raspberry shortcake

these sweet cakes incorporate some of the raspberries right into the shortcake

I made these little sweet treats for a last minute get together with my girlfriends the other week. They were easy to throw together, used mostly pantry items, and were fresh and summery. Definitely girl food that any guy would sneak a bit of!

 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3/4 cup cold heavy cream
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup raspberries
• Sanding sugar (optional)
• Whipped cream and berries, for serving

 

Directions

1. In a food processor, combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. Transfer to a bowl and stir in cream, buttermilk, and raspberries until just combined. Do not over mix.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Divide dough into 8 portions and shape into rounds. Place, 1 1/2 inches apart, on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired, and freeze 15 minutes. Bake until golden brown and set, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely on sheet on a wire rack. To serve, halve and fill with whipped cream and berries.

 

Sunday: |I Heart Naptime|Nifty Thrifty Things|It's Overflowing| MopItUp| Monday: |Made By You| C.R.A.F.T.|Between Naps on the Porch|Home Stories A to Z| diy home sweet home| Tuesday: Coastal Charm|Tip Junkie|My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia|A Bowl Full of Lemons|Get Your Craft On|ClaimingOurSpace Wednesday: Uncommon|Savvy Southern Style |Organize and Decorate| NYMelroseFamily|Gingersnap Crafts Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage|Made in a Day|House of Hepworths|the 36th Avenue| Crafty Scrappy, Happy|52 Mantels Friday: Making Lemonade|Blissful and Domestic|One Artsy Mama|Serenity Now| Tatertots and Jello|The Shabby Nest|Thirty Handmade Days|Addicted 2 Decorating|Funky Junk Interiors|Financial Friday|At the Picket Fence|Classy Clutter|

how to disguise a tree stump

If you have a tree stump in your yard, you know how unsightly they can be. And tree stump removal can be costly, and is always messy- imagine wood chips scattered all over your lawn.

We have a older property with a number of tree stumps. Eventually we like to remove them (by grinding or burning) but for now they are here to stay. So to make the best of the situation, I thought it make the perfect little container garden spot.


Just acquire a wine barrel (sometimes you can come across free ones. You can also purchase them inexpensively at the home improvement and hardware stores.)

Place directly over low tree stump and plant with your favorite flowers.

I planted strawberries in mine.

Now my kids have a built-in outdoor snack bar.

For some more inspiration, I found this wine barrel container garden from Centsational Girl. She made good use of the barrel's depth.

source

I also found this image, to satisfy those with the current succulent rage. So cute.

source

The options are endless. What would you do?

spicy pesto fusilli

An Easy One-Dish Meal
Great back to school dinner + Simple way to sneak some
veggies into pasta

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a good weekend! Ours we filled with lots of swimming, dinner and a movie, and Handyman's camping preparations. (He's taking a group of varsity scouts up to Maine for a week long canoe trip. So, I be solo this week.)

I mentioned before my favorite source for recipes.I do love playing with pesto. Basil and pine nut pesto is certainly classic, but it's also fun to make other flavors, like this pepita filling for cheese flautas, but I decided to branch out a little bit this weekend and make Giada's fusilli with spicy pesto for Sunday dinner.

Its a really simple dish. The recipe says it to takes 54 minutes to prepare, but they must have done the math wrong on that, because I whipped it up and had it on the table in about 15 minutes.

I halved the recipe, because I wasn't sure how spicy it would be, and how much my kids would like it. Turns out, its not really spicy at all . . . but I also didn't add a single jalapeno seed in the pesto either. And my kids did eat it. I had this little visitor digging in before I could even finish snapping a few photos.

A few modifications I would make next time:

• Add a few jalapeno seeds for just a little bit of heat
• Saute the garlic for just a few minutes before adding to process, just to take the edge off.

I served this with some fresh cantaloupe on the side and declared dinner done. I'll definitely be filing it among my back-to-school-I-need-an-easy-to-make-in- a-hurry dinner option.

Have you made any of Giada's recipes before?

