Just me, not my kids.
I ran out of butter and had a half gallon of organic whipping cream. I needed butter for garlic bread, and so I whipped.
Making butter is exciting. You're not sure if it will really work. People don't usually do it that way. Everyone else I know buys their butter in four wax-paper-wrapped sticks.
But the idea of turning organic cream into fresh butter sounds cool, looks simple, and seems to be what I need at the moment, so I jump in with enthusiasm.
After beating the white frothy liquid for, oh, about ten minutes, I start to wonder if I'm doing it right. Should I even have tried to make my own butter at all? Perhaps it would have been better to run up to the corner store and buy four neatly-wrapped sticks.
But I push on. My arm is starting to get sore, and the fluffy whipped cream is starting to get chunky and ugly. My husband raises an eyebrow.
At about seventeen minutes I have transferred the concoction into a larger bowl because I was getting sprayed every time the beaters tilted just a little too much, and I have switched arms to give my right mixing-arm a break. At this point the spaghetti is done, the kids are starving, and we're just waiting on the butter.
I wonder if this was the right thing to do. Not simple. Maybe not even cool. Still fulfilling my needs? Hmm. Not so sure right now.
But suddenly, magically, there appeared in my large aluminum bowl tiny, sweet chunks of milk-fat swirling in a transparently white liquid!
Butter!
I slowed the mixer and let the chunks run through the metal blades a few more times before squishing them together to form a greasy ball. Garlic bread, here we come!
Why did I tell you all about this butter-making experience?
You tell me... ;)
Because this is the home schooling platform, and knowledge is power, but only if you remember it. So you had a need, remembered how to do it, and wha-la, butter. Perfect demonstration of carry on and improvise with no loss of creature comforts. Way To Go! You Rock!
ReplyDeletet.e.h.
Thanks, Tom! I love that people are gaining knowledge and power from my blog! ;)
ReplyDeleteHint: When you read the post, think "metaphor!"
...because you are a writer and you must write. :)Also a graphic artist I believe as your clip art pics are always poifectly poifect.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anonymous! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is cool! My kids had an experiment at school one time with cream in a jar that they had to shake until it turned into butter.
ReplyDeleteDid it taste as good or better than store-bought butter?
Because that is exactly what homschooling is like. You have a great idea ("Hey, kids! Let's learn something!"). You work and work and work and... nothing. They forget all their math facts at the checkout counter, look at you like you're insane when you draw their attention to something you just discussed yesterday, want to loaf around instead of working. And you get tired. And sore. And think, "Oh, heck. This is never going to work. Maybe I should just give up." Then, suddenly, miraculously, something solidifies. They make a joke about inertia or draw an unexpected but valid literary parallel. They start complaining when you ask them to put a book down, rather than pick one up. Whatever it is. It's not there, and it's not there, and you get discouraged, but then it *is* there. Like butter.
ReplyDeleteMarie
Yay Marie!!!!!!! Thanks so much, that is it exactly!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes it tastes better than store-bought... but it might just be that all the work made it taste good! :)
ReplyDeletehey, here is hoping for more yummy butter days and less hard work days ;)
ReplyDelete