Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake Your Butter

I recently found a source for raw cow's milk. We are really enjoying it. It tastes amazing but it can be used for so many things.

My first use for the milk other than drinking and cooking was to attempt to make butter. My first attempt taught me a few "not to" tips.

I began by scooping the cream off the top of the milk. This gallon yielded me about 4 cups of cream. The other gallons had closer to two cups each. I left the cream out on the counter overnight to culture.

The next morning came the fun part. I rounded up the seven best helpers I could find and let them shake the jar.

And shake.

Giggle and shake.

Shake extra hard.

A little gentle jostling.

Extreme shaking.

A little light rolling.

Shaking and grinning.

Some more rolling.

Here's where Mommy got a little impatient. I read on the Internet you could also put the butter in the blender. I tried that and overchurned it. We ended up with 4 cups of full fat buttermilk. So we tried again.

This time after shaking, we shook it some more. And then a little more. The first time we had butter to work with we used cheese cloth. The next time I strained the buttermilk off using a spoon to hold the butter back. The cheese cloth was just an unnecessary step.

Then the butter needs to be rinsed with cold water. I added water to the jar and . . . you guessed it shook it some more! I added water 3 or 4 times and poured it off until the water was clean. The cold water helped the butter stick together. After the milk was all rinsed away, I added some salt as we prefer salted butter.

All together we netted about 1 lb (4 sticks - 2 cups) from two gallons of milk (around 4 cups of cream).

Up next, homemade bread!

Culinary Cutie

 One of the best things about having older children is their abilities to be independent. Madisyn has turned into quite the little baker. She's a kitchen whiz. You never know what she's going to make next!

Plan to Eat Black Friday Sale

 

Plan to Eat is having their yearly Black Friday sale. The sale continues throughout the weekend. You can purchase a yearly subscription for only $19.50. I've blogged about Plan to Eat here and here. I love the service!

A Bushel, A Peck

and a hug around the neck!

Last month, Grandmaw let us know that Uncle Keith had an apple tree with apples free for the picking. The kids and I made a trip to his property and got what we could reach. Kent came back with us to get the rest.

He had a very busy few weeks and we had to go after work. The bed of the truck served as a make shift ladder and we relieved the tree of it's fruit.

Mary Claire was a bit short to reach the apples but she gave Minnie Mouse a grand tour.

Henry picked up apples that didn't make it into the crate and placed them in it. He also found time to pose for a few pictures.

When the kids and I picked apples the first time we gathered about half a crate. Kent helped us gather twice as many apples in half the time.

Over the next week Madisyn and I washed, peeled, cored and sliced all the apples.

Then we laid them out on the dehydrator and made one of our family's favorite snacks. I wish I could say the 8 gallon bags would last a long time but we'll be luck to have any left come spring.

Little Baker

 

Since the big kids we away for an afternoon, Mary Claire became my baking assistant. She helped me make a batch of cookies and proved to be an excellent stirrer. :-)

She became very possessive of the spoon and took great offensive if I so much as touched it. She was quick to tell me "my job!".  She made a fine assistant and eagerly awaits her next baking adventure.

Menu Planning

It seems I am frequently asked how I do various tasks. I'm a member of a wonderful online community and have friend who are always willing to share their successes {and failures}. I plan to share a few of the things that work for me over the next few weeks. Most of my ideas are not original creations, they have morphed from places like Pinterest and Facebook. There is no reason to re-invent the wheel and I'm more than willing to share how I made it work for me. If you would like to know how I do something, leave a comment, send an e-mail, etc. I'll be more than happy to work up a post on the topic.


For the last two years or so I've been using a service called Plan to Eat to complete my menu planning. Throughout the year, I've tried lots of different menu planning methods - rotating a set of 5 or 6 weekly menus, making menus using index cards and of course, the make it up as I go plan {NOT recommended ;-)}. Plan to Eat is the first thing that has worked long term.

When signing up for Plan to Eat, each subscriber receives 30 days to try out the program and decide if it is worth it for their family. There is a subscription fee of $5 per month or $39 per year. However, each Black Friday, the yearly subscription is offered at half price. I used the program for about a year as a monthly subscriber. I know that I saved way more than $5 by menu planning. Your recipes (or all those awesome ones you have pinned on Pinterest) and loaded into a database. If the recipe can be found online, it loads even easier. Since I started using the service most recipes found on blogs can now be loaded into your recipe book just by copying the URL.

Screen shot of my recipe book 

Recipes can be placed in to categories such as main dish, side dish, lunch, etc.  Recipes uploaded from the Internet can include pictures. Pictures of your existing recipes can also be uploaded. Once uploaded. recipes can be shared through social media, e-mailed or printed. Then using a simple click, drag and drop motion of the mouse you can place your desired meals in either breakfast, lunch, supper or snack categories.

I plan the same breakfast and lunch meals weekly. We don't always follow it daily but I don't have to think about what's for lunch. I know each Monday I have the ingredients to make 5 lunches for the week.

