Make Butter At Home!

Bear with me folks, we're hoping to get a good DSLR soon. But in the meantime, iPhone photos are going to have to do. 

The longer I'm in this healthy/natural/frugal living lifestyle, the more I learn that we have gotten so lazy!

There are so many things that used to be made by hand at home or by members of the community but now, everything is bought at the store, made in China. Simple, cheap things that take a very short amount of time to make/do. 

Like butter.  

Butter is incredibly easy to make! 

Let me show you. 

Buy some heavy cream and grab an empty salsa/spaghetti/jam jar from your stash in the cabinet. 

(What? I'm the only one who has one of those?) 

Organic and local is best but this was the best I could find. 

Let the cream sit out overnight or about 8-12 hours. Sounds weird but that's how we do it.

Fill the jar about halfway with cream and secure the lid VERY TIGHTLY. 

Be sure to adopt a steely look of intense concentration!

Now shake it like a Polaroid picture! And then keep shaking. 

We divided it equally into four old salsa jars because there were four of us makin' butta. 

After a couple of minutes you'll see butter start to form!! Keep shaking! 

Pour out the liquid. But not into the sink because that's pure buttermilk! Save that in another jar. 

Now you can really see the butter. At this point you may want to mush the butter around with a knife to really get the buttermilk out. You can even put a little water in the jar and shake for another little bit. You just want to be sure to get all the buttermilk out or else it causes the butter to spoil faster. 

Now that you're butter is done, flavor it! We kept one jar as just plain butter, which was delicious, a salted butter, and a honey butter. The four of us ended up devouring one jar of butter (it was maybe 6 tablespoons or so) on toast because it was so fresh and perfect! 

The jar on the right is full of the buttermilk we got out of it! That's a ton of butter AND buttermilk for the price of heavy cream. That's a good deal to me! 

And there you have it, delicious, fresh, creamy butter! I think next I'm going to try making homemade mayonnaise! 

Don't forget to save that buttermilk! I don't use buttermilk very often so I froze it in an ice cube tray so I have it when I need it. 

Fresh butter on homemade bread. YUM!

Enjoy!

For an awesome and in depth video to understand the science behind making butter, watch this video. 

What's something you prefer to make fresh at home? 

Till next time,

Catherine

I've linked up to Swap N Share Sunday Week 27 with Spatulas on Parade!

I've linked up to Less Laundry, More Linking #11 with Life After Laundry and Sensational Creations!

Cook: Seasoned and Roasted Chickpeas

If you're searching for a healthy snack, look no further! 

Simply roasting chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with some olive oil and seasoning salt makes such a delicious snack! I had heard of this before but honestly was a little skeptical. But now, I wish I had made these ages ago!

For my book club meeting last weekend I wanted to make a little snack that everyone could enjoy. One lady is vegan, another eats gluten-free and everyone is pretty health conscious. I found the original recipe from Oh She Glows, a wonderful vegan lifestyle blog.  I took the basic concept but used different seasoning, while still keeping it basic. 

Overall this recipe is delicious and easy to make, but, it does take time. It's totally worth it, though.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of garbanzo beans/chickpeas
• Seasoning salt
• Olive oil

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425. Boil the chickpeas for a few minutes then remove from the heat and let cool for about 30 minutes or until you can safely handle them.

Strain the chickpeas. You can run cool water over them if you're short on time. 

Get your seasonings out! You could do anything with this recipe! I using Seasoning Salt and olive oil but you could do just salt and pepper, Italian spices, cinnamon sugar...whatever your belly desires!

Lay some aluminum foil or parchment paper on your baking sheet and drizzle olive oil and sprinkle your seasonings. 

 Pour the chickpeas on top.

Then sprinkle and drizzle some more! Roll them around with your hands to make sure they get evenly coated with olive oil and your seasonings. 

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, rolling them halfway through to ensure even baking.

Let cool and enjoy!

So delicious! 

If you've never had chickpeas, this is a great way to try them. I like them cold on my salad but this is the first time having them hot and it was so good! They were a hit at my book club meeting! I thought they would be a little messy because of the olive oil but they're not at all so it's no biggie to eat them by hand like popcorn! 

You can bet I'll be making more of them soon!

What seasoning(s) would you use? Do you prefer to call them chickpeas or garbanzo beans? I've always wondered, are they peas or beans? 

Till next time,
Catherine

DIY: Homemade Bath Salts-Great gift idea!

Need a quick DIY gift? Or are you just craving a lovely soak in the tub? Either way this is a great, quick project. I made them as a late Christmas gift for a couple of my co-workers. I originally found the recipe here but modified it to make it a bit simpler. My glass jar collection is multiplying quicker than I can use them so my husband was happy to see me use a couple of them!

Here's what you'll need:

• Epsom salt
• Baking soda
• Lemon essential oil (Or whichever scents you prefer)
• Lavender essential oil (Or whichever scents you prefer)
• Yellow food coloring (optional)
• Jar(s)
• Label(s)

I used all the baking soda that I had which was almost 3/4 cup. You can use more or less...it doesn't make much difference. I then filled the measuring cup past the 2 cup line with epsom salt. Again, it's not precise. You can use twice as much epsom salt if you prefer or are making a larger batch. 

Mix in your essential oils. The lavender I used is safe to use on your body and the lemon is from Young Living Essential Oils and it is a food-grade oil, meaning it can even be safely ingested. I wouldn't recommend just getting any oil. Many are designed only for aromatherapy purposes and shouldn't be put on or in your body. Do a little research before buying the cheapest oil on the shelf. I personally stick with Young Living brand most of the time because I trust that brand and have seen great results with them. 

I used maybe 40 drops of each oil and I added it at intervals. I moved several large spoon fulls into another measuring cup and then dripped the oils, mixed, then added more of the salt/baking soda and repeated the process until the entire thing was thoroughly mixed and smelled heavenly! If you're making the same size that I did, you may not need as many drops. I got a little overexcited because I just love the smell of lemon and lavender together! 

I decided it needed a little color so it looked the part so I mixed in yellow food coloring in the same way as the oils, at intervals until thoroughly mixed. Yes I know, it looks  orange but I swear it came from the yellow food coloring bottle!

Mix, mix, mix. And there it is...yellow! I told you so!

Gather your jars with their lovely spray painted lids. Most jars have the product label and info on the lid so I spray paint them to make them cute. 

Now fill 'em up! This recipe filled these two jars almost full. They were salsa jars, maybe half the size of a regular mason jar.

Print your labels, cut them to size and adhere them to your jar and you're ready to go! I used hot glue to get them to stick.

 Lovely little gift in no time! Plus the house smells great! I also want to note that in order to make this a nice hand/body scrub instead is just add in olive oil! Basically two gifts in one! Quite nifty if I say so myself!

I think I need to make a batch just for myself! Definitely going to make more of these for family soon too! It's such a nice alternative to those standard bath gift sets that are a dime a dozen at Wal-Mart.

What do you think? Wouldn't it be nice to soak in a lemon lavender bath? Mmm...or how about a foot soak? Ahhh...I'm feeling relaxed just thinking about it! 

Till next time,
Catherine

I've linked up to Heartfelt Hopes #4 with The Aliso Kitchen!