Meal plan for May 30th – June 5th
Ok, so know how I usually keep this place free from excitable topics like religion, politics, and those kinds of things? Today I’m blowing up that policy, because I want to talk about choice.
A conversation with my friend that we stayed with in Los Angeles really got me thinking, and even though I steer clear of upsetting discussions on the blog, I really do need to bring this up. We need to talk about it. And we need to have a conversation about beliefs – yours and mine. Ok? Can we agree to keep a civil tongue and act like grown ups? Cause we need to talk about something in particular…
Where do you store your butter?
The first morning we were there, Troy made everyone French Toast. He was looking all over the counters for a butter dish, and finally asked Elaina where their butter was. She pulled a stick out of the fridge, and I saw Troy’s face fall because hard butter on warm melty French Toast is kind of a let down.
The next morning, Elaina informed me that she had left the butter out of the fridge overnight and had to throw it away. My eyes opened wide as I exclaimed “it’s still good; people store butter at room temperature all the time”. What ensued was a deep dialog of “really? Gross” with a response of “yah huh”. No one had to raise $10 million for that debate, but it ended in a stalemate of each side thinking the other had some weird butter habits.
You may think butter storage is regional. Perhaps. But I know when we lived in Los Angeles, we still kept a butter dish in the cupboard so that we had delightful, spreadable butter at our finger tips. When we moved back to Washington, Troy was saddened that our apartment was so cold, every winter and fall our butter was almost as hard as if we had kept it in the fridge. He rejoiced in warmer weather and the return of “summer butter”, and we even would hum a little ditty to the tune of “Summer Lovin'” from Grease (summer butter, happened so fast. Summer butter, spreadable at last. Met some toast…”). Now that our current house is a bit more climate controlled, we store our butter in a cute little butter crock to keep it fresh and spreadable throughout the year. We’ve never had butter go rancid on us, and always appreciate the fact that we don’t tear holes in our rolls (dibs on Holes in Our Rolls as a band name). Edited to add: we buy a ton of butter at once, and store it in the freezer. We keep a pound at a time in the fridge, and one stick at room temp on the counter.
So folks, what say you? Where does your lovely butter spend its time awaiting your needs?
The weather forecast for Seattle is showing sun and gorgeous weather (except for one day of rain) for the next ten days. I’m so glad, as it allows me to use my Mother’s Day present; the new retractable clothesline. There is nothing better than sun-dried clothes, towels, and sheets. I always put line dried laundry in the dryer for 10 minutes to “de-crunchify” them, but they still smell fresh, clean, and like sun. Our diaper inserts are the best things to dry outside, as no matter what we do, they always have a bit of staining. A few hours of sun bleaching, and Bennett’s able to wear diapers as white as snow. Because babies care about those things. 🙂
With both sets of grandparents, I remember certain things about my childhood at their houses. At my mom’s parents, I remember their epic raspberry bushes, going shopping with my grandma, playing in the flour drawer in her kitchen, and the giant spiders in their basement. My memories at my dad’s parents revolve around picking blackberries, eating pickled beets and canned crab apples, and running through the sheets Nanna always dried on the clothesline when the sun was out. Here is hoping that Jack and Bennett have fond memories darting among line dried sheets. And not the fact that their mom was a giant hippie.
Every night that Troy is on shift, Jack insists that we sleep in the bed in Bennett’s room. His rationale is Bennett needs me to eat (truth), and Jack is the man of the house and needs to be close in case anything happens. Bennett sleeps in his crib, while Jack and I share the super cozy 4Sleep double bed. The other night, during our sleepover, Bennett woke up crying (of course), and I noticed his hands were fairly cold. It was time to feed him anyway, so I brought him in the bed for his meal and to warm him up. After he ate, I put him on the bed to run and pee (isn’t sharing fun?), and came back 20 seconds later to this sight.
And no, Jack is not wearing a tank top; just a shirt that is too big for him so it rides up on the arms. He has decided that getting dressed every morning is too cumbersome of a task, so he has started just wearing his clothes to bed. Boys.
Thinking that ants were getting in our strawberries, I was researching an organic method to rid us of the six-legged pests. And then one morning I was looking out the window and saw the wild neighborhood peacocks in the strawberry patch. Oy.
