For Marimekko Week, we wanted to make (and eat) one of the delicious Finnish dishes on the Marimekko Feeling Festive blog. Armi Ratia has been an inspiration to so many, myself included, for decades. The clean lines and graphic look of Marimekko patterns are both simple and exciting to the eye and the bold, bright colors exude confidence and happiness. I feel a distant kinship with Armi and the Marimekko process. There exists a shared desire to create beauty in things that will last a very long time.

That colorful simplicity of Marimekko design finds its way into the Festive blog recipes. This Carrot Butter was well loved by our staff on a very cold, grey day.

As so often happens, we couldn’t help but change the recipe just a bit. Carrots are in season here in north Alabama and one of our Alabama Chanin staff dug up some little carrots from her garden for this treat. They weren’t “supermarket” beautiful, but tangled and unique, sweet and delicious, and delivered to us with rich, black soil still hanging from the roots.

You need only two large carrots (or a handful of little twisty ones) and about a stick of butter. The recipe calls for 100 grams of butter, which comes out to one stick minus about one tablespoon. Once mixed together and smooth, I decided it needed a hint more sweetness and stirred in about a half tablespoon of local honey. Spread over homemade cornbread, the Carrot Butter proved very popular.