Discovering...Strawberry Summer Cake

From my strawberry bounty, I made the most amazing cake!  It's adapted from Martha Stewart, and it's heavenly...whether you have it for breakfast or for an afternoon snack.  Or both, if you live in my house.

Once the strawberries are cleaned and halved, it's a quick cake to put together.  I hope you enjoy it!

STRAWBERRY SUMMER CAKE

6 Tbsp butter, room temperature, plus extra for the pie plate

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp table salt

1 C plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 C milk 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 lb. strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter a 9 inch cake pan.

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

In a seperate bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer - about 3 minutes.

Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined.

Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pie plate.  

Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible, in a single layer.  Sprinke remaining 2 Tbs sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 325 and bake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 - 60 minutes.  (If you stick a tester into a berry, it will be gooey.  Be sure to pick a spot of batter to test.)

Let cool in pan on rack.  Cut into wedges, and serve with homemade whipped cream.

WHIPPED CREAM

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

*tip - put a metal bowl in the fridge for an hour or more to chill.

Use a handheld mixer and whip cream on a fast speed until almost stiff. Start off fast, and then got faster and faster.  Add sugar and vanilla; beat until cream holds peaks.  

Spread over top of cooled pie, and die and go to heaven.

Discovering...Bits of the Weekend

It was Memorial Day Weekend, and it's amazing how, with the unofficial start of summer, the weather woke up and the heat came on!  

We've had such a wet Spring...which we've needed because we hardly had any snow this past winter.  So while I'm glad that rivers are flowing, I've also discovered SLUGS in my garden, which I've never seen before.  SLUGS. I transplanted some sunflower seedlings I had started indoors, and a few days later they were gobbled up, thanks to the SLUGS.  They are so, so gross.  I found 3 in my garden, and later discovered another 2 on a planter. I have to imagine that the wet, swamplike weather we've been having has contributed to this horror.  I wish I had chickens that could eat them up.  I don't even know if chickens eat slugs, but I'd like to think that they do.

Thankfully, this weekend the weather was HOT.  We were lucky enough to sleep for a few nights at our friends' beach house in Long Beach Island (or LBI, as it's known in these parts).  The house is 4 houses from the beach, and we were able to recharge, dry out, and warm up together.  

It amazes me how we didn't need to bring any toys to the beach.  They entertained themselves by just running in and out of the water, again and again.  The laughing and happiness was all that we could have asked for.  It almost made up for the crankiness and fighting we had once we got back home.  Luckily, I took a video on my phone, so the memories won't be lost.

We took a trip to a friend's farm on Sunday to go strawberry picking.  It's become an annual tradition, and I look forward to it all year long!  I do my best to eat my way around the field, and I carry as many baskets out as I possible can hold.  Each year the crowd grows and grows, and its a highlight of my year.  We take a ride out on a flat bed pulled by a tractor - driven by our friend Bill.  Then we eat and pick and eat and pick and pick and pick.  Then we go back to Bill's and BBQ and watch the kids play - there must've been about 20 kids this year, and they all played together so well.

Discovering...{this moment}

Each Friday, Amanda Soule at Soule Mama posts a single picture from the week, just showing one moment.

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

It's beautiful and quiet and shows a family and shows life and love.

Here's my moment from this week.  Leave me a link so that I can see your moment!

Discovering...Spoon

I had a request casting for a drug that helps to treat addiction.  The dress said casual, so I don't know if it was for a doctor, or a drug addicted patient, or a nurse, or what.  I bought a pretty purple skirt from J. Crew last week, one that I've been eyeing for a while, and I thought it was a good day for it.  I got a lot of compliments on it, and was feeling pretty.

I went up to the casting in a freight elevator, which had an operator open the doors and take us where we needed to go.

  

The space itself was a big room, and after signing in an being given a number, we just had to wait our turn to be called.

There was a space for makeup artists to lay out their makeup and have a large mirror with lighting all around it where I waited.  It's always nice when there is some type of reflective surface to be able to mess with my hair and touch up my lipstick.  

