Butter

I made butter!

I have a Vitamix blender that is about 20 years old that I love and has gotten a LOT of use. It has been through at least five moves and been dropped many times. The last time I dropped it or maybe the time before, it lost it's ability to have variable speed and is stuck on max, but because these blenders are really expensive, we were continuing to use it as I mostly make smoothies and it was still good for that. I was using almost every day and sometimes more often. Costco had them on sale this past weekend and Q agreed that considering how often I used it and how useful having variable speeds are that we should replace it. I've had it since Saturday and have already used it 6 times. This morning I used it to make butter, marvelous, fabulous unsalted butter. The nerdlet was trying to scoop it out of the blender to eat it straight.

I started with 2 cups of whipping cream.

Then blended it on and off at half speed for about 5 minutes.

Then I poured out the liquid.

And I just had to store it in an old 'I Can't Believe It's Butter' container.

I can't believe how easy it was and how good it came out. If you have a Vitamix, I highly recommend you try it at least once. The whipping cream cost about a dollar and a half and you can buy a pound of butter for $3, so you aren't really saving any money, but it's so cool to do.

On another note, the Tastefully Simple party to help fund Amy's adoption of Liam is still going on. To order, go to Tastefully Simple and list me 'Kimberly Hughes' as the host and 100% of the profits are directed to Liam's adoption. This party is going to run until August 15th but Amy, Liam, and I would all love it if you ordered now. At Darth Baby's baptism, I served the artichoke dip, the taco cheese ball, and the chocolate pound cake. The dips were finished within minutes of coming out (and this was a small gathering). I ended up scraping the bowls before they went into the sink. I really recommend the artichoke dip. Even my husband really liked it and he doesn't care much for artichoke.

I don't know if the pound cake wasn't devoured because they were full on the dip or if it just wasn't as appealing, but it came out really wonderfully in the Wilton giant cupcake pan. If you are having a hard time getting a box mix to work in your cupcake pan, this is the mix to use. I measured out 2 cups of the batter to ensure that I put equal amounts in both the top and the bottom and it came out perfect, not over or undercooked anywhere in the cake.

As always you can skip the party food and donate directly to his adoption here, and donations are tax deductible. Thanks so much!