butter... good or bad?

cooking in the kitchen is showing me that dishes, like a perfume, have different layers of scents and flavours. that subtle one, the one that you can never put your finger on, but know almost innately, is the scent of oil or butter. having cooked a few dishes in my time, butter seems to be a ubiquitous component of every meal. my question, why?

butter is supposed to be bad, right? saturated fats lead to cardio-vascular problems and premature heart attacks.
in the kitchen, butter is the magical ingredient, adding mellow nutty flavours and lots of flavour.

so, which one is it? watching the chefs on tv use it so liberally gives the viewer a sense that a) it's necessary and can't be avoided and b) it's ok.

in cooking at home though, is it? i think that a touch of it nice because it's flavour really is irreplaceable, but 1/2  a stick?!?! do you want to have a heart attack at 22 yrs old!?

on the other hand, my brother in law's family uses butter incessantly and i can say that they are in better health (or so it seems) than any one in my family. so i guess it can't be all that bad? p.s. did i mention the french supermodels and everyone else there????

to become a true chef, does it mean that i have to adopt the insane amounts of butter that are called for in every dish i make? i mean, WHY?!?!?

pomogranates - the ultimate stocking stuffer

did you know that pomogranates used to be the fruit of choice for children to receive at christmas in their stocking because it was round and available only then? the roundness filled out the toe part of the stocking toe.

recently, i bought one because it had been such a long time since i had last eaten one at home. one hiccup? tita nilda's not around to open it for me and, let's face it, i'm lazy. but, i remembered seeing on jaime oliver how to open it "easily" so i thought i'd try it.

basically, use water as both your shield and your sieve. you open the pomogranate under water to avoid the bright red juice from popping onto your favourite white sweater (it doesn't come out) and as a way of making the more bitter white pith areas to float to the top while the heavy seeds fall to the bottom.

verdict: it really works!

while it still took a little while to open, i wasn't assulted by red stains every where and the explosion of tart juice in my mouth mixed with the crunch of the individual seeds, made it all worth it. definitely recommend it to anyone who's planning on enjoying promogranate, experienced opener or not!