Yesterday was a day like any other day.

I woke up thinking about doughnuts and chili fries. Ok… not really.  I did, however, make my way to the kitchen, found an open box of cereal, and ate a giant handful of dry cereal with my eyes closed.  Then I drank milk.  I can’t tell you whether or not I drank straight from the carton or used a glass.  That information is classified.  Just let me be known that I seem to be a bachelor at heart.

Yesterday was a day like any other day.  There was cereal, a bit of beach, eye cream (because I’m obsessed), food, friendship, and curious amounts of butter.

Herb butter.  A simple combination of salt and pepper, fresh thyme and chives, fresh (fuzzy) sage and lemon zest.

It all gets smashed into butter.  Later I’m going to suggest you put this cold butter inside a hamburger patty.  That’s obscene and I apologize in advance.

December 26, 2011.  Morning by the beach.  If anyone ever makes me live in a frozen tundra land… I’ll hold this dear inside my heart.

December 26, 2011.  Brunch with Tracy, Casey, and Cooper (not pictured… obviously).  Tracy is cutting her son’s pancake.  She’s mom-ing hard.

December 26, 2011.  Afternoon butter manipulation and photography.  Yes… I shoot on the floor in front of my door sometimes.  Just… deal.

What are you going to do with all of this beautiful, herb-y, salty, butter spread?

Bread is an amazing place to start.  Toasted?  With garlic?  Keep talking!

December 26, 2011.  You might consider, as I did… placing small pats of herb butter inside ground beef and making butter burgers.

Butter.  Burgers.  I mean… sweet Lord.  The recipe is from Good Meat, a book I am deeply emotional about.

I can neither confirm nor deny my butter burger consumption.  A butter burger is not pictured here because that would be entirely irresponsible, and frankly… dangerous.

December 26, 2011.  End with a cider.  Pear.

Before you roll your eyes, and dismiss this dessert as something that’s too complicated for you… something that’s out of your skill set… something that you simply don’t have the time or energy for… please.  Just give me a minute.

Everyone should know how to make a pie.

If you know how to make pie, you know how to make love.

What do you do for a living?  Are you an accountant?  How do you do that?  I can barely count.  Are you a barista?  A lawyer?  A super mom?  A welder?  A hat maker?  Awesome.

I want you to know how to make a pie.  It’s really important to me.  Can we get on this together?

There are things you should know before we start.

Making pie is not necessarily easy.  Pie is rarely perfect.  Making pie might be a little frustrating.

Wait… who was that person that said the best things in the world are also the easiest?  No one.  People don’t say that… because it’s totally not true.

Am I doing a good job with this pep talk?  Do I need to yell?

Making pie starts by making pie crust.

Stay with me.  We can totally do this.  We don’t need to buy that pre-made junk.

Homemade pie crust is part of the love we’re making.  It’s love.  We can’t cut corners.

Get on board with butter.  Cold butter.

We use our fingers to quickly incorporate the cold butter cubes into the flour mixture.  It seems like a lot of butter.  It seems like a lot of blessings from heaven.

We’ll add just a touch in vinegar to the dough.  What!?  Yea.  Don’t worry.  We won’t taste it.

A touch of acid really helps with the flakiness of the crust.  Pro tips.

Are you worried about how shaggy this crust is?

This is where the love comes in.

Loving hands divide the shaggy dough and gently knead it into two disks.  Tender but strong hands. Do you have those?  We need the dough to come together, but we want to leave little bits of butter speckled throughout the dough… so we come with the tenderness.

See the butter bits!?  That’s what we want.

These disks get wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for an hour.

We refrigerate dough because we want to moisture to distribute, and the butter to re-chill.  Refrigerating the dough will make the rolling process easier.

Fruit time.

I’m certain that there are few things better than ripe summer peaches and fresh blueberries.

Because this is pie, we have to add a thickener (flour and cornstarch) and a few spices for flare.

Sprinkle and toss.  Again with the tender but firm hand.

A generous sprinkle of flour on a clean counter is how we’ll start rolling out the dough.

Do you see what happened here?  Near the center of that dough was a tear in my crust… because that’s real life.  I patched it and rolled the crust out just a bit more.

Oops… yea… I had to take a bit more extra crust and patch it again.

That’s love.. sometimes it needs a band-aid.

We’ll roll two crusts.  Pile in the fruit mixture, and pile on another crust.  Pinch the pie crust with your fingers, or press together with a fork.  Both are pretty pretty.

Brushing with a beaten egg makes for a beautiful brown top.

Extra cinnamon sugar?  Always a good idea.

Beautifully golden brown pie.

It’s not perfect, but somehow it’s perfect in those imperfections. Well… if our imperfections include sugary baked peaches and blueberries in a buttery crust… I suppose it’s a good life after all.

The crusts tore  bit.  I patched them.  The crust browned as it did, with some sides darker than others.  The fruit bubbled over a bit.  It took just over two hours to come together.  All of this?  Totally fine.

