Whole Foods: Butter is my favorite food group.

I made butter today. My sister told me I'm insane, then she asked me how long it took to churn it, then she went on to tell me about the butter SHE churned for some brownies she made. Insanity runs in families, for sure.

I made my butter from the raw milk I bought yesterday. I scooped the cream off the top with my vegan mom's ladle. Don't worry, Mom, I washed it with hot, soapy water. Along with all your other dishes that I used in this process. The little lumpy things in the cream that you see to the right of the ladle are my kefir grains.

I don't know exactly how much cream I started with - I would have measured it, but didn't want to lose any of the creamy deliciousness by having it stick to the side of a measuring cup; I was sad enough to lose the stuff that stuck to the ladle. I'm going to say I used a cup, cup and a half, something like that.

The process was really quite simple. I used a big metal bowl, although I should have used the biggest one I had because the cream was splattering everywhere. I actually know better than this, but I was so intent on getting started that I wasn't really thinking. I used a hand mixer, mainly because I don't have a stand mixer. If you have one, I recommend you use it, it just saves on arm fatigue, but Mom's Oster did a good job.

Basically, making butter is like making whipped cream, but you keep whipping past the whipped cream stage. I remember making whip cream at family holidays. I was the official whipped cream maker, and every time I made it Grandma, Mom or one of her sisters would shout into the kitchen, "Don't whip it too long, it'll become butter!" Sure enough.

I got Mom's Oster up to high speed and just let it run, using a spatula to scrape the sides. First I got the soft peaks of whipped cream, then it began to get lumpier and less pretty. After a time little chunky bits began to poke up from the liquid as the water separated from the cream. I understand this is supposed to be buttermilk, but mine was quite thin, more like fat-free milk, so I'm not sure. Comments on this are welcome.

Once the buttermilk (for lack of a better word) was spattering out of the bowl uncontrollably, about a 1/2 hour into the process, I decided my butter was done. I used the spatula and pushed the lumpy butter against the side of the bowl, allowing the buttermilk to gather at the bottom. I poured this off into a container for later use in something yet to be determined.

I then scooped up the butter and packed it into a little dish. I ended up with about 1/2 a cup. A lot of people salt their butter, I do not. Mainly because I like to bake, and salted butter doesn't work well in baked goods.