I finally attempted making butter this morning after wanting to give a try for so long. It seemed like the perfect activity for Easter Sunday morning – the lovely yellow was a wonderful match for the glorious spring weather, and something so luscious and healthful seems so appropriate as I considered God’s gift of hope, renewal and life on this day. I need to perfect the process (it wasn’t as easy as I had hoped!), so I'll give it another shot and post the details at a later date.
I also made Hot Cross Buns to continue my Mother’s tradition – another contemplative activity for Easter.
Blessings on your Easter!
Update, 7/4/2010
I think I have the process down on how to make butter (it's actually quite simple once you know what to expect!). Here's the recipe:
How to Make Butter from Raw Cream
Remove cream from refrigerator and allow it to reach temperature of 55-58 degrees.
With a sturdy mixer, whip cream on lowest speed, slowly increasing speed as cream thickens and splattering lessens. (You may want to cover mixer with dish towel to catch splatters.)
As soon as cream reaches the whipped cream stage, pay attention - be prepared to reduce speed as soon as butter begins forming and yellow clumps start separating from buttermilk. Quickly turn mixer off when butter clumps into one mass.
Drain off buttermilk and transfer butter into smaller bowl.
Rinse 2-3 times, forcing buttermilk out of butter with sturdy rubber spatula or wooden spoon, until water is clear.
Press water out of butter.
Form into log(s), then refrigerate or freeze for later use.
OK, maybe I'm the only one who had trouble with this, but I could never figure how out to store the loose mushrooms that I regularly buy at the farmer's market. I would buy a beautiful batch of mushrooms, only to have them shrivel up or turn brown before I had a chance to use them. I knew you should store them in a brown paper bag in the refrigerator, but they always shriveled up if I did that. Then I tried storing them in a plastic bag, but they would get slimy and turn brown. I started adding a paper towel to the plastic bag to absorb moisture. That helped, but still didn't do the trick. So, last Tuesday when I was at Root's and saw that the mushrooms were exceptionally nice, I asked the gal, "What's the best way to store these lovely mushrooms?!" She said to store them in a closed brown paper bag in the vegetable crisper drawer of the refrigerator. Ah ha - so that's the trick I was missing! I followed her instructions, and a week and a half later they are almost as fresh as the day I bought them - yea!! I love mushrooms!
I was pleased, especially with the removal of stains around the rim. I think I'll let it soak for another day or so to see if I can completely remove the remaining stains.
They aren't ironstone dishes, so maybe that was the reason? Oh well!
This picture makes me smile!!! I had given my CTCA acupuncturist Irina a Rose bracelet last summer as a thank you for all the care she has provided for me. It wasn't until I was lying on the exam table today with needles inserted all over my body that I glanced over and saw the bracelet around the neck of the acupuncture body model. The fact that it was a female body made me smile even more! Irina told me that she had tried wearing the bracelet, but it was a hindrance with her exam gloves, etc., so she found a home for it around the neck of the model. The Rose bracelets have made it all over the world and been given to a wide variety of people in all kinds of situations, but this has to be the most unique scenario!! :)
