Homemade Butter, like the Pioneers

We made butter today.

Totally easy too! 

I found this on pinterest and felt inspired.

We used the GOOD kind of cream, from Costco.

I read that you should let your cream warm up for a while and it will become butter faster. I did not do that and it took like 40 minutes to whip. Apparently if you wait, it can go as fast as 10 minutes!

 Step 1, whip it up! Set on medium or so.

 See the glorious cream, don't stop though! Keep on going!

 All of a sudden it turned chunky! It totally snuck up on me. See how the middle is still normal whipped cream looking? It was fast!

 Not butter, even better! I love my little Dee. She's a good helper.

 Getting thicker.

 Getting more chunky.

 Curdly. Looks yuck, but keep going until it separates into buttermilk and curds.

 Drain it.

 Whip a little more...

 Drain out the rest of the buttermilk.

 Hoo-yah! Look at all that glorious buttermilk! Some pancakes are on the horizon.

 Butter! Now, a tip I read was to rinse and kneed the butter in ice water, changing the water out once or twice until it is clear. This will let it keep in your fridge for longer and not go rancid.

Now add salt, sugar and cinnamon, herbs, or whatever you like to your fancy butter!

 Slather it on some bread.

And enjoy! 

This kid would eat it by the handful if I'd let her. And she did sneak some later anyway! Sweet little Goose.

Now go make some butter and feel like a pioneer (except for the Kitchen Aid)!




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Chinese Market (240:365)

I went to a local Chinese Grocery store with my friend Kuei who is from Taiwan. She showed me the good and the not so good. It was nice to have a tour guide while discovering new food!

Trader Joe's Snacks (237:365)

I got a ton of new snacks from TJ's today. I'm in desperate need to some low fat, highly crunchy yummies, so we are trying out all of their rice crackers. 

Today's culinary adventure:

Multiseed With Soy Sauce

Verdict: 

They are satisfyingly crunchy.

Serving size is a plentiful 35 crackers, which only pack 110 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, and 200mg Sodium (which is not bad considering they are Soy Sauce Flavored). 

They taste like they are dusted with soy sauce juice. Not too over powering, so they are enjoyable.

Bonus:

They have 240mg of ALA Omega-3 in each serving.

Negative:

I just had a REALLY bad one which makes me want to eat an entire cake to get rid of the taste in my mouth. I'm going to blame the flax seeds because this recently happened to me with another TJ chip I tried a while ago that had flax seeds in them. Mostly, each chip was good, then now and then I'd hit a really foul tasting one...hmmm...at this point, I'm not sure the risk is worth it...

New Snacks (229:365)

Goose and I had a short break today while Dee was at preschool so we made a quick run over to lovely Trader Joe's. There I found a few new fun things. 

First, Lavender Triple Milled Soap. 

  Used it in the shower and the entire bathroom smelled like lavender for hours! 

It was a lovely experience.

Orange Air Therapy Spray. It smells lovely. It doesn't last very long, but just one squirt transforms the air into a spring day in Mesa, walking in an orange grove. Yes, it smells that good. And there's nothing funky in it, so breath it in! Over, and over, and over...

 

And finally, Veggie Sticks. Made from potato flour, these lowish fat/ lowish calorie snacks are salty and super crunchy. Just what the diet doctor ordered! These little crunchies barely made it through the day at our house. They didn't meet a mouth here that didn't like them. 

 

Goose was ADORABLE eating them.

I know, I'm a bad mom for feeding my baby fried chip things. Justification, they have spinach and tomato powder in them too. So, they have to be at least a little bit good for you. Tomato powder has got to have some vitamins.

New Music (228:365)

My sister just introduced me to some new tunes, 
that honestly, seem ethereal.

Mindy Gledhill

Check her out.

You can thank me later.

And if you speak Spanish, or just wish you did, here is the Spanish version. And, yes, she has an excelente accent.

Have any awesome music you want to share with me?

Blueberry Banana Bread Bust (220:365)

I tried making a blueberry banana bread today which turnedinto a horrible mess. It never finished baking. I baked itfor about an hour and checked it thinking it was definitely enough. Tubs out no matter how long I baked it it was just never going to bake all the way through. 

I'm talking HOURS.

