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We still have time to mess this up!

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Consistently wrong since 2002

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We are aware of all internet traditions.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Bark louder, little dog.

This really is a full service blog.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Butter Lamb Tutorial

Butter Lamb Tutorial

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What in the hell is a butter lamb? That’s what I asked the first time I heard of it. See this article for details — tl;dr version: it’s a lamb carved out of butter that is an Easter dinner tradition among Polish-American Catholics in Buffalo, New York.

I am neither Polish-American, nor Catholic nor an Empire Stater, but I married into that sort of family. In Buffalo, you can buy butter lambs in stores at Easter time.

My snowbird in-laws used to get family members to bring a butter lamb to Florida in a cooler for the Easter table each year. But one Easter about 10 years ago, there were no Florida-bound Buffalonians to bring a butter lamb, and everyone was sad about confronting a feast table bereft of butter lambs. So, I found a YouTube of a lady making one, and I carved a butter lamb for the family so everyone would be happy again.

Ever since, it has been my yearly job — store bought butter lambs aren’t good enough anymore! Below the fold is an illustrated 12-step process that explains how I make them, though honestly, the ladies in the linked YouTube video are more entertaining, but people have asked, so…

1. Make an L with very cold half sticks of butter. I usually start with three sticks that have been in the freezer for a while but are not totally frozen. I cut off a little more than half from two sticks to form the L, then I scrape some butter off the spare sticks as “mortar” to join the two halves together.

2. Bevel the edges with a paring knife (except the bottom — you want that flat so it won’t tip), and scrape the scraps into a bowl or plate — you will need them later.

3. Grab about half a teaspoon or so of the aforementioned butter scraps, mold a nose, and attach it to the lamb, smoothing it onto the head with your fingers:

4. Now, take some of the scrap butter (or scrape some off a spare stick if you’re running low) and mold it onto the paring knife blade to make an ear:

5: Carefully remove the ear from the knife and attach it to the head. Repeat process for the other ear:

6. At this point, I usually put the butter lamb in the fridge to cool down because it’s getting melty, and I take a break. You may not have that problem if you’re in a colder climate. However, I keep the spare stick and butter scraps out of the fridge because those are the materials used to make the curly pelt, and I find that warmer butter sticks better.

When you’re ready to resume, take the butter lamb out of the fridge and load a garlic press with a chunk of scrap butter and press lightly:

7. Use a clean skewer or straightened paper clip to scrape the butter strands off the garlic press and apply them to the lamb, starting from the bottom:

8. Keep going! You can do this!

9. Eventually, you’ll end up with something like this:

10. Now, add some curly-cues to the top of the head:

11. Okay, almost done! Now hunt through a jar of cloves or pepper corns and find a matching pair. Make sure the color and size are very similar, or your lamb will look goofy. (Okay, goofiER.) And, voila!

12. I make my lambs on the butter wrapper, then refrigerate them for a while so they’re solid. Then I move them to a fancy plate and garnish them with parsley or something, as pictured at the top of the post.

Happy Easter, y’all!

Reader Interactions

170Comments

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    Hm. One could melt and color the butter using food dye, then re-solidify it in order to make various hues of lambs, yes?

    Side note: I attribute it to the lighting but that is some mighty pale looking butter. Unless that’s a Florida thing.

    (As a joke, one could possibly also make an ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Lamb.’ :) )

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Midwestern Catholic here: a standing lamb is not traditional, so the family would probably freak out if Betty put legs on it.

    My family would have a lamb-shaped cake for Easter dessert, though no one was ever enough of a smartass to make it red velvet on the inside. ?

  6. 6.

    Divf

    Every year I have the same reaction to Ms. Cracker’s butter lamb: Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chop.

  7. 7.

    Mnemosyne

    Sitting at the specialty vet for Annie’s appointment with the kitty oncologist. Fingers crossed for it to be something treatable! ?

  9. 9.

    JPL

    This is your best one ever! You are the master and I will now forever call you Mary had a little lamb.

    maybe I’ll only call you that until Monday.

