Cultured butter

While i was at Expo West a few weeks ago, i was fortunate to meet the great folks of Straus Creamery. I am a big fan of their dairy products using them for all of the cheese classes-LOVE their glass containers (great for my various booze projects) and the quality is amazing. At the Expo, i was going on-and-on about my love for them and they hooked me up with a few coupons which I recently used to make butter.

 (Straus containers make EXCELLENT containers for bitters!)

I used to make butter by shaking cream in a little jar with a few pinches of salt, but this time I wanted to use my KitchenAid to save my arms and make a little more than a single serving (although jar churning is a great project for kids).  I also wanted to experiment making the "European-style" butter, also known as cultured butter which has a more complex flavor with a hint of tang and just simply, a more intense butter flavor. I for sure recommend taking the extra step to make this kind of butter once you have made quick butter.

(thick, creamy and ready to churn)

What Happens When You Make Butter...

Butter is the fat of milk or cream.  Agitation of the cream or churning, separates the milk fats from the liquid part of the cream (buttermilk). The more you churn, the more the fats try to connect with other fats until you have large particles that can be brought together by hand. Some people call butter, "an overwhipped-whipped cream", and they are pretty much right. There are a number of ways that you can churn butter: a jar, Cuisenart, old-school butter churner (expensive but mucho cute factor), or in my case the Kitchenaid.

 (getting there...)

European-style cultured butter is not as widely available however, and if you do find it, can be a little pricey (at least as far as butter goes). Making it yourself is simple, flavorful and pretty inexpensive, especially since you can use the leftover buttermilk to make other yummy things like bread!

(whipped cream stage: almost there...)

CULTURED BUTTER

• 1c. organic cream (I used 2c. and I ended up with almost 2c. butter!)
• 1t yogurt culture

Let the cream sit for an hour in a bowl and cover with a towel. Add 1t culture (some people add yogurt-try it!) and mix. Let it sit out to develop for 10-14hrs, the cream should start to thicken on top (still covering). If you cannot mix right away, put it in the fridge. Once you are ready to churn, make sure the cream is around 60F. Add to mixer and put a towel on top (you will thank me later) and keep checking on it, in less than 5 minutes you will see the fat develop.

 (we've got butter!)

 (buttermilk mess: keep your eyes on the mixer!)

Once there is enough of the butter formed, strain the butter from the liquid (make sure to keep the liquid) and work the butter over and over, you will see more buttermilk released, allow to drain for 10 minutes.

(first stage draining)

After the first draining, rinse the butter over cold water while mashing/squeezing the butter. The fat will stay, but the liquid will come out. Once you feel you have enough liquid removed from the butter, wrap in plastic and store in the fridge. I like to separate the butter in 1/2 adding salt to one batch and leaving the other plain.  The fat of the butter will make it last much longer than cream if you keep it cold and wrap it well (plus it won't adopt certain fridge flavors!)

(second stage straining)

 Now that I am into cultured butter I am going to try clotted cream, ghee and I have already started looking into some cute butter molds!

DIY canning rack: what to do with leftover canning rings

As an avid food preserver, one thing I always end up with is a boat-load of canning rings-I usually have a bag of them somewhere in the house or in the root cellar. Of course I use them, but it seems like there are always more than I started with, kind of like the sock getting lost in the dryer deal except I end up 3 socks instead of 1.

(part of our class on Sunday-WORK it chicas!)

I have been trying to figure out what to do with the extras. For sure I am thinking of a window display and a few other projects (which I will for sure post about), but one was the perfect solution to a dilemma in this past weekend's canning class-a canning rack!
The traditional rack, one that you might acquire when purchasing a canning package looks like this:

Yes it works, but if you happen to use the cute little 4oz jars like I do you will realize that the rings in the rack are WAY to big and the jars just fall out making the rack pointless. There are newer versions of racks that solve this problem like this one below:

(PS you can buy all of this at Canning Pantry)

I happen to have 3 old-school racks and 1 new-school and occasionally there has been a situation where we have to process 2 canners at one time (and they happen to all be the cute little jar dudes). What do you do?? Whip out those leftover canning rings!

