The Stillroom

I have been running around like a crazy lady today but I have to take a minute to blog about my prune butter which is also known as Lekvar.

I was at the grocery store rounding up groceries which included two jars of Prune Butter.  The clerk, noticing the word prune,  took it upon herself to walk to the next clerk and show her the jar.  She also said “ewwww, look at this”.

Back story starts here.  When I was a little girl, I was raised in a Polish neighborhood known as Duck Town.  It was called that because the immigrants there raised ducks and chickens for food.  Back then, as I am sure a lot of us do today, granny used pretty much every part of the chicken including the bones for soup stock (since so many great dishes start with good stock).   Now, about that duck soup.  My great grandmother and my grandmother would infuse duck blood in to the duck stock, this soup base was then sweetened with prune butter and sugar resulting in a really gross brown, thick broth. ( I imagine it was kind of greasy too.  I have never eaten duck myself and I have always heard it was greasy).  My parents and my brother and sister loved it.  I would always would try a teaspoon and twist my face as if I literally tasted dirty dish water. This soup made a couple of appearances at the table every year, usually at Christmas and  Easter.

Well, over time and generations we are no longer chopping and plucking and the recipe has changed and has been updated for a healthier version of the soup, which still looks like dirty dish water but man, it is some good stuff.  That was when I developed a taste for duck soup, which has no duck blood or duck in it at all, even though we still call it duck soup.

After the whole chicken is poached with a quart of low sodium chicken stock, water, and bouquet garni, remove the chicken to a platter to cool.  To soup base add a  couple of jars of prune butter along with a sugar and vinegar to create a really great sweet and sour soup base. You just have to keep tasting it until you hit the right balance for your palate. When the soup is balanced, pull the meat off the bones and throw it back in to the soup.  This nectar of the gods will cool off on the back porch tonight because it is basically a cauldron of soup.

This is my designated dish for the Easter gathering that will be at my mom’s.  I also make the cabbage and noodles.  There is something so comforting about going home and walking in to the house where your parents still insist on making ham, horseradish, keilbasi, and sauerkraut perogies fried in a ton of butter and onion.  Most of us kids, grand kids and great grand kids show up throughout Easter Sunday. The kitchen is small so we eat in shifts at the table or if the weather is nice you can take a plate out on to the porch.  It’s pretty sweet.

I don’t serve the soup up there.  After it cools overnight,  I will divide it up and everyone gets a container for the freezer.  I also make up and divide little bags of kluski noodles and carrots with a little bit of snap left to add in case they want to have it the next day.

Well, that was my day today.  Tomorrow, I go to the cemetery to put flowers on the graves of those great immigrants, my grandparents and great grandparents that chopped and plucked to get a bowl of soup.  This is Easter in my family.

My kitchen is very small by today’s standards. It is about 8 x 8. Our house is about 85 years old and when it was built, what functions now as a reception area, entertainment/dining area, office area, sewing room, and micro office space was once a three bay car garage for the Saxonburg Gas Co. a very long time ago. I guess you could call this our “great room”.

I enjoy watching HGTV on Saturdays of people searching for a new home. I am not exactly sure what the appeal is but so many people walk in to a large , open concept kitchen and always say the same thing, “I can just see myself here, cooking for guests and be right there with them.” What’s up with that? To me, being in the kitchen is meditation and the last thing I would want is a crowd of people being talky and drinking wine.

Is it me? I can’t remember in my life when I had a crowd around me while I was making a Thanksgiving meal, (well, maybe once at the Palace in Oregon). My 8 x8 foot kitchen is so unbelievably functional I would not change the layout, ever. I can stand pretty much in one spot and everything I need is at my fingertips through some pretty creative ways to store my everyday stuff.

Unconventional. That’s how it is. I was never the type of person to assign something to a space because that’s what it was made for. I store my pots and pans where the dishes should go. We did do under the counter trash to the left of the sink and there’s cleaning supply storage under kitchen sink, (I don’t like going in there) and a couple of slide out shelves on the other side of the sink.

For my utensils I took a tension rod and put it between two cupboards that are over the larger of the two counters and bought cheapo metal shower curtain hooks, and hung all of my measuring cups, spoons, ladles and spatulas etc. I had a pot rack once but things got too dusty and I could not see out of the window so we took it down.

Last summer at a yard sale I spotted the perfect super old, narrow graduated shelf unit. If I had to guess, it’s probably about 60 years old or more and was hand made. It was so perfect for my small space. I repainted it and stocked it with spices on the top narrow shelf, rectangular dishes and bowls in the middle, and heavy stuff on the bottom shelf, the widest shelf, for stability. It stands against my only open wall which is right at the doorway. I like having my dishes out in the open because of the convenience of getting a visual of what I need at my fingertips as I prep food for the day. We both work from home so there is usually breakfast and a late lunch so I’m in the kich quite a bit.

I also found this really old beat up giant bowl. It looks like it might have been for changing car oil or a basin for water. Although it was time worn, it was in great shape. I needed a night light for my kitchen so I put a string of the white led lights in the bowl and put it on top of the fridge and plugged them in behind it. If you like that cool blue light on white, you will love this ethereal lighting effect.

Now, if the spirit does move you and you have a tiny space to prep like I do, the next time you throw a gathering of friends and family, let me recommend doing a tapas bar. That way, there is really no need for a giant kitchen gathering. You can go to your most chill gathering spot and sit around, listen to some good music, enjoy a few yucks and relax.

