My Cheese Volcano and Mac Soup in a Mug

Living in the dorms in college I discovered the wonder of instant mashed potatoes and easy mac. Those were my late night friends when the cafeteria was closed. No...it wasn't the most healthy or scrumptious thing I could eat but it was food, I was a hungry freshman, and I didn't really care. 

Now the thought of easy mac turns my stomach a little...it's not as bad as instant Ramen, but it's just not that great. But what do you do when you want Mac & Cheese, but you don't really want (or need) the whole entire pot or pan all to yourself? Pinterest has been full of "[Insert food item here] in a mug" recipes and one of those has been the instant mac and cheese in a mug. 

The Original Pin

The original blog this was featured on is no longer available, but I did find re-blogs of it all over. The instructions on each was pretty much the same: "Microwave 1/3 cup pasta (whole grain), 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup 1% milk, and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese on high for 2 minutes then stir."

Shannon sent us in this pin and her story. "I was hungry and there was almost no food in the house. I remembered this pin and looked it up. I clicked on the link but it gave me no further instructions on how to make it. It just gave me a list of ingredients and to microwave it. Not thinking too much about it I put all the ingredients into a mug and put it in the microwave. It was only in the process of putting it in the microwave did I remember when you're making easy mac that you cook the noodles then make the sauce, but it was too late.  The pin didn't say how long to microwave it so I tried for a minute at first. The pasta was barely cooked so tried 2 more minutes. It still wasn't cooked so I thought 5 minutes would do. It did, but just barely."

The Pinstrosity

"It got the job done in that I had something to eat, but my taste buds were not jumping around with joy. It wasn't terrible tasting but I probably would have been better walking to the grocery store 2 minutes away and buying some actual easy mac."

That's just not quite what I picture when I think of mac and cheese. She did say that she used regular pasta, not whole grain, and whole milk instead of 1% (because that's what she had on hand), but from what I've read, that shouldn't have mattered. So I decided to test the ingredients given in the pin and see what happened. 

1/4 c. of milk in with the 1/2 c. of water seemed like way too much liquid (especially as one full box of mac and cheese only takes 1/4 cup of milk and this is definitely not a full box worth of mac and cheese), but I stuck to the recipe anyway. I eagerly mixed everything up in my tallest mug, plopped it in the zapper, and came back after the 2 minutes were up to find this:

"Oh well," I thought, "I'm sure the rest that stayed in the cup is fine." So I pulled out the mug and looked in...

Cheesy chunky milk. MMmmmm. And the noodles were hardly cooked at all. I zapped it again (with more mac and cheese volcano action) and the pasta was slightly better, but not great. It was more like Macaroni Al dente cheese soup...with no flavor. I let it sit on the counter thinking maybe it just needed some "soaking time". That didn't help the matter either. The sauce didn't taste good and the noodles weren't cooked. Blech. 

So I'm callin' this one busted, done in, popped, and trashed. 

"Pin Busted" stamp created for us by Savannah 

But I was sure that someone somewhere had made mac and cheese in a mug and had a successful lunch, so I turned to Pinterest and found this:

The Original Pin

http://www.ellaclaireinspired.com/2013/04/homemade-single-serve-microwave.html

She says that you need a BIG mug, as in a soup mug, for this to work. That would definitely have helped my cheese volcano problem I had. So I cleaned out the microwave and searched my kitchen. I don't have a soup mug but I do have a glass 2 cup measuring cup, so I decided to give that a try. She also has you zap the noodles in water in the mug before adding the "sauce". This made a lot more sense, so I gave it a try. I didn't have Cheddar-Jack cheese, so I just had to use cheddar, but I figured this would give me an idea if it worked or not. So I followed the instructions carefully and this is what I came out with:

The Pin Win:

That looked WAY better than the first run through. I was excited about it. I stirred it all up good, and took a bite...and it was good. Not raving good, but good. Having the cheddar jack would have probably helped. But...it wasn't bad and it actually did work. No cheese volcano or macaroni soup. So, it can be done! Just not using that first pin. My only real complaint is that 1/3 c. pasta just didn't quite cut it. I think I need to go find a snack to add to my lunch. Hey! I think I have a package of instant mashed potatoes in my cupboard! I guess it's freshman flashback day today!

Snap, Crackle, Pop, Burn, NO!!!

If there is ever an opportunity to make sure our readers are safe when using pins I make sure to make it known. This is one of those times! Angie sent us this pin, where the first time it worked perfect, she loved it and it was delicious! Win!

