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Some blogs you just want to curl up with and read, like a good book or a juicy magazine. Tea Austin's Tea & Cookies blog is one of those blogs, not to be skimmed, but to be read thoughtfully, so that the beauty of the Tea's words and photos have time to sink in and dance around your synapses.

When I first met Tea, I discovered that we both shared a love of Japanese food, having both of us lived in Japan at some point in our lives. And although I have for the most part given up on trying to make Japanese food (too much a bother to keep all of the ingredients on hand) at home, Tea frequently dives right in, making her favorite (mine too) Japanese specialties. She gives step-by-step instructions, with beautiful photos, for those of you intrepid souls willing to try your hand at Japanese cuisine. One summer favorite is a dish of cold buckwheat noodles in dipping sauce, known as zaru soba. Want to throw a sushi party? Tea shows you how, in great detail. A favorite Japanese picnic dish (often made for cherry blossom viewing) is chirashi sushi, basically a sushi-rice mix-in.

Tea also writes thoughtful essays about food, where it comes from, the growers, the gardens, our love of it. A recent essay of hers, What does our food look like?, had me smiling throughout.

If you haven't yet had the pleasure of reading Tea's blog, please head on over to Tea & Cookies and feast your eyes.