Milk and Cookies and...Prune Juice?

One of the perks (I guess....depends on how you look at it) of owning a business that bakes all kinds of sugary stuff is that you develop a certain distaste for anything sweet.  I suppose that is a good thing if you are watching your waistline and trying to eat healthier in general. 

Another thing that happens when you turn your hobby/passion/whatever into a business is that it becomes just that...a business.  And sometimes, you realize it isn't fun anymore because...well, it becomes work.

As a result, I almost completely stopped eating sweets, and when I was home, I refused to cook.  I wouldn't have set foot in the kitchen if I didn't have to pass through it to get to the rest of the house.


However, now that I've been away from it a couple of weeks, I found myself longing for those freshly baked cookies, so I decided to fire up the oven this afternoon and indulge myself.  The smell of chocolate chips and white chocolate macadamias, peanut butters and snickerdoodles, are gloriously intermingled and the aroma in my kitchen is quite nice right now.



I've also begun studying old cookbooks and browsing through old recipes again.  I taught myself a lot this way.  Until my mid-thirties, I didn't cook anything that didn't come from a box.  Now, I have more cookbooks than I know what to do with, and I read them like others read novels.


This is half of the collection.


So as I am enjoying my cookies (I can't eat just one) with a cold glass of milk, I am browsing through an old dog-eared cookbook.  It is like taking a walk back through time, reading those recipe ingredients and the language that they were written in.  Some of the recipes remain classics, but some of them are truly dated, as you might expect.

A few examples:

I make cheese straws, so I am always interested in other cheesy-wafer recipes.  Today I found one with the first ingredient being a "3-oz package snappy cheese".  What in the world is "snappy cheese"?  So I did a little research and learned that it is actually a Kentucky beer cheese that (I think) is now sold in Florida, and I also found a recipe to make it.  I may give it a try one of these days.

Speaking of odd language, I came across a recipe for "Albuminized Fruit Juice".  At first glance, I thought it said "aluminized".  Yikes.  No thanks!  I later learned that "albumin" (or "albumen") simply refers to the white of an egg.  This recipe called for one egg white, 1/2 cup orange juice, and one teaspoon lemon juice.  Beat the egg white, add the juice, strain it through cheesecloth, and pour over chipped ice.  Again, no thanks.  Egg whites are best consumed in cooked dishes, and besides, I can't imagine what the taste or consistency of this drink would be like.

Finally....I love all kinds of punch.  (Here is a really good banana punch recipe that I have used for many weddings.)  As I was scanning another old cookbook, browsing through the beverages section, I came across this gem:  "Pruneade".   Yes.  Exactly.  I know that prune juice has many health benefits, but I have childhood memories of it that were none too pleasant, so there is no way I would ever allow this Pruneade concoction to cross my lips.   Here's the recipe for any adventurous soul who is an aficionado of the stuff.  I just have to laugh, because it sounds so completely horrible.

Pruneade
Serves 1  (really...who wants seconds?)

2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup prune juice
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup milk

Go ahead, try it.  You are surely braver than me if you do.








Closing the doors

Hi everyone,

I begin this new blog with a bit of sad news.  Today I made the unhappy decision to close the doors to the brick and mortar Keeping Room.

It is not a move I anticipated when I re-opened last year.  I had high hopes for it and was excited to have another chance to bring it back to the community.  (Those of you who know me well are aware that this restaurant was and has always been "my baby", even after I closed it the first time.) 

During the past year, I tried to make it unique and inviting, and we started off great.  I attempted numerous things to make the menu interesting and diverse to satisfy a variety of tastes.  I bootstrapped it myself, pouring a lot of money into it, trying to make it a nice place to eat.  I attempted to figure out the best way to offer a different dining experience...something different from fast food or heavy buffet choices...spending countless hours researching recipes and menus, trying to come up with the perfect mix of cost and value and taste and visual appeal.  I worked six and seven days per week, sometimes 10-12 hours a day. 

In spite of all this effort and investment, things aren't going so well.  Our business has slowly decreased over the past few months.  There is absolutely nothing more disheartening than to see a lovely little dining room that is completely empty at 12:15 p.m. - prime lunchtime.  Or to have people park in front of my restaurant and walk across the street to another one.  Or to have someone completely dismiss us as a dining option because they didn't like the soup we were serving that day.  One of my former high school classmates (a guy) recently told me, when I invited him to come have lunch there sometime, that he "didn't eat at places like that".  I know what he meant - he thought it was a ladies' kind of place, all tearoom-ish and such.....but he was so wrong in his perception.  And it isn't the first time I've heard it.  But short of overhauling the entire place, I don't know how to change that perception. 

I'm sure there are many other reasons for this decrease in sales....one being that the economy is still not well.  The Keeping Room isn't the least expensive place to eat, and competition is heavy among the dollar menus and less-than-$5.00 lunch meals.  It's hard to compete with that.   I haven't found an effective way to advertise that doesn't absolutely break the bank, and many people who don't typically go downtown may forget we are there (if they even know we are there).   

So....even though I've never considered myself a quitter, at some point there comes the realization that it just isn't working anymore. 

I will be selling the contents of the restaurant.  If anyone would like to see a list of items for sale, please send an email to thekeepingroom@bellsouth.net.  Or if anyone wants to buy the whole thing...hey, just let me know. 

I will always have a love of food and baking, and I enjoy writing about it, so I'll continue on with this new blog as it evolves into a recipe board and who knows what else along the way.  I hope some of you will visit here and find some useful information.  I may even share a few of those closely-held Keeping Room recipes.

And finally....to my core customers who faithfully visited the shop, to the businesses and schools who utilized us for lunches, and to those travelers who were delighted to find us: I cannot thank you enough for your continued support and patronage.  It was a pleasure seeing and serving our old customers again, as well as meeting new ones.  I will miss you all.  Unfortunately, and for me, heartbreakingly, there just aren't enough of you.