Oh you poor poor thing! I thought having to give up wheat (well...gluten really) was a such a trial in life, I can't imagine not being able to have butter. I've said all along the only thing worse dietary-wise than having to give up wheat would be having to give up any diary items. Several years before I was born my great-grandparents sold the diary they operated delivering milk and ice cream. Over the years my great-grandmother (Memaw) had learned to cook using LOTS of milk in many different ways. This was so the extra milk that day didn't go to waste. Although, even though the dairy was gone they still always kept the same milk-using habits. These two WONDERFUL people became my babysitters while my folks both worked full time (this was back in the 60s) and needless to say, I learned their eating and cooking habits. We all use it (WHOLE milk, none of this low fat nonsense) on EVERYTHING, including my dad who was raised in the same house with these two, his grandparents. I do a tremendous amount of baking and cake decorating both for friends and family and some for customers. You don't even want to know the amount of butter, cream cheese and buttermilk, etc. I go through. Let's face it, margarine just isn't the same thing however, if its some sort of food allergy or intolerance some people, like you, don't have a choice in life. Speaking of choices in life, talk about irony.....basically, all the paternal relatives were BIG milk users. I honestly believe my paternal grandmother had ice cream EVERY day of her life if it were obtainable. (believe it or not though she did NOT like and WOULD not eat plain vanilla ice cream, it had to have something else on it). But back to the irony. Of ALL people, my dad married my mother, a girl who was raised on a farm in the 40s and 50s where they drank their milk straight from the cow before it went off to be pasteurized and homogenized (or whatever it is they do to it) and therefore it tasted like whatever the cow ate that day. This can be pretty darn nasty at time. Consequently, my mother did NOT like milk, barely touches it even here 55 years later. I have NEVER, in my 53 years, seen my mother drink a glass of milk. She puts the smallest amount of milk possible even on cereal to make it edible even though all the milk now comes from the supermarket. It was interesting at times having these two polar opposites with their milk habits at times. Everything my dad and I put milk on, my mom will use Cool-Whip or whipped topping of some sort. One good thing though, it just goes to show you can ALWAYS find compromise in true love, they both love ice cream!

• Reply