Recipe: Strawberry Shortcake
Rainy days (or snowy days) and Monday’s call for something fantastic. Homemade strawberry shortcake for lunch? OK. If you say so.
It’s snowing here, but it is Spring somewhere, which is why Costco has giant tubs of strawberries for $6.99. And giant tubs of strawberries mean strawberry shortcake. This is one of my favorite warm weather treats. I look forward to my first one every year. And this year for the first time maybe ever I can hardly wait for spring to really get here. I just want those cold weather colds to go away for a while. I mean, I’d love it if the snow and crunchy winter weather got to stay, but I really just don’t want to be sick anymore. So I am welcoming spring for the first year ever. And I decided that if you welcome spring with strawberries and whipped cream then it’s not so bad.
I am not one of those people who puts cake with my strawberry shortcake. I think it’s too sweet and not sturdy enough to handle as much whipped cream as is necessary. So I make a sweet biscuit. I like it a lot better.
RECIPE:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 TB baking powder
- 1/2 tea salt
- 2 TB sugar
- 1/3 cup soft butter
- 3/4 cup milk OR 1 cup buttermilk
Sift the dry ingredients together, and then cut in the butter until it looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in milk lightly with a fork (or your mixer) until the dough pulls away from the bowl. Flour your work surface and roll the dough out to about 3/4 inch thick. Cut out with a round biscuit cutter or the bottom of a glass. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper at 450 degrees for 11-14 minutes until the top is just barely barely starting to get a little color. They are supposed to be white, not tan.
When the biscuits have cooled, split them in half and layer with diced strawberries mixed with a little sugar to help them get juicy and whipped cream. Don’t put them together until right before you are going to eat them. And then you’ll probably need to make another. You know, just for good measure.
And be warned that something this good is not going to escape the notice of the small child hanging around you while you work. You can’t sneak Strawberry Shortcake past her. No sir.
Last Weekends Projects
It just seems that my weeks keep getting away from me, I can’t believe it’s Friday already. I took these pictures last friday, amazingly before I wrapped them up for the baby shower. But then I started washing all my fabric, and we went to InstaCare again, and I made a March Madness dress for Creamie and I kind of got sidetracked. So here they are. I’m going to link them up to Sew&Tell at Amy’s.
First up I made this little sundress for my cousins soon to be born baby girl. For the dress I just kind of winged it… It’s really only three rectangles sewn together and some elastic thread magic. Easy Peasy. For the matching bloomers I used this tutorial, but next time I make them I will definietly be making changes. They are about 3 inches too wide in the crotch and about an inch and a half not tall enough in the rise. But it was a good learning experience. I love how the dress turned out. And I really like putting a big wide strip of trim along the bottom. It’s also my secret for adding length to make the dress last another year.
This little onesie (yeah, I’ve made a few of these so far!) is for another cousin who is having another child after 12 years of waiting. I couldn’t be more excited for this little guy to get here. And I am sure he will be the handsomest little guy in his stripey tie and suspenders. (Pattern from here) I have a few more little baby dresses and shirts to work on this weekend. And I should really just make a bunch and stock up. Because in my life January and February babies always get the shaft. I am worn out with Christmas sewing and never get myself put together enough to have something ready to go. I am also working on a big secret commissioned Easter project that is turning out to be pretty awesome. Have a good weekend, I’ll be spending it at the sewing machine. Which will be awesome.
March Madness
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that we are all out March Madness fanatics. Scott did his bracket, I could care less about who wins. But I do enjoy watching a few games, as long as Oreo’s are involved. But my alma mater, BYU is playing tonight. They’ve had an incredible season, and I really hope that they win today. And so does Creamie (she is kind of their smallest cheerleader.)
OK, so really, she has very little idea about the whole thing, but she does like to watch basketball with us. And she knows that we root for the Cougars. And for Jimmer, number 32. Several weeks ago we found out that Creamie had the flu because she puked at the grocery store. I’ll spare you the details, but I’ll just say that I striped her down to her socks and a diaper and took everything else home in a garbage bag. The poor grocery store worker who was helping me get her cleaned up a bit brought her this shirt to wear home. It was 20 degrees outside and I took my child home in a tshirt. That was 8 sizes too big.
A few days ago I decided to turn that way too big shirt into something she could wear. So I used one of her t-shirts for a guide and cut it apart then sewed it back together again with teeny puffed sleeves and a dropwaisted skirt. And I think she looks adorable. And this morning she told me that her name was Jimmer Cougar. It was a proud moment for me.
She has a little basketball hoop in her room that she loves to play with. Only, she is still a little too short to dunk it. But she can always convince her dad to play with her. And he’s really good with the assists.