 However the second time she did this it could have ended in disaster! Check it out!

 

The Original

http://thefrugalgirls.com/2009/11/homemade-microwave-popcorn-recipe.html

 

This pin is about making your own homemade microwave popcorn! Fun and cheap! All you do is put 1/3 C popcorn kernels in a new brown paper bag, and tape it shut, you then microwave it until you hear 5 seconds between pops.

All went well with Angie's first attempt at this, however the second time she did exactly as the first time but saw her microwave light flickering, she went to check it out and saw what we have below.

 

Now the Frugal Girls had no issues with this, and I am not saying this is a bad pin, I am merely warning ya'll to make sure and watch your popcorn so that what you see below doesn't happen to you! For all we know this could have been a microwave problem, but if she had let it keep going who knows what could have happened! Let's avoid kitchen fires yes?!

 

The Pinstrosity

 

I'm glad nothing bad happened here, but the cleanup was probably nightmarish, and the smell! Burnt popcorn smell is the worst.

 

Anyone have any good pins for smell removal from a  microwave?!

 

So there is your warning folks, watch it pop!!!!

 

Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!

 I am off to clean my house and run errands, ( so much for a day off huh?).

 

 

 

 

 

 



Snowman Slaughter

Wow. What a day. It ended up being busier than I expected, but it was wonderful. A family photo shoot, a quick stop at Em's house (always a highlight in any day), cooked 2 fun dinners, got to tell our dating/love story to some awesome girls, and then I just got done hosting a 7 course meal for my brother and cousin, and their fun dates.  It's been an awesome day, but it meant that I have not sat down at the computer all day until right now (other than to retrieve the recipes I needed for the dinners). 

So I thought I'd share with you two of my Pinstrosities today (with that much going on, there's bound to be at least one minor Pinstrosity, right?). The theme of the 7 course dinner tonight was snowmen. Thanks to Google Translate, our "restaurant" was "le bonhomme de neige", which we assume is french for "The Snowman". We tried to get more creative than that...but I swear that for every 3 syllables in English, there were 32 in French, and while that would have been fun, we had trouble pronouncing "le bonhomme de neige" as it was. Anyway...each course had something to do with snowmen...or they were supposed to at least...we forgot with one of the courses to assemble it. Oh well. So...here are two of the courses from tonight's meal. Tasted great but the visual appeal was a little lacking. 

The Original Pin

Looks simple enough right? I wasn't doing the meatloaf part, but I loved the snowman mashed potato part. So I jumped into it. What could go wrong? Scoop mashed potatoes together and decorate. Well, my mashed potatoes were a little thin...so scooping them didn't really work, so we worked them into balls...sorta. And then I went to decorate them and found that I didn't have a whole jar of peppercorns like I was sure I did...so I improvised. 

The Pinstrosity

A huge thanks to Em for letting me use her plates!

Mmmm...doesn't that just look yummy. One of the other snowmen was wider than he was tall...the potatoes were just too gooey for this to really work well. This one here isn't bad, but not what I had visualized. And then...when my smart-alecky brother was served his plate he said, "Um...excuse me, but my snowman peed." I laughed, because it's true. Tonight I used instant potatoes and I added too much water...and then I didn't have any instant potato left and didn't have time to boil up a real one. Next time, I'm just making "real" potatoes. 

And then dessert. Of course it would be dessert. 

The Original Pin

http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/other-dessert/holiday-cheesecake-presents.html

I actually didn't find these on Pinterest...I have a card in my cook book (don't know where I got it from), but when I did a search online just now I found the exact picture and recipe that are on my card. 

Aren't those cute? Cheesecake squares! The recipe says to cut them in rectangles, so I thought I'd just go one step further and use my circle cookie cutters and make a snowman rather than presents. That part went just fine. But I couldn't find the gel decorating icing and didn't want to use regular decorators icing...so I decided to make a raspberry syrup (basically frozen raspberries with some sugar and water...ta da. We grew up doing that with strawberries and figured raspberries would do fine, and they did). All went well until I tried to add the raspberry sauce to the snowmen cheesecakes. I tried to drizzle the sauce to look like a scarf and it looked like the snowman had had his neck slit. So then I tried to drizzle the sauce "artistically" over the snowman and it just ended up looking like the snowman had been disemboweled.  

The Pinstrosity 

Taste? Fantastic. Visual appeal? Ew. 

