Look, Mom! I Canned Butter!

Well, it's not "true" canning because there was no water bath or pressure canner, but STILL, I did it! The process was pretty easy and can be found here. It can store up to 3 years on a shelf . I wanted some for my food storage (shortening on your toast, anyone?). 7 sticks of butter did 4 half-pint jars. I gave one away as a door prize during the food storage class I had last night at my house.

That class was the last emergency preparedness class I'll be doing for a while. The 1st one dealt with water storage, sanitation and 72 hour kits. The 2nd focused on emergency shelter, heating, and cooking. And last night we talked about long-term food storage. I woke up this morning so glad that it was over! Due to my amazingly honed skills of procrastination, I was up until 2 a.m. for four nights in a row trying to get things ready. The turn-out was smaller, but it went fairly well. I did get a little preachy (GASP! SHOCK!) but no one even rolled their eyes at me. Them's good peoples! When it was over we sat around and devoured yummy homemade bread and jam that a bunch of gals brought.

Bread making is a skill that I have not mastered. Something about working with yeast intimidates me. There just seems to be so many ways to screw it up--temperature, humidity, my mood.... Even the instructions are intimidating with their foreign phrases of "Raise until Double", "Punch it Down" and "Gluten Content." Part of it is laziness, since it seems to take up a whole day. My mother-in-law did help me make it once. And I tell ya, it's a little sad when you are that supremely proud of yourself for something that other people do every day of their lives. But hey--I did can butter!