Cuz We Like To Shmear It Good In These Parts

Mia made me laugh last week.  
In the moment, and several times later 
throughout the day when I thought about it.  

I had made some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins with 
yummy crumble on top the night before. 

(See this post for the recipe.)

She asked for one for breakfast.

When I asked her if she would like butter on that, she said yes.

She was quiet a minute, and then said:

"I mean, why would anyone not want butter in their life?

Butter makes everything better."

I have to say that I think she's spot on and I concur 100%.

Truer words have maybe not been spoken.  
EVER.

Yet Another Extolling of Butter

Yesterday we finally did our liquid to solid discussion.

I've been so excited about this and thought we'd do it Monday and it didn't happen.

And Tuesday, well.  It was busy.

Yesterday morning we got up.  The boys did reading and writing.

I am so proud of them.  They are really coming along!

We ate lunch and they got to benefit from their valentine gift from Mr. C. and I (a big bag of Sour Cream & Cheddar potato chips).  These are a real treat around here.  I rarely buy stuff like that, and they were so stoked!

Then we read this book.  I wanted to find a book on making butter, specifically how they used to do it down home on the farm with a butter churn.  (I think youtube might be my friend for this request.)

I told them that if I had my way, I'd love to have a cow and have fresh milk and fresh butter sans pasteurization.  Oh, and chickens.  And a lot of other things.  I think that is the healthiest option available, really.  One of my fave reads from last year was this book.  I was so inspired and love all of the things she talks about.  Growing your food.  Being connected to the whole process.  Eating local.  Sans pesticides.  Building a community.  Love, love, love, love, LOVE. I really can't say enough good about it.

(One of my wishes?  If we ever own more land to accommodate a cow and chickens etc, maybe I'll convince Mr. C. to jump on board.)

So.

We dumped cream into a jar and started the shake-uh shake-uh shake-uh.

We took turns, passing it around.

We talked about liquids and solids.

I was so surprised at how quickly it changes from what looks like a more dense form of whipping cream to butter, surrounded by whey.  

My gosh!  

It was literally one second to the next.  Funky clump of something in there, frantic shaking, and then whey and a large clump of butter.  

So fun!

We spread it on crackers. 

It was yummy.

I mean, c'mon, all good things begin and end with butter.

My next endeavor is to go tour a dairy, and learn to make cheese from scratch.

AND get the kids in on the project.

And dream about my own Guernsey.

Oh, and ya know, a few cluck clucks for my backyard.

It's one of my dreams.

Kitchen Pontificating

Sometimes I think if there were an eleventh commandment it might go like this:

Thou shalt not miss an opportunity to add butter.

Let me explain.

Yesterday after picking the boys up from school, we came home and put up backpacks and hung up jackets and had a squabble over toys (those are mine!) with a follow up squabble and poor behavior from The-Mother-who-should-not-lose-control over the fighting. I've been a bit wound up tight the past couple days, or maybe the past week.

I'm blaming it on being with period and the hormones that love to ebb and flow in a woman's body.

So, to continue.

We eventually made it out the door and went running. My children have an utter fascination with all the Halloween decorations, and we spend our outside-in-the-neighborhoods-time these days looking for them. Today we found some new ones: we admired a witch on a bicycle and a fantastic pirate ship with accompanying scary skeleton pirates and skulls and spiders and webs.

And somewhere in amongst all this, I was pondering the canned pumpkin in my fridge leftover from pumpkin bread last week. It was somehow calling my name.

I was imagining moistness with pumpkin and carrot.

Came home and had some lunch and then sidled up to one of my kitchen BFFs, the Kitchenaid, and began concocting. Here's what I came up with.

Pumpkin Carrot Muffins

2 large carrots, finely grated
3/4 - 1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar (ouch...was hoping for less of that)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup bran buds
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup half n' half (or just milk, if you prefer)
3 heaping T ground flax
1 T. oil
1/4 cup applesauce

I baked them at 375 degrees for precisely 18 minutes, then removed.

Result: 12 hearty MOIST muffins

So even though it already had 1/2 cup butter and some half n' half too, somewhere in all of this I had envisioned one other component.

There must be a cream cheese butter.

After these muffins came out, we headed up the canyon to go leafing.

We spent time meandering about the family cabin, picking up leaves, discussing roads and properties and negotiating hiking up through all the scrub oak, retrieving these lovelies. Eventually we got back in the car and made our way back down the road, stopping on the mountain road to gather more leaves if something seemed particularly stunning.

We stopped at a river crossing and got out for a while. It was so lovely. The air was crisp, it was late afternoon and the sun was tipping low on its descent to goodnight. I watched the water on the rocks, the way the leaves and trees hugged the river's edge. I watched my children exploring and throwing things in the water and it gave me peace. It felt like a big breath I'd been needing to take.
We climbed back in the car and made our way down the mountain. There is something so lovely about a mountain road, the way it winds and is quiet and inviting. I had to stop at Reams on the way back. The cream cheese was SO calling.

We came home and we had dinner in five minutes. I heated up some cream cheese, just till warm and spreadable (20 seconds). Added some soft, spreadable, unsalted butter. And a couple spoonfuls of powdered sugar. Mix.

Cut moist muffins. Slather quite profusely with cream cheese butter (insert: do not skip this step) and viola! (You may just have to try them out and tell me if you find them any good at all. I think they're decent...might tweek a bit next time.)

As I said: Thou shalt not deny the butter.
(And there might be a second like unto it, a postscript, if you will, reading: If thou makest these, thou shalt not leave the cream cheese butter out. On the contrary; Slather, I daresay.)

It will come through for you every time.

The Virtue Of Butter

 Having just recently watched Julie & Julia, I also wish to extol the ecstasy of butter.

I love to cook and I love to eat -- and neither of the two would be complete without one word.

Butter.

Case in point. One morning last week I was making pancakes for breakfast. I used to hate pancakes, and I use that word seriously because they really had no appealing virtue to me whatsoever. (I wish more foods had no appealing virtue to me whatsoever...the kitchen wouldn't call my name nearly as often all day long and I could shed what I feel to be my winter-heft-accumulation a bit easier.)

But then, if I didn't like food so much, I would be missing out on so much too. So, oh well.

With pancakes, I kind of have a standard recipe that has become a favorite, but decided to use another one that I remembered being really yummy too. I whipped up the batch, cooked them on the skillet, and after getting the kids all situated with theirs, started into my own plate. And I was thinking to myself, "These aren't that good. Why did I remember these being so good? Why, again?"

It wasn't until I heard beeping and realized that I had never put the melted butter in. It was still sitting on the round tray inside that lovely warming box of a microwave.

And then I came to this new revelation: butter is the reason I love pancakes.

And I was honestly so disappointed at that point because my pancake was hardly worth eating. It was a total blah pancake. (And I'm not exaggerating.)

The peanut butter and syrup on top were its only redeeming qualities.

The recipe I make all the time actually calls for vegetable oil, but I always use butter and they are so much better.

Saute anything in butter and it's fabulous.

Butter on toast. Butter on top of already butter-in-the-batter pancakes. Butter on vegetables. Straight liquid heavy whipping cream poured over pie or baked apples.

Butter on hot baked bread.

I even remember eating lunch at my great aunt's one day. We were out on her deck eating sandwiches that were divine. And guess what? She had spread butter on both pieces of bread on each sandwich before actually assembling the sandwiches. And they were so good.

Next time you make pancakes, try substituting the vegetable oil or shortening with butter and unlock the love. It is a cooking love affair. Seriously.

I figure if you're gonna eat the calories, you might as well eat them right.

It makes eating so much more fun.