DIY canning rack:

You'll need 8-10 canning rings (just depends on how big the pot is) and 10-15 twisty ties or rubber bands.

Lay them out tops up and arrange them in the best possible way that allows you to fit as many in the pot as possible without curling up. Fasten the twisty-deal or rubber band until they are snug.  Fit into the pot and slowly add your jars in with a jar holder so that they balance on the rings...proceed with canning!

NOTE: make sure that you remove the ties and dry the rings after, the bands will break from the heat and the ties/metal of the rings will rust and now you have rusty rings-and I have no idea what to do with those!

(wham)

(bam)

(thank you ma'am)

(PS: this jam turned out BEYOND INCREDIBLE already sourcing to sell!!)

cheap ways to stay warm

Our little apartment homestead is located in a 1907 farmhouse that has been cut up into a few apartments with lots of character and cuteness abound. What we don't have in our place is decent heating...homes in those days didn't have double-pane windows, foam insulation or some of the other cool things that are out on the market.
We do have a heater, but i must admit, i am a little scared to use it...

(if you know how to fix this, come on over-i will pay you back in jam!)

I am a spoiled Southern Californian-I know that already, but i am telling you it has been seriously COLD a few nights (like 30 degrees!!) and I have to wear 2 pairs of leggings, fuzzy socks, and a long scarf that i wrap around my neck and then over my head...and i sleep with all of this on hugging Marge for warmth.
Part of the problem with our house being so cold is that the windows are not the best (but they look cute!) and each of our doors have HUGE gaps on the bottom.

(the kitchen-you should see the other door!)

Our wonderful neighbor Lea saw us freezing our a$$es off and she made these cute draft dodgers for us-her place is covered in them, she even has them on the windows-believe me this simple project made a huge difference.

(check out the FABRIC!!!)

(Lea's window-cute right!)

Our other neighbors Jack and August also gave us this great heater (about $30 @ your local hardware store) and we set it up by the living room door so if any cold air came in, it got zapped with the heater.  The oil-filled heater is actually pretty great-it is inexpensive, uses little energy (compared to some of the electric ones-they end up costing you big time), you can roll it around easily (i have it right in front of me when at my desk), and having one at each entrance of our living room heats our home nicely.

I am going to do a you-tube of Lea making a draft dodger next week, but in the meantime, here are 2 links to making one of your own.
of course Martha making a draft dodger-and it probably matches everything!
Simple Green Frugal Co-op's version

ABOUT OIL-FILLED HEATERS: according to one site, the oil never needs to be replaced.  If your heater is no longer working, there might have been a leak in the heater.  the link above also has a number of heaters to choose from.

creative x-mas tree alternatives

having a retail shop has its many perks and non. probably the most obvious NON is the fact that the "holidays" has a totally different meaning than most folks. this is my "crunch-time" where i am completely and utterly busy with sales, calls, making product and whatever else. Nov & Dec will see no planning of the feast, decking the halls, writing cards and shopping for gifts (one perk is that i can shop in 2 sec at my store however!) and especially DECORATING. after spending 10 hours decorating the shop for the holidays, i have little time let alone passion for doing the same thing at home.

(it doesn't always have to be this...)

i am probably not alone in this feeling of wanting to do the bare minimum of holiday cheer at the apartment homestead-2010 holiday time seems to have surprised many and the recession doesn't make the best environment for dishing out extra funds for only a few weeks of decor. my neighbor Lea made this TOTALLY AWESOME tree, that sparked this post on creative x-mas tree alternatives:

(a ladder, tinsel and light=SUPER CUTE!)

 (Ready Made has this cute idea in their latest issue)

(cardboard tree-so cute right!)

