House Butch
Life with Mrs. deWinter

Too Busy to blog is Too Busy!

It's been such a whirlwind I'm not even sure what I've done for fun in the last week! Lots of work, which is a good thing. Twisted my knee, which is a bad thing. Made a peanut-butter glazed ham which is an interesting thing. I don't think I'll ever make one again, and perhaps I should post the recipe here for herstorical purposes, but if I did I've have to add a Do Not Try This At Home warning!

Mrs. deWinter takes care of me in so many ways, and one of the ways I make this care-taking a mutual thing is by making her breakfast every work morning, along with a pot of coffee for her thermos. She loves having those little thermos-top cups of coffee throughout her work day, and she says my coffee is the best. Breakfast is usually a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on oatmeal bread. Peanut butter for protein, jelly for sweet, oatmeal for cholesterol control.

Mrs. deWinter buys natural peanut butter in a jar and loves it, and I don't mind stirring the oil into the peanut butter with each new jar, though I hate the inevitable blob of oil on the counter, on my tee-shirt, on my shorts or pants. They need to make those jars bigger, I swear, 'cause there's just not enough room to mix oil and peanut butter without minor household accidents. (Shout is a staple product around here.)

She must have been thinking about that very thing when she came home a few weeks ago with a self-ground variety from the co-op that didn't require the stirring. Isn't that sweet? Unfortunately, the first morning I opened it I discovered it was too hard to spread. Hmmm. When I reported the situation to Mrs. deWinter, she said "You'll think of something. And no, I don't want cashew butter instead." You know, I just don't understand this. I think cashew butter is scrumptious. She got a ham and cheese sandwich that morning, that evening she came home with a reliable jar of peanut butter, and I started thinking about what to do with the unspreadable variety.

When she brought home a half-ham the next time she went grocery shopping, a light went off in my head, and so was born the concept of the peanut-butter glazed ham. Intriguing. Novel. The best "something" I had thought of for that hard lump of peanut butter.

So, I looked through my considerable library of cookbooks and found nothing. That should have given me a clue, but I can be so stubborn when it comes to my creative ideas. Next, I went online to see if anyone had ever made a ham with peanut butter and found these recipes:

peanut butter ham loaf
(wouldn't work for me, required beef and too little ham)
ham salad with hot peanut dressing
(wouldn't work for me for several reasons, though it sounded interesting)
Mrs. Jenkins crunchy ham slice
(wouldn't work for me, I had a half-ham, not a ham steak)
ham with peanut butter gravy
(wouldn't work for me, I had a pre-cooked ham)
ham loaf
(wouldn't work for me, it required pork and beef and used too little peanut butter)

Hmmm. OK, I thought, I'm just going to create my own recipe. Now I did have fun, and Mrs. deWinter graciously ate her peanut-butter glazed ham with carrots and leeks, and she even had a second serving a couple of nights later. It's not that it was bad, it was just, well, too much peanut butter and just too weird, even for gals with a culinary sense of adventure. So we put the rest of the ham in a colander, rinsed off all the rest of the peanut butter glaze, sliced the ham into steaks and froze them for future meals. A very messy task.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Next fall I'm going to try the pumpkin-peanut butter soup recipe I came across.

And maybe I should consider taking up the practice of baking. Lots of tried-and-true recipes for peanut butter in baked goods. Hmmm....

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 12:15 PM.

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... so I was thinking about L-Word sex, and noticing the absence of several kinds of sex, despite the amount and variety we viewers are treated to ...

... and then, on this most recent episode ...

falling-in-love sex!

So playful. It was delightful.

Quotable Alice — "More fingers."

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 6:02 PM.

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Soooo lesbian. Soooo dyke.

So queer.

At least around here.

It was a three-star potluck weekend for us. Sugar cookies with color-and-flavor coordinated toppings to the Sunday gig, and for our two Saturday potluck offerings, my:

House Butch Leftover-Brisket Soup

olive oil
onions
celery
garlic (several whole cloves)
peppercorns
anise seeds
thyme
pepper
a wee pinch of salt

Saute slowly in olive oil until those onions are translucent. If you use a really low heat you can stir intermittently while washing and cutting into bite-sized bits:

parsnips
carrots
potatoes
mushrooms
the leftover brisket....

Last Thursday, Mrs. deWinter's body screamed "beef" as it does at a certain time of the month (or so she reports — I must admit I've never heard it). That evening, she walked in the door with a beautiful piece of free-range, organic beef and that look in her eyes, and I moved the enchiladas onto the cooling rack, donned my Miracle Worker muscle shirt, put some water on for rice pilaf, pulled out the new Hamilton Beach indoor grill, and got to it.

