Dear me, Thank you!!

[susandennis]

I was sitting here with coffee and starving and wondering what would be good to make for breakfast that wouldn't make a mess or take a lot of effort when I remembered the Quiche Lorraines I got at Met Market. I had one on Thanksgiving that was really good. But, I thought maybe that was a fluke.

The instructions start with preheating the oven... Listen, world. I have only a few years left and I am spending exactly NONE of those preheating a damn oven. So I plopped it on a plate and nuked it for one minute. Not enough. Another minute. I got fresh coffee and sat down to the first bite.

OMG delicious. Seriously, outstanding and so so so good. And... when I was there, I got two so there is one for tomorrow, too. I might even cut that one in half so I can have it for two breakfasts. I have no idea how much these things cost and now I do not ever want to know. Whatever it is, it is cheaper than going out for breakfast so totally worth it.

Also I picked up some butter. I just grabbed the cheapest salted because I was close to being out. When I got home and got the sticks out of the box, I discovered it was East Coast butter! How rare and odd.



In the United States, east coast butter comes in long thin sticks. Out here in the west it comes in short fat sticks. This has always amused me. You do have to be careful when buying butter dishes of any kind, that you get the one for the correct coast.

Here's a nice map provided by a butter dish on Amazon.



Those guys on the edges in the middle of the country must have to pay close attention.

I have several Amazon deliveries coming but the one that I really hope makes it today, as promised, is this:



Since I will be skipping the gym quite a few days coming up, I'll be showering in my own shower which is in a bathtub which is getting increasingly difficult to get out of safely. I know it's only because I have now psyched myself out about falling in my bathroom but regardless of the reason, I need this gizmo before I get in there again. $20 of safety. It's scheduled to be delivered today but this time of year, around here, Amazon's kind of free and easy with delivery promises and not so free and easy with keeping them. Not terribly critical. The cats don't care if I'm dirty.

Today will be pretty much all knitting with some TV. I've come to a crucial part in my sweater and it will be a perfect day to focus on it.

It's still raining out. There are mud slides everywhere and lakes in roadways and enough crazies out on the road so they don't need me.

Comments

[jusummerhayes.livejournal.com]

Hey, I hope Amazon don't mess you around and you ge the handle gadget. The food sounds lush (even for a vegan -- i.e. me) and I hope you show some of your knitting. Blessings Ju.

[vysila.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I had no idea there were two varieties of butter size in the US. I lived in Texas and Oklahoma and never saw 'West Coast' butter in either state. How funny.

Whatever brand your West Coast butter is in the above photo, it sure looks like better quality, so yellow and rich. East Coast stuff looks downright anemic in comparison.

[teragramm.livejournal.com]

I had no idea about east coast vs west coast butter. Kinda makes you wonder what the heck were they thinking.

[susandennis]

I never knew about it until I moved out here. I thought a stick o' butter was a stick o' butter.

[restoman.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that butter was different in the west! Is it different in any other way? like added coloring?

Here we are on the border line for hot dog rolls: regular style (slit on the edges) or New England style (slit on the top).

It is odd how common foods can be so different from place to place.

[susandennis]

The color varies by brand but really only a little - it's paler than, say, most margarines.

I'd never heard of it until I moved out here. I had two very favorite butter dishes which were immediately rendered useless!

Hot dog buns! In the south we only had side splits EXCEPT ... our family favorite the top split which you could get at Howard Johnson's. I never heard it called New England style before. That is wild.

[restoman.livejournal.com]

I did a little quick research. Apparently Howard Johnson's actually developed the New England style bun in the 1940s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England-style_hot_dog_bun

:-)

[susandennis]

well, that's kinda cool! i could sure saddle up to a HoJack's booth and enjoy one of those hot dogs this afternoon!

[restoman.livejournal.com]

The Howard Johnson's motels survive as a division of Wyndham, but unfortunately "As of 2018, only one Howard Johnson's restaurant remains: in Lake George, New York." according to Wikipedia.

I remember the restaurants from family vacations as a kid. The ice cream was great!

[dadi.livejournal.com]

Let me know how that gizmo works out. My mom needs something like that!

[susandennis]

Will do. It was the cheapest and looked like the easiest to install. Stay tuned for update.

[susandennis]

It's good. Strong and heavy and sturdy and couldn't be easier to install.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

Yay! Could you send me the Amazon link pls?

