Friday, September 01, 2006

"It's like buttah! Now....talk amongst yourselves..."

(That's from Saturday Night Live for those of you who aren't familar w/ Mike Myers & his brilliant character Linda Richmond & her infamous "Coffee Talk" skit......)

The guesses were:
* Cardamom
* Cayenne Pepper
* Cinnamon
* Tapioca
* Pear liquor
* Crystalized Ginger

The magic secret ingredient? Nothing more than plain ol' sweet (unsalted) butter. About 3 Tablespoons for the entire cauldron of preserves. It makes sense when you think about it - after all doesn't jam always taste better on toast if there's butter down on that toast first? It somehow transforms the sweet pear into a more caramelized, slightly rich tasting concoction while never obscuring the pure pear flavour. From a culinary point of view, as well, it gives the sometimes-grainy pear a much smoother 'mouthfeel' and just rounds out the entire thing.

Speaking of butter, I found the following pictures via a Google image search. These - my dears - are butter sculptures. Roughly 600 to 1,000 pounds of butter and 120 to 300 hours of work go into making them. OY. Sharon BuMann is the woman who does the sculpting. The 2nd pic is called something like "How to milk a llama" which made me laugh...

So as nobody guessed the super-magic secret, for now I will keep my five precious jars in the pantry (my husband is breathing a sigh of relief, you can be sure!) but in the future I might offer one up as another contest prize....if I can ever think of anything else to ask you, that is......

We are currently drowning under Ernesto, so my opportunity to take a nice Eye Candy photo today is absolutely soggy with impossibility. And as the Munchkin fell asleep last night at quarter after seven in his high chair I (finally) got a few rows done on R's clapotis before I myself nodded off (this week has been CRAZY at work - exhaustingly crazy!) alas only to be re-woken an hour later by the Munch, who was absolutely miserable with teething pain. He was up for several hours until the pain medicine kicked in and helped to dull the ache enough for him to fall back asleep. So alas, my few rows of a clapotis that is over 150 stitches wide is not a very interesting photo, lemmie' tell you. I can - however - show you the dropped stitches as they currently stand and can say that I'm working on updating my Flickr pics that are linked to the right under the WIPs and FOs. Earth-shaking excitement, I know......

[But now today - today is quiet as a tomb in the library due to the pouring rain outside, and I have a whole two hours before my next committment pops up....hmmmm....I'm thinking a mug of tea & turning off the overhead light in the office & some P.G. Wodehouse via iTunes and voila! A tried and true knitting meditation session! Especially if you throw some chocolate in there.]

Then back home to mop up the house (uggghhhh....I left the windows open!) and start cleaning in time for my dad & stepmother to arrive tomorow AM sometime before lunch...... As I say to the Munchkin every night at bathtime - "scrub scrub scrub!"

Oh and hey! Yarnival is going to be announced soon - I'm excited to see who is the first pick, aren't you????

p.s. Sorry for the (almost) picture-less post today.

p.p.s. Sorry for the (almost) knitting-less post too!

p.p.p.s. Oh, and Emily? Anytime!!!! Just consider us your home-away-from-home hurricane evacuation stop! And of course bring the cats - Betty & Thisbe can compare family trees.......

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

EVERYTHING is better with butter!

Butter sculptures are fascinating! I mean: who first looked at a pile of butter and said, "Hrm, I bet I could carve a horse out of that."

PS Betty says that she will look forward to a visit! If only she didn't have to ride in a car to get there - screaming the entire way...

kt said...

Oh, butter! Buerre! Mantequilla!
But of course!

Drat me for not thinking like Iron Chef Sakai who would have known in a trice your deep, dark secret ingredient. Oh well, as I am neither Japanese nor a trained French chef, I will cut myself a little slack and say:

C'est la vie!

(I put you on my trophy list of froggers; will you be frogging?)

(I hope I hope I hope...)