In A Jam

Occasionally we will find a diamond in the rough here on Pinstrosity. Lucky for me, today was one of those days! Kasia (pronounced ka-sha) found herself with some  a lot of strawberries!! Here is her story, complete with an experiment and her own conclusions! We love these kind of emails! She has put in the work and figured out how to tweak the pins she used to her own "taste" (pun intended).

So from here I will turn it over to Kasia!

 

The Original(s)

http://www.eatingbirdfood.com/2012/05/easy-strawberry-chia-seed-jam/

 

Kasia used two pins, and experimented with both, check it out!

 

http://fooddoodles.com/2012/08/12/in-my-kitchen-this-week-3/

*Let me preface this post by saying that both of the above recipes worked wonderfully for the original bloggers, they liked the jam and shared the recipe on their respective sites. This is on Pinstrosity because someone tweaked the recipes of each of these and it didn't turn out how they were expecting.*

 

The Pinstrosity

 

"...To the meat of my submission... or should I say berries.

 

I love homemade jam. I love the sweet, I love the fresh, I love that it doesn't take too much time and that it tastes oh. so. delicious. Growing up I'd make homemade strawberry and raspberry freezer jam all the time, but when I moved to college the only time I'd get some is if I stole it from home. Now I'm clear across the country from my home and am severely craving fresh strawberry jam. 

 

One of the local grocery stores was selling strawberries for a $1. Yes, I kid you not, a whole pound of strawberries for $1. I bought 5 pounds. It was almost everything my husband could do to keep me from running to the baking goods aisle to find the pectin. Without even looking at the price, I grabbed one box and continued on my merry way excited for all the jam I was about to make. 

 

That night I got started, but come to find out I had WAY more strawberries than the box called for. As I thoroughly enjoyed a slice of bread smothered in fresh homemade strawberry jam I reviewed the receipt and found that the pectin I bought was $4.19 for 1.75 oz! I was trying to justify how delicious the jam was with how expensive it was to make. I was expecting it to be significantly less than store-bought jam, but it added up to be just about the same price...just millions better tasting.

 

I was telling a friend from church about it later and she got really excited as she explained her solution: to use chia seeds as the thickening agent in jam. I had never even heard of chia seeds before. She told me the recipe was simple: 1 cup of mashed berries, 1 tbsp of chia seeds, and sugar to taste. She said that as the chia seeds dissolved in liquid they make this jelly like stuff, with it being cheaper and easier than using pectin, and I should get the same results. So I looked it up.

 

There are a lot of slightly varying recipes but everyone said they loved how it tasted, that it was so much more healthy*, and that the seeds weren't even noticeable in the jam. So I concluded that I needed an experiment to test what everyone was saying.

*because you could sweeten it with artificial or natural sweeteners to taste, and you weren't using pectin--I don't know why pectin gets a bad rap, it is in every fruit, just found in more quantities in citrus pith and pulp...maybe it's because it gets processed? I don't know. Anyway.

 

I got about a 1/4 cup of chia seeds from the bulk foods section in the local grocery store (picked up some cheaper pectin for just in case) and went home to test them out. I followed these two recipes...kind of.  

 

Now before you say uh-oh and know where this is heading I'll explain my tweaks. 1. I just used strawberries, 2 I just used regular granulated sugar (because I like it, a lot, ok?) 3. I didn't add any water because I wanted the chia seeds to just soak up the strawberry juice. 

 

First, I added sugar to the berries so they would macerate. Pic 1

Then I added the chia seeds. Pic 2

Then I turned the heat on the one I was cooking and simmered it really low for about 10 minutes. (I read that chia seeds burn easily and I wanted to avoid that at all costs) 

I kept on comparing them and the cooked strawberry chia seed jam had gelled up nicely in 10 minutes, but the raw jam was still pretty watery after an hour. Pic 3 (cooked jam) Pic 4 (raw jam)

Then for taste test: 

I immediately realized I don't like cooked strawberry jam. I felt a lot of the flavor of the fresh strawberries disappeared. 

Also, the texture was like raspberry jam, meaning I was picking seeds out of my teeth for hours. 

This morning I tested the jams again. Both had continued to thicken, which was good for the raw jam, but the cooked jam was more like a paste. Both were still seedy so I guess they don't completely dissolve like I was told. 

 

So, to conclude my experiment: chia seeds work for thickening jam, if you don't cook the jam it will take longer to gel, you can choose how much sweetener to use instead of having to follow the directions for pectin, and if you don't mind having seeds stuck in your teeth, it is a more cost effective way to do it. But I think I'll stick to buying pectin. 