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    Ah, the return of the Cracker butter lamb—an Easter tradition that never fails to warm my heart. Well done, Betty! They get better every year.

  12. 12.

    West of the Rockies

    All along I’ve assumed people were referring to Buttered Lamb, like the wonderful Buttered Chicken.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    @NotMax:

    Resolidified butter won’t be the same because the fatty bits separate out when melted. Better to left it soften and stir in the coloring, reshape, and refreeze.

  20. 20.

    FlyingToaster

    Wegman’s (a New York family chain that has colonized Boston over the past few years) had butter lambs a couple of weeks ago. I’d tweeted a picture in horror.

    Thanks for the backstory.

  24. 24.

    FlyingToaster

    @NotMax:

    I attribute it to the lighting but that is some mighty pale looking butter.

    It’s a terroir thing. My usual butter (from the aforementioned Wegman’s) is generally very pale like Betty’s. HerrDoktor’s preferred butter, Cabot, is usually yellower.

  30. 30.

    japa21

    Fantastic. May have to place a special order with you next year. Should point out that the company that makes the most butter lambs is located in Chicago, home to the second largest Polish population in one city in the world.

  31. 31.

    JPL

    While shopping for a few Easter goodies I saw a plastic lamb with jelly beans. You can put the jelly beans in the lamb and he conveniently drops them along the way. I passed.

  33. 33.

    CaseyL

    Aww, BC. Your lambs always look adorable. I love the How To, though I know if I ever tried, I’d wind up with a much-fingerprinted lump of mashed butter on the plate and a fine patina of semi-melted butter all over my hands, arms, face and possibly hair.

    Speaking of Easter, I was just at the supermarket, and it was Crazy Time there! The cashier lines backed up well into the aisles! This being oh-so-polite Seattle, at least no one was playing Demolition Derby with their shopping cart.

    I asked the checker if it was always like this on a Saturday afternoon. He said no, it’s because tomorrow is a “food holiday.” I love that: grocery people refer to holidays not as Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter, but as “food holidays.”

  36. 36.

    JPL

    @zhena gogolia: Good for them. I have to admit that when I lived in the northeast Stop&Shop was my least favorite place to shop It was also the only place to shop besides small roadside produce stands.

  37. 37.

    FlyingToaster

    @catclub: Terroir is the source. For wine or coffee, that’s the land where the plants (grapevines or coffee bushes) grew. For butter and cheese, that’s the land where the cow’s feed came from.

    One of the things I learned from visiting cheesemakers; the tradition of dying cheddar “orange” came from having milk from different farms come in in different colors. You’d make your batches of cheddar, and they would come out of the press and one wheel would be white and one yellow and one nearly orange, and people would refuse to buy yours because it was all different colors and they couldn’t tell which one was “real” cheddar.

  38. 38.

    zhena gogolia

    Wow, having read the instructions, I now realize how small the lamb is. I was picturing something the size of a roast beef.

    I could never do this in a million years.

  41. 41.

    FlyingToaster

    @JPL: Different stores have different atmospheres; we have two Stop&Shop’s here in Watertown, and the one on my side of the river is generally a little less helpful with every damn thing. The one on Charlie Pierce’s side of the river is more helpful, but too small to stock some of the stuff on this side.

    Stop & Shop being on strike has had a serious impact on traffic; the Boston Globe had a pic of our deserted checkout, and the parking lot is empty except for people parking to offload their bikes for the Charles River Greenway. The Shaws in east Waltham was packed, however, and it’s usually not that full.

  42. 42.

    cope

    So what is the fate of the butter lambs? Are they consumed on rolls, hot veggies, mashed potatoes or trendy coffee or tea drinks or mixed into baked goods recipes?

  45. 45.

    JPL

    @FlyingToaster: Decades ago I lived in Ridgefield, CT and the Stop & Shop was the claustophobic model with high shelves and narrow aisles They did have really good beef though, as I learned when I moved to IL. a few years later.

  46. 46.

    Gelfling 545

    My nephew made a butter lamb a couple of years ago but it was not quite as successful as yours. It looked like it has aspirations to become a pig.

