Fried Plantains & A Random Note

I fried a plantain today! I've never done that before. I know there are a ba-zillion different ways to do it, but I went super simple for my first time out. Here's what I did:

1. Put 1 tbs. butter per plantain in a roomy skillet.

2. While the butter was melting, I cut the plantain in half twice - once through the middle and once length-wise so it was drawn and quartered in the end.

3. When the butter had stopped foaming, I put the plantain pieces into the skillet, and sprinkled brown sugar on top.

4. I let that side fry without touching it for about four minutes on high heat. Once they'd browned a bit on one side, I flipped them over and let the other side fry for about 4 minutes until it too was brown.

5. Then I put them on a plate, sprinkled brown sugar on top and James and I ate them. Yum.

And now for the totally random note: I also spent much of this evening pitting sugar plums to freeze for winter baking and preserving figs from my mom's tree in syrup. I feel absurdly proud of this :-)