Saturday, February 14, 2009

Butter..Yummie Butter

Per request...a bit about making butter...
First we have to skim the cream from the milk. We have found it is best to let the milk sit, in the fridge, for 24 hours - that gives us the best cream.
Here's our evening cream...mmmm This will set out till morning becoming cultured or slightly soured. We purposely leave lids off because if you don't the "gases" can not escape and the bacteria from the air, which is needed to culture, can not get to the cream.
Using a modern woman's best friend to shake the cream....it takes about 45-60 minutes depending on the cream and if it's been cultured or not. Cold cream doesn't make good butter.
Butter in a pool of buttermilk...which is nasty by the way...although some claim it's really good! We personally think that someone in our house is just saying that it is good to be "different" - If you tasted it you would agree...yuk!

So here is the time-consuming part...butter washing! It's actually very relaxing and takes about 20-30 minutes. Washing the butter consists of of putting in cold water and "squishing", not smearing, the butter with a slotted spoon to the bottom of the bowl, then poor off that water and do it again and again and again and again until the water runs clear. Now you have to get as much water out as possible - I seem to always have a bit of water left. Now salt and put into mini containers to mold. Set the containers in the refrigerator overnight and then I usually take the butter out of the mold and freeze in freezer paper.
The taste is far superior to anything you can purchase at the store. One draw back is that it doesn't seem to do well for frying There is a weird smell - so it fries fine but the smell is strong...but we just use bacon grease...and I wonder why my jeans don't fit!
I've used it in cookies and breads - anything calling for butter in baking and it works fine.
Thanks for stopping by - hope you enjoyed a bit of old fashioned culinary art...


Special Day...Special Girl



Last week was our sweeties birthday. She is a delightful girl...she loves deeply, trusts deeply~! If she counts you as a friend you will have a friend for life...she will love you to the very end with no strings attached...she's a keeper!
She only saw one gift for her on our "gift" table and was completely content and happy about it...it made me so proud of her! Little did she know that a really special gift was on it's way to her and would arrive a few days after her birthday...a special doll just for her.
As you can see her new "friend" is always with her. It's adorable watching her and her new friend - it warms my heart and shouts in the face of your typical cheap toys...NO they don't have to play with "pop" culture toys and YES they can play and learn to be the mommies they will need to be...so be it!
So sweet!
Reading to her friend...hmmm bonus as reading class just got more fun!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

A Room With A View...


A room with a view...this is what I see out my kitchen window. This is a blessing as our new lifestyle requires me to spend a lot of time in the kitchen...I'm a blessed woman!

Pslams 144:12 -

That our sons may be as plants
and our daughters may be pillars sculptured in palace style.


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