I have this very romantic idea of the "old days" specifically pioneer days. I'm pretty sure this stems from "Little House on the Prairie" (the tv series, not the books) and Frontier House, the reality-series on PBS. I just love the idea of washing my clothes on a washboard and hanging them on the line to dry, having chickens, and canning rows and rows of beautiful vegetables that I grew in my own garden. This is just a silly pipe-dream because I have the hardest time getting up before seven, I really don't like gardening a whole lot and I have zero experience with chickens. Though, I have washed my clothes on a washboard and hung many a load of laundry out to dry!In attempt to bring a little pioneer romance into my children's lives, we made homemade bread and butter. Ok, it's really not that romantic considering we used the bread machine to make the bread, but we did shake up our own butter.
Truth be told, I did most of the shaking. It takes a good thirty minutes to get butter and the kids were done in about 30 seconds, but they thought it was really funny watching me walk around shaking the heck out of two jars filled with cream and rocks (I couldn't find any marbles). This was the first time I've made butter and the process was very easy and quite amazing. You shake and shake and shake and shake and all of a sudden you have this solid mass which quickly becomes a chunk of butter and the leftover goodness, buttermilk, which is being saved for pancakes tomorrow. It tastes pretty amazing too. Here's my butter in my butter bell, which is a pretty terrific kitchen device if you like having spreadable butter. You should get one, all us cool girls are doing it.
We made cinnamon raisin bread (I forgot to add the raisins during the "add mix-ins" cycle so it was just cinnamon bread) from this recipe I've had for years. It came out beautifully which surprised the heck out of me because usually it looks all kitty-wompous (my mom's word not mine). Kitty-wompous!?! I bet pioneering women used that word all the time, "No honey, don't build the sod house on that hill, it will be all kitty-wompous if you do."
I'm already on my way to being the perfect pioneer wife. Now, I just need to get some chickens...
6 comments:
I find the "old days" so romantic in theory as well. Then I remember that they didn't have air conditioning, and that washing clothes for 9 people on a washboard would lose it's charm after the first 2 loads LOL
Mmmm. That butter looks delish! Good for you pioneer Mom. I got some Pat Hutchins books from the library and we love them! Thanks for the referral. We're partial to :
We're going on a picnic.
What game shall we play.
My Best Friend.
Have a great day!
My Best Friend and We're going on a Picnic are favorites around here too. I'm so glad you enjoy her books...
My sister was asked when she was about 12 to mix some whipping cream for my mom with a hand mixer. Mom left the room and when she came back Kathy had whipped it past cream and into Butter.. Mom was furious. Hilarious!!
The bread sounds delish, Ive always hated the rasins in it!!!
LOL
I can totally see you shaking for 30 min...
:)
A
You know, the beauty of modern days is we can STILL can rows of colorful veggies, hang dry our laundry, and keep chickens (I know many women who DO), and then we get to chuck all the dishes into the dishwasher afterwords. :p
Oh, btw, for the homemade butter...it goes a *lot* faster if you pre-whip the cream in the blender or foodprocessor, or even with beaters, til it is basically butter, unseperated, and then finish off in the jar. Trust me. :p After many years growing up making the butter in the jar, I wised up and now do it the easy way. :p
yes. I did find a recipe that has you do the whole thing in the food processor, but I wanted the kids to enjoy the shaking part... Too bad they lost interest after 30 seconds!!
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