use real butter

Happy 4th of July! It’s Independence Day here in the States and my feelings about this holiday are pretty predictable… not a huge fan, but easily dazzled by sparkly fireworks at night.

What I love about the fourth is most obviously the fireworks. The mosquitoes (mozzies for the Aussies) not so much.

Joey Chestnut unseated the reigning champion, Takeru Kobayashi, at the annual Nathan’s hot dog eating contest on Coney Island today. He ate a record 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes. *erp* Takeru Kobayashi downed an impressive 63 in the same time, but was also suffering from a mouth injury. Competitive eating is serious business and totally fascinating and unappetizing at the same time! No hot dogs for me today, thanks.

We had our July fourth bbq for lunch today. I find the large meal in the evening makes for that fat, sleepy feeling, whereas the large meal at lunch gets worked off with the activities of the remainder of the day – if you don’t go lie on the couch “for a minute”. If you’ll recall, I baked the ribs covered in foil in a slow oven overnight for 8 hours. This morning, I found the meat to be tender and delicate – as in, ready to fall off the bones. Perfect.

Tomorrow’s the fourth of July and that means barbecue installment #4: pork ribs. These are the meaty St. Louis style cut of ribs. I know everyone is all agog about baby back ribs, but honestly, it’s a sack of bones with not so much meat. I don’t relish the idea of cooking something for 10+ hours that has such a low yield of consumable material.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: shrimp and artichoke fettucine

So often, when I think of pasta, I feel uninspired. I shouldn’t, because I usually like it. I think my problem has been that I haven’t given enough of my attention to it, or perhaps haven’t been satisfied with too many of my experiments.

Last night, by a stroke of luck and perhaps a little forethought when I was at the store, I managed to throw together a keeper of recipe. I had these ripe tomatoes sitting on the counter that needed to be consumed ASAP, and a package of fettuccine that was accidentally opened last week, and some cream in the fridge leftover from making lemon curd and…