So maybe I didn't score high in the presentation but I think everything tasted good. I hope.

UPDATE: I posted up the entire dinner on the family cooking blog I am a part of. I uploaded pictures of the courses and the decorations, and I provided links to the recipes and directions for the diy decorations. You can find the post here: http://mowercooking.blogspot.com/2012/12/le-bonhomme-de-neige-7-course-meal.html. 

Party Palate Planning

Merry 2 Days After Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day and that the holidays are treating you well. We pulled up in our driveway at 3:30 this morning from a wonderful Christmas with Cameron's parents (with a detour on the way home to the only movie theater within 200 miles that was showing Les Miserables, and 3 stops at three different stores looking for a queen size electric blanket). So now today I get to clean up our car vomit (you know...everything you crammed in your car during vacation that just gets tossed 2 feet from the door when you're unloading in the dead of night) so that we can decorate our Christmas tree tonight. We're bound and determined that we're going to do this...even if it takes us until the 4th of July. Christmas in July? I'm thinking we'll get some of the 50% off metallic wrapping paper from wally world and make a bunch of shiny tree ornaments and have a New Years Tree. That's the plan right now anyway. 

Speaking of New Years...y'all ready? Got your menu planned? The Mistletoe hung strategically so you can get your midnight kiss? Have pots and pans and spoons prepped and ready to grab and clang while running around the neighborhood (best New Years Eve tradition ever...seriously, it's so much fun, you should try it. It makes you feel like a kid and you can't help but smile)? If you're still trying to figure out what to bring to the New Years party, we thought we'd help you out by giving you some tips and tricks on some common holiday treats. 

The Original Pin

http://busy-mommy.com/2009/12/cooks-ham-tortilla-christmas-tree.html

Adena submitted this food project and gave us this story: "I've had pinwheels on several occasions but never made my own. I made these for a Christmas party last weekend. I am horrible at rolling wraps and burritos, so that part was challenging enough. Also, the spinach tortillas kept peeling (which explains the hanging pieces on the finished product. I used a combination of pinwheel recipes and picked the easiest one I could find: cream cheese with Ranch seasoning packets, shredded sharp Cheddar,and deli ham and turkey."

"After I rolled the tortillas, I refrigerated them for a while so they'd be easier to cut. I cut them too fat (and my tortillas were also too fat). My sister and cousin helped build the tree. My cousin had the idea to top the tree with a clementine. The bell pepper strips were garland. They tasted fine, but the tree looked sad. :)"

The Pinstrosity

Pinwheels can be tougher than you'd think they would be. But Adena's look delicious still. I love pinwheels. One thing that helps to hold these little guys together is to make sure and spread your filling (thinly) over the entire surface of one side of the tortilla, and then roll it tight. If there is filling over the entire surface, the pinwheel holds together a little better. And then, I know others have had more success with this than I have, but I find I have to make these as close to the serving time as I can or the tortillas (especially the spinach or tomato tortillas) end up a little soggy and they fall apart more. One third tip, these often hold up better and keep their shape better if they are small, so don't fill them so much and roll them tight (after all, they aren't usually the main dish, so they don't have to be incredibly filling and big). 

The Original Pin

http://latetocreate.com/2012/11/17/cinnamon-toasted-almonds-easy-recipe/


Katherine told this story about her nut fiasco. "We had decided to make these cinnamon toasted almonds for neighbor Christmas gifts. A chef i am not, so the label of EASY in bold type was especially enticing. As we gathered the ingredients my husband joked, you should submit a pinstrosity if they don't turn out. I scoffed. I dutifully mixed ingredients per the recipe, coated the almonds and popped those suckers into the oven. I even had all 4 cups of almonds on one baking sheet at one point, re-read the instructions and reluctantly decided to split the batch onto two sheets as the recipe suggested. 5 minutes in, almonds smell great baking in the oven. 8 minutes in, the sweet aroma turns slightly sour, and 10 minutes into baking the almonds are burnt and smoke is coming out through the stove burners. The almonds looked horrible with a mix of crusty black burntness and bubbly brown foam covering them. Sure these weren't presentable for neighbors but we might be able to snack on the lesser burnt pieces. My husband took a bite, and nothing! Those stupid almonds tasted like almonds! I'm calling this a level 4 fail based on how quickly they burned, how after 3 minutes out of the oven the almonds had GLUED to the pan, and how after all our hard work they just tasted like plain ol' almonds... oh. And the fact that my husband called it!" 
The Pinstrosity

Ah nuts, they didn't turn out. ;) 

For this recipe (and any that include coating an object in sugar and then baking it) I strongly suggest parchment paper. Oddly enough, I'm just discovering parchment paper and I don't know why it's taken me so long. That stuff is the best. Seriously, try it. This recipe gives you sugar coated almonds, but also a sugar coated pan. The sugar will melt and stick to the almonds some, but it's also going to melt off and stick to the pan and burn. Parchment paper will make cleanup way easier. If you notice, the original site doesn't show a picture of her pan and almonds immediately out of the oven...I imagine it's not so pretty either. 

