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Showing posts with label In the Kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In the Kitchen. Show all posts

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Recent Food and Craft Projects - #PinitDoit

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Today is the 15th which means that we're a month into the Holiday edition of Pin it and Do it (and please note that your pins do not have to be holiday related!). As such, I thought I'd also give a little progress update on what I've been up to Pinterest-wise.

I started off really strongly the last couple of weeks in November and then I went to bed one night and woke up and realized that IT'S THE 15TH OF DECEMBER. Nah—no freaking out here! Although I have been doing lots of things around the house—putting up the village (posts coming next week), creating a garland for my stairs, making wreaths for the front doors, and other miscellaneous holiday decorating that were not Pinspired.
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I have lots of plans for Pinterest things in the next couple of weeks, but so far I've completed three food pins and two crafty pins.

First up—Banana muffins. I have a freezer full of bananas that went brown before we could eat them, so I've slowly been cooking them up into bread. I wondered if Elle might like little banana muffins for her breakfast instead of pancake or waffles so I tried a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com (they are a no-(or rarely) fail site for me).  Verdict? Delicious. And they froze beautifully. Nom nom nom. Original Pin. Original Source.

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Second – Roasted Chicken in a Bundt Pan. I'll talk more about this when I wrap up my Operation Bundt Pan (which I have not forgotten about thankyouverymuch). A recipe I pinned from Food.com. The results were gorgeous and the taste was delicious. I might add a bit more spice rub next time, but otherwise it was yum. I shredded most of the chicken to stick in the freezer for another day. Bottom Line: so easy and clean-up was even easier. Original Pin. Original Source.

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Third – Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes. This one from Annie's Eats. I botched this one up because I was making this for a big crowd at Thanksgiving so used many more potatoes than she did and then just winged the rest of the measurements. I love the addition of the bacon and the garlic powder but the results were a bit dry. I added some more milk when I reheated and it was much better. Scott was not a fan—mostly because I didn't use as much butter as he would have liked. Original Pin. Original Source.  (not my picture below)

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Source: annies-eats.com via Trish on Pinterest


And now to the crafty stuff!! And I'm tempted to just post about my non-Pinterest items, pin them, and then count them towards the challenge. But that would be mega cheating, right?? Ha!

First – Hex Quilt Hand-Basting. Thanks to Lisa I've found my alternative to learning how to crochet or knit!  I love working with these little babies. I can do about 9-12 of them while watching an hour-long TV show and can even do them lying in bed or in the car. Now I just need a pin to tell me how to hand-sew them all together! Original Pin. Original Source.

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Second – Silver spray-painted decorations. JoAnn brought this pin to my attention. The original pin has "looking glass" or "mirror" spray-paint, but I couldn't find so just went with Chrome. I thought about spray painting fake fruit but didn't want to pay that much and found these cinnamon scented pine cones at the grocery store. Win Win. Now what else can I spray paint? Original Pin. Original Source.

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I still have several plans for the rest of the month including scrapbook paper gift cards, crockpot apple sauce, and maybe some photography tips, but we'll see. ;)

Have you used Pinterest for anything lately?

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If you create something from Pinterest this month and create a post about it, please link up at the Pin it and Do it link-up post! Join the fun!

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Every weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  "Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs."  Hope you'll join the fun!


Friday, November 30, 2012

Cookbook Challenge Complete!

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In October I joined Uniflame's Cookbook Challenge and pledged to cook one recipe from Rachael Ray's Express Lane Meals. I know, I aim high, huh? I knew I'd be out of town one week for Ireland and another for my Orlando business trip and then another week gone for Thanksgiving and leftovers, so I chose three recipes from the book and gave them a go. Her final link-up post is here.

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Smoky Black Bean and Rice Stoup – I'm an idiot and didn't think that one cup of rice seemed like enough so I added two. So, this was basically a rice dish. The spices were good and I'd make it again, but next time I'll be patient and follow directions.

Leek-y Chicken and Couscous – Can you believe that this was the first time we've had couscous? I wasn't a huge fan of the texture but think this was because I made it too early and it dried out a bit. I was shocked at how much Scott liked this one, especially the couscous!

Spinach-Artichoke Cheesy Tortellini – The winner! Now if I could have just convinced Elle that the spinach was not as menacing as she made it out to be. You can find the recipe on Food.com (with much simpler directions than Rachael Ray gives!).

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I used to watch Rachael Ray's cooking show when I wa
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