Mmmmmm butter. My favorite butter-intensive dish, perfect for birthdays, is my bastardized version of Paul Prudhomme's Shrimp Diane...

Not a good day to be thinking about that, though, since both butter & shellfish are banned for me for a while! *sigh*

We're doing the bday thing at my house, too. Aren't November girls wonderful?

Yes, Steven, relax...

(Muwa ha ha! Now all of your traffic will turn to me in desperation, and *I* will be king of the blogosphere!)

Ahhh - butter. As my Dad always says, "Should I throw in half a stick, or the entire pound?"

Good, and good for you. The both of you.

Enjoy!

BTW, You might want to switch Iowa and New Mexico, for now. :-)

I'm afraid that once I get the old lady to do the "blog thang," she will quickly become a pest on your site.

Romanticists like you make the rest of us look mighty, mighty bad, dude...

Joan... yes, I am obligated to point out that November girls are, indeed, wonderful as both my mother and my love have their birthdays in November.

Also, Paul Prudhomme's wife is an insufferable little bitch. Definately not a November girl, I suspect...

Enjoy the cooking Steve, and happy birthday to Melissa.

Have fun with that, but when are we going to get the Halloween pictures???

Does anyone else see the irony of saying "light blogging" and "40 oz of Butter" in the same post?

Give her a Happy Birthday wish for me. Enjoy the cooking!

One thing, can you finally turn NM red???

It looks so pretty.

Lik Reagan Red.

A good friend of mine and a great cook says that any recipe starting with a pound of bacon or two sticks of butter has to be good.

I've got a Mellisa too. Not in November but she knows how to handle the butter in the kitchen. Anyway, enjoy the cooking and happy birthday to your wife from another Stephen and Mellisa.

My birthday started with 40 oz. of butter as well. There was, however, no cooking involved.

LIKE BUTTER, TRY THIS:

BRÛLÉE OF OSTRICH LIVER PÂTÉ
500g ostrich liver • milk • 415g unsalted butter • 2 large onions, chopped • 2 cloves garlic, crushed • 10ml salt • 5ml freshly ground black pepper • 100ml red muscadel • 100ml port • 50ml brandy • 5 eggs • sugar
To serve
day-old white bread • beaten egg • grated Parmesan • oil • apple • sliced cucumber • garlic butter • chopped chives
1. Cover the ostrich liver with milk and leave in the refrigerator overnight. Drain and pat dry.
2. Heat 15g of the butter and cook the onion gently until softened but not browned. Stir in the garlic, salt and pepper, muscadel, port and brandy. Increase the heat and reduce sauce by about 80%. Leave to cool.
3. Melt the remaining 400g of butter and leave to cool. Liquidize the liver. Add the onion mixture then the eggs, one at a time. Season with salt and pepper. With the machine running, slowly add the melted butter. Push the liver through a fine sieve and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Spoon the puréed liver into a buttered ovenproof dish. Cover dish and place in a bain-marie with hot water. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Ensure that the temperature does not exceed 150°C. Remove from oven and cool. Refrigerate overnight. Fill small brûlée dishes with about 1 tablespoon of pâté. Cover with a thin layer of sugar and caramelize under a preheated grill (or with a blow torch, if you have one).
5. Serve the pâté with small bread triangles, dipped in a mixture of beaten egg and grated Parmesan and fried in oil. Peel and remove seeds of an apple and chop. Sauté apple in garlic butter and season with salt and pepper. Take slices of cucumber and scoop out a little of the flesh. Spoon a teaspoon of apple mixture into the hollow. Place on the bread triangles and top with chopped chives.

"Besides, I think I've earned a day or two off."

At the rate you're paid for this, I can't disagree.

We can supplement our intake of free ice cream (albeit the inferior, low-fat kind) at another stand for a day or two.

Anthony Bordain had a funny anecdote about an order that came in to a kitchen he was running.

No butter on the potato, but extra bernaise. "What the ---- are these people thinking? Do they know what's in bernaise? BUTTER..."

Great.
I just turned my wife onto your site and you come up with this? Now I'll be expected to come up with something besides a big hunk 'o buttered Howard.
Thanks.

I still have the Good Housekeeping cook book I received as a shower gift 48 years ago. Practically every recipe includes a pound of butter or a cup of heavy cream. Lard is featured heavily as is bacon.

Hmm good.

Have a wonderful weekend Stephen and Melissa. Thank you Melissa for sharing Stephen with us. Without this blog, things would have been even more stressful around here.

All's well that end's well.

Happy Birthday my dear you must be a wonderful girl for Stephen to love you so much.

Happy Birthday to Melissa!

We share a birthday, I guess (the 4th). Was she as happy about her early birthday gift as I was about mine (e.g.: "red" America)?

Hubby and I celebrated with champagne and toasted all night (wink)!

Many happy returns of the day for Melissa!

