Sonoma for literally two decades, and now that I am finally turning 30 this year I decided to fulfill one of my childhood dreams by buying myself a box. This just goes to show that if you have really eye-catching packaging, especially if there is a dog or cat on the tin, you can really mold the minds of little children using the power of marketing for years to come. Yes, it was slightly on sale at $21.99 a box vs the full $30, but it still felt like a completely luxurious and excessive purchase of post-Christmas candy. Anyways, to my surprise the peppermint bark (which is very beautifully packaged) comes in mostly intact large panes (vs. small shards). Maybe you’re supposed to smash them up? Anyways, I really regret to inform you (in the ethos of Treat Yourself) that this tasted like perfectly nice but nothing special Peppermint Bark, but at least now I no longer have to wonder. That being said, there are definitely fancy chocolates that are worth it, including these pink champagne truffles that they sometimes sell at Williams Sonoma, which I’ll make a list of closer to the Commercial Romance Holiday.
Perfect hot choccy <3 at home
Milk-to-choco ratio taken from International Desserts Blog.
A perfectly rich, not-too-sweet cup of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream on a cold, dark night is one of the few perks of Winter for me. I am a real perfectionist when it comes to hot beverages, I think because I just like them so much I want them to be exactly as I crave. It took me a few tries to get this recipe just right, but I am happy to share with you that the best recipe is also the most simple: A ratio of 4oz (half cup) of whole milk to 1oz (two tablespoons) of dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate yields the perfect cup of dark hot chocolate, and just the right amount for satisfying a craving without upsetting your stomach. Just heat the milk over low heat until steamy, and stir in the chopped chocolate or chocolate chips (my favorite is the Guittard extra dark chocolate chips – for a recipe with only two main ingredients, you’ll want to splurge), plus a sprinkle (half a teaspoon to one teaspoon) of brown sugar if you want more sweetness, and half a teaspoon of cocoa powder if you want more chocolate flavor. If you’re craving more of a pudding-y style of Italian hot chocolate, take out half of the hot milk and whisk thoroughly with half a teaspoon of cornstarch, pour it back in and cook until thickened. Pour into a pretty little teacup or your favorite mug, and under all circumstances you MUST finish it off with freshly whipped cream.
Stay warm,
Soph
P.S. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being a reader. Please support my writing by buying a paid subscription for yourself (or a friend!) so that I can continue to keep writing in the new year.