3 butters

I like fancy things. I make no secret of that. My favorite fancy things are those that are ordinary and then made fancy with minimal effort. I'm kind of a lazy princess in that way, I guess. (And come to think of it, I'm not the only one of those around here)
Herb butter is definitely the sustenance of lazy princesses. Plain old stick of butter, chopped herbs, and you're in fancy town. You might want bread, I guess, just as a means of getting the butter into your belly.

3 Butters

Or hell, make it 4, 5 10! You decide. The most essential part is that the butter be at room temperature. Cut the butter into 2 tablespoon chunks, put each chunk into a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons chopped herbs, garlic or shallot, a squeeze of lemon, and a pinch of salt. Mix, mix, mix. Serve with bread, or melt on just about anything.

The 3 butters up there are:

Nasturtium butter (2 T chopped nasturtium petals)
Shallot butter (1 chopped shallot)
Basil Parsley butter (1 T each of finely chopped basil and parsley)


Oh, and one more thing! The lovely and amazing Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives has brought on the blush over here with the One Lovely Blog Award. Lisa Michele is a kitchen goddess, not to mention downright hilarious, and to be chosen by her of all people leaves me (for once) speechless. I'll pass the award on this week, I promise.

Fancy Thirty

Today I am thirty, and although I thought I would be at work today, instead I am home in an ice storm and therefore able to share my birthday here a little bit. I've been thinking lately about how much I like small things that make me feel fancy. We live on a very limited budget, and I think that keeping these little luxuries around helps me to be quite content with our income level. Yes, my dirty little secret is that I really like fancy things. There it's out. And I'm not alone, right? So here are a few of those little fancies....


Cloth napkins. Cheap. Pretty. Good for the environment. We have a lot of them, and we use them at every meal. And my kids think that paper napkins are strange. And voila, I have raised fancy, eco-conscious kids.

Olive oil in a glass bottle. Just makes me feel like a good cook to look at it. And if you can fill it with decent olive oil, even better.

Pinchable salt. Good coarse salt in a little bowl that you have to put your fingers in to. Sanitary? No. Fancy? Oh yes.


And because we are in an ice storm, I'll finish with my favorite today. Tea in a little glass. It may burn your fingers a bit, but just to look at the glass is so satisfying. So I know that it's my birthday but why don't you go treat yourself. Grab a juice glass, fill it with tea, and feel the fanciness....