Recipes also have a rating system. When there are no leftovers, I go in and rate a recipe 5 stars so I'll know {and remember} it was a hit. When we hate something I rate it 1 star. Originally, I would delete it but then I would come across the recipe somewhere else and forget we didn't like it. So now I try to remember to rate meals.

Screen shot of my calendar

After recipes are dropped into the planner they can be accessed anywhere. An ical link is provided to make it easy to plug into any web-based calendar. I use the link on Google calendar and also programmed Kent's phone to load the save feed. Each day I can look at the calendar and see what is planned for the day. When I click on the meal, a link takes me back to the Plan to Eat website where the recipe is located. 



 Screen shot of the shopping list

The best part of the program is the shopping list. Plan to Eat automatically creates a list based on my menu. I can set the list for any specified amount of time I choose, or use the preprogrammed time of one week, two weeks or daily.  The program arranges the ingredients into categories. I do tend to shop in bulk so I look over the list weekly and pick up the things I need. I then add those to the shopping app on my phone (which I'll blog about later). The list can also be printed or e-mailed.

Another perk of Plan to Eat is the friends feature. You can link up with friends that are also using the program and share recipes. Love a recipe your friend is famous for? You can link accounts and share!

The links through out this post and the badge on the side bar are affiliate links. Click on them and you can become my Plan to Eat friend. I love sharing recipes and knowing what works and what doesn't.

Christmas at Home

We started a family tradition of staying home on Christmas Day a few years ago. It allows us to enjoy a low stress day of no traveling with our little family.

Our children are sleepers. They aren't the type to wake at 5 am. Though Griffin frequently says he got up at the crack of dawn {8:00 am to him}.

After everyone gets up, we open gifts.

This year Mary Claire needed a little help opening hers. ;-)

After gifts, we made sugar cookies.

I cheated and bought pre-made dough. I don't think the kids cared. It's all about the decorating.

I'm pretty sure the bar got more sprinkles than the cookies. I'm afraid I may have created a few monsters as the kids have been asking to make more.

Thursday Tips 3/11

Sorry, this week's tip has no pictures. I forgot to take some when I was using the tip myself. I'll try to do better next week. To make up for it - I'll share two.

As I mentioned last week, I love tips that help me in the kitchen. I actually enjoy cooking and baking but most nights the need for fast meals overcomes the desire for elaborate.

I buy hamburger meat in 10 lb packages and cook it all at once. I actually boil it. I dig out my huge stock pot, dump all the meat in with enough water to cover and bring to a rolling boil for about 20 minutes. I just use a spoon to break it apart as it cooks. I shut the burner off and let it cool. After I drain the water off I divide it into freezer bags/save a meal bags and freeze. Then when we want spaghetti or mushroom gravy I grab a bag and toss it in. I can fix spaghetti in the time it takes to cook the noodles. I also tend to divide the meat into 15 or so bags so it stretches a little farther.

Tip 2 - I bake my own bread. A few times a month I bake 4 or 8 loaves and freeze the extra. Before I put the loaves in the freezer, I slice the entire loaf then bag as usual. I always seemed to run out of bread and need more now. LOL If I forget to thaw a loaf a few slices can be removed from the bag and they defrost in a matter of minutes or can be popped in the toaster for instant use.

Now go visit Melissa at Coffee With Me and see what other great tips you can find!

Thursday Tip 3/4

I have a "fake" friend {'cause you know, Internet friends aren't "real" ;) } Melissa, who started a blog link-up of helpful tips. Most of the participants are moms so we're all sharing ways to hopefully make everyone's life a little easier. :)

My tip this week has to do with food preparation. As a mom of 5, meals seem to consume my day. Make a meal, serve a meal, clean-up a meal, make a meal, serve a meal, clean-up a meal, etc. Add in plan the meals, clip coupons and shop for meals and I need a full time personal assistant! So anything that makes any part of the process a little faster - sign me up! :)

I have to admit that I "stole" this tip from my sister. When spreading peanut butter on anything other than a sandwich put your Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator to work. Just fill it with peanut butter and press. No more messy knife and getting peanut butter all over the jar and you!

Aren't they pretty? Including the time to load the decorator, I think I made everyone peanut butter crackers in less than half the time. Let's face it, at my house even food preparation is done in bulk. ;) This also works great when making those delicious Ritz crackers filled with peanut butter and covered in almond bark.

I tested it out on apples and it works great on those as well!

Bread Day 4/5

I have been making my own whole wheat bread for about 2 years now. Fresh ground Whole Wheat bread is NOTHING like store bought whole wheat. We don't buy sandwich bread anymore. .

When I made the last batch I decided to try my hand a cinnamon rolls. They were a hit. Madisyn asked for no more Wal-Mart ones. LOL We often share a loaf or two with church or family members. On this day Griffin got the honor of carrying it to the van.