(Apartment Therapy has this great idea, perfect for the dining table)

(i love this idea from Homemade grits-and you can use your cards for ornaments!)

(another idea for the photographer in the house)

(at the shop i made a tree from discarded drawers and wine crates-star from old frames)

(BONUS: felt tree project from Thompson Family Life)

cleaning the tub-what works

so with everything else that is going on, we still have to do regular house-stuff...the one thing i normally argue about is the dang tub...who wants to clean it-yeah, not me!
Santa Ana has some serious hard-water and "OCD-delilah" wants it UBER-clean, military-style to be exact. only problem is that when you want to get rid of the "gunky" stuff, you might have to resort to foul smelling nastiness...do you really want that going into our water-no thank you!
here are some of the things i use to have a happy, healthy and above CLEAN tub:

Ecover: LOVE this company-nothing beats them, their limescale remover is the best thing out and really does work.

scrubbing items: seriously and old toothbrush does the trick-it gets the small spots and you are recycling! i also use walnut sponges from Natural Value...we usually sell them and i must say people order them by the case-they are that good!

ZIP-IT: use this regularly this cheap and tiny gizmo gets the gross stuff that can cause a serious drain problem before it event thinks of happening. SO WORTH the few bucks (we sell em too but so does your local hardware store).

AFM Safecoat: cannot say enough about this pioneering company that was one of the first to create low/zero-odor products-get their grout sealer- it will help if the grout wasn't sealed before and can save you scrub time.

Cream Scrubs: Ecover makes some great cream scrubs that are great for the tub itself...or make it yourself.  here's a great recipe from Natural Home Magazine (love!)

• 1 cup baking soda, in a medium sized mixing bowl
• 1/2 cup liquid castile soap
• 5-10 drops of antibacterial essential oil, such as lavender, tea tree or rosemary 
• mix everything until it makes a nice paste, make a bunch for later and use water to re-hydrate the mixture

PS: a little spray bottle of water and tea tree oil is great to freshen the tub and to keep it anti fungal.

root cellar decor-what the heck is that??

now most people wouldn't think about how to decorate a cellar. thinking back to when root cellars were a real necessity (not something that a food preserver junkie makes when her 5ft kitchen is maxed-out), they were basically a room, like some of the images below:

functional with a hint of scary? yes
cute? oh hells no!
just because it is a storage room doesn't mean that it has to look boring-i mean you are going to spend a little bit of time there, you might as well make it look kind of cool right?
the nice thing about a project like this is that you can get all kinds of crazy decorating and making things fun-its not like you are entertaining royalty in there!
my friend Diana, had the great idea of making a chalkboard to keep track of stuff in there-SO much cuter than a clipboard and pen!!  i had a thin piece of wood in the storage room at the shop, i slapped on a few coats of chalkboard paint and DONE-we attached it to the door....how cute it that.

(looking at this makes me realize that i forgot to date the cabbage!)

color was really important too-who wants to look at dirty old wood and concrete?  i had some zero-VOC bright green paint from AFM Safecoat in enamel that was a mis-tint, talk about perfect for the door!  i used some bright red paint (that i was going to use for our couch, but was too lazy to sand) to paint a huge heart on the door-you know, because food is all about love.
i also had these old window frames-some in our bedroom, but i still had a few extra.  we painted one with the bright green paint and hung it up on the entrance to remind you to duck your head when entering.  at first we were going to paint it red, but that seemed too much like a, "don't enter" sign...green seemed like a better choice.

the chalkboard idea led to another decoration: root-cellar graffiti! the upper part of the cellar is old dark wood.  i used the while chalk to make these cute wheat leaves  on the corners and to label the sections of the area-SO MUCH CUTER than the Sharpie i was using before!

lastly, i used old frames that my neighbor was going to throw out to decorate some of the areas. in the center of the frame i either chalked a picture or nailed canning items in.

