Butter is a food group

Margarine grosses me out.  It's made out of petroleum products, so when you slather margarine on your bread or or use it in your baking, you might as well be eating plastic.  Yuck.

But.  It's convenient.  I haven't eaten it for years, but I understand the attraction.  I keeps in your fridge - forever.  Even better, it stays soft, so you can spread it on your toast, straight out of the fridge.

A few years ago, I happened upon a new-to-me solution online, but couldn't bring myself to pay to have it shipped across the world.  I've kept my eyes open every since, and today I found one.  It's called a Butter Bell.  Basically, you fill one dish (or bell) with butter, and the other with water.  You tip the first bell upside down, into the water of the second dish, et Voilà!

The water from the bottom dish blocks the butter in the top dish from being exposed to air, and you get a safe way to preserve butter outside of the fridge.  Even better, the butter stays soft.  No more tearing your bread apart, just to have butter.

True, I'm a gadget girl.  Even more, I love low-tech solutions to every day problems.  Really, I think these are cool; but it may be that everybody else knew about them before me.  If that's the case, just carry on... I need a moment to enjoy my latest find.

Then I need to find an excuse to make butter a regular part of my diet again.