Pinning

There are certain things in your life that make your life easier.  I relish these things - probably more than ever.  One of those things is Pinterest.   If you aren't familiar I recommend!  You can check it out here.....

Pinterest

I must warn you however it although it helps me to keep organized on recipes and such this site is a good time waster and can be very addictive.   It's kind of one of those things that you go to when you want to procrastinate about other things in your life that you should be doing.  That being said I also find it very helpful to organize certain things.

Recipes - I used to think that I would remember where a recipe was on the wonderful world wide web. I thought if I just bookmarked the site on my blog (see the left hand side) that I would remember where the recipe was and be able to find.   As you may of guessed this didn't work out like I thought it was going to.  I spent the better part of a day looking for a lemonade cake once.  I had seen it in the early summer and was going to take it to our family reunion.   But when I went to the blog I thought it was on it wasn't there - UGH - and after searching through some of the other blogs I finally did a google search and was able to find it.   I also have a couple of three ring binders with sections and a lot of recipes.   This works to pull stuff out of magazines or print things I see but lets be honest - I don't every really go through those to look for ideas.  Organizing recipes on Pinterest however is a dream.  I have all my categories - Dinner, Sweets, Veggies, etc. and I just "pin" any recipes I find.   Then when I go to plan the weeks meals or I'm going somewhere where I want to take something I just go onto my "boards" and browse through things.   Then if I makes something I'm not crazy about I can just go in and delete the recipe - easy as pie!  And being able to have pictures to look at is great as well.

Boards - if you aren't familiar you probably wonder what I mean by "Boards".   These are basically the folders of Pinterest.   I have quite a few boards.   I have one for most rooms in the house - Kitchen, Living Room, Family Room, etc. where I can put pictures of things I came across for inspiration later.  I also have Crafty and DIY boards for different projects of inspiration.  I've already mentioned that I use it for recipe filing so probably the final collection of boards to mention would be holidays.   I have recently been adding to the Valentines Day but have them for pretty much every holiday.

Now granted this site crashes or goes away I've lost everything and I have thought about it but it doesn't really bother me - after all what are the odds?

Oh and also you can follow your friends and see what the "pin" on their "boards".

Really it will all make better sense if you go and look at my boards so feel free to join me here

Happy Pinning!

Recipe Recap

Here's a brief update on the new recipes we tired last week.

First up the Clam Chowder
This was pretty much a home run hit with G.   He said it was "restaurant worthy" and "if he had a facebook page he would post a pic and say how great it is".   I'd never made clam chowder before and definitely will again being that A - G loved it and B - it could not be more simple,  We had a salad of greens, tomatoes, and a little feta to go with it.

Next up Stuffed Beef Crescents
These were a hit as well and not only did I get two dinner I also have some in the freezer for another day.   My advise if you are going to make this and there is just two of you - divide the meat in two.   I did it "fresh" both nights.  By this I mean I only used on roll of crescent dough per night.   You just need to reheat the meat the second night before you roll it in the dough.  Also, the second night G decided he wanted a sauce on the side so he had his with a side of salsa.   These little pockets are very rich so you definitely want a veggie of some sort to balance the whole thing out.  I will keep this recipe but it won't be one that I will pull out all that often.  That's roasted broccoli - if you missed it my post on roasting veggies can be found here

Bon Appétit!

What's for dinner?

Here's what's for dinner this week

Friday - Pizza and salad - after all it is Friday

Saturday - Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Green veggie
Full disclosure I will be coating and cooking the pork chops in shake and bake.   What can I say G loves it and its super easy

Sunday - Taco Casserole, Salad
New recipe to be found here

Monday - Chicken Fingers, Potato/Sweet Potato fries (baked in the oven), green veggie
New recipe - can be found here

Tuesday - Leftover Taco Casserole

Wednesday - Freezer dinner, green veggie
Will take one of the casseroles I have in the freezer out - just not sure which one.

Thursday - Freezer dinner, green veggie

G just made a comment about me being organized again on dinners.  I basically sit on the couch (tonight we are watching the Fiesta Bowl - go Wildcats) and show him recipes that I've collected on Pinterest.  I don't get his approval on everything but on most.   My love affair with Pinterest only gets stronger.   Its a perfect place to just file things away for a later time.  Having a plan for the week just makes life so much easier.   G is going back to work next week so dinner prep will need to be more simplified as I never know how much time I will actually have.

In other news......I went to the library today.   Can't remember the last time I stepped into one......
More on that later......

Bon Appétit!

What's for dinner

So I need to get back in the habit of planning dinners for the week.   And I think I will start chronicling the menu's here.  Warning I'm a big fan of cook once and eat twice so I will probably average only about 3 or so recipes a week.   I will also try to let you know how the recipes turned out in updates.

So here goes......

Friday - We are going out!  

Saturday - Chili Dogs!   Also, on deck....sliced fruit, carrot sticks, chips  

Before you judge let me just say that my Beavs are in the Alamo Bowl so we always love to stadium food.   

Sunday - left over Pasta Fagoil,, salad toast, and pears  

This is leftovers from that we had for dinner last night.   Recipe can be found here.  I used what beans I had on hand however so I had a can of chili beans and a can of soup beans.   I also added a little grated parmesan on the top and used chicken broth instead of vegetable broth because that's what I had on hand.   This is a great light supper for a cold night.   We had lunch at the Red Coach downtown so this was a great meal to balance that.

Monday - New Years Eve!   Clam Chowder, kale chips, and homemade bread (this recipe I've been wanting to make for a long time and I think nows the time!)

Clam chowder recipe found here

Homemade bread found here

Tuesday - Beef Stuffed Crescents & roasted broccoli

Recipe here

Wednesday - Leftover Clam Chowder with salad and bread

Thursday -  Leftovers Beef Stuffed Crescents & brocoli

Merry silence

Its not often these days that the house is as quiet as it is right now......well except for the snoring furry one by me.   Today is Christmas Eve and its Pickle's first one!   He decided to ring it in by sleeping until 5 - yes 5 and that is the first time he got up last night!   Although I love it when he sleeps that long it makes it hard for me to go back to sleep at that point.   After all BP (before pickle) I used to get up every day at 5 so it seems kinda silly to go back to bed now.   Its nice to be up first in some ways.....I took this time to set the table for tomorrow and then decided to sit down for a minute and jot down a little note.

Last year at this time if you would of told me that next Christmas I would have a wee one I would of had a hard time believing you.  But here we are and I could not be more thrilled, excited, grateful, happy, content, oh I could go on and on.  Although he is too small to understand all that surrounds this time of year I know that in years to come there will be many great memories and I look forward to building them with him.  This year we started with a visit to Santa and in years to come I hope to do things like Zoo Lights, Portland Speedway, Santa Breakfast, etc.

Tonight we will start one tradition of reading Twas the Night Before Christmas.   A girlfriend of mine gave it to me last week so we have a perfect copy - and a matching stuffed reindeer to boot!   Also, the plate is set to leave cookies for Santa.   Although to be honest the only one getting a stocking this year has 4 legs.  Don't judge I promise to do better next year.   Just couldn't find a stocking for Pickle that I liked and G and I didn't need to do our stockings this year - wasn't feeling it.

Tomorrow all grandparents will arrive and share the day with us.   A simple day more about family and being together than about standing in the kitchen and cooking.   We will just be having a simple brunch and then will open presents after.  

Pickle is starting to stir so I should go get him........

Mele Kalikimaka to you and yours!   

Still here...

I'm still here and still around.

I have some post that I have been working on but I need to figure out some things if I'm ever going to post a picture ever again (apparently I've used up all my "free" space)

Stay tuned.....