Sunday, July 26, 2009

Papilio - Butterfly


This time of the year, I paddle my canoe in DeNial, pretending to not notice signs of summer coming to a close. One such sign I'm not noticing is of the butterflies, I'd tell you more but it's easier for me if I stop at the word butterfly and stay with that, leaving out any knowledge of what they are doing to signal summers end. You want to know the signals*? Good luck with that, heheh

These butterfly silhouettes were placed in the House of Dior by artist Andrea Mastrovito and I thought them inspiring for a portion of wall in my home. After doing some research I found a butterfly craft punch and colored papers along with low tack products could yield an interesting wall display. 

this clever papilio is The Butterfly Knife MP3/CD Player Concept  playsMP3s and CD's in a most portable manner by squeezing the CD in the butterfly-knife body while the "player spins the CD in the nude, feeding your naked CD fetish". What?! The device also rips CDs is compatible with Bluetooth headphones.   

If we were grilling a butterflied chicken would we be distracted about the season coming to an end? Let's see... and for the record, it's summer until September in my book and I don't care about it coming to an end until it is gone. About that chicken: When you
 butterfly a chicken you cut the backbone out to create a flat surface that makes for easier grilling. When grilling a butterflied chicken it helps to bank all the coals on one side of the grill and place the chicken opposite of heat source because it renders the fat under the chicken's skin slowly without causing flare-ups and the gentle heat results in a moister bird. Cooking skin side down reduces cooking time and a final sear directly over dying coals at the end of cooking crisps and browns skin nicely with out the flare-ups. I also place a cast-iron skillet on my bird to increase the flatness. I enjoy an intense lemon flavor so I cut lemons on half and grill alongside of chicken to caramelize and I squeeze the cooled lemon halves over the chicken immediately before eating. You could marinate your chicken after piercing it several times to encourage it to absorb flavor but I found a flavor injector in the cooking store and I use it to penetrate the bird and have flavor through out. For one chicken I use 2T lemon zest, 1/3 c lemon juice, 2 cloves of garlic and puree together before inserting into flavor injector. Inject throughout the bird and on top the bird after preparing the outside with 2-3 T softened butter 2T thyme, 1T rosemary, salt and pepper. I'm a spicy girl and I would sprinkle my bird with red pepper flakes and or cayenne pepper but of course this is not necessary if you are mild mannered, just do the paprika thing for increased coloring. (Yes, I called you a pansy.)

Hmm, we need to have some friends over to enjoy our grilled papilio chicken... if they come in the evening these lovely luminaries would be in order. Use the butterfly punches and decorative bags weighted down with sand or pebbles and containing tea light candles (1 or 2). Scatter these around and create a wonderful ambiance. Using patterned papers you can punch out butterflies and attach them to lanterns, plant leaves and even straws after you cut 2 notches in them to accommodate the straw like what's her name does here.
I lost a butterfly bush this season and so am in the market for a new one. These remarkable bushes are magnets for butterflies. I had a dark knight succumb to the gourmet wishes of a vole. You know that all purple flowers attract butterflies, as does red and in my garden I plant monarda and scabiosa as butterfly lure. (here ya go*)I still have not told you how butterflies let me know about the end of the season. I live in the Rockies, Monarchs visit the milkweed plants for a bit of end season vavavoom (is that 1 word or 3?) and the females lay eggs on the underside of the plants. So, when I see the milkweed all ripe and ready and the butterflies scampering saying suggestive things like "Wanna see my proboscis" - I know the end of summer is near. Felted butterfly sachets never fly away except when you give them as scented gifts, hint, hint. You do know that you can receive updates to this site by subscribing to the RSS, right? Here it has the RSS symbol and the word Posts. If you try anything presented here I'd love to here about it. Feel free to leave a comment on this article =)

3 comments:

  1. When you do butterfly chicken, do you cut the backbone out or do you have your butcher/grocery store remove the bone for you?

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  2. Hi Max,
    Thanks for your question, and thank you for following.

    I remove the back bone by cutting it out with kitchen shears. Large scissors work fine also if they are used only in kitchen. After removing the bone, turn over and press down on chest cavity to flatten. Hope that helps.

    ~Olive

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  3. When I grill chicken, I usually get the butcher to cut the chicken in half, but next time I'll try it this way.

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