  47. 47.

    Brachiator

    By the way, it’s 420 Day. Toke up. A little weed probably goes good with Butter Lamb.

  48. 48.

    hitchhiker

    I nominate Betty Cracker for my favorite aunt, even tho’ I have 20 yrs or so on her and I already have other aunts.

    I want her.

  49. 49.

    FlyingToaster

    @JPL: Cambridge used to have a Star Market like that — the Porter Square “Death Star”. I’d have to get an employee to grab anything from the top two shelves. There was another Star about half a mile away on Beacon called the “Satellite Star” which had shorter shelves but never seemed to have anything in stock.

    After all of the local chains got bought (Stop-&-Shop and Hannaford by Ahold, Shaws and Star by Albersons, Bread & Circus by WholeFoods, now Amazon), they redid the stores so there are no shelves that I can’t reach. Purity and Foodmaster are no more; only Market Basket survives after one cousin finally bought the other out.

  50. 50.

    Millard Filmore

    What is that map? It looks nautical, like it has water depth markings.

    And why is it on your counter?

  51. 51.

    HRA

    I came to the Buffalo, NY area as a preteen when my parents decided to move here to be closer to the family. I had 2 Polish aunts who taught me their traditions and food. The place to shop before holidays is the Broadway Market on the East side in Buffalo and it is really crowded for every holiday. It is an amazing place. Easter Monday is traditionally Dyngus Day It is eat, drink, dance and be chased with pussy willow branches.

    Love your butter lamb, Betty!
    I am waiting for the cottage cheese to drain so I can make my last pita or bourek for tomorrow.
    Happy Easter to all who celebrate.

  52. 52.

    oatler.

    Reminds me of that Ellen Muth turkey “Margarine Wars”, also of my Greek Orthodox relatives who won’t celebrate until next week.

  53. 53.

    Aleta

    I’d never heard of a butter lamb before BalooJ. So until last year I thought the artist known as Betty C invented them as a carving project, like the foil creatures that used to appear. (Someone else here used to do those too .. )

    I always thought your lambs were block carved down to their curly locks. Thanks for taking time to photo and explain the steps!! Your lambs always got a lotta personality. I love them and their come hither clove eyes.

  54. 54.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @japa21: IIRC Chicago is also the world’s largest Lithuanian city. And the second largest Armenian city on the planet is – FRESNO! /tmi

  56. 56.

    Sab

    @Aleta: I can’t even imagine what the lambs would look like if I tried to make them in my cat infested kitchen.

    Betty Cracker makes hard stuff look easy and inevitable.

    I believe that she believes it is easily possible but requires effort. She is wrong. She makes hard stuff look easy.

    Happy Easter Betty.

    I grew up in Florida and sun on Easter was actually a religious belief of mine. Seriously it was. Easter so God smiles on us. Worked every year of my childhood.

    Imagine my shock when we moved to Ohio. Rained buckets on my first Easter. (Note to self: rains in midwest in Spring. April showers=May flowers).

    I was 12 and genuinely and deeply shocked.

  57. 57.

    Chris T.

    @FlyingToaster: Here in the SFBayArea, some places add coloring to the butter during the winter (when the butter gets quite pale) and then stop adding it in the spring/summer (when the base color perks up). I have found that the grass-fed Point Reyes and other Marin cow butter (and milk) tastes better than the hay-fed stuff.

  59. 59.

    donnah

    I live in SW Ohio.

    Everyone needs to google “Butter Jesus”

    It’s perfect for this holiday.

  63. 63.

    Sab

    @donnah: @donnah: I am afraid to.

    When I spent my Junior year abroad in England they actually had Chocolate Jesuses. You could get him in milk chocolate or white chocolate.

    I was appalled.

    I had English friends who bought one. Big discussions about how to eat it. Nibble on the toes, or chop the head off.

    Reiterate: I was appalled.