The one head-deep in the berries is a juvenile, and his beautiful butt feathers have not yet grown in. But both find the berries equally delicious. Overall the peacocks eat every slug, snail, and naughty insect that could attack my garden…and they never touch my tomatoes. I can share a few strawberries with them.
Meal plan time!
Monday:: Organic hot dogs, organic tator tots (this is shaping up to be a fine gourmet meal, yes?), and salad
Tuesday:: Penne and grilled asparagus. Asparagus season is quickly coming to a close, and I am eating as much as I can until next year.
Wednesday:: Grilled chicken on Asian crunch salad (it’s from Costco, have you had it? Delicious. We add the chicken), and garlic flatbread.
Thursday:: Kebabs (chicken, potato, sweet onions, and pineapple), asparagus, and garlic flatbread.
Friday:: Popcorn night
Saturday:: either burgers, or we will clean out the fridge depending on our needs.
Sunday:: Family dinner
What are you having this week?
We staunchly believe in storing our butter on the counter! The only downside is that it gets pretty hot here in Texas, so our butter can go from “spreadable” to “molten” in seconds. But people do need to see that you don’t need to keep it in the fridge, either! I keep mine in a plain glass butter dish, but a butter crock might be better for us, since our butter tends to melt on the counter.
i make my own butter (yay raw milk, shhh dont tell..) and i keep it in a butter bell on the counter. this is a butter bell http://www.thekitchn.com/good-question-d-2-14288
I live in SC so we keep our butter in the fridge. I take it out ahead of time when I want it soft. I have no problem with leaving it out – relatives in Indiana left it out on the breakfast table in their kitchen all the time.
Organic fix for fire ants or possibly all ants – Medina ( as in funky cold medina! ) orange oil mixed with dawn and water. I think its from Texas A&M – the study anyway. Google it and you will find the exact recipe. I get the Medina from Amazon – it’s pricey but works and keeps your garden free of pesticides.
Add another tick to “keep the butter on the counter, always” column. I grew up with butter on the counter and still do it myself. Although I forgot to replace the lid today and found a stink bug noshing on it–THAT butter got thrown away. Do y’all have the stink bugs out there? Rejoice if you don’t, they’re horrid and impossible to get rid of.
I too am in Washington.. we leave 1 stick of butter on the counter in a covered glass dish, unless my kids use it all and forget to replace. During the summer, like last year was so dang hot for this area, I rotate the butter from counter to fridge and back to keep it from becoming a puddle on the counter. The butter area in the door of the fridge is usually full of butter and then I have some in the freezer as well. It gets rotated accordingly. I like to have a lot of butter in the house! 🙂 having some on hand for whenever the baking mood strikes.
Your kiddos look sweet. Every night I have a 5 year old, 2 year old, and 6 months old in my king size bed with me 😉 my 7 year old sleeps in a bunk bed in my room as well. My 2 oldest kids, 15 and 12 years, are the only ones who sleep in their own room! I sleep better with my little ones near me. Gives me peace of mind! I find breastfeeding and climate control much easier when the baby is next to me all night.
Our butter is stored in the fridge with one stick in a dish in a cabinet. In Iowa, we have the same issue with the cold butter in the cooler months and we, too, rejoice when the temps are high enough for spreadable butter! I LOVE smooth butter season!
We leave the butter on the counter in a covered glass butter dish (old school kind). If it’s really hot in the house I will put it in the refrigerator for a few hours.
Sarah, I am looking for a pea salad with smoked almonds recipe you posted a while back, but I don’t see it in your recipe archives. Assuming this means maybe you had a link then to another site? Please let me know how to find the recipe as I remember you raved about how good it is and I have a craving for it. 🙂
Here you are Jean: https://www.sustainablecooks.com/2014/05/oy-amazing-pea-side-salad.html
You’re right, my recipe archives are a mess! I need to clean those bad boys up soon. There is a search function on the right side of my blog page towards the bottom. That’s how I found this link.
Thanks Sarah! I am making this today for tomorrow’s dinner. I grew up with a different kind of pea salad (typical Midwest – green onion, peas, small chunks of cheddar cheese, mayonnaise). We eat lots of cold salads in the summer here.