In preparation for our end of year dance concerts on Sunday I had carefully arranged our schedule, avoided all commitments, and declared Saturday to be ‘do nothing day’.
But of course that never really happens and instead of doing nothing…
We did a zillion loads of laundry (well ok only three loads but it felt like a zillion by the time I’d hung it all out and then folded it and put it away!), planted a few more seeds in the veggie garden, named four new baby chicks, played with our Christmas play dough mats, did homework, made machines out of boxes, worked on our wii dance 2015 repertoire, packed bags for concert day, made some meatballs for the freezer, watered the garden, and picked a kilogram of strawberries.
Even though we didn’t actually do nothing, it was a lovely day.
A day when sunshine and pyjamas were just as important as chores and homework, and looming deadlines and special events seemed exciting instead of daunting. It was just what we needed.
We used some of the strawberries we picked to make these easy and delicious Strawberry Bliss Bars.
The birds have finally discovered the strawberries so this was a great recipe to use up some of the berries that had a little bird pecked hole in them.
It was delicious with strawberries but would would go well with almost any fruity filling- frozen berries, stewed apple, nectarines or apricots would all be good.
- 3 cups of plain flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 225gms butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups of washed, chopped strawberries
- 2 tbsp jam
- 1 tbsp corn flour
- icing sugar for dusting
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (around 350 F) and line and grease a large baking dish or tray (we used a 22×30 cm lasagne dish).
- Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, mix well and set aside.
- In a medium bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
- Add the flour mixture a little at a time to the wet ingredients, mixing well until completely combined.
- In a small bowl combined the washed and chopped strawberries with the jam and corn flour, mixing well.
- Spread around two thirds of the mixture into the base of the baking tray as evenly as you can.
- Spread the berry mixture on the top.
- For the last layer roll spoonfuls of cake mixture into balls, flatten and place randomly on top of the berry layer, overlapping a little, but leaving patches of berry to peak through.
- Bake at 180 C for 30-40 minutes or until the top begins to turn golden brown.
- Allow to cool and dust with icing sugar.
Eat it warm straight from the dish, or let the slice cool completely and cut it into bars or squares.
It should keep in an art tight container in the fridge for a day or two, but that is just a guess as we ate some warm for dessert and the rest cold as a pre-concert, crazy, breakfast the next day!
Do you ever plan a ‘do nothing day’ and do you ever really do nothing?
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