[susandennis]

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B082DP9Y23/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Huh. Why do they have different butter shapes? How odd.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Both kinds of butter are in stores here in Michigan, though the long sticks are more common.

[susandennis]

Wow! Progressive :) and a map anomaly!

[letmesaythis.livejournal.com]

Most of the butter I find is east cost style, but we do get Keller's which is the stumpier 'stick'. I will now be paying more attention to butter labels for this quirky bit of info. Who knew?

[susandennis]

Interesting. We can get margarine in tubs but not butter. Butter in blocks not as common as sticks but still pretty available.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I live in California and have seen both proportions of butter sticks here; it depends on which brand.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

I was raised in western MO and I never saw West Coast butter until I moved to CA at age 25. Considering the circumstances of our life I have a butter dish long enough to accommodate Eastern butter and fat enough to accommodate Western butter.

[roasted-beets.livejournal.com]

Here in Maine, they have both shapes of butter at our military commissary. The short, stumpy ones are cheaper. ;-)

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

I have to apologize. After all this time I finally learned that I never added you to my friend list! You're one of the people whose posts I enjoy the most. I am ashamed!

In my house-in-progress we will have two full baths with showers but no tubs. The builder/designer said most people don't use tubs unless they have little kids. I know ladies who are tub users, but I am not one of them. When I had my hip replacement I learned what it's like to be afraid of falling while getting out of a tub.

[susandennis]

No need to apologize! Since you are on friends' list, I didn't know I wasn't on yours and since mine entries are all public it really doesn't matter!

Interesting what your building/designer said. I have one half bath and one full bath with the tub/shower. If I didn't always shower at the gym, I'd have had that tub yanked out years ago. I've lived in this condo 28 years and never once used the tub for a bath.

[markmc03.livejournal.com]

I settled the problem of getting in and out of the tub to shower by simply not .... showering ... or bathing. Now, I live on my own so this not a huge problem. I just slather on a layer of scented underarm deodorant and no one is the wiser. I figure when I start getting complaints I can take the time and shower. But until someone notices, I'm perfectly fine with it. :)

[rejectomorph]

Now and then I've bought the long sticks of butter at Grocery Outlet, but I had no idea they came from the east. I guess it's not surprising that they get an eastern product, since they also sometimes have Hellman's mayonnaise instead of the west coast version of the same product, Best Foods. Other stores here never have Hellman's.

I've got one of those handles I installed on my tub, but it's turned 90 degrees from the one in your photo. I got spoiled by the shower I had in Paradise, which was full of geezer bars that a nephew installed in it for my parents. I still miss that shower with all those handy bars.

[susandennis]

Yep, Grocery Outlet is a great place for finding east coast foods.

[maju01.livejournal.com]

I'd never seen a stick of butter until I moved to the US, and had no idea that the sticks are different in the east and the west. In Australia our butter comes in a single solid rectangle, and we have to measure and cut it ourselves.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

That bath thing is really clever! Showers over baths worry me - when I was having my bathroom done I was showering at my mother's who had that arrangement and I was shocked at how dangerous it felt. I was relieved when she ripped her bath out and replaced it with a walk-in shower. And was even more relieved when she broke her arm (if you know what I mean). I'd ask if you thought it was worth redoing yours, but if you always shower at the pool normally that would make it a lot less worth it.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, the local Whole Foods' house brand of butter has the West Coat shape. My guess is that the company's headquarters are in the west and they produce the same shape sticks for the whole country.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

When jwg had his neck surgery five years ago, we bought a bunch of disability-assistance equipment for the bathrooms in the Gloucester house for his recovery, including one of those bathtub handles. It's the only piece of the equipment that we didn't give away after he had recovered. I don't think either of us actually uses it, but it's nice to know that it's there.

The cats don't care if I'm dirty.

If they start to care, you'll know it's time to do something about it.

[susandennis]

I struggled for a while about how and where to put up traditional grab bars but I think this is better for me. And, like you said, even if I never use it...

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

So is the butter different apart from the shape?

[susandennis]

nope - exactly the same otherwise

[onelargecat.livejournal.com]

Weird...I have lived on both coasts and in the middle and did not remember any difference in butter anywhere!

[susandennis]

That's the trick! When you are there, all the butter is the same, you don't know there is different. When you are in the other there, same. I would not have known except for my favorite butter dish which was rendered geographically incorrect.