Zeno's Bar & Grill

Inspired by the simple directions in the Sunday New York Times Magazine section I decided that a fun activity for my camp-free kids would be to make homemade butter.

Step 1: Fit your electric mixer with a whisk.

No problem. In fact, I bought my Kitchen Aid mixer for the express purpose of making the same coconut cupcakes that Melanie waxed ecstatic about in the blog below.

Step 2: Pour the heavy whipping cream into the bowl and beat until yellow and pebbly about 5-8 minutes.

Yeah right! Thirty minutes later and my cream hadn't even gone through the whipped stage and my kids had lost interest and were back to watching the Flintstones marathon on the Boomerang channel.

Step 3: Strain butter through a fine mesh sieve and knead by hand for 5 minutes.

My sieve was woefully too small to handle the mass of congealed fat and my hands are still greasy because the new environmentally friendly soap I bought is woefully unequipped to wash so much grease from my hands.

The good news? I have about 2 cups of yummy homemade butter and another 2 cups of homemade buttermilk. And my hands are soft like buttah. Maybe I'll use the butter and buttermilk to make those coconut cupcakes that I never got around to making.

--Kelly

Labels: cooking