I think I'd rate it on a GCT scale of a 2, because it worked, but not to my preference or expectation. Either way, I have LOADS of strawberry jam to enjoy now."

 

So there you have it! Her experiment results! I am sure I have a bunch of Jam-ers out there, what's your input?! Let us know!

TGIF Pinstrosipeeps!!!

 

 

 

 

Egg Drop( It In Trash) Soup

Continuing with our theme of Eggs this week is this little doozy! Check it out!

There is a little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant in Albuquerque called Chin's Chinese that first introduced to my love affair with Asian food.

The first thing I had?

Egg Drop Soup.

I must have been five or so at the time, (this is the first I remember of Chin's at least), and my family and I went out to eat which was a treat.

They brought me a starter soup to tide us over while we ordered, and I looked at the interesting looking stuff in the bowl before me with curiosity and a growling stomach.

That one bowl was all it took to get me hooked.

What I wouldn't give for Chin's Egg Drop soup right now!

Well Catherine has a taste for Asian food as well and decided to make a meal out of it.

 

She had the rice, check, she had sweet and sour chicken, check.

But what about the soup?!

She turns to her trusty Pinterest account and the rest is infamous  Pinstrosity history.

 

The Original

http://www.mydailymoment.com/recipes/quick_egg_drop_soup.php

 

Looks delicious doesn't it?! And it just happens to be lunch time over here! Now I need Chinese stat!

But how did Catherine's turn out?!

 

The Pinstrosity

 

 

Looks less than appetizing yes?

 

Catherine explained to us that she followed the directions, minus the scallions which she doesn't like, and this was the result.

 

Her husband was brave enough to taste it, and said it tasted like it looked, in Catherine's words this was "Egg Drop Puke".

 

How can you avoid this happening to you?

Try a recipe that doesn't seem too good to be true. While I admit Egg Drop Soup is one of the more simpler recipes in the book, it shouldn't seem like a complete no brainer.

The recipe she used said to drop the whole egg in there and whip it with a  fork to give you the egg "shreds" that are normally very tasty.

 

According to several other recipes I found you should grab some of the egg on a fork and drop only small portions in at a time. The smaller pieces guarantee that the egg will cook right away assuming you have the boiling broth that is needed for this recipe.

 

Moral of the story here is that if it seems to good to be true, or just too easy, it probably is.

Isn't that how it goes for Pinterest though? Once you have learned this valuable lesson it makes life SO much easier.

One good recipe for Egg Drop Soup I found is on All Recipes Website. I LOVE this website and the reviews for this recipe are through the roof!

 

Happy Friday Pinstrosipeeps!

 

 

 

 



Crummy Cookie Cake

It's Wednesday! And March is halfway over already! Where has it gone! I feel like I do this every month, "Oh it's almost the 15th, what the heck! Where has the month gone?!" Anyone else do this?!

 

It drives me batty! I feel like I have all the time in the world to get things done and before you know it it's Christmas again. *le sigh*

I do want to let you all know how sad it makes me how busy I am that I  can only post on Wednesday, Friday and the occasional Monday. This going back to school stuff is busy! But I am grateful for my time to come back and write to you all!

Cue readers..."Enough of the chit chat lady, show us some Pinstrosities!!"

With no further ado, here is Meredith's Birthday disaster that she managed to salvage!

 

The Original

http://lifeloveandsugar.com/2013/02/10/chocolate-chip-cookie-cake/

 

It's things like this that make dieting making healthy choices hard. This looks AMAZING!!!

Darn you delicious sugar and chocolate!!!! *shakes fist in the air*

 

Meredith makes a mean chocolate chip cookie (a classic at everyone's home I would assume), and her Hubby's birthday was coming up. She decided to make her chocolate-chip-cookie-loving-man a cookie cake for his birthday! However she kind of forgot about her plans till last minute...

 

The Pinstrosity

 

Bummer :(

So what happened?! Meredith tells her tale here:

 

"Last week was my husband's birthday... and ... we already had all of the ingredients to make the cake!  The instructions seemed straightforward and I couldn't wait to make it.

 Except that I did wait.

I forgot all about the fact that I needed to make the cake until his actual birthday. Which was fine, the recipe said it only cooks for 18-20 minutes so I thought I was good.

Until I got home late from work.

 Then I got in a hurry.

Then the Pinstrosity happened.

 Everything went well until I got to the step that says "remove from over and let cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely". I was in a hurry, so I rushed the "couple minutes" to 5. But of course the cookie cake was not cool and it totally. fell. apart.

I started to tear up and realized, well, there's always Pinstrosity.

Seriously, the thought of you guys helped me fight through the tears and keep pressing forward.

