Strawberry Shortcake- Vintage recipe

I love love love fresh strawberries. When Spring rolls around and I start seeing these crimson beauties on the store shelves my mouth waters with the possibilities. Add in some fresh homemade whipped cream, and I'm in heaven. *sigh*
Needless to say strawberry shortcake is one of my absolute favorite desserts.. I've always made the shortcake from the bisquik recipe on the box. I figured it's about time I try it from scratch. It turned out delicious, a good balance to the sweet strawberries and cream. And it was super easy to prepare.
Recipe from Fireside Cookbook 1949


Ingredients

2 cups sifted flour
2 1/2 tea baking powder
3/4 tea salt
2 TB sugar
5 TB shortening
3/4 cup milk

Directions

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until it looks like course meal. Add milk and stir until you have a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 30 seconds. Divide dough into two parts, 2/3 for bottom, 1/3 for top. Pat or roll larger section onto floured surface and shape evenly. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Dot well with butter or brush heavily with melted butter. Bake 450 12 to 15 minutes. Remove top section and place strawberries on the bottom crust and cover with top. Garnish with homemade whipped cream.

 

I do mix a tablespoon of sugar into my strawberries as well, to help release the juices. I found the directions a little vague as how to bake, so I baked the top and bottom apart from one another, I think next time I will bake them atop one another.

Project Monday- yes, I know its Tuesday

So, this weeks photo prompt was "other cameras need love too". Agreed! I have an old school Canon T50 which may be older than I am. It was my first SLR. It is a truly beautiful piece of machinery, and it still takes gorgeous pictures. I ruined one of lenses at Craters of the Moon, Idaho when I was younger. Like a dummy I switched lenses in the lava park and little granules of lava sand got inside and completely stuck the moving parts. So all I have is the portrait lens. Which is fine because that is what I prefer to shoot. Oh, then there was the time my niece pulled it off the table (she was 3, I'm a dummy) and broke the external flash (it has no internal). Like I said, my first SLR. Abused, but works! As long as your well lit and close. My other non-digital camera is a Yashica Electro 35, I need to replace the light seals and modify it slightly to take a present day battery (they took mercury batteries), but I haven't found the time.
So all this was just a really elaborate excuse as to why I can't really take a picture and give my other cameras some love. But, I did use a Polaroid for a recent assignment, so I thought this a good opportunity to share. Lucky for me one of my class mates had one of these bad boys, and with film, so I could see my project to completion. We actually used Polaroid at work up until a couple years ago, but it was still awkward and foreign to operate, and the picture I took came out crappy. Maybe because I took it inside a fluorescent lit classroom?

Tattoos

I just wanted to pop in for a moment to let you know I'm alive. These past few weeks have been some crazy times. It's hard to believe that in just three short weeks this semester will be over. I have some more work to share with you shortly, but for today I thought I'd share tattoos.

This was the next day.  By day three my arm swelled up so big! I was freaking out, the swelling carried all the way down into my forearm. I don't have a picture, because I was so freaked out. A friend recommended benadryl and that helped significantly. But it also knocked me on my ass.

Well, I hope to be back shortly for my Project Monday post. I haven't been able to keep up these past two weeks, but I aim to pick back up again where I left off. But it's time to go help the little bug with her homework!

Little Boxes...

Source

At the Studio

I'm at the tattoo studio right now. The artist said "you can use the computer, that is, if you know how to use a Mac. You don't look like you know how to use a mac."
What?!
Damn. That hurts.

A different sort-of sugar cookie- Vintage Recipe

Yeah, a sugar cookie recipe is a sugar cookie recipe. They are all pretty much about the same, at least in my slightly limited experience. I do love trying different ones though, in hopes of finding the perfect one. I like when a little lemon or orange zest is added, that's super yummy. I like when they bake up nice and fluffy too. I decided to give this vintage sugar cookie recipe a try because it doesn't use granulated sugar, it uses powdered. Interesting. They are halfway between being a fluffy or crisp cookie, so pretty good texture. And the almond extract is a great flavor. I didn't want to mask the almond extract, so we just sprinkled a little bit of sugar crystal on the top. Enjoy ;)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, soft
1 egg
1 tea vanilla
1/2 tea almond extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose/ whole wheat flour
1 tea baking soda
1 tea cream of tartar

Mix powdered sugar, butter, egg, vanilla and almond extract. Mix in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Heat oven to 375. Divide dough into halves. Roll each half 3/16 inch thick on lightly floured cloth-covered board. Cut into shapes. Sprinkle with sugar crystals, place on a lightly greased sheet. Bake until edges are a light brown, 7-8 minutes.

XO

I laugh at myself

I really kind of have too. I do a blog post about being back from a blogging hiatus, then disappear again! Oh, I crack me up. All kidding aside, is it weird that I feel super remorseful that I have failed my blog, Epically? Is that even a word? Well, I did it none the less. Once upon a time I had delusions of grandeur and dreamt of someday having an awesome blog with tons of reader worthy content. But then I get so enveloped in my scholastic studies and, well, life in general. And my poor blog goes by the wayside. I feel like I've said this before. Maybe I've just thought about it a lot. I need to jot my ideas down more often, they are way too fleeting. Then maybe I'd have some reader worthy content. I even tried "scheduling" my blog time. But sometimes I just can't fit it in.
I do feel especially bad for missing the past two Project Monday posts, but I have them here today. The topic from last Monday was spring flowers. 'Not fair' is what I thought when I read that over at the Bubblegum Life blog. It was still blustery and threatening snow. And it still is, in between days of 70-75. The next day the fates opened a beautiful bright yellow daffodil in my front yard. So that's what that plant that always dies from the snow looks like. It's come up a couple times since we moved in, and I had an inkling it was a daffodil, but then it never bloomed, or was killed by a freeze. They are quite lovely, and a most definite sign of the season.

Yesterdays  project Monday topic was "sharing happy thoughts". I was inspired by Carrie's photograph, and decided to take a picture of a card Celeste made for me. She draws me pictures and makes me things all the time. It makes me feel so special. I love that she creates wonderful and precious things for me. Lately she has been putting "MPU" on her works of art.
"what's M-P-U?" I ask her
"Muh-wah" she makes a kissing sound that we always make at each other.
How cute, she totally spelled a kissing sound for her mommy. I love it!

And lastly, for my wonderful little catch up and say sorry about my lame forgetting to blog-ness.... I really can't remember my last outfit post. I love sharing my outfit posts. At first I felt like a big fat dork, Same as when I first shared pictures of my home. But then I realized those are my two favorite things from other blogs I read, I love to see how they dress and how they decorate their homes. I first embarked on my little "anti-jeans adventure this past fall. The whole idea was to replace my average jeans and tee shirt get up with something cuter, something a with more style, something not jeans. Well, some of the time. I have been making it a point to dress nicely to all my critiques in class. Yet again, epic fail here, haven't taken any pictures. It's usually cold, windy, poor light... I know, excuses! Anyway, this Spring will be an interesting transition. While I usually pair my skirts and dresses with cardi's, I will have to find a short sleeved substitute as warm weather approaches. It will be a whole new sort of adventure now! I hope I can transition flawlessly, or at least with some grace - XO.

Cardigan-Old Navy (one of my faves!) Skirt- Forever 21 Shoes and Earrings- thrifted vintage