using pinterest as a cookbook

I really do love the usefulness of pinterest, that is if you actually USE it. I use it in many different ways from inspiration boards, diy ideas, blog promotion, classroom tools, and as a cookbook. Two weeks ago I powered through and did some honest to goodness meal planning. I hit up my pinterest board and searched for summery recipes, sorting until I found a handful that looked good, seemed easy, and shared similar ingredients.

I made a menu then circled same ingredients. I checked our pantry and fridge to see what we had on hand and went back to switch things around so that we were using what we had. I made two grocery lists, one for the farmer's market and one for the grocery store. I felt super productive. I love it when that happens. I also made a tart from the mama a-go-go's peaches (it is a happy tree).

I sent the mister to the farmers market as I had training at school to attend. The next day I hit up multiple grocery stores and picked up both the items on my list and the items the mister was not able to get at the farmers market. I brought everything home, did some chopping, made an awesome spinach and strawberry salad (w store bought strawberry poppyseed dressing) and served it up with a grocery cooked rotisserie bird and fresh baked crusty bread. We actually eat this salad a lot. It is super tasty. I use white onion or red onion, whichever I have at home. I also put the berries and the onion in this gadget and twist away. Speeds up the prep time, I love it!

The day after that I utilized half of the remaining chicken to make schwarma inspired sandwiches. I could not find lavash bread (made me miss L.A.) so made do with subpar pita (also made me miss L.A.), mixed greens, fresh tomatoes, red onion,  lemon cukes from the garden, hummus and tahini. It was really good! No photos folks. Mister gives me flack for being techy/trendylike and taking food photos so not every dish was documented. We served up the sandwiches with fresh fruit. They were super tasty.

Day three used up the remaining chicken inspired by this recipe. I mixed bbq sauce into the chicken and grilled up some sandwiches using the mixture, cheddar, and red onions. We had salad on the side using cukes and cuke blossoms from the garden.

After that, the order of what I made gets a bit hazy but we enjoyed a Greek inspired orzo salad that was best at room temperature. The recipe for the dressing was tasty but I think I need to double it up next time. The orzo salad served as the meal itself and we had leftovers for lunch and one other dinner.

I then made a white bean salad from dried beans that I had popped into the crockpot to cook over night. They got overcooked and while super tasty were also super mushy so the photos may look weird but it was really good! The white bean salad was served up with the meatballs from this recipe (which includes the white bean salad). Loved these! I never really make meatballs because it seems like too much work but when you thnk about how you can freeze them and reheat them so easily it is super worth it. Actually went really fast and these were really, really, good!  The second night we enjoyed the meatballs with the orzo salad and used the white bean salad as a lunch entree.

Next up was this salad. Oh my word! This one is so so good I ended up making it twice! I did not use romaine but used mixed greens and switched out the peppers (I'm allergic) for tomatoes, did not use jicama (mister is not a fan), and added avocado. It was the main meal. This one is a bit labor intense what with al lthe chop, chop, chopping. Keep the dressing in a jar and it keeps nicely i nthe fridge for two to three days. Also, don't go heavy on the dressing. I forgot I had already dressed my plate so I dressed it again and while I do not generally add a lot of dressing to my salads this was far too much and made it difficult to finish. When you make the tortilla strips, use a thin

We rounded out the week with this salad and it was really good even though I was worried about the mango and avocado in it. We added chicken to it the second time we ate it.The other half of the cabbage turned into slaw (I make a mean slaw) that we served up with ready made pulled pork for sandwiches. A quick, easy, tasty, dinner protocol from Ms. Za. We enjoyed ours with super not good for you curly fries courtesy of the freezer department. I get all anxious when I resort to premade meals not because I feel like I am failing my family but ore so for all sorts of environmental/moral reasons. Eeps.

