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Tom, I don't use butter frequently in cooking because of the expense. I still use margarine occasionally in some items, but mostly for general cooking I use extra virgin olive oil or a pressed olive oil blend. I fry in canola when I fry. For frying I prefer peanut oil, but, while I don't have any peanut allergies currently, I don't want to get into the habit and risk a guest or other unsuspecting diner being affected.
I do use whipped butter as a spread on the table and use real butter when doing most baking.
Because of the girls general adversion to fat, I have had to adjust my cooking style to limit or remove a lot of fats. There is a type of pea that I'm partial to called a "butter pea". It's like a fat, small butter bean or lima. But that's the name of the variety of pea. One night when I had it on the menu, I had a girl come up and ask how much butter was in the peas. I showed her the pot. There was maybe a quarter teaspoon of some fat or oil floating on the surface of the stock, probably from the vegetable base I used for flavoring. She seemed satisfied and had some. It was a while before I realized that she did not understand that "butter pea" was the name and not the preparation.
What I haven't been able to get across to the girls is that if I were to add say a quarter cup of butter or margarine to a pot of vegetables that would serve over 100 meals that they would be getting less than 1/8 teaspoon of fat IF all the fat came out of the pot with the vegetables. It is simply the idea of fat that queasies them up.
However, after a night of partying, they will look for the fattiest fried foods in the belief that it will sit well on their hungover stomachs. So I will have made a point of trying to be a fat conscious as possible only to have girls head out to Wendy's for Fries and Frosties after a party night.
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