Better Butter

I have a new found respect for butter.

I have been purchasing wonderful, delicious salted butter in two pound rolls wrapped in waxed paper from this place for just over a year. The butter I purchase from Quail Cove Farms is from Minerva Dairy in Ohio. It's not local, but it's really good butter at a pretty good price.

I've been getting real, whole, fresh from the cow milk for a few months now. It's milk from a Jersey cow and it's wonderfully rich and the cream rises very nicely to the top. I keep the milk in 1/2 gallon jars. I've gotten in the habit of letting the milk sit in the refrigerator and wait for the cream. The next day I pour off the cream into a pint jar, and usually get about a half a pint. Then I shake the milk jar to reincorporate any cream I missed and top off my pint. This pint becomes my coffee cream (real half and half) for next several days until I use it up and attack my second half gallon. .

Well, earlier this week, I took my coffee cream with me to training. Long story short, the little lunch box cooler did not stay very cool and my cream got to room temperatures overnight. I like clabbered milk but did not really want to put it in my coffee. But I'm loath to waste such precious stuff.

So, when I got home, I poured off the clabbered cream  and fed the cats with the other bit of slightly aged milk.

The cream went into my food processor yesterday morning where it whirled for a good 20 minutes while I got dressed for work and low and behold, I got butter! There wasn't much. Just about 2 tablespoons came out of that 1/2 pint of cream. But it was real butter. And I made it myself.

Here it is in a little dish with a teaspoon next to it for size.

I was very excited and proud and shared my newest discovery with my husband who, of course, was amused by his crazy wife and paid out the required homages.

But if 1/2 pint of cream only makes two tablespoons of butter, how much cream does it take to make two pounds? I'm thinking it's a lot.

The Next Step

For the last year, I have been working to replace processed foods with whole, healthy, natural foods. I am getting closer to that goal every day. But I find that I'm still having intermittent bouts of bloating and aching joints and a welts that appear on my face. I'm sure that it's an allergic reaction and I'm pretty sure it's something I'm eating. It's just too much like a toxic reaction to be a coincident.

The fact is, there are still some unhealthy things I am eating that I need to eliminate:

• Coffee (or caffeine)
• Artificial sweetening (it goes into coffee)
• Too many grain based carbs
• Too many sweets (even healthy ones like maple syrup and honey)

I find I also eat too much at one sitting. I don't realize my stomach is uncomfortably full until I get up and walk away from the table. 

I also have times when I cheat and do reach out and grab that piece of bundt cake that someone kindly brought into the office to share instead of walking away or eating a piece of fruit or another bite of meat.

I feel like I've done a good job of eliminating soy from my diet and do feel much better having done that. I can tell almost immediately when I've accidently injested it. The reaction is in my face, my hands (swelling), my head (headache), belly (bloating with gas and pain). I seem to also have a reaction in my face.

I also have facial skin reactions to stress and heat. When I get very, very hot my legs, ankles and feet and hands also swell up badly. The swelling and facial rash make me wonder about Lupus sometimes, but I'm thinking even if it is Lupus, there's not much doctors can do with that other than steroids and I'm just not willing to accept the side effects. I'd rather control it with diet, very controlled exposure to heat and sun and mild to moderate exercise.

So, back to the question of what goes next: Grains (especially wheat) or by beloved coffee?

If coffee: Should I drop coffee and go to tea for a while and then get off the tea or just suffer the 10 days of caffeine withdrawals and get on with my life?

If grains: Do I eliminate all of them at one time and deal with my husband who cannot live without his bread, cookies, pies and cakes (not to mention my cravings for such things), or should I just eliminate one grain (like wheat) and see how I do on just rye or oats or some other grain like barley? Is the problem gluten or is it an actually allergy to one thing, like wheat?

If sugars: These are mad carbohydrate issues for me. I'm moving slowly in this direction now with the elimination of white sugar (other than what goes into the kombucha) but I'm back to drinking alcoholic beverages which I know is not good for me and are definitely an addiction. Within a month of going back on wine, I went from one glass a night to finishing a regular sized bottle to buying a box and making that last about three days (when there is actually about 4 bottles worth in that box). So that has to go. I do better with beer and am pretty content with just one can/bottle for an evening. But beer has both the alcohol and the grain issue.  Can I separate alcohol from the sugars and carbs? I dunno?

I don't want to do all at once. I'll admit it. I'm a wimp when it comes to self inflicted suffering. Both of these are addiction issues and I fear I will break down and throw in the towel on everything if I try to break all the bad habits at one time.

The coffee is easier. I can substitute for a while with various teas and gradually move from caffeinated to caffeine free teas. I think a lot of the draw of the coffee is that hot beverage in my hand.

So, starting tomorrow (since I've already had a cup of coffee... two actually) this morning, I will leave my beloved coffee and move to tea. I can do that for a couple of weeks I think and then wean myself off of the tea... since I really don't much care for tea.