  64. 64.

    karen marie

    @FlyingToaster: That Market Basket family dispute was a huge money maker for the legal community. Early on – in the late 80’s maybe? – I did daily copy transcript for one of the civil trials. I made something in the neighborhood of $300/hour because of all the upcharge for it being overnight plus the huge number of copies. It was fabulous but exhausting. I am a little surprised anyone in the family had enough scratch to pull together to buy it given the length of time and size of the case.

  71. 71.

    dmsilev

    Well, today went from ‘calm weekend’ to ‘sucks’ in a real hurry. An email from a minion saying that there’s a cracked bottle labeled ‘HF’ leaking onto the floor will do that.

    Fuck.

    Room cordoned off, student suitably washed off, chemicals contained. Now waiting for the Safety Office chem spill team to arrive.

  72. 72.

    oatler.

    Here’s a fragrant Easter egg for y’all: Chuck Todd interviews Giuliani on “Meet the Press” tomorrow morning
    “Both sides” crucified Jesus, so let’s get the Centurian’s point of view!

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @Millard Filmore: Fair question. The mister and I moved to our fixer-upper swamp compound last fall. The kitchen has a horrid laminate island with, inexplicably, a glass-covered inset. When we moved here, there was a hideous scarf under the glass. I replaced it with a nautical chart of Tampa Bay, replaced the glass and caulked the hell out of it to make a solid surface. That is my solution until I have enough money to rip the whole thing out and replace it. That is approximately item #99 on my top 100 list of to-do projects…

  75. 75.

    Searcher

    @NobodySpecial:

    Hopkins has also claimed that president Trump has personally asked him about ‘Muslim immigration.’

    How weird is it that this could easily be true?

  76. 76.

    MomSense

    Betty, that’s crazy good. One of these years I’ll knit a lamb. I’ve resisted because toys are so fiddly.

    I’m at Maine Craft Distillery in Portland sipping a Manhattan and listening to kid’s band. They’re tearing it up.

    Unexpectedly I’m not the only one with reading glasses in this crowd.

    After spending the day caulking a shower, I think a little time out is in order.

  79. 79.

    jl

    Thanks for cute butterlambpix.

    But…
    “apply them to the lamb, starting from the bottom”
    That sounds like the hardest part. How do you ‘apply’ warm butter curls to the side of a frozen naked butter lamb?

  80. 80.

    Amir Khalid

    @Sab:
    In Islam, Jesus is revered on about the same level as Muhammad. A devout Muslim would be as appalled at a chocolate Jesus as you were.

  81. 81.

    Gin & Tonic

    Tomorrow is the second round of Presidential elections in Ukraine. The first round featured 39 officially registered candidates, some, of course, lunatics and no-hopers, but many at least as plausible candidates as we see in the Democratic contention here. The top two finishers were the incumbent, Poroshenko, who is wildly unpopular because of his failure to deal with systemic corruption and his failure to bring about any end to the war with Russia, and Zelensky, a comedian (yes, literally) best known for a popular TV show in which his character accidentally becomes President. Poroshenko is fabulously wealthy in his own right, by owning a popular candy and confectionery company. Zelensky is an actor, but is the puppet of an oligarch named Ihor Kolomoisky. According to the polling, Zelensky is likely to win, because a lot of people are eager to vote “fuck you.” He has no platform and no concrete plans, but he is not the incumbent, and that’s what matters.

    Yesterday, Friday, the two faced off in a public, televised debate held in Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium (where the football club Dynamo plays.) Nobody’s mind was changed.

    The really interesting thing, though, and the reason for my post, is that this may well be the first genuinely-contested and more or less fair and democratic election in a post-Soviet country. The outcome is actually in some doubt, and people are taking their vote seriously. Nobody at all serious is even suggesting that if Poroshenko loses, that there will not be a peaceful transition. Some political actors are already changing their allegiances. But now, nearly all the commentary I see from Russia is along the lines of “how come they can have this, and we can’t?” Why, indeed?

  83. 83.

    Sister Golden Bear

    In other news, Ashland, OR is hella white, hella crunchy, with weed availability that puts California to shame — and it’s freaking me out that when I try to cross the street, traffic actually stops to let me do so. It’s screwing up my street-crossing timing.

