Rosemary Honey Butter

While on vacation in Panama City Beach a few weeks ago, our family ventured over to the St. Andrews Peninsula area to spend a day at the beach. After a full day of fun in the sun, we had dinner at a place called Joe Mama's Pizza (mainly because we thought the name was funny). We ended up having some amazing wood fired pizza; but, I fell in love with the rosemary honey butter that they served with warm bread as an appetizer. I had been dabbling in making my own butter at home and immediately decided to try to recreate this flavored butter once we got home.

Making your own butter is not hard. All you need is heavy whipping cream and a container with a lid (you could use a stand mixer but there's something fun about shaking it up in the container). Your kids could even do it. Rule of thumb- the bigger the container, the more cream you need, the longer it takes. If you are having a kid help make butter, give them a smaller container. Mason jars are perfect for this. I use a pint jar, but if Peanut was helping me, I'd pour some cream into two half-pint jars for he and I to shake. ***Side note- I'm picturing having Peanut make some butter as a way to calm down when frustrated. Are you mad at Mommy? Take it out on this jar of cream!!!***

Gather your cream and jar. Better cream= better butter. All I have access to right now is Kroger cream; however, the butter made from this still tastes pretty darn amazing! Start out by pouring some cream into your container (about half full...or half empty if you are a pessimist) and putting the lid on. I let the cream sit out for 10-15 minutes to warm up a bit. Butter forms when the cream is about 50-55 degrees F. You can do this straight out of the fridge, but just know that you'll be shaking your jar for a lot longer while the cream warms up. Then, start shaking! Turn on the T.V., talk on the phone, or turn on the music and have a dance party to keep you entertained while shaking your cream. You are going to shake, and shake, and shake, and shake....until you have butter! Here's what will happen- you will start shaking your cream and you'll be able to hear the liquid sloshing around inside. As you keep shaking, the cream is going to get really thick and you won't be able to hear the sloshing any more....KEEP SHAKING. Trust me. You'll feel really silly because you are going to think nothing is happening. KEEP SHAKING. Just when you think your arms are going to fall off, all of the sudden the cream will pull away from the sides of your jar and you'll hear sloshing again. That means you are done! This will take anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on how warm your cream was and how much you used.

After 8 minutes of shaking....very thick and not a lot of sloshing. KEEP SHAKING!

15 minutes later- BUTTER!!!

Once you hear the liquid sloshing around in your jar, dump your jar into a strainer and separate the liquid (which is now buttermilk) from the butter. Rinse your butter under cold water to removed excess buttermilk and then pat dry with a towel.

From here, you can add a bit of salt if you like salted butter and then form into whatever shape you want. The first few times I just put it in a plastic container. Put it into the fridge to harden and enjoy!

If you would like to flavor your butter, put it into a bowl and mix in your ingredients. For my rosemary honey butter, I went out to our trusty rosemary plant and picked off a few sprigs.

Rosy the rosemary plant

I then had to run back to my bathroom to get my raw, unprocessed, local honey. Why is my honey in the bathroom you ask? For face wash, of course!

I chopped up my rosemary and added it to the butter (it ended up being about 1/2 Tbsp.) and then added 1 Tbsp of honey (after tasting the butter the next morning, the honey flavor wasn't super strong, so I'll probably throw in 2 Tbsp of honey next time). Mix everyone up.

Put your butter into a plastic container and put into the fridge to harden. I put mine on a piece of wax paper, rolled it up, and then twisted the ends like a peppermint candy before putting into the fridge.

You can use the butter immediately, but if you let the flavors meld a bit, it tastes way better! 

The butter will need to be eaten within a week or so due to the fact there aren't any extra preservatives in it. My family has found that it isn't too hard to do! Enjoy!

Breakfast Casseroles Bites

My baby starts Kindergarten tomorrow. He is so flipping excited. Me, not so much. It isn't because I don't want him to go to school. Trust me, this last week has gone by so slow. He and I definitely need a regularly scheduled break from each other after two months of almost solid one-on-one time. I hope this doesn't make me a bad parent, nor do I want it to come off that I don't love him. Momma just needs some quiet time. But I digress...back to why I am not excited about school starting back up. I am not a morning person. It takes me a while to get going in the morning. I'm the person who will set four different alarms on my phone, only to snooze all of them and wake up with 15 minutes to get ready to go. Not being a morning person makes getting a kid up, dressed, fed, and to school somewhat difficult. Peanut's breakfasts last year for PreK consisted of either frozen waffles, cinnamon toast (or toast with jam), cereal, or an apple sauce pouch with a granola bar. I didn't win any parent of the year awards with that carb heavy breakfast menu. This year I'm going to try to be a little better on the breakfast end. I'm sure we will still be rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off, but Peanut will not be eating frozen waffles five days in a row. He and I brainstormed a list of five different breakfasts and before bedtime, he will choose which one he wants the following morning. No breakfast will be repeated until he has had all five choices. One of the breakfast ideas he came up with was Breakfast Casserole Bites (he calls them egg cups). We were introduced to these babies about two years ago when a friend brought a big frozen batch of them on vacation. They are pretty easy to assemble ahead of time and freeze beautifully. Pop them in the microwave and voila! Yummy breakfast goodness. If you make these, I really recommend buying silicone muffin liners. They cut down on cleanup and help keep the "bites" separated when freezing. Just don't forget to take them off before microwaving!!!

Breakfast Casserole Bites

Makes 12 (I always double the recipe)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients-

• two pieces of sandwich bread (I usually fish out the butt pieces of the loaf to use for this)
• 8 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 oz grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 lb cooked, drained, and crumbled bacon or sausage

Step 1- Place liners in muffin pan. I'm sure you could grease the cups and forgo the liners, but I've never made them this way.

Step 2- Cut up bread into 1/2" pieces and distribute evenly throughout the muffin pan.

Obviously, I doubled the recipe.

Step 3- Sprinkle an even amount of meat into each cup.

Mmmmm...sausage.

Step 4- Whisk together the eggs and milk.

 Step 5- Evenly distribute the egg mixture into the cups.

Step 6- Add an even-ish amount of cheese to each cup.

Step 7- Bake 15-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven until eggs are set and cheese is bubbling.

Step 8- If freezing, let cool, remove from pan, and store in a freezer safe container. Separate layers with wax paper. 

Once frozen, pop one into the microwave (remove liner and put on a microwave safe plate) for one and a half minutes. Then.....enjoy!!! Each "bite" is roughly 175 calories, depending on  the quality of your ingredients.