Slice generously and serve with vanilla ice cream.  It tastes like pure summer.  It tastes like Sundays after church.  It tastes like grandmothers.  It tastes like pure love.  It’s important.  I really want you to know how to make love.  Will you do this?  Please.  Awesome.  High five.

We do have butter to talk about today, but first I hope you’ll indulge me in allowing me to write an open letter to my little sister Lauren.  

Dear Lauren,

This afternoon I found a card that you wrote me on January 1, 2000.  That’s right.  I found a ten year old thank you note from you.  

Here it is.  

You open the letter by saying “Happy New Year!”  This seems sweet and appropriate.  Well played.  

Your next sentence gets slightly strange.  You write “Would you be surprised to know that this card was painted by a kitten?… NO!… a very small kitten? …NO!… 10,000?  5,000?  10,000 kittens?”  

To answer your question, dear sister… yes, I would be very surprised to find out that this card was paw painted by 10,00 small kittens.  Yes.  That would be weird.  Also, I appreciate you liberal use of punctuation.  

I also found this picture with the card.  This is about the age you surpassed me in cuteness, as I seem to be rocking a girl mullet and no teeth.  So… that happened.  

I just thought I’d take this opportunity to remind you of how awesomely strange you are.  And to let you know that you’re still way cuter than me too… but I have more teeth and less mullet now.  

I love you sister.  Go make some butter.

Love,

Joy

We’re making butter?  Why on earth would we do that when it’s so neatly packaged in the grocery store?  Well… because we can, that’s why.  We’re taking a few cups of organic heavy whipping cream and turning it into gorgeous butter… because we can and we should.  

You’ll need a stand mixer fit with a whisk attachment for this sort of adventure.  Ready?  Let’s make butter.  

When we make butter we’re agitating the fat in cream so much that we force the fat globules in the cream to separate from their liquid neighbors, and clump together to form butter.  It’s like making whipped cream… times 10.  

Start with two cups of organic heavy whipping cream in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a whisk attachment.  Turn the mixer on low and begin to work the cream.  As the cream thickens, turn the mixer up to medium.  

You will most likely recognize this stage of cream.  Supe silky, stiff whipped cream.  Don’t get distracted… we want butter not whipped cream.  Keep mixing!

That is some gnarley looking whipped cream.  Here you can see the fat globules starting to clump together to form a curdled looking cream.  We’re halfway there.  Keep that mixer on medium and watch science turn cream into butter.  

After about 9 minutes of serious mixer action you might wonder if somehow you’ve messed something up.  And then…  you see clumpy curds in milky liquid.  No no!  This is a good sign!  You might want to slow your mixer down a bit to prevent buttermilk from splashing all over everywhere.

Now is a great time to drain the butter curds from the liquid.  Use a strainer and a mixing bowl and gently press some of the excess water out of the butter.  Return the butter to the mixing bowl and whisk again on medium speed.  You want to get as much of the water out as possible.  

Once returned to the bowl for the second mixing, the butter really starts to come together.  That’s some good lookin’ butter.  Return to the strainer and press as much water out as possible.  

** Here’s a note from reader Natalie.  She seems to know what she’s talking about when it comes to this stage in butter making.  Give it a rinse.  I didn’t… but then again, I ate the whole thing in just a few days… Do. Not. Judge.**

     My mother grew up on a farm and a trick that she taught me was that after you got all the excess water out if you will rinse it in ice water (I am talking about water that is so cold you can hardly keep your hands in it) and kneed it a little the water will normally turn cloudy and you can change the water once or twice until as you kneed the water stays clear. This way your butter will last longer in the fridge and wont get that sour milk smell. After that you can as salt or what ever you wish.

Now that you have butter, you can add all sorts of things to it.  Start with 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt and add more to your taste.  You might also like to throw in some fresh herbs.  You’ll definitely need some fresh bread.  Right away.  Enjoy your butter.  It will last for a week well wrapped in your fridge.  

I was packing up my kitchen this afternoon and I got to thinking.

I got to thinking about my box grater… which is totally weird.

As if thinking at length about my box grater weren’t odd enough… I’m now going to shovel my box grater thoughts onto your lap.

There’s butter.  There’s cheese.  There’s roots and veggies.  All the drama and intrigue you could want from one little box grater.

aaaand… seriously… thanks for playing along.  I realize I’m ridiculous.

First things first: carrots.

These are Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Frosting.  These are best when unwrapped and shoved into your face.

Cheese.  Just say yes.

Homemade pizza and a movie rental with your honey… just the best night ever.  Take note.

Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits.  Because biscuits are the answer to every problem.

Grated greens and roots for Zucchini Sweet Potato Bread.  It’s the goodness.

While we have the zucchini out.   Pancakes.  Zucchini Pancakes.