Getting the yummy coating to stick to the nuts though...that's the real problem here. Why go to all that work to get almonds that just taste normal? I'm not a bit almond fan but I LOVE pecans (and luckily I have family members with pecan trees who love to have us come pick bags and bags). Instead of coating the nuts and then baking them here's what I do (and this could be done with any kind of nuts):

Cinnamon Pecans

They are sweet, but not overpoweringly sweet like most candy. They are super simple to make too. Don't be scared by the fact that these need to be cooked to the soft ball stage. That scared me at first but it was really easy. I promise. All I did was I went to the wonderful world of Walmart, bought a $4.50 candy thermometer and then just cooked the glaze until the little temperature line hit the soft ball stage line. That easy. Nothing to it. You can do it. Don't be afraid. You'll be so proud of yourself afterward too. I was. And then you won't be able to quit eating these...but they're pecans...so it's healthy. :)

Ingredients

1 c. white sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 c. water

2 c. pecan halves (or pieces)

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1. Before you do anything else, prepare a flat surface to pour the nuts onto. For one batch I put wax paper on a cookie sheet, and another batch I just put the wax paper on the counter. Both worked fine.
2. Combine the sugar, cinnamon, cream of tartar and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
3. Cook until it reaches the soft ball stage, stirring to keep from scorching.
4. Quickly pour in the vanilla and then the pecans. Stir quickly to coat the nuts.
5. Spread the nuts onto a hard surface (as prepared in step #1) and quickly separate with a fork before they harden (and stick together).
6. Let cool and then enjoy!

The Original Pin

http://picky-palate.com/2010/12/20/kiss-pies/

Meghan sent us in her Pinstrosity involving these scrumptious morsels:  "Over the weekend I had a cookie exchange party to go to.  I was super excited when I saw this Pin and knew I HAD to try it out!!  I needed an easy to make recipe as I had a million things to do an my 21 month old daughter was having 2 friends over for a sleepover... CHAOS!!!!  This was bound to be a pinstrosity from the beginning for the following reasons:

#1- WHERE DO YOU BUY ROLL OUT PIE CRUST DOUGH?????  Seriously can anyone tell me this?? I went to 5 different stores and everyone had pie crusts in the pie tin... not roll out.  I was tempted to buy it but it would have been such a waste since I needed to make 40 plus of these mini pies.

#2 - Apparently since its December NO ONE sells Hershey Kisses... in ANY flavour! I went to another 4 stores looking for these."

"So after wasting a weeks worth of lunches I ran on on my lunch Friday and grabbed puff pastry dough and a tonne of Rolos!  I figured meh can't go wrong... can I??  Then just to make sure I wasn't heading for a huge failure I scoured Pinterest for something similar with puff pastry. And found this

http://realmomkitchen.com/1337/chocolate-candy-puff-pastry-dessert/

and felt much better!!  So while my husband ran around with 3 girls under the age for 5 on Friday night I excited cut out my puff pastry, put a Rolo in the middle, pinched and twisted the top and sides and brushed them with egg... just like BOTH recipes told me!  I threw them in the oven and walked away.... Well when my timer went off I got so excited and this is what I found..."

The Pinstrosity

"The first thing that came to mind was the movie Aliens... you know how when a baby alien is hatching from the egg pods the pod pops open ... that was my it!! When I pulled them out of the oven I swear they were breathing and I actually expected little aliens to run out of my oven!  Seeing as I needed 40 plus of these alien pods I did some research (aka calling my mom) before setting out on the task of making another batch.  The next batch I made I used the egg to wet the sides of the dough before pinching them together.  I don't have a picture of the second batch but it was a little bit better than the first... as in 4 of the 16 stayed closed... So back I went to more research... (aka posting a pic on facebook and finding out what I did wrong!!).  SO for the third batch I did the same as the second batch BUT this time I poked a tiny hole in the top with a toothpick so the pastry wouldn't heat up and explode... the hot air could vent out.  This definitely was the best batch... but I still had 3 of the 16 explode like aliens.  On the upside they all tasted AMAZING!!!!"