So, there ya go,  more than a week's worth of easy meals to feed 2-4 people at a time. Possibly less, we tend to eat super small portions but you know your family best. I will be making all of these again...oh...one of the recipes called for sumac, I cannot remember which one, perhaps the white bean salad. Either way I did not feel I needed to go purchase a new spice that I could possibly be allergic to so I skipped it and it was fine...whatever it was. I need to plan another week now as we are being lazy and eating eggs for dinner but I am so so so lacking in inspiration at the moment. Enjoy!

diy dillydilly: recipe board

This year I really wanted to make a few holiday gifts for my co-teachers. They are such an amazing team I just wanted to spoil them silly. After much hemming and hawing on what to make I settled on this nifty project found via pinterest and sprinkled a bit of scrumdilly dust on top. I decided on this nifty board for purely selfish reasons. Most of my recipes nowadays come from the internet and rather than scribbling it all down on scrap paper or relaying back and forth between the laptop and the kitchen, I thought that this board would be a neat way to use the internet for recipes, just write it down and wipe away...and it could be used to leave notes for family about dinner plans, errand running, etc.

 

The boards were purchased from Michael's as was the clear chalkboard paint (clear chalkboard paint!) and the rest was what I had on hand...paint, sandpaper, twine...

 

I followed the instructions from Sugar & Cloth with a little help from the mister on the order of painting...note...paint a clear coat first, allow to dry then add your tape and paint a clear coat just at the point where the tape meets the wood. The clear coat will seep under the tape but you won't be able to see it thus protecting your clean line of color once you had you paint color. Otherwise your paint color will seep and your clean line will be a little less clean. Also, priming the board with chalk left it a wee bit scratchy which I like to refer to as rustic....oh and the boards are not as flat as they could be and they do warp a bit when paint is added...

 

I added a homemade potholder/trivet (diy coming soon) and a nifty bamboo utensil and the gifts were ready to roll!

Now I just need to make one for myself. Clear Chalkboard Paint!

pom (egranate) happy

I have so much I want to write but so little brain power floating about to do so. It's probably best as some of it is a bit of a buzz-kill (most of it actually) with a bit of an Emergency Room adventure thrown in for fun. At this very moment I am duking it out with a sinus infection from Hades that decided to throw an old fashioned rave in my left ear. We're talking some serious OUCH factor...the tear inducing kind...the kind that meds failed at helping, and the kind that had me circling the kitchen island in tears at three-thirty this morning with an occasional pause to press my ear against the cold marble-y counter.

 

After I finally managed to fall asleep and then gradually wake up to put something in the belly to mingle with the meds, I spied the pomegranate I picked up at the market the other day after catching a video on a friend's facebook page on an easy way to de-seed one. I decided to try it and holy moly....it worked like a charm!

I ate half of the arils with a bit of yogurt and then I tumbled back to bed for a four hour nap and ate the rest of the arils once I woke up. So very pleased with how easy this was, I ventured out...painful raving ear and all to pick up a few more poms. I can't wait to whack a spoon against them! Watch the video here, and yes, it is a smidge longer than it could be but I get it, I do. When something blows your mind like this, you gotta share!

***the most tie-consuming part of this process is separating the pom in half once you score around it. If you have a problem with it, score a smidge deeper and try again. Once you have two halves, the process moves along quickly.

pinterest: edible love

My pinterest boards are bursting with ideas, recipes and projects. Most of the time, they serve as eye candy or color inpsiration though I have managed to attempt a good number of the recipes I have pinned. Mostly though, I pin and then kind of, sort of, forget about it until I take a walk through a baord and think...."Oh yeah!"

Occassionally, I am so smitten with a pn or idea that I drop everything and DO it. That is what happened when I spied this popular pin. Thank goodness I was actually going to the market anyway and so I picked up the store brand in all it tubular glory. 

 After fearfully pressing the spoon into the seam,  I was able to liberate the dough and so I got to rerolling. I had to pinch two smaller lenghts of dough together to create one log that I then formed into a V before rolling the tops inwards to create the heart.

My cakepan was a little too large to nestle the whole bit of pretty inside but I went for it anyway.

 After baking the rolls for the allotted time, I added the icing and then a healthy does of Valentine's sprinkles. After a photofest, I may have enjoyed three with a hot vintage mug of creamy coffee. 

