Garden Butter

Recently I found a recipe on Pinterest for Basil Butter. I made it and loved it! After I made the first batch, I went back outside to pick some more basil when it struck me: Why don’t I just use everything? I have a bunch of herbs including basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and green onions. So I picked a bunch of everything and thus Garden Butter was born. Now there are multiple different ways you can finish it. One is you can get a jar and fill it with the butter. I found that one recipe fills a little more than one 8oz jar (I used the 8oz “collection” jar). You can use the silicone ice mold in fancy shapes, freeze, and pop out when solid. Or, you can do my preference and ball it and freeze it. It will hold for a lot longer in the freezer than the fridge and the balls are pre-measured to make your life easier. You can use a simple melon baller/cookie dough scooper. The balls turn out to be just over 1 tablespoon a piece, which is perfect.

Step 1:

1. Grab the herbs from your garden (or store) which you enjoy and that go together. I recommend:

-basil

-thyme

-rosemary

-parsley

-1 green onion.

Additional ingredients:
-Lemon juice
-salt
-pepper
-unsalted butter
-garlic (roasted or powder, but I highly recommend roasted)

2. Wash all your herbs and pre-chop. I recommend pre-chopping because my food processor just mashes the herbs, or throws them against the sides if I try to use it to chop.

Step 2:

3. Take 2 sticks of unsalted butter and soften in the microwave. Don’t melt! You just want it to be not rock-hard so you don’t burn out the motor on your processor.

4. Add herbs and butter to processor along with 1tbp lemon juice (fresh or bottled), freshly ground salt and pepper to taste, and 1 whole roasted garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder (let’s not make this too salty OK?).

5. Blend until smooth and evenly mixed.

Step 3:

6. If you want to use jars, just spoon the mixture in and refrigerate to set. If you want to ball

6a. Take a cookie sheet and line it with wax paper

6b. Using a cookie dough scooper, scoop mixture and deposit ball on wax paper

6c. Freeze over night, or until completely set

6d. Once totally frozen you can put in cute containers or simply Tupperware. It makes the perfect hostess gift!