This DIY Butter Recipe will change your life

Once you know how to make homemade butter, you will dream about homemade butter. It’s soft and luscious, and tastes better than you ever thought butter could taste.

This homemade butter recipe will change your life not only for it’s pure, magical flavor, but because you’ll soon come to realize it’s a great idea to keep in your back pocket anytime you are whipping cream.

If you’re making homemade whipped cream or something else that involves whipping cream to soft peaks, but you accidentally go too far and you’ve got stiff peaks, well, just keep going. You’ll have to get more cream to make the whipped cream anyway, but at least you can turn your mistake into something useful!

Why it is better to make Butter?

Make it for the pure joy of it, honestly! Making your own butter at home is a culinary experience where you can take two simple ingredients and transform them into pure, rich butter.

Also, by making butter yourself, you have all the the control over the quality of your ingredients. Your homemade butter will taste far superior to any store-bought version you’ve ever tried.

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When I think of “party food,” it begins and ends with dip for me. Personally, I feel that no party is complete without chips and dip, veggies and dip, crackers and dip, bread and dip, buffalo chicken dip, or maybe all of the above.

And OK, maybe some charcuterie cups or shrimp deviled eggs, but those are in no way as important as the dip.

When I was a kid, I would look forward to my parents’ get-togethers with their friends only for the dip. I knew that a party meant that my mom would be buying potato chips and French onion dip, and I was probably going to eat half of it by myself.

Nowadays, I still love a good creamy dip with simple, delicious ingredients. This Roasted Garlic Dip recipe has a pretty short list of ingredients, but the roasting of the garlic imparts an incredible flavor into the cooling sour cream and creamy mayonnaise mixture.

Add the citrus zing of some lemon juice, and this dip is positively irresistible. 

Use this garlic dip for chips, crackers, toasted bread, or even as a dipping sauce for mini Hasselback potatoes or lamb lollipops.

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After Thanksgiving, is it possible that “the big game” (don’t you hate how everybody has to call it that due to copyright issues?) is the second biggest food “holiday” of the year? I know we take menu planning for it pretty seriously around here!

And somehow it’s turned into a whole day event, too. While “dinner” might be crock pot ribs or Sonoran hot dogs, you have to have snacks for the afternoon lead-up to the event, too!

If I’m attending a gathering, I might show up with individual charcuterie cups or Korean meatballs for nibbling before the game. If I’m hanging around home, I might make a little football charcuterie board for my fam, or maybe some shrimp deviled eggs and ham and turkey sliders for snacking.

But my all-time FAVORITE game day dish is this Healthy Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe. Let me tell you why it’s so good, and maybe you’ll want it to be a part of your game day celebration, too!

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the Michigan Apple Committee. All opinions are 100% my own. #MIApples

I’m not on TikTok. The only TikToks I see are the ones my friends text me, or the ones popular enough to eventually make their way onto Instagram. Honestly, if I signed up, I’d probably spend way too much time on it, so I’m OK staying off of it.

This means that most of the current food trends fly right past me, because most of them originate on TikTok. But once in awhile, some, like jarcuterie and breakfast charcuterie boards are popular enough that even I can’t ignore them.

One of the original TikTok trends, Dalgona coffee, has made it’s way into my repertoire, and when I’m not making caramel iced coffee, I’m still making Dalgona coffee (more like still trying to make my way through the HUGE jar of instant coffee granules I bought).

And recently, of course, I haven’t been able to miss the butter boards making the rounds on all forms of social media. Whether you love them, hate them or haven’t tried one yet, I’m sure you’ve also realized they’re impossible to ignore.

Give me room temperature salted butter any day of the week, and I’m in. And with it being apple season (also known as autumn) here in Pure Michigan, I thought I would combine butter with APPLE butter made from Michigan Apples to create my own spin on this wild, fun trend.

Grab some friends, and, for those over the age of 21, a round of bourbon apple cider cocktails or caramel apple mules, and let’s dive in to this butter board recipe!

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What are your thoughts on Thanksgiving appetizers? I think it kind of depends on what time you eat your main dinner.

I know some families that will do an appetizer lunch earlier in the day, but then have their main dinner with bourbon glazed turkey and grandma’s old fashioned dressing and all the other trimmings later in the evening.

My gathering usually eats our meal around 3pm, so we keep appetizers pretty simple (maybe a very small charcuterie board idea) so that we don’t fill up too much before the main event. I mean, I like to save some room for Thanksgiving salad and Thanksgiving fruit salad, because I’m a weirdo.

This simple baked goat cheese cranberry appetizer for Thanksgiving is a little something to nibble on that won’t fill you up terribly.

Plus, like my cranberry tart pie, this appetizer with goat cheese is a nice way to incorporate cranberries into this seasonal meal if traditional cranberry sauce just isn’t your favorite thing.

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Where are we at when it comes to food served in jars? I feel like recipes like mason jar taco salads, and food of all kinds served in mason jars, really, was peak 2014 on Pinterest.

Since I started this blog in 2013 and also happened to love mason jars, many of my early “popular” recipes were mason jar-based.

Trends come and go, and over time, people began replacing mason jars with other, more updated ways of packing their lunches.

But now that we’re hyper aware of germs, shared utensils and social distancing, maybe the time is right for jars to make a comeback?

I can make a pretty solid argument for jarcuterie being the new charcuterie board. And today, I’m doing away with layered dips in big communal baking dishes and serving them in individual jars instead.

The post Greek Layer Dip appeared first on Foxes Love Lemons.

You guys, it’s the last Epic Game Day recipe. I’m sort of sad it’s all over. I’ve had so much fun sharing all of my “home chef” party food recipes with you guys. But, the game is this weekend, and all good things must come to an end.

Don’t worry . . . we’re going out with a bang. What’s a party without a supremely gooey cheese dip? And this French Onion Cheese Fondue, oh man. It’s a blend of three of the tastiest and best melting cheeses in the world.

Why have one cheese when you can have three? And then, it’s kicked up a notch with a big batch of deeply caramelized onions.

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If it’s game day, there MUST be chicken wings on the menu (and a football themed charcuterie board, but that’s another story).

Wings are totally non-negotiable, at least in my house! We like to experiment with different combinations of marinade, dry rubs, and sauces for either the wings themselves, or dipping sauces.

This year, I have A LOT of different things going on on my Epic Game Day menu, so I decided to keep the wings themselves simple, but really bring the flavor with a creamy  mayonnaise-based dipping sauce.

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So lately, it’s become apparent that expanding my list of charcuterie ideas is something of a hobby / passion project for me.

If I have a week where I don’t have much client work going on, my grocery cart is subconsciously navigated to the cheese counter of my store.

Before I know it, I’m brainstorming a breakfast charcuterie board or smoked salmon platter, or even a charcuterie chalet.

They’re so much fun to put together, they’re beautiful to photograph, and let’s face it: eating a big ol’ platter of cheese and goodies for dinner isn’t the worst thing.

So today, we’ve got a Winter Cheese Board with German Beer Cheese Fondue to talk about. Here’s what we have going on:

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If you grew up attending parties where the centerpiece of the snack buffet was a giant hollowed-out loaf of pumpernickel bread filled to the brim with creamy spinach dip  . . .  you might be from the Midwest. Or, wait.

Was that a Midwest thing? Or was it a 1980-1990’s thing? It’s hard to know, because the two are inextricably linked in my brain. In the 80’s and 90’s, I was growing up in the Midwest.

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