*Meredith we are glad you kept going!!! That's what we are here for! It happens to everyone and don't get down on yourself! You rock!!*

 And by pressing I mean I picked up the pieces of cookie cake that had fall all over the counter, placed them back in a cake shape, and pressed/smooshed them down until it looked like a cake shape again.

 Then I made the icing and covered it up as best I could. After adding some sprinkles and candles it looked halfway like a cake.

 It tasted fabulous!

I had planned just to pipe the icing around the edges like in the picture but because the cake fell apart I had to spread it over the entire cake.

The result was tasty, but terrible looking!

At least I got a laugh out of it! The good news was that everyone that tried it thought the cake TASTED delicious, and I guess that is the most important part!"

 

Meredith we are glad that you kept going and served that yummy cake! You will never forget this birthday, and neither will your husband! I am sure he was so happy that you thought to do all of that for him! Here is her "after" picture!

 

 

From what I can see, she went all out! I see presents, sprinkles, cards, cake, icing, candles, and from the looks of it a balloon string!

You put a lot of love into this and I think that is what is most important and endearing!

And I think you did an awesome job repairing the cake! It looks yummy to me!

 

As for how to make this not happen next time.

One word.

Patience.

I have SO been there, this last year we went to a friends place for Thanksgiving and I made a Gluten Free cake for her grandmother (Chips whole family is gluten free so we have some experience with gluten free cooking/baking) and it took EVERYTHING that I had to not ice that baby the second it came out of the oven! I just wanted it to look pretty! Not to mention how much I love decorating cakes. And can I just say that just because you love doing something-decorating cakes- doesn't mean you should, case in point can be found here.

 

Anyway I think we can all take away two awesome things from this:

1. Wait for that cookie cake to cool or it will CRUMBLE.

And in case you just can't wait...

2. Almost anything can be fixed if you use enough icing. ;)

 

Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!

Stay tuned for Marquette's post tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ombre` Cake!!

Are you sick of the ombre` trend? We get SO many emails about this trend I literally can't not talk about it (double negative schouble negative).

Apparently I am not, because I just did nude ombre` nails on myself last night!

Here Sonia tried the ombre` cake that we have all been seeing all over Pinterest. She decided to make this cute little treat for her coworkers for Valentine's and as a bonus she could show off her mad skills!

Check it out!

The Original

http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/2012/02/pink-ombre-cake.html

Fun right?! And such a fancy frosting job too! This fun sight Eddie Ross , which I immediately thought of as "Martha Stewart-esque", is actually quite Martha-esque. He used to be one of the head designers for Martha Stewart Magazine, and is now on his own with several returning articles in different magazines around the country. Also I didn't even realize it till now, but I just a read an article about him in Country Living! I LOVE Country Living magazine. Like really, love! Anyone else with me?! Anyway we will leave the biography for another time yes? The cake!

I love this cake, it just screams "EAT ME!!"!

Here is Sonia's take on it...

The Pinstrosity

Here is her story:

"...I can say in my own defense that I never looked at any of the instructions. In fact, I just went out and bought 3 white box cakes and 4 cans of vanilla frosting, and thought "what the heck, can't be that hard".

So away I went with the first box/layer of my cake. I just squeezed the heck out of the little tube of hot pink gel food coloring until I had a nice shade of dark pink. Baked it as instructed on the back of the box. I wish I would have taken a picture of the first layer coming out of the pan. My first failure of the day. The dang thing stuck around some of the sides leaving my bottom layer weak from the get go. I figured I would just use some of that icing to "glue" those pieces back together.

For the next box/layer, I squeezed about half of the gel color into the cake. Looked a lot lighter and what I thought was a good in between pink shade. This layer came out great! Didn't stick at all as I made sure to spray the non stick spray on every square centimeter of the pan this time twice.

Now for the final box/layer I squeezed that tube of gel color again. Only the color of the last cake looked very similar to the second cake. So I squeezed what I had left in that little tube and tried to get a different shade of pink. The cake turned out great with no sticking at all.

So, I began my layers.

Spreading that icing nice and thick using what I had to glue back together the pieces of cake/layer one and in between and on top of the cake.

Now here is the epic fail of the entire project.

The dang thing was so heavy and that first layer that I had so easily glued back together just wouldn't hold up. And so the leaning tower of Ombre` began to lean to the right.

We had quite the laugh at how ugly the dang thing turned out. I decided there was no way I was taking this ugly leaning mess to work and show my co-workers what an epic fail I had made for them. So my sweet husband decided he would give it a taste. This is when I realized my Ombre` cake was really just 3 layers of pink cake two of which were the exact shade of pink! Ugh. At least he thought it tasted great. "

So what happened? Well unfortunately for Sonia, this one has not instructions. This recipe is just one of those picture projects. I know some of us do ok with those, but others don't. Everyone has a different learning style, and when a recipe is involved I think it always turns out better if it is written word for word.

