Of butter and autumn

I read a post about someone making butter with their kids and got inspired. I had a couple of cups of heavy cream in the fridge, so I decided to pull it out and make butter. Now, I am not one of these food porn bloggers who take detailed photos of the process, so you'll have to Google if you want to see butter being made.

I poured the cream into my KitchenAid and fitted it with the paddle attachment. I put it on medium-low (any higher created a splatter pattern on my counters). And that was it. I let it go for maybe 1o minutes. It passed the fluffy whipped cream stage and, as it was supposed to, went to the curdled mess stage. I poured it into a strainer and then into some icy water (I forgot to do that first). Then back into the strainer. I pressed and stirred out some of the liquid, and then put the mass into a small bowl, where I pressed it some more. It's amazing how much liquid there is in there. I added salt and it is now sitting, covered, in the fridge. I imagine more liquid will come out yet. I think I'll take some of it and add some garlic and some homemade dried tomatoes. Maybe a little fresh basil from the back step.

So autumn weather is here; not that summer weather really arrived at any point for very long. But there is a difference between cool mid-summer days and late-summer/early autumn days. Today the sky was grey. Slate grey. But the sun was coming from somewhere unseen, and the entire street looked as though it was bathed in gold. The air isn't just cool; it's crisp. There's a sense of anticipation in the air. The anticipation of putting on long pants and shirts one day and not going back to shorts. The anticipation of the turning colours on the trees. The anticipation of all things autumn, from fall fairs to local festivals, to going out apple picking and leaf gathering. It is my favourite time of year.