shortbread a bakin'

Last week I mentioned I had a little canning project. Well, it obviously hasn't happened, so I'll go ahead and spill the beans on what is was...You may have guessed as I don't know how much you can do with strawberries and jars but I'll tell you anyway. I was going to try my hand at strawberry jam! In all honesty, I've just been too lazy to pick up the jars so I thought I'd go ahead and bake the other half the kitchen project seeing as I already picked up the supplies. Hello shortbread!

My inspiration came from a little book found in the children's section of my local library. One I used to check out at least twice a month in elementary school, The Anne of Green Gables Treasury. You're probably wondering why on earth someone would continuously check out the same book but the thing is I used to do that with quite a few books. This one in particular was filled with recipes and small projects based off the series. How could I check it out only one time when there were so many projects to be crafted? From tea time baking to pressing flowers, this little treasury had it all.

Yup, I was a bit of a nerd, okay I suppose I still am! I had such an obsession with the series though. I read each and every book, had VHS tapes recorded from TV and so on. My parents were even kind enough to take me to Prince Edward Island to see Avonlea and the whole spread before it burned in the 90s.

I could go on and on but I'll spare all you non-Anne fans. So to the point...I was thinking about all that the other day, and decided to see if the library still had it, and you bet they did!



Like I said, it's filled with good looking recipes, but as I've been drinking tea in the afternoons lately, I decided to try out the shortbread recipe. A perfect compliment to afternoon tea. The recipe consisted of a simple list of ingredients, just how I like them.



* 1/2 cup butter
* 3 tbsps sugar
* 1/4 tsp vanilla
* 1 1/4 cups flour
* pinch of salt



The rest is easy...Just preheat the oven to 325F. Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla until it's light and fluffy. Gradually add the flour until the mixture becomes slightly crumbly. Roll into a ball. Set on a cookie sheet and flatten to about 1/2 inch. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20-30 minutes and...Done! Ready to enjoy with a nice cup of tea. Now let's hear about your childhood obsessions!