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What's the Matter with Butter?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

I've been in a baking frenzy lately. Seriously, I made cookies, pie, cake, cupcakes, icing, whoa. It's been nuts. Last night, I went to make Paula Deen's Pineapple Upside Down Cake when I realized that I was out of butter!!! I don't remember the last time I'd run out. I usually have 8 sticks in my fridge as "emergency" butter. 4 salted, 4 unsalted What makes it even more bizarre is that I'd just come back from the store to pick up some essentials for that recipe (buttermilk) when I realized I didn't have the glorious butter. *sigh*

Anyway, I like to leave my butter out in the morning, and let it get nice and soft for evening baking or even for spreading on toast. I don't have one of those butter crocks, so I guess that is something to put on my wishlist. Well, I kept thinking I was having serious pregnancy brain because I would swear I had a couple of sticks of butter out, but only see one. Or I would leave a tablespoon out, but then I wouldn't find it. I never saw a wrapper, so I just chalked it up to me not really setting them out or just doing a lot of baking.

When I was making homemade cinnamon rolls last week I caught the Sugarbean happily devouring half a stick of butter!!!! She must've eaten about a tablespoon of it and was smearing the rest of it on her hands, her face, and painting the kitchen window with it. (It's never a good sign when the kiddo is THAT quiet!)

MAH-RISSS-A-BELLE!  is what came out in that evil Stepmother voice from Cinderella. I hate it when I do that, by the way! She stared at me with those gorgeous brown eyes, wide and surprised. She smiled and said, "I like butter. It's goooooOOoood!" and grinned. (No I didn't get a photo, but needless to say, her hair had some extra shine and apparently, Guapo is a fan of it too because he "aided" me in the clean-up effort.) Her daddy wasn't very happy about this, but then I got to thinking...

Blythe Beck, The Naughty Chef, loves her some butter.
Paula Deen can't seem to get enough butter.
Tony Bourdain...another butter lover.
Primo also loves butter.

These are all chefs. They all know really good food. I know for a fact that two of them are huge fans of wine and are extremely adventurous eaters. Heck, Mari prefers to have her eggs cooked over easy, and I mean for real, over easy. (When we had a breakfast date, I ordered them this way and the waiter said, "Really? That's great! She likes to eat eggs the right way." Not sure what he meant, but he followed up with, "She's going to be an adventurous diner!"--she already is, darlin'!) I don't know many children who like their eggs that way. Before she discovered over-easy, she would eat her eggs scrambled with cream cheese or just barely pick at the eggs. I was the same way growing up. If my over easy eggs weren't cooked perfectly, I would pass and not eat them. My mom would chop them up in tiny, tiny pieces like perfectly broken bits of egg-glass. I could never get them like she would get them, but now I can. And now, that's how Mari likes them too. I went on an egg tangent, sorry. Anyway, all this to say that I know she has a fine palate. It was my goal from the very beginning to continue to cultivate that palate and introduce her to all sorts of foods and have a greater appreciation for them. I never wanted her to be limited to just a few select choices. I don't want her to grow to be the picky eater I was, even though I never knew I was a picky eater. I was just narrow in my scope.

I'm not going to let her continue to eat butter straight from the stick, but if she wants to add a tiny bit of flavor to something with butter, I'm not going to tell her no. I do try to instill good eating habits in her, but at the same time, I don't want to compromise the flavor. Besides, I'd rather she eat the natural butter, churned from milk instead of that margarine that is just one molecule away from being plastic. (which I don't knock too hard for those people who are on a special diet that requires they eat that stuff, but man, I'd just rather do without than have the substitute.)

What about you? Do you love and appreciate butter? Which kind do you prefer?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Go Mari! Curtis gets mad a me when I eat butter straight. :) J/k! I really do love butter though and put it on probably more than I should. I love it!

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