Too much cream and no more strawberries...........

Good afternoon!  Boy, time seems to get away from me quickly sometimes.  The pace of life seems too fast for me more and more these days. Perhaps it's my age.......or I could blame it on the seam-bursting schedule that we find ourselves scrambling to keep up with most of the time.

Hubby and I got to take a little time out and head to the elementary school to check out our 4th grader's Pioneer Days expo. We got to enjoy several historical activities the Pioneers would have experienced like making homemade yo-yo's, writing with a quill and ink and making our own butter. Then to top the night off we were entertained by some local musicians with an authentic hoedown complete with banjo, mandelin, guitar, fiddle, singing and square dancing by our own kiddos! We enjoyed ourselves immensely and came home with a few new skills.

Had it not been for that Pioneer Days expo, we might have missed out on a wonderful opportunity for family bonding only a week or two later.  After whipping some cream to use with strawberries in a simple dessert for a lifegroup meeting here at our house one sunday, I found myself wondering what to do with the cup of cream left over. The strawberries were such a hit that there weren't any left and I was drawing a blank until I remembered our little lesson in making butter.

One night just after getting dinner on the table, everyone was gathered around and I saw a perfect opportunity. I poured the rest of the left over cream into a quart sized canning jar and capped it off and set it on the table in front of me as I took my seat. My family all gave me curious looks which I returned with a tiny smirk.

"What are you doing with that, Mom?" they asked with raised eyebrows.
"We're gonna sit here and take turns making butter while we eat", I said matter-of-factly.
"What?"
"Yup. Who wants to shake it first?"

Well, that jar went round and round the table and we each took a few turns shaking it for all we were worth and before long we had some fantistic homemade butter for all our efforts! Wonderful! They were hesitant to sample it at first, but after the first taste of that creamy goodness they've been generously slathering it on everything they can find to put butter on.  I think my little experiment was a huge success. Just yesterday they asked me the question I was waiting to hear.............."When are we going to make more butter, Mom?"

I thought I'd share the fruits of our labor with you. Check it out:

Mmmmmmmmmm..............best ever! Go make your own!