Easy & Fun for the Kiddos

So I grew up and all my mother canned were tomatoes (which is great too, I really enjoy canning tomatoes). My great aunt seemed to can everything from peaches to green beans, but I was too young to see her do any of it...so when I started on this journey I started from scratch per-say.

Luckily for me, the hubby is a farm boy and my mother in law is a very knowledgeable woman! :) Also, apparently my Granny knows a lot more about canning and being self sufficient that I knew.
Since I had very little knowledge of well anything when it came to "prepping", I wanted to make sure my daughter was involved, and grew up with the knowledge of how to prepare foods that, while easier to buy in a store, can be made at home.

So, Jaydin had her cousin Isabella spend the night. We made a couple special drinks for the girls that I found on Pinterest:. Then I wanted them to get involved with learning something new...so I started with butter. It was easy enough...

But here are the drinks we made first



1) Harry Potter Butterbeer:
http://www.designdazzle.com/2011/07/summer-camp-harry-potter-activities-wizard-for-a-day/

2) Shirley Temple, lined with pop rocks (we used Sprite, not Ginger Ale)
http://www.parenting.com/gallery/mocktails-recipes?pnid=619887

Then I used the left over heavy cream from the Butterbeer...I divided it into 2 pint size jars and asked the girls to make me some butter. Of course they looked at me like I was crazy, and even after I explained that if they shake it for a while the cream in the jar would turn into butter, looked at me with a great deal of skepticism. They did shake and shake those jars though and got very excited when it started to thicken and they could hear a ball starting to form. This was just before they were done:

And this was the completed result:

Butter to the left and buttermilk to the right. The girls were so excited! They tasted the buttermilk and loved it, and then we spread the freshly made butter on some saltine crackers and they scarfed them down.

I remembered making it this way when once a year in May we were allowed to skip school and go to the fairgrounds to the "Folk Festival." Aside from making butter there would be homemade flowers, fly fishing lures, and people showing you how to make or do lots of things (like grind up corn) that have sort of been forgotten. Now that I am older I see how great it was that I was able to skip school and learn something...and I am glad I did, because it benefited my daughter too :)