Being poor turns me into a farm girl. :)

In other news, I'm broke.  But that's ok, because it provided me with this blog post:  Butter.

That's right.  I said butter.  I think it's an important thing to learn how to make properly.  Ready to learn?

Wait!  Let's back up a bit.  First you need to know that I taught my kids about the inventions of Benjamin Franklin this week.  This is important because he invented a rocking chair that churned butter while you rock.  So I thought it fitting to make butter with them on Friday as a treat.  We did it the old fashioned way, to fully understand and appreciate the importance of Ben's rocking chair.  So I poured some cream into jars, added salt and food coloring and let them at it.  Shake, shake and shake.  And 30 minutes later we had butter!  Exciting, I know.

I have had that story in the back of my mind all weekend, so you can understand why when I went to make the poor folk food of Mac&Cheese and didn't have butter, I was sad.  All was remedied and my eyes lit up when they spotted the leftover Heavy Whipping Cream in the back of the fridge!

I decided to use my kitchen-aid mixer to make it for me, cause lordy knows I'm not gonna shake rattle and roll all night long just for some food.  :)

Next time you find yourself at a loss for butter, try this:

Take some heavy cream and a dash of salt and toss them into your favorite mixing bowl.  Turn on the beater (I used the paddle attachment and then traded for the whisk.  Both should work fine.)

This should sound familiar.  And look familiar after awhile.  These are the same steps you use when making whipped cream.

Only, keep mixing after you reach the whipped cream stage.  It will begin to look like this, and flatten out.  I scrapped the sides at this stage.

After a bit, it will turn into butter chunks and buttermilk.  I had to dump some of the buttermilk and then keep mixing because of all the splashing!

When it looks like this, strain the buttermilk out.

You need to add cool water and kneed the butter together by hand.  Keep dumping the water and adding more until the water runs clear.  When it does, you will have the best butter ever!

Yummo.

Double yum!  Enjoy!