We just had a four-alarm moment down in the kitchen: no butter! Fortunately, I’d already buttered our toast, but Peter was wanting more…

I think this is the best evidence of how I’ve really had to shove everything aside to get this guidebook finished. I can’t think of another time in…my whole life?…that I’ve run out of butter.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a little cooking demo at our CSA. The recipe I did was raw zucchini with basil and brown butter. Natch, the first person to wander by and show any interest in what I was doing was a guy who said, “Boy, that sure is a lot of butter you’re using!” in a disapproving tone. Fortunately, some other bystanders noticed the butter-heckler, and started giving him a hard time. “Butter is good!” said another woman, and others nodded. I let them do the talking, because I just could not think of a polite thing to say.

Here’s the recipe, by the way:

Zucchini with brown butter and basil
(serves 4)

* 3 small zucchini (and/or yellow summer squash)
* 1 handful fresh basil
* 3 tbsp butter
* salt
* lemon (optional)

Trim ends off zucchini. With a knife, mandoline or vegetable peeler, slice zucchini lengthwise into thin ribbons. (Impatient? You can also run the squash through the slicer on a Cuisinart, though the results won’t be so pretty. It’s nicer to have long slices, rather than round ones, as they don’t clump together so much, but it’s really only cosmetic.) Mince basil (or chiffonade, if you know/care what that means–again, cosmetic) and toss with the zucchini in a large bowl.

In a small saucepan on high heat, melt butter. It will first foam with fairly large bubbles. As soon as the large bubbles subside and are replaced with a layer of denser foam, pull the saucepan from the heat. There should be dark-brown (but not burnt) toasted bits in the bottom of the pan. (If the butter smokes, you’ve gone too far–toss it and start over.) Immediately pour the hot butter over the zucchini and basil. Sprinkle with salt (to taste) and toss gently, so as not to break up the zucchini slices. (If you like a bit of acid, squeeze half a lemon over the squash and toss again. The lemon goes nicely with the basil, but it’s perfectly good without it as well.)

Serve pretty much immediately. If this sits more than 10 minutes, the zucchini loses a lot of its crunch (and the butter starts to congeal), though it still tastes good.