Cream Cheese and Sour Cream

Cream Cheese

1 quart homemade or store-bought plain yogurt (whole milk or low-fat, depending on your preference)

Place a clean kitchen towel or clean muslin in a colander. Place the colander in a bowl that is large enough to hold it. Add the yogurt to the lined colander and wrap the towel over the top to cover (or use a plate). Leave this to drain for about 5 hours in the refrigerator. If you want a thicker consistency, leave it longer, making sure to empty what is draining so it doesn't reach the bottom of the colander and get reabsorbed. Store your finished cream cheese in a resealable container in the fridge. Better yet, use one of your old packaged cream cheese containers to do the job!

Your cream cheese will last as long as your yogurt would, so if you used purchased yogurt rather than make it your self, check the expiration date and use that as your guide.I recommend to make the yogurt yourself since this will cut down on additional waste especially if you can get your milk in returnable glass bottles.) If you want to get fancy, you can add flavorings to your cream cheese. Try adding homemade strawberry jam for strawberry-flavored cream cheese. If you spent time dehydrating onions, then adding those (or fresh green onions) and chives from your garden will make a tasty chive-and-onion cream cheese spread.

 Sour Cream

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream or buttermilk (or even white vinegar will work)

Instructions

In a screw-top jar or mason jar with lid, combine the heavy cream and sour cream (or buttermilk). Shake the ingredients up a bit to thoroughly mix and let stand, covered, at room temperature for about 24 hours or until it becomes very thick. You can store your sour cream in the refrigerator in the original jar you mixed it in (or use some other resealable container) for up to one week. Make sure that your sour cream is well chilled before using.

If you want to make a lighter sour cream, substitute whole milk for 1/2 cup of the heavy cream. 

Quick Homemade Butter

Quick Homemade Butter

Equipment.

• Mixer (or jar to shake)
• Strainer
• Bowl
• Spatula

Ingredients.

• Heavy cream (preferably fresh/Raw)

Steps.

1.  Leave the cream out for a bit so that it warms to 50F or so.

2.  Pour the cream into the mixer with a whisk attachment.  Put a cover over the mixer, so you don’t splatter cream all over your kitchen:
Alternatively, you can pour the cream into a jar you can shake.  (This will take longer, but your arms will get a good workout, and you can make it a family project.) 
3.  Mix on medium-high for 5-7 minutes.  For once in your life, you get to over-whip cream!  Here’s what you’ll see:When the butter has separated from the liquid, you’re done mixing
4.  Strain the butter into a bowl, making sure all the liquid runs out.  Then set aside the liquid.  (That liquid is homemade, uberfresh buttermilk!)
5.  Rinse the butter with water to remove any excess liquid.6.  Knead the butter with a spatula to bring together the curds.  This doesn’t take long – a minute or two.  If you want to salt your butter, now is a good time.  (We prefer to have unsalted butter, which gives us more salt control when cooking.)Save the butter in a sealed container in the fridge, and use the fresh buttermilk for pancakes or homemade biscuits!