Earned a day off?

There's no rest for the wicked.

Happy, Happy, Melissa

My best to Melissa. I'm certain the dinner will be spectacular.

My favorite "mass quantities of butter" recipe is a simple dish: Melt butter in a saucepan with garlic and anchovies. Dip romaine lettuce or bread into it. Ingredient proportions as desired, replenished as necessary.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot ... keep it on the heat.

Could you turn New Mexico red before departing for that well deserved weekend? Your adoring fans demand it! ; )

Aren't you done eating yet?!

Yes, you deserve some time off, but I'm ready for you to get back!

What happened to that cookbook you were writing? "How to Get Laid Through Cooking" or some such...

Hey
Remember when Jimmy Carter said he was going to monitor the US elections, and you guys destroyed him for, among other things, his apparent willingness to overlook Venezualan election fraud?

I remmeber the Venezuala mess, and I remember the chief complaint was that exit polls revealed a dramamtically different picture than the official results, namely a difference of about 6-8% in Chavez's favor. This was used, by the Right, to prove that Carter had no credibility as an election monitor, because it was clear that people's votes were tampered with BECAUSE OF THE DISPARITY BETWEEN THE EXIT POLLS AND Carter's CERTIFIED RESULTS.

Just wondering what happened to the outrage, because I don't hear much right now, after exit polls in FLORIDA, OHIO, AND NEW MEXICO ARE 5% OFF FROM BUSH'S CERTIFIED RESULTS. Coincidentally, all three swing states use paperless trails on Diebold voting machines, WHOSE CEO- AT A BUSH FUNDRAISING EVENT HE THREW- PLEDGED TO DO EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO DELIVER OHIO FOR BUSH.

Anyone brave (or honest) enough to admit the incredible potential for fraud and the real appearance of such?

TO: Melissa
FR: A Fellow Scorpio
RE: Happy Birthday

Many happy returns of the day. Mine is tomorrow....fine tobacco, drink and food intended.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[You know you are a Scorpio when everyone around you, of your own gender, wants to get rid of you. Something to do with eliminating the competition (whatever the venue), I suppose.]

I'm brave enough to admit that "middle man" needs to add another layer of Reynolds Wrap® to his chapeau.

WoW can u teach my man how to do that?
I would suggest a nice pinot noir from the Yarra Valley,Victoria in Australia not because I'm Australia oh heck yes because I'm Australian!
Happy Birthday Melissa you hold onto that man he's definitely one in a million!

Middle man;

The results in Venezuela shifted from Chavez down by 15% to him winning by 15% (this went hand in hand with large blocks of voters being intimidated and prevented from voting).

In the US, the exit polls showed Kerry winning in states that everyone knew were going Bush by a huge margin. (See Virginia, SC and NC) Even the Kerry campaign knew that they had no chance in those states, yet Zogby et al showed a Kerry win.

Forgive me if I have no faith in the exit polls for the US election. They used a flawed methodology. (Weighted sampling, democrafic realignments, etc. - they gamed the numbers according to what they thought should be) The exit polls in Venezuela were simply a measure of votes (not issues). I am not sure how accurate they were, but being off by 30% seems a little questionable.

Any recipe from Steve Graham's "Eat What You Want and Die Like A Man".

www.hogonice.com

This has been an unpaid endorsement

Just to add some more thoughts on middle man's exit poll delusions, the Venezuala results were not simply suspect because of exit poll disparities. They were also suspect because-
*No transparency. Venezuala officials refused to open up all the results to outside observers.
*Turnout. There was massive turnout for the recall election. The results did not show this. It was as if a bunch of votes were erased from the system.
*Petition. There were more people signing the petition for the recall election than votes to recall Chavez. How much sense does that make?

Sorry, but no dice. The election polls in this election proved to be innaccurate everywhere, regardless of voting system or verification methods. Hang your conspiracy somewhere else.

Happy Birthday Melissa.

Now get back to writing slacker. ;)

hello? hello? Is this thing on?
Even the crickets are getting restless around here...
(chirrp) (chirrp) (chirrrp)

Melissa must've rode him hard and left him up wet. :)

...ping!?

That must've been some really good wine they had with dinner ;)

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO??? Hmm. What nasties did Melissa inflict upon our favorite blogger? Birthday spankies??? I'm giving him 'til Friday, and then I'm filing a missing bloggers report.

If that's his real picture, he is super spankable. *purr*

I am having withdrawal symptoms...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm butter, but i dunno Steve you do make some bad dishes, are you sure it'll be up to par as your other ones?

Don't forget New Mexico.

Has anyone checked the hospitals and jails?????

Damn, Steve. Five days later, and still no word from you. That must have been one hell of a birthday dinner!

Yes girls, Steve is as delicious as his picture suggests. And is wife is even better looking. I expect the menu will be posted after the fact. I just hope there are leftovers!