Easy Berry Trifle

The best of treats on a hot day is something cool and delicious. So, I made a trifle!

It was smoldering hot today, so I kept it as simple as possible. I used instant pudding in a box and premade angel food cake. Gee whiz, it was fantastic.



Recipe:

2 boxes of instant vanilla pudding
Milk
Angel food cake
Half of a pound of strawberries
Half of a pint of blue berries

Prepare the pudding as directions call for. I used a tiny bit less milk so it'd be a little thicker.
Slice your fruit as thick or thin as you desire.
Tear up your angel food cake!

I made it in layers. I started with cake, then pudding and put the fruit on top. And, repeat.
It's a piece of cake! Oooooo.

Super Sale

I'm having a sale in my shop on all of my hats! 20% off!!


Hellzapoppin.etsy.com


hellzapoppin.etsy.com

There's a ton more. Freeform, art, tams, newsboy hats waiting for you:)

Victorian Style Fingerless Cuffs Crochet Pattern

These gloves are great. They're very ladylike and they look fantastic. It took me about 3-4 hours to complete both gloves with a sock type yarn. I made another pair with thread, those took about 6 hours to complete.




If you don't crochet, finished gloves are available in my shoppe!! hellzapoppin.etsy.com

The pattern can be found here!
Gloves!

Thanks for inspiring my 3rd tattoo, Ed Emberley

Ed Emberely is the reason I ever picked up a pencil. I spent every single day at the living room coffee table with 'The Big Orange Drawing Book'. Like I've said, I like the scary stuff. If I wasn't sitting with the drawing book I was watching the 'Squiggles, Dots and Lines' VHS. I had every single one of his books. My favorite was always the orange ones.
Then as my childhood years went past, so did Ed Emberely. Even when I wasn't drawing serious stuff, I always found myself drawing a skeleton with a top hat and a cane. It always progressed through the years with more realistic bones. Or if the was a spare piece of chalk on the tray in high school I'd scribble out a UFO.
In about 2007, after probably about 14 years of not remembering Emberley had existed, I was cruising through Barnes & Noble and I had noticed in the kids section, his big Halloween drawing book. I gasped. I sat down with it and looked at all the step by step drawing instructions on how to make, witches, cats, haunted houses, UFOs and that skeleton with the top hat and cane. My love of Ed Emberely was rekindled...



I don't really like tattoos, but I always said if I were to get another, it'd be that skeleton. Upon my recent access to a tattoo gun, Chris wanted another and he didn't quite know what he wanted and I suggested the skeleton. He went for it and here it is <3

It's third tattoo I've ever given and I gave it my best.

SO, Ed Emberely, I hope you read this. I know you don't live too far from me. Let's have coffee. I love you.

Sconkies

I decided to take a stab at scones tonight. I used the first recipe I found. I think I may have used a tad too much milk, because they came out kind of that and they're pretty moist for a scone. They look more like cookies.
They DO taste good, but not quite a scone.



Here, YOU try it.
Basic Scone Recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk (approx.)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in the egg.

Gradually add the milk until a thick dough is formed. (It may take more or less than 3/4 cup.)

Turn out the mixture onto a floured board and knead lightly. Roll out the dough to 3/4" thickness and cut into rounds with a 2" cookie cutter. Gather the trimmings and lightly knead, roll, and cut them as well.

Place the rounds about 1" apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with a little beaten egg or milk. Bake in a preheated 450° oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm.

Makes 12 to 16 scones, depending on the recipe version used.
--
I added fresh diced strawberries and cherries

Another move

Sorry I have not been posting. I have been horrible stressed out because I always make horrible decisions.
I currently live where I live because my friend had asked me to pretty much be a 'live in nanny', so I took up the offer because I was just festering at the last place I was at and it was pretty much impossible for me to find a job. I thought coming here would be the best idea since I would be getting paid and I thought MAYBE I could further myself here. I was only making 100 dollars a week caring for this unruly child for 12+ hours a day. Not really worth it, but sometimes I can be a nice person and I had nothing else going on. SO, a month after being here the roomie/friend/employer decides she wants to move out of state. -If you read my ETC posts on Etsy, you know my rants and the horrible things that were happening-
It's about 3 months later and she's moving in about 2 weeks. NOW, she's not paying me. A short time ago I had applied to go back to school. Mainly because I can't get a fiddlestickin' job with the certifications I already have.
My boyfriend actually kind of has an apartment lined up and that would be so ideal, you don't even know. But he's not the slightest bit interested.
So, really my choices are to go to school and hustle and have no place to live or go back to the place I was before I came here. It really really sucks because I truly believed I might be getting somewhere.
So... there's that.

ANYHOW... on the lighter note:
I got new benwa balls... on strings.
I've eaten so many hot dogs at some great hotdog joints.
I found this great place to get vinyl and 45's at a =n icky flea market run by some great old-timers.
I made this neato treasury!
I've added a bunch of new stuff on my etsy. hellzapoppin.etsy.com
Please buy something. As, I will soon be a nomad/couch crasher again, i'd be grateful.

Berry Buckle

I stumbled upon a fantastic looking recipe for Blackberry buckle. Ever since I saw the recipe, I thought about it everyday. Today I finally gave in and made it.
I didn't have the lemon juice on hand, so I used half of a teaspoon of vinegar. I was also short of big sugar crystals, which I think is pretty crucial for texture and taste. I sprinkled regular sugar on it anyhow. And, instead of 4 cups of blackberries, I only used 2 cups and another 2 cups of strawberries

Here it is!


The recipe:

Blackberry Buckle

Fruit Topping:

4 Cups of Fresh Blackberries

1 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Batter:

6 tbsp butter

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup of milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tbsp coarse or turbinado sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the first four ingredients in the Fruit Filling section and set aside. Place the butter In a 2 quart baking dish and place it in the oven to melt the butter. In a medium bowl combine the flour, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a small bowl combine the milk and vanilla. Add this mixture to the flour mixture. Mix until moist. Remove the baking dish from the oven. Spread the batter on top of the butter. The melted butter will peek up around the edges a bit. Layer the blackberry mix on top of the batter. Press the blackberries down into the batter a bit. Bake for 45 minutes. Sprinkle with the coarse sugar and bake for 5-10 more minutes or until the batter has reached a beautiful golden brown.

I found this fantastic recipe on this fantastic blog.
http://blessherheart.typepad.com