How much is enough?

There is a story from my childhood that I always tell people. It's the butter story. Most of you have heard it, but for those who haven't, it goes like this.

When I was little, I used to think bread and butter was the most delicious thing in the world. Really, it was the butter that blew my mind so much, the bread was just a delicious vessel. I used to want to put layer after layer of butter on my bread, but Mum insisted that we just have a thin scraping, I assume for health reasons. In my view, this was never enough. I mean, if a little bit of something is good, then surely more of it is better, right?

One time, Mum and Dad were going out for the evening and I decided that while they were gone I was finally going to eat as much butter as I wanted. However, I am famous for my inability to show restraint in certain situations, so as soon as the doorbell rang to announce the arrival of the babysitter, I went at the butter like a seagull on a bag of chips. I was at with a teaspoon, just shovelling that delicious stuff in to my mouth.  By the time Mum and Dad came to give us a kiss goodbye, I was lying on the living room floor in a butter coma.  I may have been crying, I don't really remember. They just shook their heads and looked a little embarrassed for the babysitter.

All I know is that I was lying there,  feeling like I wanted to die and wondering where I had gone wrong. I didn't realise that there was such a thing as too much of a good thing.
I feel like there are a million stories from my childhood that go like this. If I think little bit of something is awesome, I go and seek out much much more of that thing and  then it goes horribly wrong. I didn't seem to be able to stop when I was still having a nice time, I would always push on until shit got real and then the good times were over. Obviously this happens less and less as I get older, but I tell this story now because the same kind of thing happened  recently and I guess it just reminded me that sometimes, I still find it difficult to know how much is enough. 

In this recent example, I went overboard on listening to  This American Life and the consequences were a little pathetic and a lot ridiculous.  How can you overdose on listening to TAL? I hear you ask. Well lucky I am in a sharing mood guys, because I am totally going to tell you.
Because I love TAL, I listen to it all the time when I'm pottering about doing stuff at home.  But lately, I have been listening to it when I go to sleep. At first I thought this was a great plan, particularly for those times I wasn't totally exhausted when I went to bed. I would read for a while and then play a TAL podcast and drift off to the sound of Ira Glass saying his pretty pretty words. It was a  real treat.
I should have stopped there, but of course I started doing it every night, and now I've gone too far.
I know this because the other night I drifted off to sleep very quickly, and then awoke with a start about 15 minutes later. When I heard Ira speaking in my half-sleep state I thought to myself, oh good, Ira's home and then waited for a sec for him to come in to the bedroom and get in bed with me. And then I became fully conscious and realised that Ira Glass is not my boyfriend and was not in fact about to get in bed with me, but rather was just talking to me through the interpipes.  When I realised this, I felt my cheeks go red and I basically had to lie in bed, blushing in the darkness.

This shouldn't happen, guys. I really need to figure out how to draw a line.

Oh butter.

I'm so glad you brought this up because I have been wanting to talk about butter for ages.
I'm actually surprised that we waited this long to talk about it.

First, bread and butter.
Bread and butter is pretty much the best thing in a world full of best things.
No matter how many delicious things I eat and will continue to eat (insha'allah), I am never ever ever going to get sick of bread and butter. It is straight up delicious. My heart sinks a little whenever I see bread and olive oil on a restaurant table. I eat it, of course, but I don't love it. Actually, sometimes I do, if the oil is particularly nice and I put a little salt on my plate and then dip the bread in the salt after dipping it in the oil. Then I love it. But still, I don't love it as much as bread and butter.

I love how you can put butter in something, and then on something. The other day I made pierogi. I put butter in the dough, butter in the potato and beetroot filling, and then butter and chives on top when I served it up. Somehow, it came out not tasting very buttery, just extremely delicious.

I love how butter is a friend to the sweet dish, and a friend to the savoury dish. You can't say that about many things. Salt, maybe. Rice, I guess. Probably lots of thing. But butter, you do it with such grace.

