Homemade Strawberry Shortcake ~ from our homegrown strawberries...

Our spring has been lackluster and the garden has suffered for it.   The last time I had checked the strawberry bed, the little berries were small and green.  I had (quite frankly) forgotten about them, so imagine my surprise when my son & his friend came into the house with two big, red strawberries.  The kids said there were lots more out there.  When did this happen??  So, I gave them some bowls to pick whatever ripe strawberries they could find.  I was very pleased when they brought back enough to make a dessert ~ Nice!

I looked around and found this recipe for (a healthier) strawberry shortcake.  It called for basic ingredients which I always have on hand and the recipe was easy to make/follow ~ even for this challenged baker.  :)   I did try using the pastry blender to  combine the butter and flour, but got frustrated pretty quick and ended up just using my fingers.  (soooo much simpler!)  I made a few changes to the original recipe ~ I added an extra teaspoon of sugar to the shortcake batter, as well as a teaspoon of vanilla extract; I used fat free Greek yogurt and sweetened it with honey instead of sugar and used a splash of vanilla extract instead of the lemon zest (my guys like vanilla flavor more than lemon flavor).  I made the shortcakes bigger, so came up with three instead of four.  What a marvelous, light, rich and tasty shortcake.  More real-time baking in my kitchen tonight.  :)

School is now out for the summer ~ Let the games begin!