Ok, so it’s hard not to get addicted to Pinterest. It’s basically a virtual bulletin board where you can categorize and “pin” and save all the great ideas you find online! Recipes, projects to try, or just anything you love. By linking to your facebook or twitter account, you can create your own login for Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/
Anyway, I’ve decided to add a category to my blog for the ideas I’ve found on Pinterest, and have successfully tried. To start off, one of my favorite categories: Food. To take a look at my Pinterest board in the “Food” category, go here: http://pinterest.com/beaubeth/food/
Here are 2 recent food ideas I found on Pinterest which I successfully re-created and loved:
#1: Home-made Egg McMuffins!
Yum! So, here’s the secret…
Spray a non-stick muffin pan with cooking oil, break an egg into each muffin cup, and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Put cheese (and meat optional) and then egg on one half of a toasted english muffin. Top with other half of english muffin to create a sandwich. You can buy canadian bacon in circular shaped pieces which are perfectly sized for these sandwiches, but to save money, we just used lunch meat. It would be great with sausage patties or bacon as well! Make sure to freeze these for about an hour, uncovered, before wrapping individually with foil or saran wrap. They will accumulate condensation if you wrap them immediately. Place individually wrapped breakfast sandwiches in a sealed plastic bag and store in the freezer until ready to eat! Re-heating in the oven or toaster oven is preferred, but if using a microwave, wrap sandwich in a paper towel and heat for a minute or so (until hot)
And #2, a new favorite “healthy” dessert snack.
Chocolate stuffed Raspberries:
They are the perfect mix of tart and sweet! I used white chocolate chips…just stuff into the raspberry and you’re done! Wash and dry raspberries before using. I tapped each berry on a paper towel to shake off any excess water before stuffing with a chocolate chip. I stored them in the serving glass, covered in saran wrap in the refrigerator until I served them. I later found that storing them in a plastic bag was not a good idea. Two days after I made them, I tried to transport them from Kansas City to Oklahoma in a ziplock bag for my parents to try, and they were mush by the time I got there! So. Not sure how long these can keep before they start getting mushy, but I would suggest storing gently in a tupperware container or in a bowl lightly covered with saran wrap, and planning not to wait forever after making them to serve and eat!
And…….
Of course, I’ve also had my share of Pinterest “Failures” as well. I will save you the laugh you’d get if I posted visuals to document these failed attempts, but I will briefly describe two of them.
Cheesy Zuchinni Squash bake. Turned out runny! By the time I baked the zuchinni and squash long enough to get the cheese on top to melt and brown nicely, the veggies had cooked to sogginess! I’m not even sure how to avoid this next time… maybe fry the zuchinni and squash in a skillet first and broiling in a pan afterward to melt and brown the cheese? Who knows.
Strawberry chocolate pie. Ok, this failure was totally my fault because I deviated from the directions a bit. It was a simple dessert, requested by my husband on his birthday (he was sadly disappointed). An oreo crust, filled with cut up fresh strawberries, with chocolate drizzled on top! Such a great concept! Until I didn’t like the looks of the fresh strawberries I found at the store so I opted to get a bag of frozen strawberries instead. Seemed like a good idea, especially since these strawberries were already cut for me! Less work! Yes!
…..No. What was I thinking? I don’t know. But, I decided to just dump the bag of strawberries into the pie crust (so easy!). I used a chocolate topping which was supposed to harden in minutes, and I squeezed this all over the pie…even making a nice looking drizzled pattern on top. Wow! I’m done! Just put the lid on the pie, and refrigerate until ready to eat! The strawberries would thaw by the time we were ready to eat it in a day or so, right? Right. They would thaw and get soggy and runny. Which would would in turn make the crust soggy, as well as UN-harden the chocolate topping! By the next evening when I proudly pulled out my pie, I was sadly surprised to find the result I think I should have expected if I would have thought things through a bit more. Ha! Oh well, better luck next time!
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