Butter & Baggage
Butter has always been a passion of mine. In fact, I might be a bit of a butter snob! It is the running joke in our house that the butter needs to be from ‘happy cows’ within 50 miles of where we are.
My affinity for butter began when I started baking and cooking in high school, experimenting with recipes I found in magazines, mostly because of a stunning banana pie I saw in Seventeen Magazine. This pie turned out beautifully, but it tasted awful, and my quest for baking perfection was born.
Affinity turned into a true love of butter out of necessity—or maybe just bad cafeteria food. In college I lived on saltine crackers and butter patties when I didn’t like what was on the lunch menu. Food at college has certainly changed since I was there!
As time went on, my quest for buttery baking perfection did not stop with my own personal experiments, but transferred itself to my family’s culinary adventures as well. I would get into fights with my grandfather about the merits of “oleo” as opposed to butter in baking. As luck would have it, I was blessed with a mother-in-law who loved cooking as much as I did, and didn’t mind my sometimes disastrous experiments in her kitchen.
With marriage and children, I expanded the use of butter from baking to all types of recipes. And disasters soon turned into delicacies! The purpose of this blog is to share with you some of the recipes that I have found to be a hit with my family and friends, and I hope that these recipes become classics in your home and wherever you take them. I have always thought that whenever you pass along a recipe, a little piece of your love and soul goes with it, and with this blog I pass on my love of baking, traveling, and butter to all of you.
While I love to cook everyone needs a night off, so I can certainly appreciate great restaurants, particularly those that use local ingredients in their food. My family is constantly busy with different school activities and work commitments, so we have tried many restaurants in our hometown of Greensboro, NC and also Pinehurst NC, where we spend most of our weekends. We are also a family that loves to travel and I will share my thoughts on restaurants and food no matter where the wind blows us, especially if there is local butter involved.
My official taste testers are my husband Michael and our two daughters, Taylor and Natalie who are in and out as young adult life dictates. I will be referring to them often as they are my best critics, and also the pickiest eaters I know. I am always amazed when I make something that all three of them like. I hope you will provide me with your comments and feedback as you share in my culinary adventures.