So...to answer Meghan's questions:

1. "WHERE DO YOU BUY ROLL OUT PIE CRUST DOUGH?????" I actually haven't ever seen just a glob of pie crust dough being sold in the stores, but I have seen the uncooked pie crusts in the frozen foods section, and I think that is what the original recipe is calling for. During the year they are often by the whipped cream, but at Christmas our grocery store has them out in the center aisle freezer chest thingys. But, if you can't find those (and even if you can), I've got something even better for you. Make your own pie crust. Stick with me. I know, it's one of those things that seems too time consuming and hard, but if you're spending all the time going to a bunch of stores looking for a frozen, uncooked crust, you've got time to make pie crust. Need a good and simple recipe? Here's mine/my mom's recipe and it's yummy!

Pie crust will stick to itself much better than puff pastry, so there shouldn't be as big of a problem of them bursting open during the baking. 

2. The lack of Hershey Kisses. Now that's bizarre that you couldn't find any, because being that it is December, our store has an over abundance of them. Cordial cherry kisses, caramel filled kisses, regular kisses, etc. Walmart had them in the candy aisle, the Christmas aisle, the baking aisle, and the little center "holiday baking" stand. I'm not sure what was up in your town, that's just weird. 

The Original Pin

http://www.pipandebby.com/pip-ebby/2011/11/14/hot-cocoa-cookies.html

And then here's one of my own. Not a fail, but I do have some tips...
The Pinstrosity

My sister held a cookie exchange and I decided to try out the hot cocoa cookies I had eagerly pinned on Pinterest. The first batch seemed a little over done when I cooked them according to the recipe's directions, so I lowered the baking time by 2-3 minutes and they came out much better. These cookies were so perfectly chocolatey (which is saying something for me who is not a huge chocolate fan) and soft and gooey when they came out of the oven. I put them in a container and Em and I drove the 2 hours to my sisters house for her party, so of course the cookies cooled down during the drive. They were still good once they had cooled, but they just weren't as good or impressive. They ended up a little more crunch and the chunk of chocolate in the center had hardened back to just a chunk of chocolate and not melted awesomeness. So if you make these to take to a party, take them hot. Their not bad cool, but they just aren't anything to scream about either.

So I hope this gives you some ideas and help! All it did for me was to make me hungry...good thing I've got left over posole from Christmas (New Mexico Chrstimas food is the best!).

Once there was a snow...cockapoo?

We hit another exciting milestone yesterday...10,000,000 pageviews! We never imagined this would take off in the first year like it has. Thank you everyone for being brave enough to send us your projects and for reading and sharing the posts. You all are awesome. Give yourself a high five! 

Okay, on to the post. 

I LOVE cheeseballs. Love them. They're just so yummy and pretty looking. Well, they're pretty looking until you dig into them and then it's just a pile of cheese...but then they taste awesome, so it makes up for the look. You pretty much can put just about anything in a cheeseball, and some people even get super creative with theirs. Take for example this one:

The Original Pin

http://lessthanperfectlifeofbliss.blogspot.ca/2010/12/sure-hes-cheesy-but-hes-oh-so-cute.html

Cute, isn't it?! When I first looked at it I thought it was a sweet cheese ball with coconut on it (to dip cookies in), but then I read the link and saw that it's a mozzarella garlic cheeseball, and that sounds heavenly too. Mel saw this and decided to give it a go. 

Mel said, "My pinstrosity occurred last year!" (small interjection...I love that she had a picture of this saved months before Pinstrosity ever came into creation) "I needed something to bring in to work for our Christmas get together. I found instructions to make a fabulous cheese ball and with my limited skills, thought even I could make it. Nope."

The Pinstrosity

"The first photo I have attached shows how mine turned out.

The second photo shows are remarkable resemblance to a cockapoo, don't you think?"

http://www.lancasterpuppies.com/puppy-for-sale/cockapoo/danny-1

Bahahaha, I love it. I love the resemblance to the cockapoo too. 

So let's dissect this thing. It's really just a few small things actually that would have taken this from a cockapoo to a snowman. 