Ingredients

Pesto:

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 (2-inch long) red or green jalapeno pepper, stemmed and coarsely chopped* see Cook's Note
• 2 cups grated (4 ounces) Asiago cheese
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 ounces baby spinach
• 3 ounces arugula
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound fusilli pasta
• 4 ounces Asiago cheese, shaved

Directions

For the pesto: In a food processor, combine the walnuts, garlic, jalapeno, cheese, salt and pepper. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add the spinach and arugula and process until blended. With the machine running, gradually add the olive oil.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water. Place the cooked pasta and pesto in a large serving bowl. Toss well and thin out the sauce with a little pasta water, if needed.
Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with Asiago cheese shavings and serve.
*Cook's Note: For a milder pesto, remove the seeds from the jalapeno pepper.

Sunday: |I Heart Naptime|Nifty Thrifty Things|It's Overflowing| MopItUp| Monday: |Made By You| C.R.A.F.T.|Between Naps on the Porch|Home Stories A to Z| diy home sweet home| Tuesday: Coastal Charm|Tip Junkie|My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia|A Bowl Full of Lemons|Get Your Craft On|ClaimingOurSpace Wednesday: Uncommon|Savvy Southern Style |Organize and Decorate| NYMelroseFamily|Gingersnap Crafts Thursday: The Shabby Creek Cottage|Made in a Day|House of Hepworths|the 36th Avenue| Crafty Scrappy, Happy|52 Mantels Friday: Making Lemonade|Blissful and Domestic|One Artsy Mama|Serenity Now| Tatertots and Jello|The Shabby Nest|Thirty Handmade Days|Addicted 2 Decorating|Funky Junk Interiors|Financial Friday|At the Picket Fence|Classy Clutter|

summer reads

Reading has to be one of my ultimate favorite summer pastimes. As a little girl, summer provided an opportunity to re-read all my favorites such as The Secret Garden, Charlotte's Web, Little House on the Prairie series, and of course new titles from our local library.

To this day, summer is still my favorite time to snuggle up with a good book. Some of my favorite past summer selections include (in no particular order):

Playing for Pizza
John Grisham
This is a quintessential summer read -no thinking required. If nothing else, this book will leave you wanting to skip town and head straight to Italy, or your nearest favorite Italian restaurant.

There is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children
Melissa Fay Greene
If you feel the need to revive your hope in the human race, reading about this woman's single handed efforts of rescuing and supporting oprhaned African children, this will do it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer
This whimsical story will leave you wanting to find a pen pal, or at least revisit your own personal journal.

These Is My Words: The Diary of Agnes Prine 1881-1901
Nancy E Turner
The strong spirit of this main character girl always leaves me feeling strengthen and grateful for the early American settlers.

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up in Mooreland Indiana
Haven Kimmel
Having lived in Indiana for a number of years, I could easily imagine the hometown setting of this main character as she recounts memories of her childhood with a mature wit and a laugh out loud perspective.

Animal Vegetable Miracle
Barbara Kingsolver
If there was ever a book to inspire one to garden and eat local -this is it. This book, complete with recipes, will leave you questioning that salad you ate last winter and wanting to make friends with all the farmers at your local market.

More Sex is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics
Steven Landsberg
Just because, I tend to like a good nonfiction read. Don't worry -its actually an economics book. If you like Malcolm Gladwell books, this is right up your alley.

Harry Potter -the entire series
JK Rowling
If you have a chunk of time, this series is always fun to read. A constant page-turner, this jv fiction has universal appeal -even for those who tend to shy away from fantasy -I was happily surprised! Just be prepared with the next book in hand, because you will want it the moment you close it's predecessor.

And if your dishes and laundry happen to pile this summer due to reading any of these books, you can blame me. And if they pile up due to another book pass on the title and share!

What have you been reading?

Linked to Centsational Girl

facebook

Hi all!

It's a new month, and I've decided it's time I provided a new way for you to get all the same goods.

Here's the link to Cookiecrumbs and Sawdust facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Cookiecrumbsandsawdust

You can simply like it over on FB and still get all the updates from over here on the blog.

Check it out!