I could go on and on but I am getting really hungry, and must stop now. But finally, I just want to mention that I think butter and mushrooms also go together beautifully.

Butter: An MSC Tribute

Butter, I love you on all breads. Not with other things. You go to waste on a salad sandwich. But on your own you shine. You are good on white bread and on multigrain. But I love you on rye bread best of all. I think it is the way rye bread is so fragrant and a little bit sweet. It is a beautiful marriage with you, butter. Your salty, creamy deliciousness. In debate about same sex marriage people often say that the definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. But the marriage of flavors of butter and rye bread is as beautiful as any heterosexual marriage goddamn it.

Butter, I love you with corn too. Char grilled, sweet, hot corn. When you and corn get together you turn two nice simple things into a really beautiful thing. Butter, when you get on corn it's like when the dorky girl takes her glasses off in a movie so we can realise how beautiful she is.

You used to be cream, butter. Then they churned you from one beautiful thing into another. How do you do it. Cream! Butter!

Without you, garlic bread is nothing. And where would croissants be!?

Of course I don't eat you all the time butter. But that doesn't mean I don't care about you. I just thought you should know.

Where to begin

Mate, with Chutney Club yesterday and Pesach tonight and so much delicious food everywhere I really don't know where to begin. But let me give it a shot. I cannot wait to eat vegetarian chopped liver tonight. I can't wait. I am pretty sure that by the end of the night my teeth will have the same horrible furry feeling they had last night. Why you gotta be punished for eating all that delicious food by having furry teeth. I hate that. Also I really need to go for a run.

So how freakin good was Chutney Club? I know we probably say this every time, but I really think that was the best one. The chuts, the diversity, the pickles, the bloody marys, the baked goods.
I think that the best thing I made this weekend was the honeyed brown butter spread. Fo shiz. Sometimes I read recipes that call for browned butter and I never really got it and now that I browned that butter and tasted all its caramelly goodness I totally understand what everyone is on about. And I certainly do not want to come down on that recipe, cause it was delicious, but why it didn't call for cinnamon I don't know. Honey and cinnamon are pretty much one of the best combos in the world. I think it added a lot to that butter.

Though I also liked making caramel. I love the way it makes my kitchen smell like Disneyland and I love that it is the easiest thing and that the end result is friggin caramel. Every time I make it I think this but then what am I gonna do, just make caramel all the time and then eat it. That's not really feasible is it?

Did you have a favourite chut? I really felt like they all had something great to offer. I loved the spiciness and the nut factor of the spicy pear and I loved the depth of the apple, plum and onions. I also love it when fritters are served. I love how Biz always makes a fritter. Sometimes I think of those eggplant chips from NYE ... shit I'm thinking about them right now in fact and, well, you know, I really wanna eat them. Anyways, I love fritters. Though I actually felt that the chutney they were meant for went better with cheese and the ajvar went well with the frits. And how about those bread and butter pickles. I loved how they were a bit spicy and a lot delicious. All the jams were great too, the lemon factor in your fig jam was great and that tangy marmalade. And the worcesterchire sauce, well I only tasted that in the bloody mary and it tasted pretty good to me. Until you talked about how tomato juice tastes like vomit and then somebody said chunks and then the dream was pretty much over.

In other news I am looking forward to the Seder tonight. 'Cause there ain't no party like a Passover party.

Though apparently my awesome haggadah from last year wasn't good enough and Mondonna picked up a new one in Manhattan Judaica. She says that design-wise it matches our yarmulkes and the description of it was thus:

30 MINUTE SEDAH HAGGADAH. This meaningful abbreviated format includes all of the highlights of the traditional Seder. The gender sensitive, socially conscious text will appeal to all ages. Rabbinically Approved! 6"x9" format.

So I guess it sounds pretty good. But apparently when she went to buy it the guy in the shop castigated her for wanting the abridged version and suggested she only cared about the food. HA! God, I can't wait for the vegetarian chopped liver.

Next year in Jerusalem!