Take frozen butter to the box grater.  It’s a wonder in pie and scone dough.  It’s a secret weapon from me to you.

This No Roll Pie Crust recipe I came up with… it’s dang amazing!

Sometimes life feels like layers of complications.  Like taxes and traffic and cavities and getting laid off are all piled high into one smelly sandwich that you’re supposed to eat for lunch.  Really…?  Worst sandwich ever.  Do not want.

Complicated.  Yea.  It happens to you.  It happens to me.

Luckily there’s… bread.  And thank the holy heavens for butter.

Bread and butter.  Yes.  A post about bread and butter.  Perhaps the most beautiful and uncomplicated thing you can put into your face.  Don’t fight me on this one.  That would only make things more complicated.  Go and eat.  Bread and butter.

And yes… I burnt the bottom of my bread a bit.  These things happen.

This is a pretty foolproof bread recipe.  Don’t worry.  If you’re intimidated by yeast and bread baking you might consider freeing yourself of that fear with this recipe.  Really… all you need is time… sometimes that’s the hardest ingredient to come by.  Take a lazy weekend afternoon and give this bread a try.  It’s worth the effort just to make your house smell like fresh baked bread.  Trust.

You did it!  Now where’s the butter!?

These are pretty, right?  Hot diggity dang, I think they’re precious.  

In the middle of frosting these cupcakes I looked down at my hands.  No big deal.  I was simply looking down at the cupcake in one hand, and frosting covered knife in the other.  I had to see what I was doing, right?  When I looked down at this particular moment, I saw… my grandmother’s hands.  There they were, the worn and wrinkled hands that had absolutely fascinated me as a child… only now spotted with powdered sugar and tinted with food coloring.  

When I was a kid I would hold my grandmother’s hand in my lap and study it like it like I might study my favorite picture book.  Somehow her hands weren’t at all different from reading an intricate a story.  

So there I was, frosting a cupcake with my grandmother’s hands.  The image was so strong that I even put down the cupcake and knife and bent my left index finger with my right hand.  It ached a little.  I don’t know why.  And just like that… those hands were gone from me.  

That was simultaneously perplexing and so comforting.  I had to share that with you…  I now only hope that I live long enough for my hands to be read like a story book.  

Now let’s talk cupcakes!

Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty… right?

I’m proud of these little gems.  I’m even more proud of the fact that it only took one stick (otherwise known as 8 tablespoons, 1/2 cup or 4 ounces) of butter to make both the cupcake aaaaaaaand the frosting.  That’s bonkers, right?  I know! Just three tablespoons of butter for the dozen cupcakes and 5 tablespoons for the buttercream. Who says you need a pound of butter for cupcakes?  

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

     adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

     makes 12 cupcakes

     Print this Recipe!

1 cup all-purpose flour

a scant 3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup whole milk

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or use a handheld beater and beat on slow speed until the mixture is a sandy consistency and everything is combined.  Gradually pour in half of the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.  

Whisk the egg, vanilla and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated.  Scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side or the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  Continue mixing until the batter is smooth.  Just a few minutes.  Do not overmix.

Spoon the batter into paper lined muffin tins, dividing between the 12 cups.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until light golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let the cupcakes cool slightly in the pan, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.  

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

     from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

     makes enough for 12 cupcakes, double this recipe to frost an 8-inch cake

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons whole milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the powdered sugar and butter together in an electric mixer fit with a paddle attachment on medium low speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.  Turn the mixer speed to low.  Combine the milk and the vanilla extract and slowly stream it into the butter and sugar mixture.  Once incorporated, turn the mixer to high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes.  The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.  If you find that your frosting is getting to warm in the summer months, stop beating and set in the fridge for a few minutes.  Once chilled, hook the frosting back up the the mixer and beat once more until you reach the desired consistency.

Happy isn’t hard for me.  I might even take happy for granted.  I wake up in the morning and I’m genuinely stoked about the possibilities the day brings.  I have thoughts that make me smile when I’m sitting alone in my car.  I like rainbows and kittens, well… you get my point.

Today I shared a meal with a dear friend who isn’t so blessed in the happy department.  She’s been struggling in recent months.  She’s lost her happy.  After dinner, as we sat lingering in conversation, she told me that she couldn’t think of one thing that made her happy anymore.  I was totally floored.  I didn’t know what to say to her.  In vain I tried to name things and places that I knew she liked.  None of it worked, she just shook her head no.  It breaks my heart, but I know that I could recall fun things we’d done together until I was blue in the face.  Her happiness needs to come from the inside.

It got me thinking about happy.

What makes you happy?  What thoughts make you smile when no one else is around?  What makes you happy to get out of bed in the morning?  Share.  I want to know.

On my list of the many things things that make me happy:  Crispy Toasted Coconut Cookies.

If happy has been elusive lately, give these buttery and crispy cookies a spin.  Who knows, they might just be the break in the clouds.