It was a gross soggy mess.

Do you know of a good blueberry banana bread recipe that will fill my void?

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies (216:365)

I'm so over Toll House.

Their Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe makes flat and greasy cookies which are always disappointing. 

I found a recipe on the back of my Gold Medal Flour bag the other day (which I bought for $1.68 on sale and then used a coupon from the bag, a "pealy" to buy 4 bags of chocolate chips for $0.75 each!) for Chocolate Chip Cookies and hoped it was better than Toll House.

Image from here.

Well, they sure are! Less greasy, less flat and chewier. Yum!

I made 2 additions to the recipe.

I added 1 tsp Vanilla and 1 small box instant Vanilla Pudding mix.

Hope you like them as much as we do!

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4	cup granulated sugar
3/4	cup packed brown sugar
1	cup butter or margarine, softened
1	egg
2 1/4	cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1	teaspoon baking soda
1/2	teaspoon salt
1	cup coarsely chopped nuts
1	package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Heat oven to 375ºF. Mix sugars, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.  (I cooked them for 11 minutes and should have done 10. I tend to overcook my cookies fearing rawness...I need to get over that fear!) Let me know if you like them too!

Reese's Pieces (215:365)

Woot!

Oh yeah, free candy.

We went to Culvers tonight for some custard with our pogo card and with your frozen custard you get mix ins. Well, Scott didn't want any mix ins and I didn't want any ice cream so I asked if I could get the mix ins on the side.

They complied!

I got a huge cup of mini Reese's Pieces for free!

Image from here.

I probably sound too excited about this, but it was really very exciting. Try it next time you go somewhere and you don't want all the offered mix ins/ toppings. Get some gummy bears or M&M's to go!

Chicken Noodle Soup, Wheat Bread, Honey Butter and a Lemon Tart (210:365)

I love cooking, but it sure is a lot of work when it's all from scratch! 

For dinner tonight I made Chicken Noodle soup, improvising as I went, throwing in some chopped kale to boost the health factor, and some freshly picked basil out of our AeroGarden. The soup turned out delicious.

Then I made some quick Whole Wheat Bread from The Essential Mormon Celebrations cookbook by Julie Badger Jensen. 

 Image from Everyday Food Storage

It only took 5 minutes to mix and only 40 minutes in the oven, with no rising time. I used molasses instead of honey. Here is a link to someone else who took the time to type it all up.

The bread was nice, with a definite quick bread/ chewy texture. The honey butter made it delicious.

From the same cookbook, I made some Honey Butter. The recipe calls for 1 cup softened butter, 1 cup honey, and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat for 3 minutes on high. I halved the recipe though, since I'm the only one using it and it's only good for 4 weeks in the fridge.

Then I made a heavenly Lemon Tart.

Photo from Diana's Desserts.

Find the recipe here, from another kind soul who typed up this one for you all.

I topped the tart off with homemade whipped cream. Yummmm. It was a delicious meal.

What did you have for dinner?

Edited Photos (209:365)

In Picasa, there is a button that allows you to edit and alter your photos in an online program called Picnik. That is what I used today for these, and I think they turned out pretty well.  

Here are a few of the pictures of sweet little Ava.

Weight Training is My New Thing (208:365)

So, I'm trying to be a little more muscly.

Not hugely buff, just more toned. I recently lost some weight (totally by happy accident, if you can believe it!) and I am trying to tone up and feel healthier. 

I really hate running and find most aerobic activities too monotonous. Weight training is something I recently realized I really enjoy. I like having a list of tasks to check off, I like the counting and the concentration needed to complete a task and I like feeling my heart race while pumping some iron! 

I am not currently buff or tuff by anymeans, but I am working on it and am enjoying the process!

If you have any muscle tips, let me know...

My First Baby Photoshoot (207:365)

My friend Anna and I took some pictures of a sweet little baby today. Baby Ava was adorable and I did my best to capture her adorableness... I hope I got at least a few good shots. Here is one of the raw pictures as a preview.

Mod Podge is Neato (194:365)

I made 16 of these this afternoon.

 

This afternoon, because I am a procrastinator and work best under stress and aggravation. 