As I waited, I took a good look at the other talent, and was just so curious as to what they were casting for, after seeing who was waiting.  

I quickly realized that there was a wide net when they set out to cast this job.  There were men and women, young and old, black and white.  It's funny how sometimes I can go to castings and the room is full of women who are in my age range and have medium-length dark brown hair.  Then I go to one like today and it is a smorgasbord of categories!

I saw a guy in a blue shirt signing in, who I did a test shoot with a good 5 or 6 years ago.  I hired a photographer to take shots of me to update my comp card, and he asked this guy to come by to essentially be a prop for me. Sometimes shots can be better when you're interacting with another person, so we acted like we were walking down the street together and some other cheesy stuff.  I don't even remember his name, but I want to call him Mark.  But that was the name of the photographer, so I doubt that is correct.  He's been on a Just For Men hair color box, and I've seen him in different ads over the years.  

totally cheesy, right? I didn't use any shots from this test - I thought I looked horrible in all of them. $$ wasted

Thankfully they moved along very quickly, and when it was my turn the girl with the camera took a few shots head on, one profile, and one where I looked happy but wasn't smiling.

As I left the freight elevator, I could see that it had started to rain.  I wanted to grab lunch before heading back to work, and was right next to a cute place i've been wanting to stop into.  It is really 2 places, Spoon and Tbsp.

spoon is the catering arm of the place, and tbsp is the eat in/take out arm.  I just love the signs, and that in itself has made me want to check it out (I'm such a sucker for packaging!).

There was a long line, since it was lunchtime, but they moved it along very quickly.  Mostly pre-made salads and sandwiches, and then behind the counter some baked goods, freshly made soup, and other fancy side pickings. Nothing was so fancy to be weird - it looked like the combinations were good and familiar.  There was a brushetta with tomato and feta cheese drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and I can imagine that was a great combination of flavors.

I grabbed a Southwestern Salad, and I have to say, it was delicious!  The dressing was a light creamy-vinaigrette that was amazing.  I will go back again, the next time I'm on West 20th St.

Discovering...Auto Lenders

I was lucky enough to be called in again to Don Case Casting for an audition for Auto Lenders.  I've been fortunate enough that they've asked me to come in to audition there so much lately, that I can't remember the last time I've been to a different casting agency!  I was put on hold for 2 jobs recently, one for an arthritis print job and one for a Blue Buffalo cat food commercial.  The arthritis job has fallen through (technical term - I've been released) but I'm still holding for the cat food commercial.

This time it was for Auto Lenders, and it was scheduled to shoot in Philadelphia.  The shoot dates were the same dates as the arthritis print job that I was on hold for, that also shot in Philadelphia.  But until you book the job, you still go out on castings, even if you end up being asked to book both.  You worry about that headache if you're lucky enough to get it!

The script was given at the casting, and it looked easy.

 

I read it over a bunch while I waited and more peole came in and signed in.  There seemed to be many more men than women in the waiting area.

I was feeling good, and then like a sneeze comes, I started to feel nervous.  It's like a rush of adrenaline comes through me, and my heart starts beating so fast and I want to crawl out of my skin.  I tried to breath deeply and shake it off, and thought I had calmed myself down enough by the time they brought me in.

They had 4 men join me, and they were to be the mechanics who were standing behind my car.  I wasn't sure if I was supposed to play it surprised, but friendly, or freaked out.  I assumed it should be friendly, because this wasn't a horror movie, it was trying to sell a product.

They lined up the men and had me do the lines, but at some point I could feel my foot shaking!  I was able to do the lines well, and I think I was good, except for the fear that was running through me.  The clients asked that I do it a bit more surprised, like I was fairly freaked out.  I tried it again, and hoped for the best.

Well, the shoot date has come and gone, and I haven't heard from them, so I wasn't picked for it.  I would've stressed about getting down to Philly, but I would've liked to have booked this one.