Now the Eddie Ross cake has 6 layers. One the one hand that would be easier to tell a subtle difference in colors from top to bottom, however on the other hand it would be difficult to make slight changes in food coloring amount for the batters!

On the original pin, he has the varying different shades of pink batter, bakes them, lets them cool completely and then shaves the top and bottom off all the cakes to 1. Make them thinner for layering. and 2. Make them have even flat surfaces for easier frosting. I don't think Sonia did this which may have contributed to her leaning tower of ombre`.

Another thing, if her first layer came out pretty awful like she said, she may have been able to salvage it by making it the top layer instead, and shaving off what makes it uneven. Once it's frosted no one would notice. The ombre` would then just start with dark at the top and light at the bottom. Just a small deviation.

To make her ombre` come out more apparent she may need to really make the first layer dark pink. The middle layer a medium pink like she had, and the last layer just a slight hue of pink. All though I really don't think her cake colors came out bad at all (I think it looks nice!), her leaning cake is a problem. I did a layer cake for Thanksgiving, and it definitely takes some practice to get those layers to sit even!

As for Eddie Ross's frosting job, he makes it looks super easy, anyone want to test it out and let us know how it goes?!

http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/

http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/

http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/

Anyone have any luck with the Ombre` Cake?! Let us know!

Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!



Mix it Up Monday

It's Monday! Emilee mentioned in her last post about changing things up a little on Mondays. We thought it would be a good way to jump start each week and to add a few new little flavors to the blog without changing it completely. So today is our first Mix it Up Monday. What will we be featuring on these Mix it Up Mondays? 

• Full tutorials for projects we are frequently emailed. We can just sit and explain how to do something in a big obnoxious paragraph, but it always helps to have a visual of the whole process set-by-step. Some of the projects currently on the list are the bleached shirts, the hair bow, and Oreo pops. 
• Guest posts from various writers. We have our first few lined up and we're excited! 
• A man's point of view on Pinterest and Pinstrosity. Our dashing and daring husbands have agreed to jump in every now and then to give their perspective on life, pins, and projects. They even have a few Pinstrosities of their own to share. 
• We're thinking about doing a post every now and again with a Show and Tell of Pin Wins and Spins that we have been sent. We still encourage you to send your Pin Wins over to Pin-n-Tell, but we do occasionally get one sent to us. As Pin Wins aren't really the focus of this site we don't post them too often, but maybe an occasional show and tell would be fun. Yea or Nay?   
• Some Mondays we all just need a bit of cheer and motivation. Sometimes it may be an encouraging thought and a humorous photo we found on Pinterestt. Warning...we do have a quirky sense of humor.  We may even post up an old favorite...like this one that's fits today's post well: (just wait, you'll understand):



http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/04/06

• More of our personal Pinstrosities. We're not immune to having Pinstrosities by any means. We started this site to make fun of ourselves and all of our Pinstrosities and it has turned into such a fun community of Pinstrosipeeps. We love getting all your submissions and we try to feature them as much as we can; consequently we have tried to cut back on featuring our projects. But trust me, we still have Pinstrosities. Every does. Some just don't want to admit it. I'm sure Martha Stewart still has her share of things that don't work perfect the first time...but in her business it doesn't really sell well to show those ones. That's why we're here...to show it's normal. 

We have other ideas in the works, but that is what we're starting with for now. I'm excited and I hope you are too!

For the first Mix it Up Monday I was hoping to have something awesome all lined up and ready, but this weekend ended up kicking our butts (notice the lack of posts last week). The tutorial we were going to film just didn't happen. However, I did have an interesting weekend with a few "disasters" of my own. They weren't really disasters...one was a wardrobe malfunction and one was a Pinstrosity. I'll tell you about them.

So Thursday I got to work and was standing at the front of the store talking to my boss about what we needed to do that day when all the sudden I realized that my behiney felt quite breezy...and I wasn't wearing a skirt. While trying to stay engaged in the conversation I knew I needed to figure out what was going on. So I covertly smoothed out my shirt in front and went to smooth it out in back and discovered that the cheeks on either side of my nose were now not the only visible cheeks on my body. Visible cheek count was now up to 3. I think I made a weird noise or face because Judy stopped and looked at me funny. I couldn't help but laugh and I said, "I just found a rip in my pants." And so I turned around. She died laughing (so did I, so it's okay). I have NO idea when or where or how that happened. I'm really hoping that it happened after I took the tour of the childcare center that I will be taking school pictures for here in a month. Luckily I wore a long sweater today and tried to just pull the sweater down. It worked for about an hour, but the split started to grow down my leg and finally even the long sweater wouldn't cover it. So now I am the proud owner of a pair of gray Jeggings because WalMart was out of my size in all jeans (in our town...WalMart is just about it for choices...and I needed something cheap and fast). 

