Churning

Cheryl and I got a fun inspiration this morning. Nate had been following some links online since he likes to find great new recipes and he came across this site. He shared the link with me, I shared the link with her, and we raced to the grocery store in search of organic heavy cream and some adventure.

We bought two cups (4 half pint cartons) of organic heavy cream and got started. We poured all four containers into the food processor and after about two minutes we had whipped cream!

Then we realized that we weren't going to get very far without a mixer, so we switched to a hand mixer. After a few minutes we got a slightly chunkier texture.


Then after about 5 more minutes of steady mixing, it suddenly happened. We had butter curds and buttermilk (which I was so fascinated by that I forgot to get a picture)! Here's the straining process...

And here's the resulting buttermilk! Nate's going to make biscuits this week. YUM.

Then we divided the butter into four balls, squeezed out the remaining milk and rinsed with cold water which supposedly helps it keep longer. This whole process took 10-15 minutes and was SUPER easy! I highly recommend trying it!

Next we cut herbs and mixed them into the four butter balls.

Sage:

Rosemary:

Fresh garlic:

And plain salted:


I will definitely be doing this again - in fact, I might never buy butter again. It's that good! I'd like to do a bit more experimentation and find the best blends of herbs and give little herbed butter balls at Christmas!

If you want to try this all you need is heavy cream, a mixer and a big bowl, and some herbs. Mix, add in herbs, then roll in wax or parchment paper and enjoy!

GO VOTE!

Hi all! I know I've been a very negligent blogger, but not without good reason. I'm also switching from bloglines, which got WAY overcrowded for me, to google reader so hopefully I'll be able to keep up with blogs better now.

I'm still taking two grad classes, teaching a knitting class, and volunteering for Obama. I tried to squeeze in a half-marathon training too, but that quickly fell by the wayside. Instead I'm going run the 5k that day with Nate and our nieces. We'll have so much fun, but those girls are running cross country now and they're going to SMOKE us. I'm also dyeing yarn for the Big Ass Yarn Club (first shipment goes out this week!) and also for another sock club. Yes, I'm crazy. Nate helps out by making dinner and cleaning around the house so that I don't go completely insane. Clutter makes me nuts all by itself!

Needless to say, my knitting is falling through the cracks right now. But I'm working on a scarf because I'm an addict and I MUST get my fix.


It's the Purl scarf (Ravelry link) from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (love that book, this is my second Purl scarf) and I'm using Malabrigo in Damask, some sparkly Aura yarn that I dyed (not the color linked - more of a raspberry pink), and Rowan Kid Silk Night in a baby pink. Yes, I'm allergic to mohair. No, I don't care.

There is also possibly a sweater on the needles, but I'm a little too busy to photograph it. My hope is that it will be done by SAFF so I can wear it that weekend (Oct 25th) but erm...that might be ambitious considering everything else.

So, on to the subject of this post! You might not have noticed but I'm kinda politically active. Just a smidge though. I'm opinionated too. Anyway, if your state allows early voting, GO TAKE ADVANTAGE. Georgia has already had half a million people vote and there are still 8 days left! In my county alone 15% of all registered voters have done their civic duty and our Board of Elections sees 500 people EVERY DAY. I know cause I asked when I voted today. Crazy, eh?

I'm going out on Nov. 4th to my precinct's polling place and to the BOE to take pictures and see how crazy it's going to be. I'm a big nerd and I LOVE election day, but I don't really want to stand in line.

So if you're able, go vote!!! If for no other reason than to spare yourself the headache of standing in line! :) It's too important not to!