Cranberry Honey Butter

This compound butter is tangy and slightly sweet, terrific on seasonal veggies, desserts, or breads. It's a terrific last minute homemade addition to a Thanksgiving or holiday meal.

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I couldn't decide if I should post this recipe for Thanksgiving, Thanksgivukkah, or Christmas meals, so I opted for the 'throw it up there the day before Thanksgiving and call it a last-minute homemade addition' strategy.


Did it work?


If you're reading this in a turkey coma, I hope to give you ideas for upcoming meals or a reason to toss a bag of cranberries (on sale now, impossible to find later) into the freezer.

The pretty pink color would look nice on a variety of tablescapes--Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's day--tragically I am not a tablescape kind of person. I can cook the food. Don't rely on me to make it look pretty, too.

Wild Violet Butter for #EasterWeek

Fresh wild violets and wild violet sugar make a sweetly floral compound butter perfect for celebrating all things Spring. Add this spread to an Easter or Mother's Day brunch to bring a taste of fresh local foods to your table.

Welcome to day 1 of #EasterWeek hosted by Bernadette from Rants From My Crazy Kitchen!

This week we are celebrating Easter and Bernadette’s blogging anniversary with all kinds of delicious recipes and a giveaway! From appetizers to ham recipes, we have everything you need for a great Easter dinner or brunch, and one lucky winner will receive a $200 Amazon gift card.  Scroll down for more details!

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The key ingredient in this recipe can be foraged, for free, across North America and beyond. I'm not one to turn away free food, especially free food that pops up when I'm most in need of a fresh local food fix after months of eating from the freezer, the canning shelves, and the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve. Granted, I cannot live on a diet of wild violets, but that doesn't stop me from using them in a variety of ways. Today's recipe is my third using wild violets. I've shared Wild Violet Granola, which I made using wild violet syrup. I've made Wild Violet Muffins--dunking the tops in wild violet sugar to finish them off sweetly. This time I'm also using the fresh flowers--not just in a syrup, jelly, or sugar preparation--to make a compound butter.

Use this wild violet butter as a spread for biscuits, scones, muffins or toast. Add it to an Easter spread or Mother's Day brunch. If you're fortunate to have ample blossoms [I almost typed ample bosoms] it would be neat to decorate the table with some as well. Start with a good quality salted butter. Typically I buy unsalted butter in bulk, so making compound butters are when I splurge for the single packages of salted butter, and usually a European style butter because it's creamier.

Making compound butters is an easy way to add a bit of flair to a holiday meal.  They keep for several days in the fridge (longer in the freezer, although I've not frozen this type of butter) so you can prepare early for your celebration. In the summertime I'll use an abundance of herbs to make Dill Butter. For Thanksgiving and Christmas I like to serve Cranberry Honey Butter. It's a small addition, but it's a nice touch that makes a special meal that much more special.