My hearts aren't quite as heart shaped as the ones in the pin but they were still a kick to make...and eat. Hop on over to Spice Blog to see how they did it! 

pinterest: homemade horchata

 

 mr. a-go-go loves himself some fresh horchata. Having lived in Los Angeles we were mostly able to eke out the natural from the not-so-natural. Sadly, too many eateries serve a mix-based beverage. We have yet found a place in town up here that serves a freshly made horchata, so when I found this pin, I went for it. The recipe comes from A Wooden Nest and is so super easy you could begin a batch right now! The next batch will have a smidge less sugar and a smidge more cinnamon. Happy Horchata-ing!

trip-trup-trip-trup

 have you ever picked up a children's picture book that rhymes only to find that when you attempt to read it out loud, yer tongue trip-trups over the words? sometimes i think that is what happens with some of my blog posts. mostly the ranty kind.

i want to try to clear up what i meant about comments and pinterest and all that jazz. i think that pinterest has added to the lazy quality that the internet is developing. kinda like the facebook LIKE button. just because you repin it or like it doesn't mean i know you did or do. my intention was not to wax whiny over my lack of comments but to point out the lack of response and respect from the large number of persons who repin and like wily-nily without taking the time to let the owner of the property know you were inspired or love the project or recipe. my peanut butter cookie post now has had over 7000 views! 7000 views and seven comments. that is a little wacky, methinks.

i'm not sure this is coming out right or not but i did not mean to point my rant at regular readers who do not comment but to pinners everywhere who pin and repin projects without a shout out to the creator of the niftiness. does that make sense? there has always been free info on the web and i suppose i am asking for it since i continue to put free projects put there but i don't think it is too much to add a polite thanks to the march on manners. i think we could all use a little refresher in manners. this new technological age has been eliminating them at a speedy rate. i feel like an old fogey when i get cranky but just because everyone is doing it, doesn't make it right....right?

just park me on a park bench with a hairnett, rolled stockings, sensible heels and a (handmade) bag of breadcrumbs....

happy wednesday! it is time for work.

pinterest in action: scones and pie and an observation.

 

a few weeks ago, i actually rescued the ingredients that had been sitting in the freezer FOREVER to make this bomb pie by Something Swanky. sugar overkill, maybe , but SO good with a milky iced coffee sans sweetener.

time for baking

and last week, i made these blueberry buttermilk scones by Mango and Tomato. they baked up quite nicely and were packed with flavor even though i left out the coconut. the mister, sister a-go-go and mama a-go-go loved them!

 ***i know that there are oodles of folk out there who are not exactly fans of Pinterest. i kinda understand but at the same time, i don't think Pinterest made it any easier to "steal" ideas. they just created a platform to share your favorite ideas. before Pinterest, i had a folder on the desktop full of links and people's projects. in a nutshell, my folder was full of "stolen" property. i had and still have no intention of monetary gain from all the goodness, i am just so wholly inspired by all the creativity out there just as i hope you are inspired by what i share.

that said, i see a new trend in how people respond to blogs and with Pinterest people are forgetting to leave comments and offer up thanks and encouragement to the author. instead, photos and diys are pinned as a salute but if you don't see it, you don't know how much you inspire. case in point...i average maybe 1 comment a post. yeesh. not so good for my ego . yet i know people are clicking and reading as evidenced by my stats. a LOT of people. and if i hop on over to Pinterest, i will see my projects pinned and repinned to high heaven and yet not a single person has shown up here to say "Hey, this is cool, thank you for sharing"!  (oh, i don't mean you or you or you, you know who you are) and to me...that is just bad manners. it's not Pinterest's fault, it is the poor behavour of the masses. now, i pin like a mad woman myself and if i pin something from a blog i have never visited, i leave a comment and i thank that person for sharing (if it is a blog i subscribe to i have already and continue to say thanks). sometimes i find a new blog to read in the process and sometimes i make a new friend. i'm a bit behind on my repins however, i need to finish up and go through to the original source to say thanks and yes, i totally mean it. absolutely!

enough of my mini rant but i encourage you to think about it and if yer new to my blog and actually reading not just pinning put yourself into my shoes or think about yer own blog. wouldn't a little howdy and thank you make your heart sing and connect?

