butter me up

This week is huge..

Two of my best friends on the planet are arriving in LA.  One all the way from Australia and the other from Savannah.  This next month is going to be filled with adventures, live music, road trips, loud/obnoxious gut busting laugher, lots of alcohol, food truck chasing and of course wine {I'm Australian and therefore make no apologies for doubling up on the upcoming alcohol and wine indulgence}. I feel like there's a massive space in my chest that's going to explode from all of the impending love and excitement.  With all the devastation that's been happening world wide over the past few months, all I want to do is surround myself with the people that I love the most and this week I get a little taste of that.

So in keeping with the idea of surrounding myself with simple pure love, of course todays post is about butter. duh.

Here's a simple trick I use in my baking and cooking recipes just to up the flavor notch a little, or rather a whole lot. Make sure that if you try to incorporate this into your baking that the recipe calls for melted butter. If there's any whipping involved, the recipe won't work out.

I mean butter is wonderful on its own, but there's something extraordinary that happens to it after this process. All of a sudden it becomes a little nutty and far far more interesting. Which is kind of how I feel when I'm surrounded by these two beauties; a little nutty, and far far more interesting!

Thank GOD for girlfriends......girlfriends and browned butter.

Browned Butter
Heat your desired amount of butter {salted or unsalted} in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Wait until butter has melted completely and then keep and eye on it as this browning process will happen quite quickly.  You'll see that the butter becomes a little speckled and has separated.  Wait until the flecks are a deep golden brown and then transfer butter to a separate bowl to immediately stop the cooking process. The solids can burn quite easily.

lots of chirpy love,
xx t 

p.s. I hope that you're surrounding yourselves with love and surrounding Japan with love and support too. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.