The winner of my Banner Butter give-way is lucky #5 -- Kelli ("Slammer") T. Congrats Kelli!
Thanks to all when entered and liked Banner's facebook page. It's a great place for you local foodies to get the latest. Just read about the Preserving Place -- a new specialty grocery store on the West side. Going next week. Will report back.
I was flipping through an issue of House Beautiful this summer and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw an entire page devoted to taking a "digital time out." Among other things, it mentions Daniel Sieberg's book The Digital Diet. Sounded interesting. Not knowing if I wanted to buy it, I looked for the title in the library catalog. No matches. Found it on Amazon, but there were only 4 customer reviews that didn't entice me to buy a copy. According to Amazon, this book is frequently bought with Cyber Junkie. Since the Mophead boys are currently infatuated with Minecraft (for only 30 minutes a day -- except for when I get distracted while on my own device), I thought the title was worth investigating. Checked the library again. Nope. But here are some titles it pulled up:
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk: Outlaws and hackers on the computer frontier
Cybersafety
Cyberstalking
Cyber Terror
Cyber Terrorism
Frightening, I know.
I haven't read The Digital Diet, so I can't offer my thoughts. You can read Sieber's article in The Washington Post where he outlines his 4-step plan to break your tech addiction and regain balance in your life. Or you can check out his YouTube video.
So, how do you know if you need to go on a digital diet? Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Q: Do you ever feel the urge to
pull out your smartphone while someone else is making a point in a
conversation?
Q: Have you ever realized that
you were texting or checking your e-mail while your child was telling you about
her day at school?
Q: Have you ever felt that
something hasn’t really happened until you post it on Facebook?
Q: Are you spending time with your spouse or
significant other without talking to each other because you’re each immersed in
a different device?
If you think you might be addicted to social media, take this test:
This all got me thinking about something I read in the February issue of Vanity Fair. Editor Graydon Carter grossly generalizes people into three groups:
1.Those who like to record and share every aspect of their lives no matter how inconsequential.
2.Those who live lives that are actually worth recording, but don't.
3. The vast sweep of humanity who neither record their lives nor live ones worth recording.
In the digital age, we have access to technology to record and share every facet of our daily lives -- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Prolific recorders, according to Carter, tend to be oversharers. I tend to agree.
Food for thought: Is all the time taken to record and share details of our daily lives time taken away from the stuff that really matters?
Want to add a punch of flavor to the everyday meals
you prepare? Compound butters are the way to go. Decatur foodies Elizabeth and
Drew McBath started Banner Butter to let you do just that. With two children and
two demanding jobs, they weren’t enjoying cooking and food the way they used to
because they were too busy. Can you relate?
The McBaths hired Aria executive pastry chef
Kat King, to help them develop their recipes. So far, Banner’s repertoire includes four savory and two sweet
varieties. A sea salt compound is in the works.
Banner Butter is made with all-natural ingredients – locally sourced whenever possible. The cream comes from hormone-free, grass-fed cows.It has high levels of omega-3 fats and dramatically higher levels of vitamins A, D and E than confinement-fed butter. So not only is it tasty, it's good for you too!
The McBaths were kind enough to supply me with samples for a recent event I hosted. I served the savory butters with
bread and the cinnamon cardamom ginger butter with mini waffles. Sweet
compounds generally go well with breakfast breads. The roasted garlic, basil
and parsley and balsamic, fig and caramelized onion were most popular among my guests.
{"Love is like butter, it goes good with bread." Swiped from the General Muir.}
Download recipes and pairing suggestions for each butter. Most add amazing flavor to meat, fish and veggies. Of course, you can
serve any variety with nice, crusty bread. The McBath family loves melted chili lime cilantro butter tossed with popcorn. Yum!
{Elizabeth (right) serving samples at The Mercantile in Decatur -- love that place}
I love Banner Butter and I know you will too. Want to try some? The McBaths have graciously offered to host a give-away -- a basket of six butter compounds with pairing and recipe cards valued at $36. To enter follow these two simple steps: 1) Like Banner Butter on Facebook. 2) Come back and leave a comment on this post that says "I liked Banner Butter." I know that some readers are still having problems leaving comments. If you leave an anonymous comment, please leave your name. Alternatively, you can leave a comment on my Facebook page. While you're at it, you should probably subscribe to my blog if you haven't already, because that's where the winner will be announced. See, so easy.