RIP favorite white pants. :( At least they died awesomely and with good humor. 

My Pinstrosity came the following day. Well, actually this one spans two days. It was one of those projects that seemed an awesome Pin Win at first and then it deteriorated. Let me show you what I was trying to do: 

The Original Pin

http://www.cakestudent.com/sweetheart-cherry-pies/

I saw that pin last week and instantly saved it. I love making pies and these looked so easy and pretty. A group of us were all getting together Friday night to dance (because how often do you get the chance to dress up and dance with your sweetheart once you leave high school? not often). We were trying to keep things as easy and cheap as possible so we just asked people to bring a small plate of finger food as their "entrance fee". That way we didn't have to spend a ton on refreshments, but there would still be some munchies at the dance. I decided that I wanted to make these little mini pies, but I didn't have fresh fruit or ricotta cheese so I knew I'd have to improvise. I did have a bag of frozen mixed berries in the freezer and I found we had a block of cream cheese on hand so I figured I would combine them to make a creamy center. 

The Pinstrosity

I whipped up my pie crust recipe (seriously, it's so easy and yummy...tastes way better than the frozen ones) and used a cookie cutter to cut out the hearts.

For the filling I mixed 4 oz. cream cheese, a spoonful of my grandma's awesome homemade Prickly Pear Jelly, about a cup of frozen berries and a small squirt of berry pomegranate MiO. The filling tasted amazing. I was so proud of myself. 

Doesn't that just look appetizing?

I know...my pans aren't beautiful. I need to test out that cleaning a cookie sheet pin I've seen all over the place. But really...it does the job stains or no stains, so I don't really care too much. 

I then placed half of the hearts on a cookie sheet and dropped a small amount of filling on each heart with a spoon. I wasn't sure how much the filling would spread, so I tried to keep it conservative-ish.  

I then carefully placed another crust heart on top, trying hard not to squeeze the filling out (but I didn't succeed with all of them as you see below).

I dipped my fingers in water and then carefully pushed the top layer of the mini pies down to join the two pieces. I was trying to seal the edges and give the heart more of a 3-D shape.

I threw them in the oven and baked them at 350 for about 8-10 minutes. When they were done I pulled them out and immediately sprinkled powdered sugar on them. 

The sides separated some, but I only had one ooze out bad. I was pretty excited. Cameron thought they were a little flavorless, but he eats a pie for the filling...I eat the pie for the crust! Next time I'll try and beef up the filling some, but it wasn't bad this time. This looked like a Pin Win to me. And they were...for an evening. People ate them and enjoyed them at the dance, but I did end up with a few left over. The following morning I had an early morning fundraising event with the girls from church so I figured I would bring the leftovers so I wouldn't eat all of them by myself. I had one that morning, and they seemed okay, but they didn't taste as good as the night before. I blamed it on having a dusty mouth from working outside that morning. Fast forward to that evening...we finally got home after a long day and I brought everything in out of the car. I pulled one of these out of the bag and started chomping down and stopped mid chew. It was disgusting. I thought it must just be a weird one with maybe a bad berry or something, so I threw it in the trash and grabbed another one. Same disgusting taste. It tasted like a bug died in my mouth. Cameron tried one and he said that one was gross. So we threw them all away. I don't know what happened between the dance and the following evening, but it wasn't good. The only thing I can think is that they should have been refrigerated because of the cream cheese, but I've made cream cheese filled cookies before and they were fine out of the fridge for 3 days (couldn't tell you any longer after that because they were all gone).  I definitely want to try this again and try the original filling recipe and then see if I can get mine to work right. 

You know...sitting here typing up the mini-pie story really makes my mouth water for a good meat pie. Maybe I'll go experiment with making mini-meat pies...that sounds so yummy. Oooh, and I even have shredded chicken in the freezer. Done. Mini Pie Experiment #2 coming up...

I'm Not Laughing Taffy...

Does anyone love Laffy Taffy as much as I do?! I LOVE Laffy Taffy, it's one of those foods where I say "Oh i just want one...", and then I end up eating every single one, minus banana. Anyone want my leftover untouched banana Taffys?! Gross. 

Maribeth seems to like taffy as well and she decided to try a recipe she saw on Pinterest (Famous last words... "I saw this on Pinterest!"). 

