butter, where have you been all my life?

i grew up in margarine family. as food prep has become a bigger part of my life, butter has only ever really shown up in baking. i've never been all that convinced that the taste could be so very different. most of the people who are always talking up butter (calling the flavour "nutty" and all that) also refer to spice as "heat" and do all sorts of other equally pretentious things.

seriously??? i have so been missing out! olive oil is swell, but... wow.

as part of my lunch today, i prepared zucchini ribbons. the recipe appeared before my eyes when i followed one of the auto-generated links after dave's intro to the first! ever! real mexican food in k-w.

it called for red chili flakes, but i subbed in minced chilies, since i had some left over from the other night. as soon as i threw the chilies and garlic into the melted butter, the smell drove me insane! so fragrant and lovely! then it was just a matter of adding the zucchini ribbons (fashioned with a y-shaped vegetable peeler) and a little paprika and parmesan cheese! so super!

i also fried up some mushrooms with basil (not that super) and threw together a quick tuna salad - no mayo, just toasted sesame dressing, leafy things, and pine nuts. to drink, there was the obligatory fizzy water with caramel colour :)

p.s. josh responded to the post below.