    Just saw “As You Like It,” which features a friend in one of the larger roles. In addition to the usual Oregon Shakespeare Festival multi-cultural casting, I appreciated how they intentionally queered the production — Rach, a trans woman, was cast as the Duke Senior (they didn’t change the title of Duke, but otherwise used feminine pronouns), Jaques was played by a woman and the name was pronounced “Ja-ques,” and the court fool Touchstone fell in love a with cute shepherd boy, played by a non-binary actor.

  84. 84.

    Gin & Tonic

    @MomSense:

    I’m at Maine Craft Distillery in Portland sipping a Manhattan

    Jealous. But I visited a couple of breweries in Portsmouth, NH today.

    Interestingly, driving home along I-95 *every single* highway overpass from the NH line down to Danvers had several police/fire vehicles on it, with lights flashing, all on the northbound side. This struck me as odd, until I vaguely recalled something about Biden heading up to NH? There was a small northbound motorcade I saw eventually. But boy, that seemed like a big turnout of emergency services. Probably every local fire company on the North Shore.

  85. 85.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Tonight it’ll be “Cambodian Rock Band” — which does indeed include a band made up of the cast members, with a number songs by Dengue Fever — that looks at both the Cambodian rock scene of the late 1960s/early 1970s and the Khmer Rouge era. I’ve been warned to bring tissues.

  87. 87.

    Scuffletuffle

    @MomSense: I went to the UConn recital you suggested. The music was wonderful, well played with lots of color and feeling. ML is very talented!

  90. 90.

    MomSense

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I bet Portsmouth was lovely. I always try to get to Prescott spark for the great tulip display.

    Was Joe Fucking Biden in NH today? On an external hard drive somewhere (the modern version of keepsakes) I have video of Joe and my kids from 2012 totally hamming it up in Portsmouth. I think they would have just gone home with him and he seemed ready to adopt them on the spot. We’ve called my youngest the Senator since he was about three because he’s a schmoozer just like Joe.

  96. 96.

    danielx

    I must say that my sister and niece and nephew (on my side) are going to see Low Cut Connie at a place called the HiFi tonight – standing only room for about 150. I am totally jealous, although if I went I would likely be physically and mentally crippled tomorrow.

    Although I did get to see Patty Griffin at the same place last weekend. As usual, she was transcendant.

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne

    Back from the vet with some guardedly hopeful news: the oncologist is 90 percent sure it’s a lymphoma (which, as we know from Lily, is treatable), but they need to figure out if it’s large cell (bad) or small cell (less bad) because they each require a different type of chemotherapy.

    In the meantime, Annie gets kitten food at every meal to keep her weight up. I think she’s going to be pretty stoked about that. ?

  101. 101.

    Gin & Tonic

    @debbie: He is, like all oligarchs, out for himself. The thing, though, about the Ukrainian ones, even though they’re Russian-speaking and mostly ethnically Russian, they are not unqualified Putin supporters. Many Ukrainians and Ukraine-watchers feel that they are interested in a free and largely independent Ukraine with a decent economy because that’s better for their business. In Russia, get too successful and you could slip and fall while going out on your 5th floor balcony for a smoke, or have a bad accident while installing a bathtub or something.

  105. 105.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Sab: Oh don’t be! Big Butter Jesus was also know as Touchdown Jesus for the posture. BBJ was sort of a styrofoam on a metal frame statue that burned after a lightning strike a few years back, comically about half a mile down the road from a Hustler Hollywood accessories store.

    The statute looked like a giant butter sculpture.

  106. 106.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    No no no. The 10 percent would be something nasty and untreatable since they’ve already confirmed via ultrasound that there’s a mass in her intestine.

    Put your hopes on it being small cell lymphoma, which is the best case scenario right now. That has a 75 percent chance of going into remission after chemotherapy.

  109. 109.

    Amir Khalid

    By the way, how much butter is there in a stick? Supermarkets here sell it only in 8oz/223g packets.

  111. 111.

