In which I make a better butter.

I know. My title makes you think that I'm a blasphemer. Admit it. It's ok.
I'm not.

I'm a truth-teller.

A couple weeks ago, I was thinking about how to make toast more nutritious. I mean... don't get me wrong, I love me some toast. In a big way. Toast + Me = love. And toast with plain old butter is a beautiful thing. I mean it.

But there's not so much benefit to eating toast first thing in the morning -- you eat breakfast to give your body some calories to burn throughout the day -- to kickstart your metabolism, as it were. And while butter does provide some necessary calories, it's not enough. So I was thinking of foods that are high in good calories, good fats, vitamins, etc... and that are mushy.

I came up with Avocado.

Avocado has tons of good fat and good healthy calories, AND it's mushy and spreadable. Not to mention it's deliciousness. And since it's mushy and spreadable, it would go well WITH butter to encourage the melt-itude AND the smush-itude and the yum-iosity.

So on Saturday, I took our avocado, and some butter, and I created a concoction.

Joh's Avocado Butter:
1 medium ripe avocado (a little past ripe is still ok. smushy is key)
1/2 stick salted butter at room temperature (salt is key to bring out the yum of the avocado)
2 pinches salt (small pinches)
5 grinds black pepper
Zest of 1/2 lemon.

Cut open the avocado, take out the pit, and scoop out the green flesh into a bowl. Smash it up with a fork or potato masher. Add your soft butter, and smush with a fork or potato masher to combine. Add the salt, pepper, and lemon zest. A little chili powder is not misplaced here.

Roll this up in plastic wrap.... tightly. You want it to look like a fat cigar. Put it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm up.
After about 15 mintues, take it out of the freezer and transfer it to the fridge. You don't want it to ACTUALLY freeze.

This is delicious spread on toast. Especially if it's home-made bread to begin with. It would also be amazing on a simply grilled piece of fish, as a flavorant. Once the fish comes off the grill, plate it and cut off a round of the avocado butter and put it on top of the fish. Done. Deliciousness.

I really really think that this should be attempted by one and all. It's good for you!!! And yum-tastic. Promise!!!

I actually cooked some stuff that I want to post pictures of over the weekend, but for now, I'll do a quick rundown.
On Friday I reached a state of joy involving my fried chicken. I found the proper ratio of flour to panko to make the coating the way I like it. I used the right oil. And possibly MOST amazingly, I found the perfect vessel for it.

My blue Le Creuset casserole dish has been seeing the light of day a lot more lately. It was the pot in which I made some yum-tastic risotto wtih excellent results, most recently. And then, on Friday, I realized that the perfect pot in which to fry some chicken would NOT be my cast-iron skillet (iron oxide breaks down oils and causes them to become unhealthy) but, my enameled cast-iron Le Creuset!! The enamel kept the iron oxide from getting into the oil, and the casserole is the right size, and the chicken fried beautifully, which is in no small part thanks to the fact that my stove is no longer on a 37 degree backward tilt....
I used a little too much oil, because I was thinking of my cast-iron skillet and how I never had enough oil. But if that's the only problem I had... then I'm ok with that. I'll take too much oil (Since it wasn't greasy.... I drained it properly) over it burning because of too little oil.
I made biscuits on Saturday to mop up the left-over gravy from Friday night.
Sunday we had late-night Carbonara. Mostly because we wanted something cheap after we went out and had brunch and got silly.... and also because Fresh Direct was supposed to make a delivery between 10 and 11:30, and didn't come until after 12:30. Frustrating.

Anyways. Tonight I will hopefully post some pictures of all this stuff. And of other things of which I took photos yesterday, if I'm so moved. If you're so lucky.
And so on.