Because
most of my visits to Corgi Cottage came during winter months, Tasha often spent
time baking various savory treats, from a scrumptious poppy seed coffee cake to
her trademark brownies. One time after the wind had blown out the pilot on her
gas water heater located in the space outside her greenhouse, Tasha was going
to call Seth to assist her in relighting the appliance. But together, she and I
managed to restart the pilot and Tasha declared that we must celebrate our
female victory with a tea. So she stoked her stove and rolled out biscuit dough
laced with shredded Vermont sharp cheddar cheese and set the rounds to baking. As
Tasha measured tea into her teapot, she explained why she preferred the Mark T
Wendell blends.
“If
you open up a teabag from a grocery store, most of its contents look like dust.
But you can see full leaves in these blends, and that is why they taste
superior.”
Soon, Tasha placed golden-brown biscuits
dotted with melted cheese on a blue and white plate, and I brought the teacups
and saucers to the hearth where the teapot was steeping. We munched away while
continuing a discussion about tea, and why Tasha believed in adding warm milk to
her tea also improved the tea’s flavor.
On
another afternoon when Tasha expected additional guests for tea, she sculpted a
blueberry pie. In many ways, baking could display her skills to weave a flaky
pie crust into lattice work that resembled one of the baskets she had created.
Or she might draw a wren in the top of the crust and carefully cut the image in
order to release steam and bubbling juices.
Tasha
blended together art and daily life in everything, because she longed to bring
beauty to simple moments and to her friends.
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| Tasha crafting her pie with the wall of notes, signatures and dates behind her |