    Mary G

    @Mnemosyne: We will apply the special jackal mojo and Anniie will do as well as Lily did.

    Probably not as graciously, though.

    So next Easter she’ll still be with you.

  112. 112.

    Gin & Tonic

    @debbie: Of course he could, but beyond what he’s got, it gets difficult. One of the reasons he sunk so much into building the Kerch bridge is that he couldn’t take and hold the “land bridge” through Mariupol and Berdaynsk. By, ahem, coincidence, Kolomoisky exercised a lot of control in that area – in 2014, he was governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, which remained firmly aligned with the government.

  113. 113.

    FlyingToaster

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Biden heading up to NH?

    If so, that’s weird. Candidates who are flying normally go into Manchester or Pease (Portsmouth). It’s infinitely easier than driving up from Logan.

    Biden wasn’t on my source list (a NH activist e-mail); since he hasn’t declared yet, he might not be on their radar. The list for today had Buttigieg, Gabbard and Warren. None of them warrant closing the 95 onramps.

  119. 119.

    Mnemosyne

    @dmsilev:

    If you ever need to scare the ever-living fuck out of a careless graduate student or lab technician, look up the sad case of the UCLA chemistry grad student whose acrylic sweater caught on fire while she was doing an experiment. I think she lived for about 3 days in the UCLA burn unit.

  121. 121.

    FlyingToaster

    @Gin & Tonic: Then Biden was probably staying at the 4 Seasons talking up money people. I’ve run into candidates doing that several times (including GWB).

  122. 122.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    Thinking healthy thoughts for you and Annie. Hoping she does as well as Lily.

  123. 123.

    Baud

    The FBI arrested on Saturday the head of a right-wing militia that had been detaining migrant families at gunpoint. Law enforcement officers arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who went by the alias Johnny Horton Jr., in New Mexico on charges of firearms possession by a felon. Hopkins had previously been arrested in 2006 on charges of impersonating an officer and for felony firearm possession.

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/united-constitutional-patriots-fbi-arrests-head-of-militia.html

  126. 126.

    dmsilev

    @Mnemosyne: There are, unfortunately, all sorts of horror stories one can use. The one that I often have to refer to, since I help run our departmental machine shop, is an episode at Yale a few years ago. Grad student using a lathe late at night, got her hair tangled up between the cutter and the shaft, and the machine basically winched her head in at high speed. She didn’t survive.

    Listen to the safety briefing, people. It’s not a joke.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    Don’t worry — I know it’s weird to be going, “Come on, lymphoma!” But that’s where we’re at.

    @Mary G:

    Annie is always very well-behaved at the vet’s.

    With us, not so much. She was NOT happy with me for dragging her out from her nap spot under the cherry chest and chasing her around the apartment to cram her into her carrier.

    And thank you to everyone (including but not only Kathleen, Steeplejack, rikyrah, zhena gogalia, Amir, MomSense, and all) for the good wishes and positive thoughts.

    Now to figure out how to give only one of the cats the high-calorie kitten food … ?

  129. 129.

    debbie

    @dmsilev:

    When I was in art school, I was banned from the machine shop after a few close calls. An instructor cut wood, plexiglass, etc. for me, and // surprisingly // my workmanship and grades in 3D class shot right up.

  134. 134.

    NotMax

    @Gin & Tonic

    a popular TV show in which his character accidentally becomes President

    Servant of the People, available on Netflix (albeit not universally) and also on YouTube. Intermittently humorous series.

  138. 138.

    Mnemosyne

    @dmsilev:

    It’s the local connection I was thinking about as the possible hook. You may be able to get a reaction like, “Holy shit, I remember seeing that on the news!”

  139. 139.

    Barbara

    @Gin & Tonic: My IT department tells people to use a title of a song or book they like as the basis of a password, because it is random enough but not too hard to remember. It’s hard to find one short enough.

  143. 143.

    Mnemosyne

    @Barbara:

    The Giant Evil Corporation’s advice is to pick two of your favorite things, a year, and a keyboard symbol (like &,$, etc). I think the paradigmatic example was SushiDiamonds$1974.