(always got to have a little Marge representin'-thanks Bonnin Designs!)

the last thing that i need to do is weather-strip the doors for the "uninvited guests" and then you have what i like to call :

 "easy, breezy, beautiful...root cellar" 

(yes i watch WAY TOO much ANTM)

update on the root cellar

with everything going on, i totally forgot to mention how the root cellar was going!  this week i will have a special guest coming over to the house (a blog post soon-so excited about this!!) and she wants to see the root cellar-which made me realize that i hadnt posted my progress-and boy is it great!

(produce and some supplies)

what was once a dirty, smelly, scary and trash infested basement it now a fully functioning  food storage area.  although the room is small (about 5x5'), creativity and good organization made the space hold just about everything.

i split the room into 4 main sections which i wrote on the walls for easy organization: supplies, produce, dried goods and booze/fermented products. washed the walls vacuumed the floors and ceiling and installed shelving and hooks that were basically items that were left over from other projects at the store. paints were leftover mis-tints that were just sitting in the back-talk about affordable and efficient!  i have about 6 different kinds of vodkas going: limoncello, grapfruitcello, loquat, cherry, kumquat and pepper.  hopefully i can work on the vinegars after patchwork Long Beach.  but i do have a few new items in there: vanilla extract and bitters!!...but more on that later.

 (most of my canning items are on the opposite wall from the produce)

(booze and fermented stuffs!)

(dried chilies from New Mexico & dill from Morning Song Farm)

have a few more things to do for it to be finished-so you will be hearing about the cellar again soon.

a clever idea for sealing wine!

i love vintage etsy seller, Little Byrd Vintage...cute items and displays, very much what i like for the shop and my own personal taste these days (also gives me great ideas of what to look for this summer on 127 yard sale)

just recently i noticed this cute wine stopper whose top was from a vintage glass doorknob. this looks pretty simple, i am going to try it!

fixing and making a place to fix stuff

my friend Julie sent me this interesting article from the NY Times about a group of people creating "fix-it" events where you can bring items in to get worked on.
the result of an art project, this now once a week event devoted to fixing things is now The Fixers Collective, where people can mend, alter, repair or repurpose things that we would normally end up in our trash.you know what i am talking about. we all have at least 1 box of items that "we are going to fix/mend/repair", but we haven't had the time b/c we are so busy working and then when we get to the box of stuff, we don't know how to fix it and just save it for another day called never and we end up throwing it away or donating it.
i love this idea of teaching people to fix things, really empowering people to get things repaired themselves is the core of the DIY movement that has really been taking off since the whole economic turn-down.
i haven't really seen anything like this been held locally-there is The Machine Project, an awesome LA space that is devoted to alternative and unique learning/education, that might hold classes on fixing certain things, but nothing like the Fixers Collective.
i am thinking about doing something like this at the store...would anyone be interested in a program like this?

craft night with Estasia at The Annex

forgive me for waiting a day on my CSA food tip...i have it..i was just too caught up in making new items for the store in our new space The Annex that is dedicated to DIY and sustainable living, learning and teaching.
on the last thurs of each month, the Annex is open to people wanting to hang out and do something creative...yes, just bring your supplies, sit down and chat while making your thang...there are even supplies just in case.
my friend Estasia, (who by the way, makes ADORABLE hemp skirts) came by to catch-up and make stuff...what did we make??
*remember my 127 yard sale adventure?? i actually bought a large bag of odds and ends- vintage lace and ribbon, buttons and fabric goodies. we turned these items into cute "pillowcase primers" or cute collages with a pillow template inside a small tag. all you have to do is sew and decorate!
(from this)
(to this)

*OK, break time: i am in LOVE with Knudsen's Jamacian Lemonade
...this is the BEST canned/store-bought lemonade around and mixed 1/2 and 1/2 with champagne, well, it is BETTER than a mimosa.
*bean ornaments: we then made these cute ornaments made from hot-gluing dried beans to stryo (YES I KNOW it is stryo) balls...but they are pretty damn cute.