On the frugal-living site, The Balance (www.thebalance.com), I found an article by Erin Huffstetler on clever uses for heavy cream. A timely topic, really, since this is the time of year that holiday-oriented foods and ingredients start to go on sale. Chances are good we’ll be seeing whipping cream marked down often between now and New Year’s Day.

With that introduction, here’s what Erin suggests we do with our heavy cream (besides whipping it for desserts and churning it into ice cream):

Make your own sour cream. Real sour cream tastes so much better than that fake stuff they try to pass off as sour cream at the grocery store. Just mix your leftover heavy cream with buttermilk, and you'll be on your way to your first batch. This works because the lactic acid bacteria in the buttermilk (or sour cream) ferments the cream, causing it to sour and thicken. The technical name of what you’ll be making is crème fraiche. But your taste buds won’t care what you call it!

Here's the recipe:

HOMEMADE SOUR CREAM (yield: 1 ¼ cups)

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup buttermilk (or store-bought sour cream)

Pour the ingredients into a sterilized pint jar; seal; and shake vigorously to combine. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 24 hours to allow the sour cream to develop. Then, give your finished sour cream a good stir, and store it in the refrigerator, if you won't be using it right away.

NOTE: You can easily scale the recipe up or down to meet your needs. If you're making more than two cups, you'll need to use a quart jar.

Make Butter. Whip cream in a mixer or blender, until all the liquid (buttermilk) separates out and a ball forms. Voila, that’s it. Refrigerate the liquid for use in other cooking and baking.

If you don't plan to use your butter right away, knead it under cold running water for several minutes to work out any remaining buttermilk (otherwise the butter will spoil quickly). Just to warn you: This is kind of a messy job. And of course, you can always add salt and/or herbs to your butter.

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Make a Good Pasta Sauce Even Better. Add it to a tomato-based sauce, or use it to make Alfredo. Here’s the BEST Alfredo recipe I’ve ever tried:

BEST ALFREDO SAUCE

½ cup butter

1 pint heavy whipping cream (2 cups)

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

½ teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

In a medium saucepan add butter, heavy whipping cream, and cream cheese. Cook over medium heat and whisk until melted. Add the minced garlic, garlic powder, italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Continue to whisk until smooth. Add the grated parmesan cheese.

Bring to a simmer and continue to cook for about 3-5 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Toss it with your favorite pasta!

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Add it to your soups and stews. This makes them creamier and works well with mushroom, broccoli, potato, leek, and chicken noodle soups. And use cream (rather than water) when making your thickening gravy for your stews. One tip: To avoid curdling, add your cream at the end of your cooking time.

Upgrade Your Scrambled Eggs by adding just add a splash to improve the flavor and texture of your eggs. It's an easy way to turn an everyday dish into something special.

I’ll close with a few cream tips:

Extend the life of your cream. While it actually has a long fridge life, you can lengthen it even more by storing it in the back of the fridge (where it's coldest).

If you're short on time, you can also freeze heavy cream to save for later use. Frozen cream will still whip and do all the things you need it to. Either freeze it in its original carton or use ice cube trays. Once the cubes are hard, pop them into zippered plastic freezer bags for long-term storage (up to 6 months).

If you always seem to have heavy cream leftover (this Swede can’t imagine such a thing, but OK…), consider switching to powdered heavy cream. You can keep it in your pantry, and mix it up whenever you need it, and in whatever quantity you need, thereby eliminating all future leftovers. (I found a 1 pound bag for $12.99 on amazon.com.)