Monday, November 22, 2010

Butter Crisis!!!

I'm not kidding. There is a butter shortage in Israel.  A CRISIS!  This is serious. You don't believe me? Click here. How do I know this? We are hosting a 16-person Thankgiving Dinner complete with a 22lb bird on the grill (with butter patties between the skin and meat), mushroom rice (with mushrooms sauteed in butter), mashed potatoes (obviously, with butter), buscuits (luckily I already made these with butter, but we still need to do the herb-butter to put on them!), and a sweet potato pie (1/3 cup butter in the crust).  Ahh!!!

On Thursday Paul ran to the store for milk, butter and flour.  He said the store was out of the butter we usually buy.  The second store was also out. Only margarine. Julie Child would not approve! And after reading this New York Times article last year, I just cannot bring my self to use anything but real unsalted butter. (PS. the oragne cookies in that aricle are delicious!) The third store: no butter. Fourth: no butter. Fifth, sixth...Ahhh!

At dinner the waiter brought us bread and butter to start with the largest blob of butter ever served! It was at least 1/2 cup.  I have to tell you that honestly I wanted to take that butter home with me. But I didn't. The butter sparked a conversation about butter shortages and how this really felt like a serious problem of unstocked shelves and wartime shortages. I explained to the wiater that this couldn't happen at a worse time (for us) given the amount of butter needed for Thanksgiving...not to mention the Christmas cookies!

This morning at work my worry continued (as did my stomach ache from all of the rich food and the blob of butter). "I heard something on the news. The government as ordered a stop on all butter production, prioritizing cheese as a need." Seriously?!?! Yes, they are serious. "Hopefully imports will increase soon...."

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