Okay, fine -- the weather's cold, dark and blustery, there's a heap of laundry and a pile of incomplete prospects nagging me, I have a headache and my back is pillar of pain. Nevertheless, we have fresh English muffins, fine Irish butter and imported* blueberry preserves and I am enjoying them together with fresh coffee. Don't know I will have another one next, or polish off the last of the everything† bagels
There's always a little sunshine hidden somewhere, or at least the promise of it.
Oh, the title? It's from a poem.
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* Domestic would be just as good, as long as it's the real deal and it usually is. Blueberry preserves are apparently so difficult to fake that just about any brand you find will be genuine. I love them. I loved blueberry syrup as a child (alas, the mass brands went more and more inauthentic as I grew up) and as an adult, blueberry preserves are a wonderful, nostalgic treat.
† They're the best bagels, if you ask me, with poppyseed bagels in second place. Given what I have written, you'd think I'd like blueberry bagels, but they usually don't have enough blueberries to matter and I prefer my bagels savory.
I don't think there's anything special about Irish butter. Tastes no different than any other. Elitism perhaps? I speak as an expert. As a youngster after WW2 we visited Irish relatives. I got the job of churning at the farm. getting tired, I asked my great-aunt when I could stop. She said, "When I tell you to." That was the quality control. I don't recall any percentage gages around. Each year we visited the butter tasted fine, but not different than USA.
ReplyDeleteBob
In fact, European-style and American-style butter is made differently. The stuff I buy just happens to be from Ireland and uses that as its branding. There are other brands in the cooler -- one even includes truffles, but I can't afford that very often and it's only good with savory foods.
ReplyDeleteYou write "elitism" like it's a bad thing. Some individuals are better at some things than other individuals. Individual tastes vary. These are facts. I suppose one can cultivate that as a basis for resentment, and this business of accusing people of "elitism" seems to be deeply embedded in that game. But it won't wash with me; I'm a self-educated, sixtyish spinster who stumbled out of high school with a C average thanks to report cards composed of As and Ds. I work with my hands at what's often called a "light-blue collar" job and I live pretty plain, in a cluttered house too full of books and electronics.
And I happen to prefer the flavor of (modern, commercially-made) European-style butter. YMMV.
Here's a little info.
There is more in this world than Land'O'Lakes (perfectly good if that's your thing) and Velveeta (ditto) and I eat what appeals to my palate.