The Meaning of Life = BUTTER

So last night as I couldn't sleep, I decided to get up and make breakfast for the day ahead. I've been hooked on using The Gourmet Cookbook of late cause it's great and easy. Anyway, we stopped buying pancake mix because it's such a basic mixture and we already have all the ingredients, there's no need to spend money on a box with a label.

Until now, most recipes I used called for whole wheat flour, which is healthier, but it tastes like cardboard with maple syrup on top. So I decided to try Ruth's Pancakes, pg. 645. Ruth (Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet magazine) has never steered me wrong on a meal before, but I thought it odd that she called for an entire stick of butter(What is a Stick of Butter? ) in the mix, not as the cooking lubricant. I tried it and it was GREAT.

My pancakes were fluffier than they've ever been before. They had no chance of sticking to the stainless steel pan. The butter made the batter like an opposing pole of a magnet. It couldn't stick if it wanted to. I flipped them without a spatula, EUREKA! And they slid right out of the pan onto the plate. HALLELUJAH!!! It was then that I realized the meaning of life.

Everything is better with BUTTER. Think about it. Butter is fat and flavoring. Whenever life gets you down, wouldn't it be nice to have a little flavoring and some fat to slide those problems away. Imagine if you could use butter to solve problems. You and your girl(guy) are arguing and someone pulls out a stick of butter. Argument over, there's no friction left between y'all. Cop pulls you over for speeding, pull out a stick of butter with your driver's license and registration, drive away with a verbal warning. 1000 thread count, Egyptian cotton sateen sheets. Forget about it. Lay down on a king-sized stick of butter and your worries melt away. Extremely, soft supple leather was marketed as "butter leather" for a season or two. There's even a song by Louis Armstrong called Big Butter and Egg Man. Back in the day, circa 1920, a butter-and-egg man was a prosperous business man from a small town or a farmer who spends his money ostentatiously on visits to the big city. Today we call them "ballers" and they still try to butter us up. Right ladies?

As lovely as it is, there is a flip side. Butter really is just fat and salt for the most part. And that's not a healthy way to live. I encourage you to try a pat of butter. Even some goat's butter, but remember: Everything in moderation. You don't want to be called a Butterball, do you?