thumbing.

lemon and almond and buttery vegan yellowishness.
uh-huh.
we need those three items,
all at once,
because lots of each are very necessary when making yourself a quick batch
of from-scratch lemon-almond shortbread thumbprint jammie-jamboree jauns.
yeah!
the thing is,
shortbread tries to escape when it's soft,
and what's more, thumbrints sometimes get a little too flat once the filling
gets dropped and plopped in the dents our thumbs-down poking produce.
ugh.
that gets a thumbs-down from me, neighbors.
so,
i had a little idea, and i used a little brainpower,
and i circumvented the pitfalls with smarter working against those hardening styles.
mmhmmm.
the answer?
muffin-tin support.
yep, like, i pressed the balls of buttery dough into the tins.
where can they spread to when there are borders hemming them in?
nowhere!
and that's expert.
perfect circles, and indentations made by the convex dome of a steel cigar tubo?
that's uniformity, and that helps with portioning the jam in the middle.
huh?
well,
maybe just check the teleport:

cute!
red-and-black raspberry jam is effing delicious, duders.
really.
and it looks all dark and rich and decadent, too.
....because it IS, obvi.
lemon zest and almond flour,
and both of those extracts to activate the most taste in the smallest packages.
mmmmmm.
i doo-doo that concentrated overdose-dousing of repetitive echoing essence.
in fact,
there's vanilla, lemon, and almond in that diamond icing framework, too.
i'm just sayin', kids-
too much is the right amount,
and if you're determined to do it to it,
then maybe just OVERdo it,
with the hot fire and flavor explosions while you're at it.
*
i like to bake treats.
you know it's true,
but it bears repeating.
there's a finished product that comes from a strategic procedure,
and that completed concoction is absolutely utile.
you get to EAT it.
i really like that part.
the world i occupy, here in my immediate woodsly goodsly area,
is a very small one.
remote, reclusive, and reluctant would be the best words to describe
the places, things, and people that populate this place.
and then there's me.
one miserably inaccessible mad scientist,
making food and words and pictures,
sometimes accompanied by my lovely assistant,
and more oftentimes all by my lonesome.
doing my dirt, and keeping this captain's log to document the real life
that unfolds within the walls of my laboratory.
i'm doing what i do, without the sanction of the social climate in the area.
luckily,
the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress is one hell of a secret lair,
and like every good wizard/hermit/ghetto-philosophers' redoubt,
it stands apart and protected from the pitchforks and the torches of an
unsympathetic and pathetic people at the bottom the hill.
that's no joke.
i like to bake treats,
because they ARE the closest things to friends i have.
of course,
that makes sense-
since i build them up, only to bake and take from them,
and systematically devour every good thing about them,
until i ultimately extract every last nutrient,
and then sh!t them right out.
daaaaaaamn.
with friends like that, who the hell wants friends?
this is the best and worst, the worst and the best,
and there's no middle ground in a spectrum that comprises only black and white;
never quiet, never soft.....