Herbed Butter ~ A Day in the Kitchen

I have been searching the organic section of our grocer for fresh thyme (sadly I did not put a pot of it in my kitchen last fall).  They seem to be out of it often.

I decided to use my dried thyme and use less of it  (dried is more potent).  Most recipes that use 1 stick of organic butter, require about 3 Tablespoons of fresh herbs, plus garlic.

I did not want garlic in my herbed butter for breakfast toast.  I wanted simply thyme.  Thyme has so many healthy qualities and I love the taste of it on toast with a few eggs.

I mixed 2 Tbsp. of dried thyme (crushing as I added), and 1 stick of butter, plus about 1 Tbsp. or organic/non-gmo olive oil (making it a bit more spreadable).  I use a hand mixer to mix this.  I also do not roll it up and wrap it and refrigerate it.  It will be gone quickly.  I put it in a glass jar.

General rule:  1/3 dried for fresh, so 1 Tbsp fresh would be 1 tsp. dried. 

 The snow continues to arrive, but in big soft falling flakes.  The sun came out every once in a while, but the snow was beautiful.  We have just enough to cover the ground.

I had just enough fresh mushrooms to make a few "cans" of mushroom soup.

I decided to make a cup of Thyme Tea and sip it while I stirred the shallots and mushrooms.  Thyme is one of those herbs that give the body an all out healing from exhaustion, anxiety, etc.  Of course it has many more healing qualities too.

My family is so spoiled.  We now have restocked 2 "cans" of soup, but I really need to restock about 8 more to just have it on hand for "comfort" meals.  This is excellent on a roast in the crock pot too. 

Soup recipe:  Homemade Condensed Soup

I wasn't sure when I would get this blog post posted today.  The puppies and old man Jesse have been so needy this morning.  I'll have to get an updated photo soon to share.  King seems to be my "baby" versus Zuri.  He comes to my lap every morning for hugs.  Zuri is all muscle.  When she comes running, she has lots of pounce to it.  

We nick-named Zuri "wiggles" because her back end wiggles when she is excited to see us.  King is nick-named "chompers."  When he's playing with Zuri, she'll bark at him, and he'll "chomp" at her.  He lifts his upper lip, showing his teeth, and open and shuts his jaw, clicking it together, pretending to "chomp" her.  It is so funny to watch.   The puppies can be quite the entertainment.

We have had more "puppy" casualties.  Like this morning when King came flying down the stairs with one of the girl's make up brushes in his mouth.  Ha.  The kids just have to remember to keep stuff up, and make sure their basket of toys is available to them.