Here is her Pinstrosity!

The Original

http://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2012/august/funtimes.html?CID=aug_news12

That looks sooooo good right now! Of course I don't have any on hand, so I will just have to salivate over virtual taffy instead. Bahumbug.

Here is Maribeth's version:

The Pinstrosity

Here is how it started, so far so good...

Then this...

Then this...

Here is her bleeding heart Taffy. :(

It really does kind of look like a heart! 

So no it didn't work...and why not? Let's break it down.

According to the directions, you are to use a candy thermometer, however Maribeth didn't have one, so she used a meat thermometer instead. This would definitely have something to do with her sad taffy. She also said because it was a meat thermometer, she feels that she was unable to read the temperature as accurately. 

She then explains that it also cooked too long, and ended up looking like glass.

as soon as she touched it it turned to gunk, (the second picture), and she was unable to pull it. 

Let's start at the thermometer. There is a difference between a meat thermometer and a candy thermometer. One intended for meat is metal, and will range from 0-220 degrees (Farenheit). Whereas a candy thermometer is glass and will range from 40-440 degrees, quite a difference huh?!

The boiling point of candies is usually higher than 220 degrees (Fahrenheit), therefore a meat thermometer really won't do the job, especially for this recipe where if you cook the Taffy too long it ruins it. 

There is always a chance also that even if you are using a candy thermometer it could be inaccurate. To test this follow the directions seen here. It might be good to test your candy thermometers every once in while so you don't ruin Grandmas famous divinity right before a big family event...yes let's avoid that please!

One thing to remember when making candies, or fudges caramels anything like that is that the temperature is key. Any deviation at all will almost always end in a mess, I think that is exactly what happened here. 

Based on the comments from the original site, it looks like this is a really hard one to get just right. A lot of people had trouble with this.

 Growing up on the side of a mountain had its drawbacks with candy making, where we lived we had an elevation of 7,300 feet. The elevation has some weird effects on candy making, like divinity or caramels. The weather can also play a part, which sounds strange but is true!

If the air is too dry, or too humid is can really take a toll on your foods, so that is another thing to consider in this Pinstrosity. 

Has anyone had success with this recipe?! Or have any ideas for Maribeth?! I think it was a valiant attempt  but I would suggest next time, watching that timer, and the candy thermometer closely for better results!

Happy Friday Pinstrosipeeps!

Pop Goes The Chocolate

"A good snack is never better than when it is shared with a good friend, and some good laughs." -Me

Can you tell I am beyond exhausted today? I am not feeling clever or witty AT. ALL. So that quote is me being exhausted and feeling the need to have a lovely clever opening line. My apologies. I need a nap.

 So no it's not a very funny/creative/inspiring quote but I felt like it portrayed what happened here. Treat sent us this  Pinstrosity involving all of the above. The snack itself probably wasn't as satisfying as the memory of the event, and the laughs that were had during and after the Pinstrosity. Check it out:

The Original

http://trinhittowinit.tumblr.com/post/26199381013/chocolate-balloon-bowls

The picture was from this Tumblr, however  it looks like it could belongs to this Food Network tutorial**:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jacques-torres/chocolate-balloon-centerpiece-recipe/index.html

A beatiful centerpiece that you can eat after, where do I sign up?!

The Pinstrosity

Not like the first picture eh? Bummer city.

Here is how it all went down!

"My fiancé found this pin...a few days ago and being the handy and foodie guy he is, thought it would be a great idea to try.  How hard could it possibly be?  Melt some chocolate via a double boiler, drizzle it on a balloon, let cool to form a crust, pop the balloon and TA-DA!  Awesome chocolate bowl! 

...Except that is not at all what happened...

First, melted chocolate doesn't run that much.  When it just sat on top of the balloon, we decided it needed to be more liquid-y.  I knew from past cooking experiments we could add SOME cream, but I knew if we over-did it it would turn into ganache and never harden.  So we added a little... which only served to solidify our chocolate.  (To understand why, see Alton Brown's Good Eats, Season 1 episode 13.)   [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHQ9m3xXfWc ]  So we added brandy... Who doesn't love chocolate + alcohol?! Taste + function!  The brandy did dilute the chocolate and cause it to dribble smoothly down the balloon!  Success!   We got one balloon completed and put it in the fridge.

....But then we got greedy and tried to make another... and that is when it went horribly wrong...

We got about half the chocolate on the balloon and were starting to add another drizzle, when BAM!!!  The balloon popped.  Ok, the balloon popped, sad.  But the liquid chocolate went EVERYWHERE!  It was all over the walls, the floor, the ceiling and even 12 feet to the laundry room door.  It went ALL over my fiancé who had been hovering over the balloon to get the drizzle just right.  But rather than cutting our losses, we tried again, and again, and again...

