It’s been no secret that my husband had an accident a couple weeks ago that left him injured pretty badly. We’ve been very lucky that we have so many friends willing to help out any way they can.

My guy is not one to sit around, so needless to say, since he hasn’t had much choice but to sit, he has been (as we all have) a bit stir crazy. So when I had the chance to pick up Life of Pi on DVD/Blu-ray when it was released at Walmart this part week, I jumped at the chance! You can see more pictures from my Walmart shopping trip here.

I thought it might be a good excuse opportunity to have a couple friends over, have some yummy food and watch a great movie.

When thinking about food for our gathering I knew I definitely wanted to make samosas, have a cocktail of some sort, and dessert. I planned to order our new favorite pizza called the Spicy Buddha - so fitting for an Indian styled evening! I also thought of hot chai tea, so warm and yummy after a delicious Indian meal.

I got to thinking it might be fun to incorporate the tea into the dessert. I searched the Bigelow Tea website and found several yummy recipes. I decided to try the Vanilla Caramel Cake. Looking through the beverage recipes the Simply Summer White Sangria, sounded delicious. (And I’m kind of over all the cold weather, so summer sounds good too!) Pizza, wine, and cake – you can’t go wrong!

Now I did run into the problem that the teas listed in the recipes were not available when I went shopping. But not to worry. There were plenty of Bigelow tea flavors to choose from! I really love the variety that Bigelow offers. There is something for every mood, whether you want your tea hot or cold. And just a random factoid here – it just so happens that I live less than twenty miles from their tea plantation in Wadmalaw, SC. How cool is that? So I  love to support those company’s that work within my community.

So let’s get to the food! I made the cake ahead of time and substituted the Vanilla Chai tea for the tea that went into the cake batter, and used Lemon Ginger tea in the glaze. You can find the original recipe here.

I then got the sangria ready. I substituted Perfect Peach herbal tea for the one listed here.

I even made a kiddie sangria for my girl, using white grape juice in place of the white wine. She loved it, and told he she felt so fancy!

By the time our friend came over we had pizza, samosas, wine and dessert all ready! Now it’s time to sit back and watch Life of Pi!

The cake got rave reviews! It was so moist and yummy! Who knew you could cook with tea? Our buddy, Uncle Joe, enjoyed his cake with some hot vanilla chai tea. YuM!

I didn’t think she was going to share her cake with daddy!

Our neighbor came by kind of late to see the whole movie. But he did help himself to some yummy cake. He couldn’t believe I had use Bigelow Tea’s Vanilla Chai to make the batter. He loved it! He even noticed the ginger spice in the glaze from the Lemon Ginger tea.

We love our sangria!

Now I haven’t read the book, Life of Pi. It’s on my list o’ stuff to read. But I can tell you the movie is mesmerizing. I can only imagine how awesome it would have been to see it in the theater. The graphics were amazing, the story really hit home. I believe it was Pi who said some thing to the affect of, “…struggles, it’s what friends are for…comfort in the small things.”

With out friends and family support of these last few weeks, I’m not sure where we’d be. Uncle Joe actually came to the hospital while my husband was still in the ER. That allowed me a much needed break, since the last thing I wanted was for him to be alone.

This movie night let us all have a fun, relaxing night. Now I want to share with you another way you can relax. Bigelow Tea is hosting a Life of Pi Relaxing Moment Sweepstakes now through March 29th. Winners can receive a Walmart gift card, personalized tea chest or even a Panasonic Blu-Ray player. You could have your own relaxing movie night at home. So make sure to enter, as there are several chances to win!

Please be sure to check Bigelow Tea out on Twitter and Facebook too!

Awesome friends, awesome movie, awesome food and cup of hot tea. A fabulous night was had by all!

Anna-Leigh

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Bigelow Tea #CBias #SocialFabric #AmericasTea