Tapas is designed to encourage conversation because people are not so focused upon eating an entire meal that is set before them. It does not have to be traditional Spanish cuisine either. My tapas included mini meatballs with a bowl of freshly grated parm cheese, a variety of olives, crackers, sardines, veggies, a selection of cheeses, dips and spreads (red pepper relish being the fave), and ham bbq sliders. For a new taste treat we added a really good cinnamon dusted cheese for our friends to try.

Little kitchens can produce big tastes!

Now, I am going to get on with my day and continue to hunt for all of the things I have misplaced over the last week. I did find my sunglasses clip in my one coat pocket! Hmmm, I wonder where I put that cut out pattern for my new apron? Or my ATM card. It’s like it got up and walked out. That’s another story though.

I have a dear friend that finally decided to buy an iphone.  Now, I am not real sure but something tells me she perhaps should have started by buying a computer first…but, whatever.  She has sort of been depending on me to help her learn how to use “it” Now, I will be the first to admit it is like the blind leading the blind but we have managed to set aside enough time over the last month to try and meet and learn.  If there is any advantage to her recent purchase, it is that we have put aside time to visit.  We have been pretty much best friends since seventh grade and although we don’t live super far apart, our lives took on different turns like most friendships go over time.  I opened my shop and she raised a couple of really great sons and is a great wife to her husband. ok. Tap, tap, TAP, TAP, TAP.

This is how newbies use their iphones. If it doesn’t do what they try to get it to do, they tap the glass repeatedly and hard. Like they are quickly and with a bit of force killing an ant with the fingertip. It is funny to watch.  Now I do it to make my husband laugh. (is that wrong)?

We gave my parents (they are 84) an ipad to play with during my dad’s recuperation last summer.  We thought they could look up internet stuff and send emails without having to go in to the computer room.  Same thing, my mom was tapping the glass so hard I half expected a genie to come out of it or something.

So, a big part of watching someone use an iphone or an ipad for the first few times is pretty amusing.  I’m pretty sure I did the same thing so I totally get it. The answers will come faster if you do that, right?

Well, that’s my moment on my blog today.  I am now going to have a fine cup of Breakfast in Paris tea.  It is a new flavor and is really, really, good.  If you want to try some, call me to be sure I’m around.  I keep bankers hours, whatever those are.

I’m like the Easter Bunny, you have to catch me.

With Easter less than a week away, I want to talk about chocolate tea.

I had my doubts about the blending of tea with chocolate and therefore had no interest in trying it until I found Harney & Sons black, loose tea infused with rose petals.  This is by far the best and most pure chocolate flavor I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.  It gives as much joy as biting the ears off of a chocolate bunny on Easter morning!

From our Chocolate Hazelnut Black tea to the Organic Chocolate infused Herbal Orange Tea, chocolate connoisseurs love the smooth velvety flavor of the heavenly cocoa bean on the pallet.  Smooth, never bitter, you will be pleasantly surprised at how chocolate tea can help satisfy your chocolate cravings without all of the calories.

Don’t want to fill a basket full of chocolate?  Mix it up and add some chocolate tea instead!  We have Chocolate Hazelnut, Black Forest, Red Velvet, Orange Chocolate Herbal and our premier loose Harney & Sons Chocolate Tea.

It’s pretty wicked good!

So, it has been decided that I will write a blog post about tea.  Who am I?  I am the tea lady of Saxonburg.  I opened a small retail shop about ten years ago and although I started out primarily as a gift shop, that changed rather quickly over the first few months of business as I discovered how much people enjoyed a complimentary cup of tea when they came in to browse.  That small gesture of welcome created a whole new world for me and I slowly became the tea shop in the middle of nowhere, really.  Over time, people who love tea discovered my tiny shop.  People that drove past every day on their way to somewhere would be so happy when they finally had a few extra minutes to stop in and see what The Stillroom Gift & Tea Shop had inside.  When they would step through the glass door and open the screen door, they would be immediately enchanted with my world.

Here is a quote about tea that I find quite amusing and it goes like this, “Dad was at his desk when I opened the door, doing what all British people do when they’re freaked out, drinking tea.”- Rachel Hawkins, Demonglass

The last time I ordered tea the order was for chamomile, evening chamomile, mellow moments, moon and stars and lazy day to mention a few flavors. After I completed the order the woman at the order desk asked me, “what’s going on over there?”   Well, it was a few weeks before Christmas and we were just trying to help our customers slow down and take a breath along with a lovely cup of tea.  I gave away samples for customers to have when they got home to savor after the dinner was over and the day was settled so they could really just put their feet up and feel the warm cup in their hands and just sip and breath a sigh that said, “now it is all about me”.

Tea when you are not feeling well is the best medicine that there is, right along with a good bowl of soup, vapo rub and a vaporizer. (to be clear about this, it is the type of vaporizer used to moisten the air). lol

My favorite teas are herbal teas with my number one favorite being chamomile.  This herb is a ground cover and the flowers are what is brewed.  When steeping, chamomile will impart an apple like aroma and flavor.  If you are not growing chamomile, you can buy it in just about every grocery store, which is much easier, obviously. If you have allergies to ragweed, chamomile is not for you!

I drink it when I’m stressed, I have it when I feel I need to relax a few minutes out of my day or when my tummy feels tender.  It is like putting a warm blanket over my brain, ahhhhhh.

Herb teas are known and referred to as a tisane.  There is no tea in herbal tea which means they will have no caffeine in them at all.  The nice thing about herbal teas are also the colors they produce when brewed so just get yourself a lovely mason jar or go fancy with a glass tea pot.  You can decorate your table with tea!  We had our football team go to the super bowl a few years ago and served black and gold tea. ( can you guess the team)?  We brewed a traditional English Breakfast for the black and Chamomile for the gold!  Everyone really got a “kick” out of that.  Pun(t) intended.