There was so much chocolate everywhere that it was hard to express the amount of damage.  We spent hours cleaning chocolate out of crevices and off the floor and ceiling.

Ultimately, we were able to get 3 balloons done.  And unfortunately, they didn't even work.  The alcohol let the chocolate get very hot, hot enough to pop the balloons, and then didn't allow the chocolate to cool and solidify.  When we popped the balloons to get the bowl out, it all just caved in on itself.

I would qualify this as an epic fail!  Thankfully we got some good laughs out of it."

So the problem? Thick chocolate. The pseudo fix? Cream and brandy. The turn out? Sad.

Let's break it down.

The Food Network suggests using a punching balloon, you know the kind your little ones use to annoy the heck out of you? Yeah, those ones. I think those generally tend to be thicker, so they are more sturdy and the site says they release from the balloon cleaner so they don't stick to the chocolate which can also be a problem. 

They say to secure the balloon with a ribbon so you can untie it later and let air out slowly when you are ready for the big reveal.

They then go through the directions (which I suggest you read in full before doing this because I am just paraphrasing) and say to dip the balloon in the chocolate one or twice at the top for a base coat. Here is where you need to take into account how hot the chocolate is. Too hot and your balloon pops.

Now as for the drizzling, the Food Network says to put the chocolate in a  piping bag and drizzle and pipe it on that way, less messy too I would think. 

If you feel your chocolate is too thick, you can add little bits of Crisco, to it. You CAN add liquor but after some looking around I see a lot of people say to be super careful with that because sometimes it becomes TOO runny. 

As for the popped balloons I think keeping your heat monitored should take care of that issue but there are never any guarantees so wear an apron. :) 
So they didn't get to eat all the chocolate they were hoping for, but they ended up with an awesome story and a funny Pinstrosity and in our book that's never a bad thing ;)

Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!

**If anyone can find the original link for the first picture we will give you a shout out! Thanks!!**

Fall Feast Food Pins Tested

Cameron and I usually do a dinner for the Autumnal Equinox each year, but we missed it this year as I was at a wedding and he was out lizard hunting (yes, you read that right...life of a zoology major). I didn't think it'd matter much, but I kinda missed putting together a fun and fancy meal (well...fancy for us...). I decided yesterday that I'd put together a Fall Feast to make up for missing the Equinox dinner, so I pulled up my Pinterest boards devoted to food, tried to find ones I already had the ingredients on hand for, made a plan and got testing these tasty looking food pins. As I was cooking though, I realized I was making way more food than Cameron and I could eat so we called Em and Chip to come over and we feasted together on the Pinterest found meal. I pulled a few recipes from our own files, but I tried many new ones this time. I figured I'd share how they turned out, what worked, what didn't, and what I would do (and did do) differently.

So there's the set up. I love my dishes, they are just so happy looking.

Alrighty, dish #1.

The Original Pin
Tomato Bisque
 This didn't actually have a picture of this soup...but here's the link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/tomato-bisque-recipe/index.html

The Outcome

Mine came out a little more yellowy orange instead of orangey red...but the tomatoes I canned last year weren't very red...so I'm attributing it to that. I was excited to get a chance to use my canned tomatoes. Last year was my first year canning, so I'm still a little excited to be using these tomatoes. Anyway...this tasted fantastic. I loved it. Cameron's not huge with tomato soups, but he said this one isn't bad (here's the secret...there's bacon in it and the veggies are sauteed in bacon fat for 8 minutes...man pleasing right there).

I did have to tweak this one due to the ingredients I had on hand (I don't live where just running to the store is an option), but I think it came out decently similar to what it would have had I had all the ingredients. First, I didn't have carrots...so no carrots in this soup. Second...I just had normal onions on hand...no spanish onions. Third, my herbs were dried, not fresh...so I just sprinkled them in and left them in (minus the bay leaf, I took that out). Fourth, I had half and half in the fridge, not heavy cream. So I know those made some difference, but I don't think they completely altered how this turned out. I would definitely like to try it 100% true to the recipe, but even with these tweaks, this turned out delicious and was easy to make. My biggest disappointment? The bacon crisps I had ready for the end didn't float on top of the soup, they sunk to the bottom...so they just ended up being a part of the soup and not a garnish...but that's not really anything to complain about.


The Original Pin
Stuffed Roast Turkey Breast

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/stuffed_roast_turkey_breast/

Let me tell you, this was delicious. I did tweak it, but it was still delicious. Was mine anywhere near as pretty as that. Bahahahahaha, no.

