Hold the pork

This week in [Gourmet](http://www.gourmet.com/):

[Three meatless tacos worth your time](http://www.gourmet.com/food/2008/03/veggietacos)

> Sure, textured vegetable protein is cheap (it’s a byproduct of soybean oil production) and the reconstituted soy flakes are filling. The texture is even reminiscent of ground beef, which is why it’s often used for vegetarian sloppy joes and other meat substitutes. Yes, TVP would make a perfect taco if it didn’t taste like reconstituted soy flakes.

Boutros boutros, golly!

I was making macaroni yesterday, and after the shells were boiling, I realized we were completely out of butter. “We have cream,” said Laurie. “You could put a little of that in instead.”

But I had another idea. “Are you whipping the cream?” asked Laurie when she heard the whir of the hand mixer.

“Not exactly.”

“Are you making butter?”

“Yes.” I’d never done it before. The cream turned into beautiful whipped cream, then grainy overwhipped cream, and then a yellowish sludge. It stayed in the sludge stage for several minutes, when suddenly the beaters began splattering me with whey. I strained off the whey and squeezed the butter in a paper towel.

The homemade butter is good, a little better than supermarket butter and certainly more expensive. But it saved our macaroni, and there’s a small log of it left for other experiments today. I might even run out of butter again in the future, on purpose.

A conversation at dinnertime

**Me:** Iris, do you want some greens with dinner?

**Iris:** What kind of greens are they?

**Me:** Kale.

**Iris:** Bleah, I only like bok choy.

**Laurie:** Dada’s making homemade dumplings tomorrow.

**Iris** (_picking up the remote_): Let’s skip to tomorrow’s dinner.