  146. 146.

    Amir Khalid

    @Barbara:
    I was reminded of this Fiona Apple album title, from 20 years ago:
    When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king
    What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight
    And he’ll win the whole thing ‘fore he enters the ring
    There’s no body to batter when your mind is your might
    So when you go solo, you hold your own hand
    And remember that depth is the greatest of heights
    And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land
    And if you fall it won’t matter, cause you’ll know that you’re right

  156. 156.

    smedley the uncertain

    I Live in a small village in Western NY. I am neither Catholic or Polish. Yet today I have been reminded of our community. I have been gifted with fresh Kielbasa, Polish sausage and pieorgis. We will have twisted bread and colored eggs and bunch of family. We will meet out neighbors on the street and talk of Italian festivities. Two doors up our Black (sadly I’m nor sure of the appropriate term of reference any more) friends will be out front as we sit and admire the Easter eggs adorning their hedge. My point is I am whelmed buy the community we are.

  160. 160.

    Mnemosyne

    @thalarctosMaritimus:

    Thanks! I suspect that may be our next step if the kitten food doesn’t seem to be working.

    She was not notably enthused about what I gave her for dinner, but I’ll try warming up the other half for bedtime treat tonight. And it didn’t help that her brother wolfed down his own food, pushed her aside, and puked onto her half-eaten plate. ?

  161. 161.

    thalarctosMaritimus

    @Mnemosyne: Here’s hoping–hang in there, Annie! Spencer sends his encouragement, too.

    Yeah, I can see where that wouldn’t help much. I hope he cuts that out; we’ve had to move to feeding Spencer separately, because the a/d is so rich that everyone else wants the good stuff more than their own food.

  163. 163.

    Elizabelle

    Happy Easter, jackalbunnies!

    Betty, that is one appealing little butter lamb. Pretty much too cute to eat.

    It will be fun to try your instructions. One of these days.

  164. 164.

    Mel

    @Mnemosyne: Sending Annie lots of love.
    The a/df food has worked really well in the past for our kitties. We used it for Ms. Bruni after her breast cancer surgery, and recently for Janie while she recovered from a respiratory infection. We had to syringe feed Janie’s medicine to her, and used the a/d mixed with a little water as the vehicle for the powdered medicine. Even with the icky taste of the medicine on board, she liked the flavor of the a/d well enough to lick up any blops that spilled. She is generally a picky eater who refuses any type of soft food, so the a/d must be pretty appealing, flavor
    wise .
    Hopefully, it will tempt little Annie’s taste buds, too. We had to take Janie into the bathroom to feed her the a/d, as our other kitty was determined to get the a/d (and does not need the extra calories!). That seemed to be okay with Janie, though. We just put a soft towel or blanket down on the floor, and gave her some extra cuddle time / quiet rest time after she ate and got her dose of medicine.

  165. 165.

    Rugosa

    Wish I had seen this yesterday – I would have attempted one to take to Easter Dinner. I’m a Polish girl from Buffalo and this brought back fond memories.
    ”

  166. 166.

    Dev Null

    Haven’t read the comments thread, so apologies if I am duplicating someone else’s post (not that anyone will notice a day later!) I forwarded a link to a colleague, who responded:

    the Poles have it all wrong… It’s supposed to be a goose. You have heard about “smoergaasbord”? Well “smoer” means butter and “gaas”means goose, sooo …

    cheesy sculptures

  168. 168.

    karen marie

    @Mnemosyne: Have you tried adding some amount of water to it? I had a very fussy cat who was restricted to canned food to lose and thein maintain her weight. A vet had told me cats don’t typically drink as much as they should, so it worked both in increasing her water intake and her eating everything in her bowl. Also, obviously, feeding smaller amounts more frequently might be helpful, if impractical if you’re out for long periods during the week.

  170. 170.

    J R in WV

    @Mnemosyne:

    Feed Annie in a private dining room where you can control access, like a bathroom, which is what we use for Pun’kin, who once weighed 20 pounds and now only weighs 14 pounds, much to our vet’s amazement.

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