First, from my limited experience with making cheeseballs, it can be so hard to get those dang things really round! In the original one the bottom ball is kinda squished, but the head is pretty dang good (or at least that could have been the good side of the cheeseball and so that's why she used it for the face). So a rounder head would have upped the presentation, but I know that's not the easiest. I found I get rounder cheeseballs if I just work it with my hands and I don't try to roll it in a bowl or on the counter (both tips I read online with the various cheeseballs I've made). Your hands get gooey, but you get a better "sphere". 

Second, the sizes of the cheeseballs. You've got to have a larger snowman body than head to get it to look like a snowman. Just a little smaller of a head on Mel's and the shape would have been perfect. 

Third, the cheese. The recipe calls for finely shredded mozzarella for the outside, and I think the finer you can get it the better. In the original you can see that the cheese is grated pretty thin. This will help give it the right look. Too thick of grated cheese and your snowman goes from snowy to hairy. And then as much mozzarella as you can get to stick, the better. 

Fourth, if you want to be nit-picky...the hat. If you do one large circle and two small circles of toast you'll get more of a top hat look and less of a beanie look. But the beanie look is cute to!

So go forth and create awesome snowmen...or cockapoos, because either way I'm sure they taste great. 

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!

Tips and Tricks from Our Halloween Party

With the Frankenstorm raging on the east coast, we thought we'd give you a Frankenpost...are you ready for this?

Last night was our Halloween Party extravaganza. It turned out well and we had a lot of fun with our friends and family. When we decided to do this party we naturally started pinning ideas and recipes. We tried out pins, tweaked pins, got rid of pins, and then created some of our own ideas. We'd like to share some of those with you and some tricks and tips that we figured out along the way. 

The Original Pin

http://day2daywithhollyj.blogspot.com/2010/10/magical-color-changing-drinks.html

We were pretty excited about these. We had Sprite, clear Koolaid, and water as our party beverages so that the color change could be noticed. The night before the party Cameron and I set out all the cups on the counter and dropped in the food coloring. We tried for just one drop a cup (the instructions called for 2-3 drops, but that just seemed like more than necessary), but a few got 2-4. I figured that would be enough time to dry, and it was...for the red and the yellow. The blue and the green hadn't dried out yet by the time the party started. So lesson number one...prepare these cups probably at least 2 days in advance so the food coloring has time to dry out all the way. 

Then when the party started going, I got filling the cups with ice and people wanted to come help...but I knew they'd look in the cup and see a "dirty spot" and think the cup wasn't good so I finally just had to pick one or two people to help ice up cups so the surprise wasn't spoiled for everyone. With the ice in the cups, you can't see the food coloring spot on the bottom. We started to take drink orders and bring them their cup, but the drinks started changing color so fast that by the time we handed them the drink the color was already changing...so lesson number two: just ice the cups and let people pour their own drinks. We got the drinks served and watching everyone's reactions was fun. It was a hit with everyone, adults, college kids, teens, etc. 

The Original Pin

http://kirstycolquhoun.blogspot.com/2011/10/day-137-witches-broomsticks.html

Witchs' broomsticks.

Our Version:

 Em followed the directions and very carefully tried to poke holes in the Reese's mini cups with a carving fork, but the cups kept splitting. So she got creative and just made small indentations and then stuck the pretzel sticks to the Reese's cups with orange frosting. In the end she added orange frosting to all of them because we liked the look of it better than just the plain broom. They're not identical to the original site, but we made them work and they were a hit. We probably could have warmed up the carving fork and it may have made better holes without breaking the Reese's, but this ended up working just fine. 

The Original Pin

http://barbschram.blogspot.com/2009/07/witch-way-justrite-way.html

These actually were really easy to make. Em got all the supplies listed on the site and put these cute cookies together. They came out just right. The most annoying part? Unwrapping all those kisses. 

Our Version:

The Original Pin:

http://feedingfourlittlemonkeys.blogspot.com/2008/10/veggie-skeleton.html

One of our friends wanted to bring something, so we assigned them the skeleton veggie platter. 

Our Version:

This looks really cute until people dig in, then it just looks like an odd assortment of veggies. But...it was a huge hit...I've never seen a veggie tray eaten as fast as this one was. 

The Original Pin

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/noms

I looked through page after page after page of myfoodlooksfunny.com and never did find this picture, but every link I've found online takes me to that site...so it's probably there somewhere. 

I know...this is gross...but it makes me laugh so hard.  

Our Version:

We just had to go off the picture for this one...but there really isn't much to explain. The instructions would go something like this. 

