An Agreeable Use for the Extra Buttermilk
I was faced with leftover buttermilk after mixing up the marinade for my oven-fried chicken yesterday. Based on experience, leftover buttermilk usually sits in the back of the refrigerator until it loses the milk and morphs into butter. Not very pretty as it’s poured down the drain. Luckily, serendipity struck and Louisa and I caught a segment on the Martha Stewart show where a guest was making buttermilk cupcakes. Casually, I turned to Louisa and asked if she’d like to do that with my leftover buttermilk. Of course the answer was “no”, that would be too agreeable. Louisa wanted to make a cake instead. She didn’t want to look through the cookbooks I suggested for a recipe, that would be much too agreeable. Instead, she turned to Google.
After a few minutes of uncertainty, I was asked to help. I found a simple yellow cake recipe on Family Fun which I suggested she bake in the 9″x13″ pan option. Nah, that would be too agreeable. Instead, she made the two 9″ layers. I suggested that she frost it with the can of frosting I knew was lurking in the pantry. No, that would be too agreeable. She found a buttercream frosting on Rachael Ray’s site instead. It was one that I’ve actually used before, but I didn’t suggest it knowing that would have required too much agreement.
Louisa proceeded to bake the cake, mix the frosting, and frost the cake without any extra assistance from me. This photo shows what happened to the extra buttermilk. We all agreed that the extra buttermilk was used well.
Quote of the Week – 8/25/10 – Calvin Trillin
“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”
- Calvin Trillin, American Writer
Photo of the Week – August 25, 2010 – Blue Crab
I didn’t exactly know why they were called “blue” crabs until Joe and Louisa caught them on our vacation. They released them back into the bay so that the restaurants could do the murdering and cooking for us. Joe has threatened to do the cooking himself the next time we’re down there. I’ll let him do the dirty work and I’ll add the Old Bay Seasoning to the pot.