I decided to try making butter from our raw milk. From one half-gallon container, I was able to separate almost 2 cups of cream off the top. And let me tell you, that cream was delicious! There are so many things I want to make with it. But first up, butter.
All I did was pour the cream in the blender and blitz for about two minutes. It ended up looking like this:
Mmm butter! I poured that mixture into a cheese cloth covered colander, to separate out the buttermilk (which I then froze for later use).
Looks gorgeous, doesn’t it? I rinsed it in cold water, tried to mix in a little salt (but I didn’t get it that thoroughly mixed in, I don’t think. I’ll have to mix it a little more before I use it). Then I squeezed the excess water out using the cheesecloth:
Voila! Butter! I can’t wait to try it out!
I stumbled across what looks to be an amazing recipe for a Mojito Pound Cake with Rum-Flavored Italian Meringue Buttercream. I’m trying to imagine the taste and texture, and it’s almost beyond human capability. How freaking good does that thing look?!
I’m probably going to make it for our next barbecue. The question is, do I make it gluten free so Aaron can eat it? That will alter the flavor slightly…maybe I will have to make one practice cake the day before, gluten-free, just to make sure, you know, that it really is good and I don’t mess it up. Then I can make a flour one for the bbq.
Yeah, that sounds good…
Well, we own a cow.
Or at least part of one.
We’ve just started a cow share in order to get raw milk every week. In Virginia it’s illegal to buy raw (unpasteurized) milk, so to get around that you buy partial ownership of a cow and then you can legally get that cow’s milk. Tricky, right?
We picked up our first gallon today.
Oh. My. God. It is so good. So unbelievably smooth and creamy.
I can only really drink skim milk – 2% and whole milk are just too thick (or something) for me. So I was a little hesitant before I tried it, but my fears were unfounded. It is divine.
Next up, I would like to try making butter, yogurt, and cheese from it too.
Moo.
It’s finally finished!
The sun finally came out on Saturday and we had a fabulous weekend. We hit the wine festival which is conveniently right next to our house on Saturday morning. The ground was a little wet and muddy, but nothing too terrible. Aaron wasn’t interested in too many of the wines which worked out well for me, since I could double fist with his tasting glass!
I ran into an old co-worker:
I ended up buying a case of Cooper’s Noche chocolate wine, since it is so…well, divine. I got two bottles of a nice light red, 3 bottles of sparkling apple cider, some cider vinegar, apple butter, spice rub, and some pistachio and cashew brittle. Not too bad!
On Sunday morning we learned that Kelly had her baby on Saturday! We headed straight over to the hospital to say hi.
I didn’t drop her!
Isn’t this the cutest?
Little Lila was just so adorable – I had never seen a newborn before and I couldn’t stop staring at her sweet face. It truly was amazing to see this little person Kelly had been carrying around for so long. We hung out with Pat and Kelly for a little bit – I didn’t want to stay too long since I’m sure they were exhausted. But I can’t wait to see them again! I know they will be the greatest parents.
After that we decided to play some tennis. I was really excited about this since tennis is my first true love. I really miss being on a court. Luckily Aaron has a lot of natural ability and seems to enjoy batting the ball around. We picked him up a racket of his own, since mine are really old and a bit heavy. We played again today with his new racket and I think it suits his swing a bit better. Hopefully we’ll keep finding time to get out there … maybe one day we’ll join a mixed-doubles league! Now that sounds fun!