The Outcome:

It's a good thing food doesn't have to be beautiful to taste good.  Don't get scared off by that picture though, it was delicious. And again...it has bacon in it and the last step before baking this is to glaze it with bacon grease. Another man pleaser (then men did love it, btw).

I actually followed the directions decently here, just adding my own twist at the beginning. The recipe doesn't call for the turkey to be marinated, but I did it anyway. I tenderized the turkey breasts, then added them to a bowl with some olive oil, coriander (whole and ground/roasted), garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and sage and let it marinate for 1 1/2 hours. For the filling, the only deviations I did was using plain boring canned mushrooms rather than porcini mushrooms, I didn't have shallots so I used onion, and the cranberries were omitted entirely. Other than that I followed the recipe and directions to the best of my ability. This turned out so incredibly tasty and moist. We could cut it with our forks it was so tender. This is a huge win in my books, I'll definitely be making this again.


Now for another side dish...
The Original Pin
Smoky and Cheesy Buttermilk Baked Mashed Potatoes

I raided Cameron's cooking boards for this one actually. Good choice hunny!

The Outcome

Poor cam was late getting home and he was bringing the taters, so we sped through making this as much as we could...so we cut out the baking part. But it still tasted great. Our main substitution: we didn't have buttermilk so I used half and half. I know...it would have tasted better with buttermilk, but it wasn't bad at all with the half and half. I loved how creamy these potatoes were with the cream cheese in them. MMMmmmm. Then we did add a small dribble of liquid smoke to get a more smoky flavor. Easy and yummy!

And what is a good meal without some sort of bread?!

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls
http://mowercooking.blogspot.com/2011/02/oatmeal-dinner-rolls.html

I've made these quite a few times actually, and they turn out good every time. Well...the didn't turn out the one time my house was too cold for the dough to rise...but every other time they turned out great. They are so quick and easy (2 1/2 hrs from start, through rising time, to finished and in your belly), and they taste great. Don't get scared off by the fact that you make oatmeal, then turn it into rolls. These are great, give them a try.

I have no idea what happened to that roll on the left...it looks like a hand with a finger pointing at me or something. Tasted good though. 

What to drink?
 Water is always a staple...but I wanted a fun drink too,
 so I found a recipe on my boards for Prickly Pear Juice. I ended up just using the recipe as a basis though and made my own deal instead. I ended up with a Pin Spin, making Prickly Pear Raspberry Lemonade instead.

Like our fancy glasses? Got them at the Dollar Tree for a buck. Love great deals like that, and they class up a meal so fast when we want to "fancy". 

 And then it was dessert time...

The Original Pin

http://mowercooking.blogspot.com/2010/09/double-decker-pumpkin-pie-autumnal.html

I'd actually made this pie twice before. Once was an overwhelming success...the other time, not so good.
I found out for this recipe, using real pumpkin is key. The first time I made this I bought a pumpkin, cooked it, and used the pumpkin goop to make the pie. It was sooo tasty. The second time I bought canned pumpkin pie filling...not so tasty. In fact, it went uneaten for the most part and I chucked the remains today. Lesson learned...use real pumpkin. It's so worth it!

 This time...the taste was great, but I tried making individual servings rather than a whole pie and that didn't go quite like I thought it would.

The Pinstrosity

These tasted great (again, not pretty, but ignore that), but they weren't quite firm enough and were hard to eat out of the paper cups. I should have just left it as a pie. Oh well. Live and Learn.

 And then finally...
The Original Pin

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/08/creamy-lemon-crumb-squares.html

I've had these pinned for forever. Cameron loves lemon bars, so I thought I'd try these out and see what he thought. They were scrumptious, but boy were they crumbly! 

The Pinstrosity

I mixed the crust/topping up and it just seemed too dry, so I added 2 additional tablespoons of butter. It still seemed dry, but I didn't want to add too much...for all I knew maybe it was supposed to be really dry. I'd never made these before, so I had no clue what I was looking for. I mixed the "filling" and poured it in, then sprinkled on the topping and popped it in the oven. When the timer yelled at me (mine is an excruciating whine...it was definitely designed so that it could not be ignored) I opened the oven and the crust didn't look like it'd changed at all, so I left it in longer. 10 min later there was still no change, but I didn't want to overdo anything so I pulled them out. They were super tasty, but they were so incredibly crumbly. I think next time I'll keep adding butter until the crust/topping consistency is more tacky and less dry. But they were scrumptious and Cameron heartily approved of them.

So there's a few yummy pins all tested for you guys. I'd make any of them again, they were fantastic and made for a fun meal. Thanks for sharing it with us Em and Chip!