use real butter

Jeremy assesses the progress of the chocolate espresso buttercream.

Boy am I glad the holidays are over. It feels nice to get back to my normal life, whatever that is. I think December was mostly a lot of self-induced stress for me. My mom told me they opened the crackers I made for them. They OPENED them, meaning they UNWRAPPED them. I even sent instructions on how to tear apart a cracker, but no, they had to do it their way. I asked what she did with the cardboard strip inside that has the cracker. Threw them out… my parents – gotta love them.

I love flan…

My photos tanked from the Geminids evening. It was the f-stop. Doh! So stupid of me. I was too tired last night to try it again, but we did walk outside to see some really nice meteors. With the heavy light pollution from Los Angeles, we could only see the fairly bright ones. At that rate, it must have been slightly better than what we were getting at our dark sky site the night before. Very exciting, even when walking the dog to the dark hill in the neighborhood. Note: colored Christmas lights are generally very tacky and rarely pulled off well without corporate sponsorship.

To make up for the photo fiasco, I decided to create a birthday dessert for Kaweah tonight as she turned seven years old today. Here’s the dessert (it looked delicious until I added the dog biscuits):

**Jump for more butter**

I would love some mint ice cream about now. Not the green stuff, but the pink peppermint ice cream that Purity makes in central NY with little crunchy bits of dark pink peppermint candy. Oh, that is really good ice cream. I think the fat content is through the roof on that one. Best for me to stay away from it though considering my lactose intolerance and also how it goes against the ARP (Ass Reduction Plan).

Oooh, I found this on the Recipe Source (I took out the food coloring, that’s bullshit):

3 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy

Mix egg yolks, sugar, milk and salt in 2-quart saucepan. Cover over medium heat, stirring constantly, just to boiling (do not boil). Refrigerate in chilled bowl 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally, until room temperature whipping cream and vanilla into milk mixture. Add crushed peppermint candy sticks. Pour into 1-quart ice-cream freezer. Freeze.