I think some of the most important things to realize about making a commitment to making a major lifestyle change, such as switching to a real foods diet, is that you need to be flexible, you need to be open to learning new things and you have to be willing to try new things & then learn from your successes as well as your mistakes. I also think that it's important for other people to realize that whether you are new to the real foods journey or a seasoned pro or anywhere in between, we all seem to have moments where something happens that is not what we hoped for or expected. Sometimes these things are big and costly and sometimes they are just little things that have us slapping our foreheads in a "duh" moment. Today brought one of those moments for me.
I am not new to making butter. I've made it plenty of times, starting out the hard way making small batches using a stick blender and then kneading & rinsing it using spatulas as paddles and now my current method of using my KitchenAid stand mixer - the paddle attachment for beating the cream to butter followed by using the bread dough hook to knead it and wash the buttermilk out. The machine does all the work for me but I need to keep an eye on it because once the butter separates from the buttermilk, that big ball of butter sloshes that buttermilk around and has the potential to make a big mess. So while making butter today, I checked on my mixer and saw that my cream was getting close to that magic moment when suddenly it becomes two distinct products. As I gazed into the bowl, I realized that all my quart jars are in use or in the dishwasher so I need to wash one real fast else my buttermilk will have no vessel to call it's own. So, I made the mistake. I turned my back on my mixer and went to the sink to quickly wash a jar. I was just about finished - turning the water off after rinsing the jar - when I heard a loud splat behind me. I turned around just in time to see a nice big white wave of buttermilk come soaring up over the side of the bowl and onto the counter and floor. I ran across the kitchen, while shouting "No, no, no, no, no!" (as if that would stop it or something), getting a nice splash of fresh buttermilk on the tops of my feet as a reward for my efforts. After turning the mixer off as quick as I could and watching the paddle come to a halt, I surveyed my mess - which I have already dubbed my Buttermilk Fiasco. Yes, I took a picture of it. I want to remember the ups & the downs of this crazy ride. My floor looked even worse. I had splashes of buttermilk nearly 6 feet away from the counter. I didn't take any pictures of my floor because my floors are ugly to begin with and I didn't sweep today (or yesterday, to be honest). The butter was fine and I finished it after sopping up a pint of buttermilk from the counters, floor and a few toys my son had left in the kitchen. I feel a little silly for making a mistake when I knew better but no major damage is done. I have a pound of fresh butter and a quart of buttermilk chilling in my fridge. Everything is back to normal now and kitchen life is moving on.
I am not new to making butter. I've made it plenty of times, starting out the hard way making small batches using a stick blender and then kneading & rinsing it using spatulas as paddles and now my current method of using my KitchenAid stand mixer - the paddle attachment for beating the cream to butter followed by using the bread dough hook to knead it and wash the buttermilk out. The machine does all the work for me but I need to keep an eye on it because once the butter separates from the buttermilk, that big ball of butter sloshes that buttermilk around and has the potential to make a big mess. So while making butter today, I checked on my mixer and saw that my cream was getting close to that magic moment when suddenly it becomes two distinct products. As I gazed into the bowl, I realized that all my quart jars are in use or in the dishwasher so I need to wash one real fast else my buttermilk will have no vessel to call it's own. So, I made the mistake. I turned my back on my mixer and went to the sink to quickly wash a jar. I was just about finished - turning the water off after rinsing the jar - when I heard a loud splat behind me. I turned around just in time to see a nice big white wave of buttermilk come soaring up over the side of the bowl and onto the counter and floor. I ran across the kitchen, while shouting "No, no, no, no, no!" (as if that would stop it or something), getting a nice splash of fresh buttermilk on the tops of my feet as a reward for my efforts. After turning the mixer off as quick as I could and watching the paddle come to a halt, I surveyed my mess - which I have already dubbed my Buttermilk Fiasco. Yes, I took a picture of it. I want to remember the ups & the downs of this crazy ride. My floor looked even worse. I had splashes of buttermilk nearly 6 feet away from the counter. I didn't take any pictures of my floor because my floors are ugly to begin with and I didn't sweep today (or yesterday, to be honest). The butter was fine and I finished it after sopping up a pint of buttermilk from the counters, floor and a few toys my son had left in the kitchen. I feel a little silly for making a mistake when I knew better but no major damage is done. I have a pound of fresh butter and a quart of buttermilk chilling in my fridge. Everything is back to normal now and kitchen life is moving on.
So why do I share this with the general public? I mean I could try to make myself look like Perfect Mrs. Homemaker on my blog. Super Mom who does nothing wrong and creates only wonderful and flawless dishes making this real food thing looks like a breeze. I could, but in reality, it's far from the truth. While I have done a lot of things well so far, I still sit in my kitchen some days wondering: What the heck can I cook today? How do I even start on making _______? Does this or that count as real food? Am I a complete failure if I am just too tired or busy to make something traditional and just give my kids a pb&j on store bought bread for dinner tonight because I forgot to thaw the meat, bake the bread or soak my beans? Can we still be healthy if we can't find or afford grass-fed meats? What the heck am I doing? Why isn't my scoby floating? Or any of a number of other things that dart through my mind.
Yeah, this journey can be a little overwhelming at first and even after you've been on it for a little while. But that's where you need to realize that this is, after all, a journey. It takes time to get to where you are going. There will be ups and downs and the occasional pitfalls. Sometimes you just need to take a break in the midst of it all. The important thing is to look around, get your bearings and don't give up. Give yourself a minute to take a breath and then move on from there. There is no failure as long as you are willing to keep going forward, learning a little as you go and do the best that you can, cleaning up the spilled buttermilk along the way.
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