Gah! I missed a post! And I was doing so well too! Last night I thought to myself that I needed to do it, but I was so tired I just went to bed without thinking anymore about it. To make up for it, I'll do two posts today! First up, yesterday's post.
I love butter. Don't give me that
fake stuff. Yes, I know it is more expensive than margarine, but butter is one area I won't compromise on. No way!
That being said, there is always at least one stick of butter sitting on the counter. Sometimes the other big person in the house won't see the stick that is out and will take another one out and I wind up with two sticks on the counter. For some things, I like my butter soft, and it can get messy softening in the microwave, so I just leave it on the counter. Problem solved, right? Not so much. For one thing, other people use it, which would be fine and dandy if they'd throw the darned butter wrapper away! But no. For another, sometimes it can get pretty hot in the kitchen when I'm cooking up a storm, and sometimes the butter will start to melt. Lastly, it gets
really soft (which is what I want), but it's not so wonderful if the stick accidentally gets knocked on the floor and lands with a fairly undignified
splat that yours truly has to then clean up.
Last week I was reading the
newest book in one of my favorite series. At one point, the main character is commenting on the muffins her sister had made her and the fact that she had also put out "a jar of butter and a knife." Well, that certainly opened my eyes! I remembered a few years ago seeing an add for
one of these. But just then, reading that book, I wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking of a plain old canning jar. Why hadn't I thought of it before? So, I set to work. I took out a pound of butter and set it on the counter and then went looking for a jar. I was out of canning jars (Note to self: need more canning jars), but since a good glass jar is useful, I have a small collection. I found my butter jar in the form of an old black bean and corn relish jar. After removing the label (nail polish remover is excellent for this), it was ready to go and so was the butter!
I simply unwrapped the butter and scrapped it into the jar with a rubber spatula. I smooshed it down and added another stick. I kept smooshing and adding until all four sticks were in there, screwed the lid on, and put a label on top. The label wasn't originally there, but DH thought it looked like mayonnaise (it does, but the jars are totally different) and said it needed one.
Perfectly softened butter that I'm ridiculously happy about.
P.S. Sorry for the blurry picture and the mess. Still working on cleaning the kitchen!
