So I bought a butter bell...

[puzzlegal]

@Poysyn

Oh, I LOVE a parchment paper. Amazing stuff.

I love it, too!

@Eva_Luna

I have been trying to get away from disposable stuff as much as possible, and have been using silicon mats for my cookie sheets for all but super hi-temp cooking. They are awesome! Now if only they existed for standard-size cake pans, for example…

If I’m making relatively “clean” stuff, I re-use the parchment. So, if I cook meringue cookies, I usually tuck away the parchment in the baking tray, and use it the next time I make cookies.

The doesn’t work as well for greasier cookies, but most of the other cookies I make don’t really need it. It’s easy to pick up chocolate chip cookies directly from an ungreased baking sheet using a metal spatula, when they are still slightly warm, for instance.

[Max_Torque]

Parchment is great for cookies and such, but I do a lot of stuff in the oven that is at or over the maximum temp of parchment (the 425-450 degree range), so rather than parchment, I use a lot of non-stick aluminum foil. That stuff rocks. No greasing, no sticking.

[wguy123]

We’ve always left our butter out in the cooler months in a glass container with airtight lid. However, in the summer it gets too soft. We tried a butterbell but found the butter molds too quickly. We don’t use a lot of butter so were not sure if it was us using it too slowly or what was going on. We are back to the former glass container for 9 months of the year and the fridge for the other 3 months.

[madmonk28]

@wguy123

We’ve always left our butter out in the cooler months in a glass container with airtight lid. However, in the summer it gets too soft. We tried a butterbell but found the butter molds too quickly. We don’t use a lot of butter so were not sure if it was us using it too slowly or what was going on. We are back to the former glass container for 9 months of the year and the fridge for the other 3 months.

You really have to be vigilant about changing the water and rinsing out the butter bell every week or else you’ll get mold. I had to stop using mine because I travel a lot for work and my wife didn’t keep up with changing the water.

[wguy123]

@madmonk28

You really have to be vigilant about changing the water and rinsing out the butter bell every week or else you’ll get mold. I had to stop using mine because I travel a lot for work and my wife didn’t keep up with changing the water.

It seems a small Pyrex with sealing lid is the simpler and more sanitary way for us then. I don’t think we’ve ever had butter mold using that method.

[Baal_Houtham]

@puzzlegal

I assume a little of the water evaporates, cooling the butter slightly.

It looks awfully fussy, and a little wasteful. You have to soften the butter, then smash it into the bell, then throw away the butter that stuck to the plate you softened it on, and to the spoon you used to transfer it. You probably lose some butter every time the butter runs out, too, as you presumably way to clean the bell from time to time.

I was thinking of getting my husband one as a gift, after seeing everyone rave about it. But watching the video and thinking about the practicality of the thing, I think he’d be happier with a heavy covered butter tray that the cats can’t open. Something shaped so it’s easy to drop a quarter-pound stick on the tray, with or without the protective paper wrapping. I bet it would keep nearly as well, too.

I agree with all of that – except there’s no need to have cats.

[AllShookDown]

@Sunny_Daze

Essentially, it lets you keep butter out at room temperature.

Not at my house where room temperature most of the year is 68 degrees or less. I had one and got rid of it because there are so few times when room temperature at my house = spreadable butter temperature.

I also found this gadget to be useless.

[Fair_Rarity]

I love my butter bell. I use a lot of Country Crock, etc, because I like spreadable when I’m not baking. Grilled cheese, for example.

This isn’t exactly an invention and is super weird given I’ve lived almost my whole life in the Northeast, but scarves are awesome. I hate cold weather and my face gets so cold but I toughed it out, barely even buttoning my coat for years. I wear a scarf now on windy and/or cold days (under 30F) and I can tough it out more.

Also, I got some foam tubing stuff, soft and squishy, not like pool noodles, and I stuffed it down between my car’s seat and the center console. When I inevitably drop stuff, it’s sitting right there and not wedged down deep where fingers can’t get it.

[Dangerosa]

@Kimstu

Hot-water bottles. You can keep your electric heating pads and blankets and whatnot, that toasty cozy lump of heat in the bed is the best.

I had one burst on me as a kid - fortunately it was cool enough that I only burned slightly, but I burned enough that they terrify me…I use a rice sock…which is what it sounds like. Take a tube sock, fill it with rice (and lavender or rosemary or something else if you want), tie off the end. Microwave 2 1/2 minutes.