Substituting in the Kitchen

I'm obsessed with food.  I always have been and am passing this down to my kids. They talk about food, as I do, with passion. They make faces when they eat things they like and make noises (we call them "chicken noises" because we heard it for the first time when W was eating chicken) - it's kind of like chewing and a little happy hum makes it way up your throat and before you know it, you're engrossed in the flavors in your mouth and you look up and everyone is staring at you...giggles break out.

I know it's not healthy but I love butter. L-O-V-E butter. It's fabulous and nothing you say is going to make me not like it so don't waste your breath. I ran out of butter Thanksgiving weekend. I try to keep a small stock in the freezer (when it goes on sale, I buy what I can) and I guess I wasn't paying attention to what I had. It's been nearly two weeks and I have to say that while I'm not particularly fond of cooking without butter, I'm learning how to do things different (and I think it makes you a much better cook when you know how to work around issues and how/what to substitute).

When I make eggs for breakfast, I use vegetable oil in my cast iron pan - it cooks the edges differently and doesn't have the creamy flavor that the butter lends but it certainly works.

I made a cream base for some pasta. Typically you use one part fat to one part flour but without butter I tired it with oil again - it worked! In this case, there was no real difference except the visual texture at the very beginning of the process.

I was amazed. Not because I thought butter had some superpowers but because I had never thought of using something with lower fat content to make the foods we eat. I know that too much of any fat or oil is not healthy but when I can make a substitution like that, I'm all about it.

At one point of my life I would have been afraid to experiment with cooking this way and now, I just kind of jump into it (kids with hungry, gaping mouths will do that to you, I guess) and hope for the best. It makes me feel powerful, in a way.

Food is medicine and it is this medicine that fuels us - I give my family power when I feed them and when I can make something where there once was little or nothing, it is a sensation that fills me with pride and warmth.

One of my favorite books in the kitchen was a gift from my sister, about 6 years ago, and I use it tirelessly. It's called Substituting Ingredients: An A to Z Kitchen Reference by Becky Sue Epstein and Hilary Dole Klein (Copyright 1996) and it's a lifesaver!!!

I know that when I go shopping this weekend, I'll pick up some salted butter (oh, how I've missed you!) and probably not miss much of a beat but it's so nice to know that you can solve a problem without anyone knowing what happened - horray for making it work!

Substituting Ingredients: An A to Z Kitchen Reference