The Paddle Broke

No, it's not what you're thinking! Not a whoopin' stick. The butter paddle, as in churning butter. Sigh.

Fade back a few days. Prep time for our big, annual Thanksgiving hot lunch at school. Each class was assigned an item to prepare for the meal. Second and third - homemade butter. You got it. Well, as homemade as heavy whipping cream from the store...not milk fresh from the cow, homemade cow, that sort of thing. That's God's department.

Heavy duty clay butter crock. Check. Wooden paddle and handle. Check. Lid. Check. Sheet to spread on the floor for splashes. Check. Clean hands and 8 students. Check.

Pour. Churn. Churn. Churn. Churn. Taking turns. Churn. Churn. Churn. What???? Where'd the paddle part go? Inside the messy partially churned heavy whipping cream.

Dig it out. What else is available? A wooden spoon or a black plastic slotted spoon. Uh, let's go with the slotted spoon, since it covers move space in the cream. Stir, churn, stir, churn, tired arms, tired, restless students, 1 1/2 hours...NO BUTTER!

Fast forward. Mrs. Quantrell at home. Potato masher. Churn full of resting cream now. Churn, churn, churn for 1 1/4 hours longer. FINALLY, butter chunks. Whew.

Could not feel arm and shoulder. Splashes everywhere. Butter everywhere.

But we had homemade BUTTER at our feast. Oh yeah. It was delish.

Now to fix the churn paddle before next year.