Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Weather, tea, butter

This sounds like a spartan approach to posting, or maybe my Brit roots are showing.

Anyway the local weather people have been all excited and losing their cool, firing off loud alarms on my phone, all over social media, and getting all carried away. None of the severe things happened here.





And then when the forecast is warm, they have to drag in the bad news. Otherwise there's no drama. I mean, who's going to pay them to forecast a few lovely mild days?

Meanwhile, packages began to arrive. My tea, a real luxury, came,  new supplier, and they included a couple of samples, too.


This is the tea I'm coming to the end of

It's fine, just thought I'd keep looking anyway.

And, separately, the butter aka heavy cream powder. Along with my regular whole milk powder.


So I was having pasta for dinner with roast chicken, and suddenly thought Alfredo! The sauce, that is, which I make by just tossing butter and shredded parmesan into the pasta.

So I thought ah, first experiment with the butter powder, I'll mix with a drop of water to a paste, stir in the parmesan, then dress the pasta with that and see if I like it. Bottom line, I did. Nice buttery taste.




I tried the idea of mixing in some turmeric, to get a golden buttery color, and here's a comparison with my Vermont butter. The taste is comparable, too. Turmeric doesn't have a pronounced flavor, so it just gave color and didn't change the taste.


So, that worked nicely. Tomorrow I'll see about making butter. I like the idea of just making the amount I need. Similarly to using milk powder. I never run out of milk, and make small amounts as needed. I keep the powder in the freezer.

And art happened today, here in the mail


Complete with stamp celebrating ny namesake's jubilee, whatever number she's up to now.

Textiles and Tea was Alice Schlein,  a nice lady, well known among weavers, not very visual, more technical talk which escaped me. 

But for Joanne here's some napkins, she loves making towels and napkins from her samples.



And here are her current looms


Forthcoming attraction: I haven't had a Saturday movie night for ages, but finally found something when I get to the library to pick it up

This is not the HBO streamed fictional series, about which I have heard various opinions, but it's outside my budget anyway. 

This one is a PBS production, a doc of the age. I'm hoping for genuine old footage, too. We'll see.

In between all these activities, I've been signing up a storm and trying to get more sigs, to force Justice  Thomas to recuse himself from any January 6 cases. Also to resign, though that's a tougher one. Common Cause and MoveOn are very active. 

Onward! The Emmet Till Anti Lynching law is finally a federal statute. Great shame it took so long, but anyway it's done. Signed today.

And Ukraine still needs our help and support however we can give it.



11 comments:

  1. Milk, cream and butter powder! Brilliant!

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  2. Your teas look so interesting! I haven't tried butter powder, but I routinely use milk powder and heavy cream powder. I keep the powders in the fridge because they go bad in the heat and humidity down here if I don't use them quickly enough. I like Hoosier Farm's products, which I order from Amazon, but I think I will checkout the brands you use next time just to compare. Stay warm!

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  3. We've been having thunderstorms here but I do think the weather people get far too worked up over it. I agree with you about Justice Thomas. The whole situation is upsetting. When we can't trust a Supreme Court Justice we are in trouble!

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  4. If only Anita Hill had been listened to and taken seriously all those years ago...
    There was an article about Thomas's wife in the New Yorker a few weeks ago and yes, it is high time for that man to leave the bench and live his life with his Trump-loving wife.
    Sorry. I got worked up.
    Honestly, I had no idea that there was such a thing as powdered butter or heavy cream. I have bought the whipping cream in a shelf-stable box that you do not have to refrigerate until opening and it was fine. I wish it were easier to find.

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  5. About Hill, sadly it's a blot on Biden's record that it was he who chaired the committee that passed Thomas on for a vote. Patrick Leahy is also unforgiven to this day for lecturing Hill on how women's friendship works. No matter what they do to make good, they did irreparable damage.

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  6. Hah! I just got a warning for possible freezing rain.

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  7. Powered heavy cream? Will check it out.
    My vehicle has a horrid alarm for snow conditions. My phone has a weather alert alarm, but I think I managed to turn that one off.

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  8. No weather warnings here, but at least it's overcast for a change. I get tired of the eternal sunshine, so a break is good. This was such a long post, so much gong on. I think I will commnet on the tea. It looks lovely and I'm sure it must keep your British roots alive. No British roots here, but I so enjoyed my years there and always love a good cuppa.

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  9. I learn something from you every day, Boud. Butter powder is a new one for me.

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  10. We had severe weather warnings and possible snow from 6 to 9 this morning, or some such nonsense. I looked out the window at 8 am to brilliant sunshine and then read all warnings cancelled.
    Yes, Thomas should recuse himself, minimum, retire even. He was a pig when he harassed Anita Hill and still is.

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  11. We've used powdered milk years ago but haven't seen the cream or the butter versions. We went through a dire weather warning period on Wednesday and all sorts of grim reminders of how dangerous it is to go anywhere during freezing rain. Even went so far as to cancel the school buses for what turned out to be pretty much a non-event. Thankfully!

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