Sunday, December 18, 2011

When the local Vikings sputter, call Norway. Get out the butter.

Sunday afternoons aren't much fun anymore if you leave it up to the Vikings to entertain, so why not save the day and bake Christmas cookies? That's a lot more fun, especially if you have a smart new handmade apron made by your sister-in-law and mailed here from Florida.
Yes, our unapologetic apron nut spotted Becky's Florida craft show offerings the other day, prompting a hurried request to Stan' sister. The chosen apron arrived in the mail from Florida yesterday, just in time to be pressed into service for the annual double batch of Chocolate Pinwheels.
Incidentally, we heard a story from Stephen Colbert that the Norwegians are suffering from a national butter shortage. We don't trust everything we hear on cable comedy, so we dashed off an email to our Cousin Gunnar in Norway, seeking confirmation.
Sure enough, Gunnar said many of his countrymen and women are on a "low-carb diet" craze which (unbelievably)  involves eating lots of butter. That's no problem for our cousins, Gunnar assures us, because they're not given to fad diets and prefer traditional fare for the holidays.
There's no butter problem here either, and it's a good thing too. We're just getting started.
Chocolate pinwheels, spritzes, nutmeg cookies, rum cookies, whatever you
bake, there's bound to be butter in there somewhere.  We're ready.