pinterest: recipe round-up

I was on the ball the last few weeks regarding groceries and dinner. I am still wandering happily through pinterest-land pinning away all sorts of pretty and have been trying to weed through and actually utilize those happy boards. Here are a bunch of recipes that happened...

korean bbq tacos

Super duper tasty, I cheated and used Trader Joe's Korean BBQ and added additional ginger and garlic. The meat cooked up so much in the crock pot, it was like butter. Will definitely make these again.

thai grilled peanut butter sandwich

 

 

This is my own original recipe and still a favorite. Had some bean sprouts left over from the tacos and didn't want them to go to waste. Served with roasted green beans. Yum!

homemade falafel and quinoa tabouleh

I love me some falafel and the weather was warm enough to get a bit summery. We had a bag of dried garbanzo beans from a local farm so I soaked 'em up and went at it. The falafel fell apart even though I followed the recipe as it was. I ended up adding an egg and some flour to get it to all stick together. It was delicious. The tabouleh was awesome. The last time I made quinoa tabouleh, the recipe called for way too much parsley. This recipe was perfect. I forgot to add the mint but it was still really tasty.

quick curried chickpeas

The curry chickpeas were crazy easy and super tasty. I used a can of organic fire roasted tomato sauce and served it up with roasted curry cauliflower and homemade cucumber sauce. Will totally make this again!

This week I will be using up what we have and attempting a no-spending kind of week. We are almost out of milk and apples o there will that. Wish me luck! What have you been cooking lately?

i like beer...

...in my bread.

 Last month I found this nifty recipe through Pinterest and immediately set out to make it. I even got carded buying the brew, how cool is that? This recipe is super-duper easy and quite tasty as a savory side or smothered with butter and jam. We have never had enough left over to try making grilled cheese with it but someday I hope to do just that.

If you try this, go for the lightest beer you can find. Miller Light works dandy and in fact is even better than a Pilsner which has too much flavor. We found that using a cold brew makes for a better texture and you can use a bit less melted butter on top. Either go for an unsalted butter bath with some coarse salt ground on top or use a small amount of salted butter and omit the salt. Happy baking.

Beer Bread on Pinterest. Found via Mint with original recipe from Honest Fare. I can't seem to get into Honest Fare to link it up...I'll add it as soon as I can get in.

say cheese!

 Thank you for the get better vibes. Last night I only snuffled and hacked a handful of times. In other words, I slept until 4am without a fuss but then the brain turned on overtime and I couldn't lull myself back to dreamland until 6am and then I was up after 45 minutes or so. Drats! So, I mentioned I made cheese last week, paneer to be exact and I took photos because well, I'm me and it's cool and so very easy I think you should make some if you do the dairy thing...check it out, I used this recipe from The Kitchn.

Squeeze a bunch of lemons to get about 2-3 Tablesoons of juice. Set aside.

Pour a half gallon of whole or 2% milk into a large pot. Turn on heat and bring to a boil but watch it, it foams up uber quick. My milk never actually boiled in a bubbly way, it just foamed up. Once that happens, remove from heat.

 While milk is heating, double line your colander with  cheesecloth (muslin will work as well). If you have a large tub or bowl, pop the colander on top of that so you can save your whey for future uses. I did not and am now wishing I did. Off!

Add your lemon or lime juice, 2-3 Tablespoons or more if you feel like yer not getting enough curd out of your milk. The milk will curdle and hopefully keep curdling as you add all of your citrus juice. I also added a couple of cranks of sea salt at this point just to see how it would turn out.

Pour the curds and whey into your collander and allow to sit until cool enough to handled.

 

Once cool, wrap it up and squeeze excess moisture out with your hands. Pop the ball o' cheese now flattened by you, it will be crumbly, onto a large platter with a rim to hold any remaining liquid, placing a heavy cutting board  or other weighted bits on top to press, kinda like when you press out tofu. 

 After an hour or so it is good to go. I kept mine in the fridge for a few days, we ate it last night with curried lentils and it was delicious. It does firm up oodles i nthe firdge. OYu can also store it in water but the water needs to be changed daily. I sadly have no photos of the pan fried goodness as it was dark and I was hungry. Enjoy!