This was my first time sewing on knits. And it was a lot easier than I expected. And I am pretty sure that knits and elastic thread were meant to go toether, for reals. I have quite the stack of knits from my mom, and I really think that without too much trouble I’ll be able to turn them into piles of summer dresses and new pajamas. And in the meantime, Go Cougars! Jimmer Cougar is rooting for you.
*Thanks for all the comments and concern about her 5ths disease. Today her rash is completely gone. Which is awesome. I hope that no one else gets it, because apparently 5ths in adults can lead to joint pain for YEARS.
5ths Disease
Last night we had to take Creamie to Instacare. Because she is sick. Again. Only this time it looks WAY WAY worse than anything else she has ever had. It isn’t worse, exactly, it just looks worse. She has something called 5ths disease. And it looks like this:
All of a sudden last night her cheeks turned BRIGHT sunburn red, and the had these puffy white welts on them, which you can’t really see in the phone pic. But they kind of look like a burn from a hot pan. And she had spots on her arms, and some more big ones on her wrist.s. We were sure it was an allergic reaction to something. So while I was on the phone with the doctors office she was in the tub. I figured if it was something on her skin we should at least wash it off. Turns out it just looks bad, but isn’t really painful. Uncomfortable, but not painful. Oh, and it looks like I am a terrible mother who doesn’t know about sunscreen or keeping small children away from hot objects. Great.
It’s caused by a virus, and she should be over it in another week or two. This morning the redness has gone down considerably, but everytime she bumps something it flares up again in that spot. Which is constantly, because come on, she’s two. We’ll be staying home for another few days until the coughy/sneezy/snotty/cold-like part of 5ths disease is gone and until I am sure she isn’t contagious anymore. Just add this one to the list of sickness that has been my life since Christmas. I should point out that when I was young I went to my Kindergarten doctors checkup and then didn’t go back until I was 18. I really don’t know what it’s like to be sick. And I am not really dealing with it well. I’m eating a lot of cookies though. And that seems to help.
My Weekend
On Friday afternoon I started working on a few little projects, and somewhere in the middle of that I decided that I was going to start one very very large one. And two days after the small one is finished, the large one is still all over my living room, but not in a good way. I kind of decided to wash all of my fabric. Well, not ALL of it, this is only about 20 percent of my stash. This all came off of two shelves (and one giant pile of unshelved fabric on the floor). This doesn’t count the other 8 shelves, and the giant bin of sheets. But those are already washed, for the most part. And there’s a story about that.
I inherited a lot of fabric from my mom last fall. Her water heater created a massive flood in her basement and most of her fabric was stored down there in cardboard boxes. We laid everything out in her backyard to dry out, and then the next day we sorted through what she wanted to keep and what she wasn’t going to use. And I took everything home and did 17 loads of laundry in my big front loader machines to make sure nothing was moldy or smelly. And then I folded it all up and took what she wanted to keep back to my mom. And then I sorted through her castoffs and made my own pile of castoffs, which I ran by another sewing friend before they were donated. Most of that inherited fabric is knits and corduroy, with a few bits of cotton, but not much. This giant mess on my living room floor is all my “quilters cotton.” Only I am not really a quilter. I mean, I have made quilts, several of them actually. But I mostly make other things. And I prefer my fabric washed when I am making clothes or something. So while I was waiting for my fabric for my two small projects to finish washing so I could start them I decided that I was just going to wash everything. And I am grateful for those big front loaders we splurged on three years ago.
That first pic is all of my fabric after I washed it. Yeah, I just dropped it in piles on the floor. I’m organized like that. Last weekend was all about washing fabric. And this week is going to be all about folding and reorganizing fabric. Yesterday I got nearly all of it pressed and laid out in a giant stack on the back of my couch. And as I trimmed off string balls, Creamie gathered them up. Then she put them in her little frying pan and made pancakes with them. And she set out a little picnic for my lunch. And she has never been so proud as when I sat down with her for a little tea party. Man, I love that girl.
Lucky Day Shamrock Tutorial
I made these on Sunday, and I kind of love how they turned out. Of course my cold is back, so I don’t have a picture of them in my hair (because I’m not one to take pictures of my greasy ponytailed hair) but you can just imagine that they look cute. Right? Right.
Here’s a quick how-to. They only take about 10 minutes each to make and cost next to nothing. Perfect.
Supplies Needed: green felt, a shamrock shape as a guide, alligator clip (or you could put it on a headband), glitter, Elmers glue, hot glue and scissors. (I actually tried to do one with mixed dark and light green glitter… big mistake. The light green looked really yellow and not very St. Patricksy. So keep that in mind.)
Pictures are pretty self explanitory, right? Cut out your shape and spread Elmers glue all over one side. I tried three different kinds of glue and I liked Elmers the best for it’s ease of spreading, ease of cleanup and the glitter stuck on pretty well. When it has dried completely it made the shamrocks rigid which I also liked. Instead of trying to spoon glitter onto my shape I just turned it upside down in my little pile of sparkles. Much more effective.
