Good Day

It has been a good day. Woke up somewhat on time, at least in enough time to put the pot roast together before Susan got there to put the new super on the beehive. Forgot to get onion soup mix, which is what the crockpot liner recipe said to use as seasoning... so I, um, improvised? I.E. I threw a lot of seasoning in, basically a little bit of everything I had. It cooked for about 10 hours before I dug in and turned out looking like this:

With a nice piece (or two!) of buttered sourdough, and a glass of raw, whole milk. *sigh*

Honestly though, it could have gone for hours longer. The meat was cooked through, but the veggies still weren't that soft... which is really weird. So it's bubbling away on high right now, and I'll turn it off before bed. Hopefully that'll must things up some. I do like mushy pot roast... dunno why though.

Earlier in the day, I went exploring for more butterfly bush blooms to dry (the ones in my room look great and smell even better!) I came across these beauties as I searched.




I did find the blooms I was looking for, but honestly I would have been fine just standing there and feeling like Eve. Her garden couldn't have been any nicer than mine.


This evening I've been enjoying adventures in butter making. Jordi inspired me a while ago to make my own, and I've known how to since like 3rd grade when I remember being shown at a 4-H demonstration in Jefferson Park. Armed with my newly-washed and sorted mason jars, I set forth on my quest for fresh butter.

This is a jar full of whipping cream.


Exciting, no?

Well, let the shaking commence!!! *shake shake shake* *shake shake shake*

~shake... shake... shake~

After a while, you get, dur, whipped cream.


But you're not there yet! This actually proves to be the hardest part of the whole process. Up until this point, the cream is, well, liquid, so you feel it sloshing around and it feels like you're getting somewhere. After it reaches the whipped cream stage... it's like shaking a jar stuffed full of cotton balls. Heavy cotton balls. But, the best is yet to come...

There comes a point in this whole *shaking process* where your stomach drops... "Oh god, there's something IN THE JAR!!!" Yes, my friends... it's BUTTER. I'm serious. It's that quick. One minute you're shaking a solid jar of airy whipped cream, and the next thing you know, WHAM. It's butter. It's actually one of the most fun moments I've had in a while (which may make you think I live a sad existence, but, truly, it was like Christmas morning.) At the beginning, your butter looks like this:

Swimming in oh-so-yummy homemade buttermilk (do I hear biscuits calling me tomorrow morning? I think I do!) your little curds of butter are just waiting to be drained, shaken some more, and drained one last time. And then. The finale:

A BIG LUMP OF BUTTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That one little quart of whipping cream gave me exactly one cup of buttermilk, and this lovely little jelly jar full of butter.

Life is good.

So now, I'm on the hunt for a good butter mold. And I've found the one I want:

I'm not an old cat lady until I get my motherfucking cat butter mold. Wish me some eBay luck!