Okay, so I love butter. Real butter-no imitation stuff for me, please! My favorite part of eating out is the bread at the beginning of the meal. Also, Sydney and I like to eat bagels for breakfast sometimes. They are delicious with a melted layer of yummy butter on them. Did you know that there are some proper storage techniques that you should follow to make sure your butter tastes great? Here are some tips:We recommend that butter be refrigerated at 32º - 38ºF. Bring out only enough butter that you plan to use for each meal. After use, any remaining butter should be returned to the refrigerator immediately, making sure it is covered or re-wrapped, to insure freshness and flavor. Butter is very susceptible to picking up foreign odors and flavors and should always be stored away from highly aromatic food products. Heat and light speed undesirable chemical and physical changes in butter. If it is not refrigerated, or left out for prolonged periods, this could cause flavor changes, rancidity and mold growth. (http://www.challengedairy.com/faq/storage.htm) Why am I discussing this, you ask? Well, I have a funny little story: We recently stayed up in Brown City at our church camp. This camp operates once a year and there are many people who have permanent structures at camp, such as a cabin or a trailor. Other people who stay might just set up a camper or a tent for the 10 days. Well, I have had the opportunity the last few years to stay with the kids in a trailor that belongs to a family member of the Hoke clan. Remember, these places are generally used only once a year. So, one morning, Sydney and I decided that we would eat bagels for breakfast. I got the toaster down out of the cabinet (that hasn't been used for a whole year) and put our bagel in the toaster. I then got the butter out and put it into the microwave to soften it a little. Then, when all was ready, I put lots of butter on the bagel. YUM. I took a bite from one of the REALLY buttery pieces. To my surprise, it tasted, well, disgusting. Before I processed in my mind why it tasted bad, I quickly took another bite because i thought maybe I just had too much butter in my mouth (can this ever be a possiblility?) So, after taking another bite, i could no longer stand it and I spit out what remained in my mouth into the garbage. BLACH! blach blach and BLAAAACH! I was so sick to my stomach. I spent the next few hours trying to figure out exactly what went wrong and at the same time eating anything i could think of to mask the taste and make me feel better. Was it the toaster that spread fumes through my bread? Was the butter soaking up smells and flavors from the fridge? The answer was discovered hours later when I pulled other food from the fridge. Now, you should know that I took with me 4 sticks of butter. 3 were still in the box. I had pulled the one for my bagel from the butter compartment and had since thrown it away. Before my very eyes on the top shelf was another stick of butter. (Now mentally count with me-1 in the garbage + 3 in the box + 1 on the top shelf of the fridge = 5 sticks of butter.) AAAGGGHHHHHH! The butter that I pulled from the butter compartment was not a stick of butter that I took with me this year. It was leftover from last year! It stayed in the open, unplugged fridge, in the closed up trailor for 12 months until i pulled it out that very morning and coated my bagel with it. Let's just say that Pepto was my stomach's best friend for the rest of the day. Hee hee.
