Everything is better with butter. But it's even better with better butter.

Did you follow that? Full confession time: Of all the delicious fancy foods at the Food & Wine Experience a few weeks back, the most delicious thing we tasted was organic butter on a cracker. The smear? Hope.

No, it's not some newly branded Obama dairy product. It comes from a creamery in Hope, MN just over an hour south of the Twin Cities. The locally owned business been churning out the premium stuff for over 100 years and it's in restaurants and grocery stores across the area.

What makes it so much better is the higher fat content (don't think about this too much), like European butter, which also means it contains less water. So pats are creamier and pastries bake up flakier. Go ahead and spread it on toast, bake a batch of cookies, or saute some vegetables.

It's the cream of the crop.

Hope Butter in salted, unsalted and organic, around $4 per pound (more for organic), available at Byerly's, Lunds, Kowalski's and the Wedge Co-op.

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