In article >, "elaine" >
wrote:

> One of the things I hate about the warmer weather is soft butter. Yup, I
> could put it in the fridge, but then it would be hard.
>
> I am SO fussy, 'cause when it's too hard it's difficult to spread

Why not just use whipped butter for those situations where you want to
spread it on something? Alternatively, use thin slices of stick butter
and let them sit for a minute or two prior to spreading, which is what I
do. If I am having toast, I take the butter out of the fridge and slice
off as much as I need then I put the bread in the toaster, then when the
toast is ready, I adorn each slice with butter and let it melt briefly
before spreading. This works fine for me. Of course, these days, I avoid
using butter because its so intensely fattening, so I use Smart Balance
which works great on bread or potatoes without having the artery
clogging feature of butter.