Days 2 and 3 of 66 Days of Summer

Day 2 of my summer break was the actual Summer Solstice. 16 hours and 23 minutes of daylight I calculated for my area, including the civil twilight times before sunrise and after sunset. I celebrated the solstice with homemade strawberry shortcake! Strawberries are at their peak around here right now, so I also made homemade biscuits and whipped cream to complement them.

Berries to be sliced and biscuits ready for the oven

Juicy and delicious

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Flaky and fabulous!

Finished product!

Day 3 turned out to be a somewhat lazy Sunday. I did the stuff that needed doing, but I also spent some time here:

My anti-gravity lounge chair, iPod, bluetooth speaker, Kindle, bottle of water and the radio to listen to the Red Sox game!

Time to kick back!

Themes for these days? How about “Solstice and Shortcake” for yesterday and “Lazy Lounging” for today? 😉

A Father’s Day Treat

Around these parts, Father’s Day weekend is typically the height of the strawberry season.  I have trouble getting my fill of the native beauties before they are gone.  Also typically, I make strawberry shortcake on Father’s Day.  Yesterday was no exception, but I made it even better.  My sister inspired me when she blogged about these:

The fine folks at Fine Cooking magazine shared this delicious biscuit recipe.  It is easy and worth the while.  While reading the recipe, I got to the part about using a 2 1/2″ biscuit cutter.  Biscuit cutter?  I don’t own a biscuit cutter.  I started texting Jennifer; what should I do?  Should I use a knife?  Could I just shape them by hand?  She said she did just that with her last lump of dough, so I went for it.  And you know what? They turned out just fine – and it just may be even easier than the original recipe’s directions because there is no need for the rolling pin; just grab chunks of dough and make patties out of them and you are good to go!

Here is the delicious result:

I do admit to cheating on this recipe in one more way; I used whipped cream out of the can instead of whipping my own!  I was feeling too lazy to make another mess by whipping cream.  Nobody in this family complained.  Four bowls of strawberry shortcake disappeared in record time.

**** And now for something completely different

Just wanted to remind you that the Photo Hunt deadline is approaching this weekend!  Hoping to see your photos posted by Sunday, June 25th.  I had my first submission today, but as I told Dawn, I’m planning to wait to look at your photos until I’ve finished my own hunt.  I’m nearly there – need two more shots to complete the list. 

I have lots of other shots to share with you too – I just can’t wait until school is out for summer!