As usually happens, her need-beef-now! eyes were bigger than her stomach, so when dinner was done, we had an ample piece of brisket left over.

Now, while Mrs. deWinter likes the idea of leftovers, and while she's a great post-meal put-it-in-a-ziplock-or-tupperware and stash-it-in-the-fridge sous chef, she's all out-of-sight, out-of-mind, bored-with-it when it comes to leftovers.

She can be force-fed leftovers, but I rarely have the heart for such tough love. Leftovers transformed into something entirely new have a certain appeal for Mrs. d, Dieu merci.

So, back to that why-would-you-put-brisket-in-a-soup recipe....

When your onions have taken on the colors of peppercorn and thyme, pour an ounce or two of Merlot or other red wine into the skillet and let the alcohol burn off as you deglaze the pan.

chopped veggies & brisket (from above)
beef broth
4-5 oz. Merlot or red wine
water
2 cans chopped/crushed/stewed tomatoes (whatever you have on hand)
bay leaves (at least 3)
pepper

Pour your deglazed saute into a stock pot and add the above ingredients to it. Cook slowly for hours. Refrigerate. Cook slowly again for awhile on the day your soup is to be served. Crock pots are so 70s, but they so rock for potlucks.

Thursday's intended enchiladas? We had those on Friday night and didn't save a bite for our potlucking friends.

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 8:38 AM.

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Well, Mopsie, I guess that was just too cryptic!


So ... Zebras Like Wanton People Traveling Light ... a sentence to help me remember which clients needed work, with the first letter of each word standing for a client. So much more fun than a to-do-list!

That work took much more time than I had hoped — days! — but clients are happpy, my work for the week is done, and Mrs. deWinter is on her way home for a 3.5 day weekend. Yay!

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 12:56 PM.

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Zebras Like Wanton People Traveling Light.

Six clients need work (some just need attention, is that work?) today. This acrostic should amuse me through my task list, and if I'm lucky there'll be more time for hanging out in the blogosphere before the day is done.

See you later!

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 8:26 AM.

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Been thinking about my favorite scene-to-date from Season 2, The L-Word:

Episode 2; Tina in that sexy gown/slip, crying when the memory of Bette's loving laughter floats through her bodymind while she's pleasuring herself after the Lap Dance.

That was so real. Grief and desire, pleasure and pain, memory and the present all braided together in fiction as they are in reality.

Real.... The L-Word's portrayal of West Hollywood Gay Town Lesbiana is delectable to this viewer — all of it — but some of it is so not real. Like, where are the butches? Lotsa kikis and that's cool. Quite a few femmes and that's well, delectable. But hey! Where are my buds? I mean, gorgeous-lanky-hip as she is, is Shane butch? She's definitely attracted to femmes, which might be a clue, but everybody in The L-Word is attracted to femmes, right? OK, maybe not Kit. Love her flirtation with Ivan, how it's developing, the issues at play. And OMG, Season 1's last episode with that flirt song in the parking lot. Seduction is seduction is seduction ... is hot!!! But where I come from, Drag King does not equal butch — not that anyone's pretending it does, L-Word wise. And Bette a butch? Not on your life.

I dunno, Is Shane butch?

In any case, wanna play Dyke Media Friday? Post something on your blog (subject DMF/Real?) and either trackback to this post or leave a comment, whether you blog or not.

I know it's audacious of me to start a meme when I'm only two weeks into this blog. Oh well. A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do....

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 10:55 AM.

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clean the oven
dust the high things — ceiling fans, light fixtures, tops of bookshelves
trash & recycling to curb
laundry; change the sheets
swiffer while thinking of Genevieve Gorder
clean furnace filter and coffee pot
water Mrs. deWinter's 45 house plants

Monday and Tuesday were busy SOHO days: deck-clearing to prepare the way for House Butch Wednesday.

What's to love about House Butch Wednesday?

1. Mrs. deWinter can't work late; she's responsible for dinner — the takeout of my choice. Hmmm ... should add to my list ... Decide: Famous Dave's BBQ ribs? Popeye's smothered chicken with mashed potatoes & cajun dressing? Chinese?

2. The playlist. Today: Melissa Etheridge, Yes I Am; Indigo Girls, Retrospective; the eponymous Tracy Chapman; Butchies, Population 1975.

