Homemade "clotted cream" a la Alton Brown

There's nothing I love more on a scone, a bagel, or on a spoon than clotted cream.  After doing a search to see if I could make it at home, I found this technique by Alton Brown.

I know this technique doesn't produce real clotted cream but it's a very good substitute! I usually buy Luxury Clotted Cream from the Devon Cream Company but have to drive about 20 minutes to get it and pay about $5.00 for a 6 oz jar. Now I can have it whenever I want! I used pasturized (not ultra pasturized) heavy whipping cream ($1.99/pint). I tried making it in a small strainer with a regular basket coffee filter with very poor results. I then made it in a small cone filter atop a coffee cup with much more satisfactory results. I found that if I stirred the cream to loosen the thick parts every few hours, I got more "clotted cream" left in the filter.  Alton says that the whey strains through the coffee filter leaving the "clotted cream" but I found the stuff that strains through more like a thick half and half cream than whey and poured it back into the carton to use in coffee.  This is the result of my endeavors:

A couple of Thank You cards done

It's funny how a spark of creativity comes out of nowhere.  Here I was, happily surfing when I got the urge to make a couple of Thank You cards.  Bernie says, "you always need Thank You cards!"  After watching Robyn at The Pink Stamper blog, I was inspired to do these:

Okay, please don't laugh!  I'm new at this, having just gotten my Cricut Expression for Christmas!  Thanks to my friend, Pat, I'm not totally without supplies.  She very generously shared some of hers with me, although I can see how easy it is to get addicted to buying them!  I think this is exactly why I never got into scrapbooking...one more addiction!  I do love how easy it is to just whip them up whenever you need 1 or 10.  LOL

A very un-Domo-kun

Chris and I love Domo-kun!  I decided to try and make our very own Domo but the result wasn't very satisfactory.  I think I made his head too tall.  I really didn't think his contruction through very well.  I'll try again but in the meantime he's hanging around the house.  Not even the dogs will play with him.

Watch Domo 7Eleven Slurpee Episode 1 in Animation  

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Happy 20th Anniversary, My Love!

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary.  I love this man more today than I did back then.  We have challenges like everyone else but in my heart I feel so much peace.  I know that no matter what, he'll take care of me, he'll be the strong one, he'll be the tough one, he'll be the level-headed one, and he'll be the smart one.  He sits back and watches me make mistakes and then laughs so hard that it makes me laugh.  We call eachother "stoopit" (stupid, but in a kind way).  We give eachother room to move.  He is my rock and I make him feel cared for.   He holds the weight of the world on his broad shoulders and we feel sheltered.  I love this man of mine!

He wanted to take me out for dinner for our anniversary but because I am still getting over the flu, I thought it would be a waste since I can't really enjoy it.  I decided instead to make dinner for us at home and leave him to his video games in the living room.  My friends who know him would think it's funny that he asked me out to dinner since they all know he hates eating out.  When I ran into a friend at the supermarket she said I should have gone, sick and all, because I never know when it will happen again!  Isn't that the truth!  That's okay.  I am where I want to be right now.
 
What else exciting happened on our anniversary?  He got to take apart the pipes under the kitchen sink!  Before I left for the store, I went under the sink for something and noticed it was wet.  Oh no!  I took everything out and wiped everything down but couldn't locate anything dripping.  I reminded him that the sink was backing up whenever I ran the dishwasher so he took everything apart and cleaned all the gunk out of the hoses and we were back in business.  No more backup when I ran the dishwasher.  Woohoo!  Poor guy, he would never have made it as a plumber...too big to fit under the sink!  I told him it's almost like plumbing by Braille since he can't see everything he's doing. 

Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Happy New Year everyone!  I don't know about you, but 2009 was a pretty good one for us.  We love eachother, we were healthy, we were together, we had a roof over our heads, the kids were happy, we had more than enough to eat, we had no family spats, we have the companionship of good friends, we have the unconditional love of our family pets, and my husband has job that he loves which allows me to stay home.  As far as I can tell, we don't have a whole heck of a lot to complain about.  We are anticipating some big changes in 2010 but as long as we're united we can get through anything.

I wish you all a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2010!