the apron

The History of 'APRONS'

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few and

it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material. But along with that, it served as a

potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched

eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow ~ bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could

dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew

it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served

so many purposes.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.

Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron!

This apron history was sent to me by my dear friend Lisa and I just had to share it with you since it brought back such wonderful childhood memories of my sweet granny and my mom. Both apron wearers! Though I don’t wear an apron, I do own them because I like to buy vintage ones at garage sales & new ones at Anthropologie. Check out the link below!

http://search.anthropologie.com/?q=aprons&international=false

hey ? hay !

as I drive along the country roads, I see golden speckled land. a familiar site this time of year which promises that autumn is around the corner.

 looking forward to pumpkins and hay rides and a chill in the air

a man’s view

After my frilly pink cake post, I wanted to contrast it with a man’s view through the camera lens !! The man = my son. These are borrowed photos from him again … 1) because it brings me close to him to see what he sees 2) because he takes amazing photographs and he doesn’t even know it!

Fresh & Homemade Strawberry Cake

In my last post, I was trying to find a strawberry cake recipe for my co-workers birthday. There were so many to choose from, but I chose the “from scratch” homemade strawberry cake with buttercream frosting and fresh strawberries!

CAKE

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

4 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup strawberry puree (frozen strawberries – almost thawed )

1/4 cup milk

6 egg whites

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks unsalted sweet butter - softened

FROSTING

4 sticks unsalted sweet butter – softened

4-5 cups powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

4 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp heavy cream

1 package Fresh Strawberries – sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottoms of (2) 8- inch cake pans with wax paper. Grease sides of pans and flour.

In a bowl, puree the half -thawed frozen strawberries.

Add the milk, egg whites and vanilla. Whisk until mixed.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add the softened butter. Mix until the mixture resembles moist crumbs.

Add the liquid (strawberry puree mixture) and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute. Stop mixer and scrape down the bowl. Continue mixing on low speed for another minute.

Divide the batter evenly among the two pans – smooth tops. Bake for 30 – 45 minutes. Toothpick should come out clean, or center of cake bounce back to the touch.

Remove pans from oven. Let rest for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks and let cool for about 2 hours.

For buttercream frosting,

in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the softened butter at medium-high speed until smooth (20 – 30 seconds). Add half of the powdered sugar and all the salt. Beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened. Add the remainder of the sugar and beat until fully combined. Scrape down the bowl and add vanilla and cream. Beat on medium to medium-high until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes).

Sweet Strawberry Cake!!!

Strawberry Cake Mosaic

i haven’t posted a mosaic in quite a while, so while searching for a strawberry cake recipe for a co-worker’s birthday ….. well, i couldn’t help but to share these gorgeous cakes with you!

1. Strawberry rhubarb cake, 2. Strawberry Cake Ball, 3. Homeade Angel Food Cake with Strawberries, 4. strawberry marble cheese cake, 5. Strawberry Mango Cake, 6. Photo of Angel Food Cake With Strawberry Fondue Sauce, 7. Strawberry-Mousse Cake with White Chocolate Ganache, 8. Chocolate and Strawberry Cake, 9. Strawberry Cake

Butterfly

Butterflies: self-propelled flowers

photos by Brandon
shared by Cheryl xo

beautiful faces

It was recently my birthday and my wonderful SON got his mom the Nikon D40. All my photos on this blog have been taken with my Sony point and shoot $100 camera. So now I hope to give you even better pics to enjoy!

These are not my beauties, sadly, but I had to share their beautiful faces!

Dog Fun!

Photos taken by Brandon with my new Nikon!

Dog owners Kevin & Tiff

My Winning Photo

Curly, Moe and Larry! Not really.

Our Home Owners Association had a photo contest for their website header photo and this picture of the horses that I have shared with you on a previous post won their hearts! I received a $50 gift certificate!

Girls at work surprised me with this!