3. Unless absolutely necessary, no SOHO work. Just housebutch work and playtime!

4. Mrs. deWinter's rendition of Lovin' Dat Butch o' Mine; other positive reinforcement. What a savvy femme she is.

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 8:16 AM.

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10:30 am

Mrs. deWinter is still in bed. Not a total sleep-in. She's been up once, is awake, and is reading. Saturday morning bliss for a work-long-hours-with-a-commute gal.

Oh, but she has plans. For shopping.

In our partnership, Mrs. deWinter is the shopper. Now does this surprise anyone? Most of the time, she leaves me completely out of it, though I do help create lists and occasionally perceive basic needs. For instance, the kitchen -- we need a new electric can opener, a new George Forman grill, a new Römertopf.

She ordered the can opener online, after doing consumer research. She loves doing consumer research, which is why we're not going to get another George Forman, but a Hamilton Beach instead.

But back to the can opener. It came this week by FedEx. I was here to sign for it, naturally, 'cause I'm a SOHO house butch, but I left her the pleasure of opening the box, which she did shortly after getting home late (her usual). She opened it, looked at it, spread the pamphlets all over the table, and said, "Hmmm. I don't get how it works." And left it there (and the box, the bubble wrap, the registration card, the instructions, and the other pieces of ephemera that came tumbling out of the box).

So, I plugged it in and figured it out, then filled out the registration card, filed the manual, tossed the ephemera, stashed the bubble wrap with our gift-wrapping supplies, broke down the shipping box and put it with the recycling.

See what I mean about division of labor?

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 10:28 AM.

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Mrs. deWinter isn't home yet. She works long hours. She works hard for a living. She says, "Who needs a wife when I've got a house butch."

Tonight, she's having meatloaf, mushrooms in brown sauce, and steamed broccoli for dinner.

Polish House Butch Meatloaf

olive oil
onions, garlic, celery
salt, pepper, fines herbes, ground mustard, sage, italian seasoning
Worcestershire sauce

Saute the onions, garlic and celery slowly in olive oil until the onions are transparent. Add all the dry seasonings early so that their flavors are taken into the vegetables. When the onions are transparent, add the Worcestershire sauce, stir a few times, and take off the fire.

two egg yolks
1 lb. ground turkey
1 lb. ground beef
bread crumbs

Now about the bread crumbs. Mrs. deWinter will never eat an entire loaf of bread. In all these years we've been together, I've never seen her do it. It's not even about not liking the heel of the bread. Frankly, I don't know what it's about. I just know that she, who loves bread, never ever ever eats the last few pieces, whether its a staple sandwich bread or a fancy sourdough from the bakery. So, the birds and squirrels are lucky around here, and recipes that call for bread crumbs are my friend. I just put several pieces of bread in the oven when it's preheating, and by the time I'm ready for them, they're dry and crumble like the proverbial cookie.

Mrs. deWinter's charming quirks aside, mix all ingredients with your hands (yes, the hands are very important here). Put into an ungreased baking pan (a loaf pan is too small). With your wooden spoon, make several indentations in the top of the dish.

butter
1 tbs. flour
3/4 cup heavy cream

Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting several times with butter. Just before the loaf is done, sprinkle with the flour and spoon the cream onto the top of the loaf.

Mushrooms in Brown Sauce

coarsely chopped mushrooms
5 tbs. butter
salt, pepper
1 and 1/2 cups brown sauce
1/4 cup sherry or Madeira or Merlot

While your brown sauce is warming, saute the mushrooms slowly in the butter. [Make your own brown sauce or use any vegetable or soup or beef broth in your cupboard.] When your mushrooms are soft and dark, season with salt and pepper and combine with brown sauce and sherry.

Broccoli

No brainer. Steam it. Embellish with lemon juice.

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 6:44 PM.

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Now this is a late breakfast for a housebutch:

2 all-beef franks
shredded cheddar
salsa
chile lime chips

Microwave those franks for 75 seconds under a paper towel. Add cheese. Microwave another 60 seconds. Cover liberally with salsa. Pile some chips on your plate and voila.

Yum. It's a good thing Mrs. deWinter is at work. She wouldn't enjoy this meal at all.

Fpr lunch -- a bunch o' munchies: hunk of cheese, nuts, dried figs. Love. Those. Figs.

Dinner? Meat loaf. Meat pie. Meat souffle. Haven't decided yet. Whichever, it will feature some grain-fed, organic beef. Mrs. deWinter will like it hot.

Permabutchlink posted by House Butch -- 1:40 PM.

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