Even still, it was fun! Dee was at preschool while Goose and I went out shopping for supplies. I went to a hardware store and bought my first piece of lumber. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Then the man cut it up into 6x6" blocks for me. 


Once we came home I whipped out one of my cool power tool toys that my step-dad John gave me. Look at this bad boy.

I used this sweetie pie to sand down the edges of the blocks.

Then I spray painted them all a couple of times. 


I'd found the cute little saying here, that I used for the project. I printed them out on regular paper and Mod Podged them to the blocks. 


I think they turned out pretty cute! 


I made them for the Young Women at church,so they could have something in their rooms that would remind them of the Theme for the year, the admonition of Paul from Phillipians 4:8 and The 13th Article of Faith.


See more about the theme here.

Whipped Out the Ole Clarinet (191:365)

Dee found my hidden talent.

Image from Here

The Clarinet.

It was stashed under some stuff by my desk.

She was really curious so I broke it out for her and played until my lips went numb, which took about 60 seconds. Pretty lame.

I buried my talent and now I a lousy clarinet player!

I think I'll try to practice more. I know the girls will love it.

What talents are you going to work on?

Food is Good (188:365)

It was a snowy, recovery day around these parts, so I had loads of time to hang out and be busy in the kitchen. Lately I've been dying for some french bread with butter - best food in the world!!! - so I made me some. Straight out of my Kitchen Aid cookbook, this recipe was quick, easy and fantastic. (Find the recipe here.) Everyone from my baby up to my honey loved it.

Yes - that is Goose's Birthday Banner STILL up in the background...We like birthdays...

Loved it so much, we decided to snack all day on it then have meatball sandwiches for dinner.

They were better than they look...

Can you hear my lips smackin'?

Delish.

While the bread was rising, I felt a little ambitious and made some homemade graham crackers. What?! Yeah, homemade! They turned out pretty good. What I would do differently - roll them thinner and bake to a crunchier texture. Then they'd be perfect.

Find the recipe here, from The Petit Appetit Cookbook.

Vintage Earrings into Shoe Clips (185:365)

I bought some turquoise clip on earrings from a thrift store a couple of months ago and found a good use for them today! Shoe clips on my new (clearance) shoes.

What have you done with vintage jewelry to make it new again?

Date Night (184:365)

We met up with some friends in Omaha for dinner at Bonefish Grill. 

I tried Chilean Sea Bass for the first time.

It was good, but not amazing.

Our friends at Wolf fish which was described as an "ugly fish that eats lobster for dinner", so, that one sounded a little too scary for my taste buds. And I just googled "wolf fish". GAG! Just about made me scream. Videos of one eating a crab about made me loose it. I think I will stick with my wimpy fish, thank you. 
Eeesh.

After dinner, Scott and I went to Old Navy and got our growing preschooler some cute clearance size 5 shirts. Then we came home to find that our babysitter had done a wonderful job and had the kids in bed on time and happy! Couldn't ask for more.

Chicken and Dumplings (181:365)

We had the missionaries over for dinner and I experimented on them.

Fortunately it turned out really well!

Check out the recipe here. 

It was easy and soooo good. 

Can't wait to make it again!

Cupcakes no.23 and no.3 (178:365)

My friend Heather just had a birthday so I made yummy cupcakes for her. We ate them at church with all the Young Women after our meeting. They were really good! I can say that because they were not my recipe, but were from one of the best cupcake websites I've seen. Find it right here.

I've made cupcakes no.5 and no.9  from this site before, see them here.

I made no.23, Vanilla Cupcake with Lemon Filling. I used Trader Joe's lemon curd for the filling and my own vanilla buttercream for the frosting. Then topped them with Turbinado Sugar. Yum!








We also ate no.3, Flourless Chocolate Cake with Real Whipped Cream.
So dense, rich and delicious! I topped them all with a dusting of cocoa powder.





Are you salivating yet?

Apple Dumpling Gang (176:365)

Oh man, these were soooo good. 
This is a hideous picture though. 
Sorry. 
Tasted way better than this pictures makes them look.

Apple dumplings southern style (all buttery and delicious).

So bad for you, but so good.

Super easy to make, I found the recipe here on allrecipes.com

I'm also working on a "Happy Birthday" bunting for the Goose's party tomorrow. I found great directions here.