Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.
Fellow participants, I have one word for you: strawberries.
They’re in season in June and July here in southern Ontario. My grandmother serves strawberries, milk, and sugar to relatives as a light supper on hot days when no one is that hungry and she doesn’t want to heat up the kitchen.
Most of the time, I slice them up and eat them plain. They’re so sweet and juicy that they really don’t need the extra sugar in my opinion.
Occasionally, though, I make my family’s shortcake recipe and eat it with almond milk and sliced strawberries.
This is a pretty forgiving recipe. You can use half the sugar if you’re serving it someone who needs to watch their sugar intake. It works well with many different combinations of flour, fats, and types of milk, too, so feel free to play around with it if you need to avoid certain ingredients for whatever reason.
I should warn you that the shortcake this recipe makes is denser than what you might find in the store, though. Think something heavier, not a fluffy baked good like angel food cake. It’s made that way on purpose so that the shortcake will soak up all of the milk you’re about to pour on it and gradually crumble into cold, soup-y deliciousness as you reach the bottom of the bowl.
Strawberry Shortcake
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of flour (i generally use half whole wheat and half white, but 100% white flour works well, too)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk (soy or rice milk works well, too)
2 tablespoons butter (oil or margarine works well, too)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Toppings:
Sliced strawberries
Whipped cream
Table sugar
Milk
Directions:
Stir the three dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Beat eggs, milk, vanilla, and melted butter together in a separate bowl.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients together. Mix everything until it’s moist, but be careful not to overmix it. The batter might look a little lumpy. That’s okay.
Pour the batter into a greased 8 or 9 inch cake pan. A square 8×8 pan also works fine for this recipe.
Bake at 375 Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes. You’ll know it’s finished when you can stick a butter knife or toothpick into the shortbread and have it come out again without any batter sticking to it.
Serving Size and Presentation
This will make about nine servings of shortbread depending on the size of your pan.
Serve with sliced strawberries, a sprinkling of table sugar, a little bit of milk, and (optional) whipped cream.
I nearly always choose strawberries for this dessert because I love them so much, but this also works nicely with other types of berries if anyone reading this dislikes or is allergic to strawberries. Like I said before, there is plenty of flexibility in this recipe. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy it so much!
Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.
It’s time for the third instalment in my series about hiking – or, in this case, strolling – during the various seasons. If you’re a new reader or would like to reread my previous posts, I’ve also written about the things I love about 
Sunset in Toronto generally happens between 5 and 6 pm in the winter. During the summer, sunset is at about 9 pm. When you combine those extra hours of daylight with evening weather that feels like 25 C (77 F) instead of -25 C (-13 F) after the sun goes down, it’s no wonder that summer evenings can be such pleasant times to walk.
Yes, I know I mentioned my love of peace and quiet when I talked about spring hikes earlier this year. The interesting thing about walking during the summer is how noisy it can be!
One of the coolest and least intuitive things living in a city as large as Toronto is how often you tend to run into the same people over and over again. You’d think this would be rare given the fact that millions of people live here, but it’s really not!
What is the most unusual or interesting way you’ve come up with an idea for one of your creative works?
What fictional world would you want to visit?
Confession: I love quotes. (Those of you who already follow me on 
1. Prehistoric Africa.
5. Somewhere Beyond the “Staff Only,” “Closed for Construction,” or “Do Not Enter” Signs
8. Vegan Restaurants and Bakeries.
As much as possible, I took the stairs instead of hopping on the elevator when we were on the ship that week. There were no specific goals here. If I was short on time or coughing a lot one day, I took the elevator without a second thought.
While my cough limited how much brisk walking or other forms of exercise I felt up to doing, it didn’t stop me from walking at a slower pace.
What was the first speculative story you ever remember reading?
What fictional world would you want to visit?
I don’t think any of my story ideas have had unusual sources of inspiration. Random generators are pretty helpful – cards and lists that you might use in RPGs or collaborative storytelling.
About M.H.: M. H. Thaung is a pathologist working in a laboratory in London, UK. It’s been over ten years since she cut up a dead body. She started writing for fun about four years ago, and since then it’s turned into an obsession—er, major hobby. She recently released A Quiet Rebellion: Posterity, the final book in her SF adventure/mannerpunk trilogy. 
The Land of Oz.
Jurassic World (but only after the dinosaurs stopped attacking people)
Last week I unfortunately didn’t have time to leave comments on everyone’s Top Ten Tuesday posts. Thank you to all of you who commented on mine! I’ll be back to my regular commenting habits again this week.