1. Carve a small pumpkin (pie pumpkins are the perfect size). 

2. Prepare/buy your favorite guacamole. 

3. Arrange so it looks like the pumpkin is vomiting the guac. 

Those are the steps we followed at least. My guacamole isn't normally very creamy or green...I like more chunky guac...so I tweaked my normal recipe for my family who likes creamy guac...but then it was pretty much white and red from the sour cream and tomatoes/salsa. So I added some green and yellow food coloring to help it out. 

The only tip I can really think of for this one is to choose your container wisely. I didn't really have a platter/dish that was quite the right size and shape, so the pumpkin head kept sinking into the guac as there was only room for it to sit on the edge. So the mouth was kinda hidden, lessening the vomitting look a little. A cake pan or cookie pan would have worked better (but by the time we were putting this together people were showing up, so we just left it at this). 

The Original Pin

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken/chicken-lady-fingers-with-romanian-romesco-dipping-sauce/

Chicken Lady Fingers with Romanian Romesco Dipping Sauce. Well..that's what the inspiration was. This one ended up being our most tweaked Pinterest inspired food item. First off...we didn't want to try and buy enough chicken to serve as many people as were coming...that was just going to be too much. So we nixed the chicken fingers and decided to go with bread sticks instead (this recipe was easy and super super yummy). Even though we changed the chicken to bread, we knew we wanted to try that sauce. Em bought the supplies and we put it together and it made about 1 cup of sauce. There was no way that was going to stretch to feed the crowd. It tasted yummy...but it just wasn't going to be enough. Not having enough supplies to make multiple more batches of the same sauce, we looked through the cupboards improvised. 

Our Version:

We ended up throwing in 2 cups of canned tomatoes (ours were whole and packed in water...but it didn't matter in the end because they got blended up), 4 oz. cream cheese, 1 TBS red pepper flakes, about 1 TBS minced onion, and about 1 1/2 tsp. Italian Seasoning. We blended that up, warmed it up on the stove and served it hot with the bread sticks. Yum yum yum!

The Original Pin

http://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2012/09/the-perfect-fall-cheese-ball.html

This cheese ball was easy and SOOOO YUMMY!!!! I think it was the first thing to completely disappear off the table. Just follow the directions and you're set to go. I can't think of anything I'd change with this or any tips that aren't given in the recipe. 

Our Version:

We served ours with the remaining chips and then Wheat Thins. 

The Original Pin

http://cookiesandcups.com/cream-cheese-filled-snickerdoodles/

I have been DYING to try these out and they lived up to the weeks of anticipation. They were so yummy. I tried this with the Snickerdoodle recipe given on the site and with my cousin's Snickerdoodle recipe (which I love) and they both tasted the same, but they looked different. The cookies from my cousins recipe looked like the cookies in the picture above, but the cookies from the website I followed came out way more puffy. Neither was better or worse...they were just different in shape. 

Our Version:

I do have something to say about making these. If you're wanting a fast and easy cookie to make for a lot of people...this probably isn't the one you want to make. It is a little time consuming. I was glad when the filling ran out and I could quit the whole process. But...they were scrumptious and worth the work. I'm just warning you that these don't throw together fast and easy like sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies. 

On the tier above the Snickerdoodles are mostly-regular brownies. I was one egg short of the 4 the recipe called for, so I substituted 1/4 c. of plain yogurt. The brownies stayed soft (and slightly gooey), but they tasted great!

The Original Pin

http://catchmyparty.com/photos/495699

While looking for the marshmallows I thought we had (to make the party favors we didn't end up having time to make) I found a mostly full bag of dum-dums in the cupboard. I was just going to stick them in a bowl, but then we remembered a pin we'd seen and decided to make a dum-dum topiary. I rummaged through my craft supplies and found 1 Styrofoam ball and started stabbing the dum-dums in it. Well...I ran out of dum-dums before I ran out of Styrofoam ball. So I found a small bowl and we had a half topiary instead. 

Looking back I should have tied a ribbon around the top of the bowl and put a bow on it...but this served the purpose just fine.You'd think this would be a really easy thing to throw together, but it didn't take too long before I had a hard time stabbing the dum-dum sticks in and not hitting another sucker's stick. It took some work to get some of those in...I can't imagine how impossible it'd start to get near the end had I had enough dum-dums to fill the whole Styrofoam ball. So if you're going to make this...get 2 bags of dum-dums and be prepared for some frustration as you try to get all the sticks to align. 