After you are all be-glittered your shape will lose a little definition as you can see in the shamrock on the right. The shamrock on the left I trimmed with my scissors to get all those glittery stragglers off the edges and give it a clean edge. (But don’t use your good fabric scissors.)
I like these kinds of alligator clips because I have fine hair and the teeth help them stay put a lot longer. They were a little longer than my shamrocks were wide though. Which means I didn’t want to put hot glue along the whole side. Glue your sparkled shamrocks to the clips and wear with lucky pride. Maybe I’ll get myself put together enough before Green Day to get a pic of these in my hair. Maybe.
Let them Eat Pie
Happy Pi Pie Day! Today is 3.14 and in the math world that means you celebrate pi, but in the rest of the world that means you celebrate pie. And so I am. And it is going to look kind of like this. It usually does anyway. So since my pie isn’t going to happen until after dinner, and I am so NOT a food-tographer, here are a few pretties to make you smile. And drool on your keyboard.
[ found via greenweddingshoes ]
[ found via cap classique ]
[ persimmon images ]
[ photo by nickel images via ruffled blog ]
Also, can I just throw out there that I really wish I had been as into looking at wedding blogs 8 years ago as I am now. Most of these pics are from the handful of wedding blogs I read. And if I had as many good ideas 8 years ago as I have now? Well, I don’t know. The important thing is that I married Scott and we are happier now and more in love now than we were then. But if I was going to do it all again? There would definitely be pie. Lots and lots of pie.
And maybe I’ll try these little tiny pies. Because do you want to know what’s better than pie? Baby pie. Happy Pi(e) Day!
Happiness Is…
Happiness is sewing with friends.
You can’t see her, but Creamie’s baby doll is laying down in her lap. I had a lot of help. And I loved it.
I made something!
I just finished up at my sewing machine. And it’s the first time I’ve sat down since Christmas Eve when I was hurriedly finishing the last of my gifts. It was a small little project, but it’s cute factor to time spent ratio is totally in my favor. And that is my kind of project.
I bought this pattern last week and today I sat down to finish up pretty much the best baby gift ever. Really. Ever. There are so many cute things for little girls. Making a little skirt, or an apron or hairbows or ruffled onesies is a piece of cake. But there aren’t that many super cute things for baby boys out there. Bigger boys? Yes. Babies? They kind of get the shaft.
This little onesie only took me about 30 minutes to put together. Actually, the hardest part was picking out which fabric to use for the ties and suspenders. You know, among the derth of good boyish options. Sigh, in my perfect world I would design fabric. For girls AND for boys. What a concept. I have four more cut out and waiting for a spare 30 minutes. Now that this one is done, I am searching out places to buy plain white onesies in bulk. Because I kind of want to make one for everyone I know. Seriously. It was just the thing to get me out of my sewing rut. Or non-sewing rut as it were. [ Suspenders and Tie pattern from WinterPeach. And it’s only $4. A $4 well spent I’d say. ]
In the Pink
In January I started working at a little quilting shop. I only work two afternoons a month for a few hours and it has been wonderful. And the very best part about it is I get paid in fabric. Literally. My “money” has been adding up since the beginning of the year, and yesterday I finally used some of it for a good cause. What’s that cause? Pink. My good cause is pink.
It all started out with that pink polka dot (from the Bliss line) on the top right. I cut some off the bolt for a customer and was left with just one yard. And one yard of fabric is really hard to wrap back up on the bolt. And as I was jabbing it with pins to get it to stay put I realized something. That pink was the same shade as the pink in the fabric on the left (Apron Strings from Andover Fabrics). And that pink and red leafy print is one I am in absolute love with. And have been for a while. I don’t know what it is about it, but it is one of my favorites. (I’m guessing it has something to do with the pink…) And then I saw the diagonal stripe hanging out, and then remembered the other pink and red leafy print in the middle…. and that is when my next project was born. It all started out with a polka dot.
And then it grew to this. I took my stack of pinks from my stash to the quilt shop and started auditioning other fabrics with them. And this is what I came home with. Something like 10 yards of beautiful pinks and reds and an idea for a new quilt. For me. Not for a bed, not for a picnic blanket, not to serve any purpose other than to make me smile. That pretty leafy print is going on the back and the diagonal stripe will be the binding. And looking at these 20 something different lovelies together makes me all sorts of happy.
I mean seriously, aren’t pink and red the happiest of colors? Yes. Yes they are. I realize this looks a little Valentines-y, but I can’t help it. When you love pink you love pink all year round. I was folding laundry last week and realized that five out of eight shirts in my stack were pink. I think that means it’s true love. Happy Thursday!
pinksuedeshoe 