Our decorations were a mix of pinspiraions, creations of our own, and items pulled from our own personal stashes. 

For the front porch:

The Original Pin

http://craftsredesigned.blogspot.com/search/label/Halloween

Our Version:

The hardest part? Getting the tea-lights lit. I didn't have one of the handy dandy furnace lighters...so we pinned 3 clothespins together, and stuck a match on the end. We then lit that match with another match (since there wasn't time to light the match, then stick it in the clothespin) and we lit the candles that way. We tried lighting the candles and sliding them down...but that didn't work. They looked really cute lit up on the porch. We had 10 of these all lit up (but I didn't think to get a picture once it got dark...we were too busy enjoying the party). 

Then I also pulled out these from my stash from last year's Halloween party:

My sister sent me a picture of these on Facebook last year and I put them together with shoes from the thrift store, spray glue, glitter, and stuffed stockings. I used a spatula to push the leg ends under the little crack so it would look like they really were sticking out from under the house. 

Decorations inside the house:

From bottom to top:

Bloody Candles: Pinspired Project.

Dried Corn: WalMart

Troll (by the corn): Gift from Cameron's brother from his time in Norway.

 Black and White Photos: Photos my Great-Grandfather (Em's Grandfather) took.

Quidditch Photo: Personal photo project. 

Boots: From a local thrift/antique/consignment store. 

Framed Leaf: Melted Crayon Project

Yucca Ball: DIY

Metal Kaleidoscope: Gift from a friend. 

Em had the white candles already, so we bought two red tapers and dripped the wax as they burned onto the white candles. From this idea: http://www.marthastewart.com/272746/creepy-candles

More detail on the boots. I saw these in the store for $10 and had to have them. They are WAY to small for my Sasquatch sized feet, but I knew they'd make a fun table decoration. 

 

From left to right...

Witch's wreath: DIY from last year 

Mummy head topiary and Ghost: DIY from last year 

Necktie Garland: DIY from last year

Leaves: Walmart. I put them in an orange vase we found in the house when we moved in. The vase is being held up in a bowl we got for our wedding by 4 dried ears of corn. 

Halloween Silhouettes hung on a ribbon with clothes pins: DIY from last year

And then over the food table I had this:

Inspired by: http://jenikaslensblog.com/anatomy-of-a-halloween-party

A Batmobile...bahahaha, I'm so punny. I used bats from last year's porch decorations and 3 different sizes of embroidery hoops to make this bat chandelier/mobile. It cast some fun shadows at night with the light on. 

And then finally...our costumes. We were both pretty excited about our costumes. We kept them a secret from each other...it made it more exciting to not know (and mine had to be a secret or it just wouldn't have been as effective...you'll see). Last year I set up my photo booth, but the room we set it up in still smells slightly of mouse death...so we opted out of the booth and just took pictures in front of a small blank wall. Not as pretty of pictures, but hey...who cares? We don't need pretty photo booth pictures to remember how much fun we had. 

 Emilee and Chip as Tron and Quorra. I thought they did an EXCELLENT job at making their costumes. They looked super. The reflective tape they used looked awesome in the normal light, but the flash from the camera just really made it shine. 

 I made Cameron a Gentleman Pirate costume. I found the coat at a thrift store in town. It was a little torn up and plain, so I mended the tears, sewed on a collar, found awesome pirate buttons at one of the fabric shops in town and sewed them onto the sleeves, collar, and sides. I put together his pirate hat using this tutorial, and then made the sash from fabric from my scrap bag. He just wore the pants and shirt from last year's costume (tucking the troll tail in a pocket so it wouldn't show). Me? I was Emilee. And it was awesome. She had no idea. I told her I was going to be a pirate along with Cameron...had to throw her off somehow. We were hanging out one day and while she went to run some errands I raided her closet for clothes,jewelry, and the hair flower so I'd be authentic. I added the belt, the leggings, and even made a little hedgehog to go on my wrist in honor of Emilee's pet hedgehog. It took an entire can of red hair coloring to get my hair that color...but it was perfect. The look on Em's face when she realized I'd dressed up as her was hilarious. 

We had to get a picture of Em and I with her "normal hair", and not the black wig. 

So there you have it. Our Frankenpost of our Halloween Party. I hope some of our tips helped and that this helped give you ideas for any last minute party planning you're doing today! We sure had a great time and hope that you have a fun and safe Halloween.