Tag Archives: pinterest

Organizing Update

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Hi All
Sorry for the absence recently.  We had an unexpected trip back home last week and between that, the flu and holiday travel at the beginning of the month, January went by in a flash.  I’m starting to feel more caught up at work so I had some time to come back to making labels for my organizing project.  The rectangular one is for the the pantry cupboard and the round label is for the new spice drawer (we cleaned the container store out of little spice bottles).  I downloaded the font for free here.  I’ve pinned quite a few of these fonts so it took me some time to sort through and decide on one, nerd alert.

labels

Now that I figured out my font I need to go back and figure out the full list of things to print.  It wouldn’t hurt to go back and do a little touch up to the cupboard organization too.  It’s one thing to take the time to organize thing but another to do the upkeep on it…. whoops!

 

Pinterest Recipe of the Month- Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

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We’ve been starting to get more cherry tomatoes ripening up in the garden over the last couple of weeks, so I’ve been on the look out for a way to use up quite a few and to give us a break from eating them in pasta.  I came across this tart from Martha Stewart on Pinterest and thought I’d give it a shot since it seemed pretty straight forward.  Really, it wasn’t to hard to put together since it uses a store bought pastry dough.  Just a little more work than you’d want for a weeknight meal.

First thing was getting a pastry dough set up.  I defrosted it in the fridge overnight before laying it out and rolling it to a 12″ square.

My ‘square’ pastry dough was anything but.  I liked it though, makes it more rustic that way.

Next up was a sour cream and mustard mix that spread out pretty thin on the dough.  Then I folded over the edges to make a little bit of a raised crust.  I was able to square up my tart a little doing this.

I popped that into the fridge to set up a bit and got started on my leeks. 2 chopped up into fairly thin slices.

I sauteed them in butter for a bit until they were nice and soft.

Then I pulled the dough back out of the fridge and spread my leeks evenly over the tart.

Next I took my cherry tomatoes, halved them, and spread them over the tart.  Then popped the whole thing into the oven.

Look at that, nice and toasty!  The edges of the crust puffed up nicely and the tomatoes roasted up beautifully.

With the baking out of the way, I sprinkled the cheese and some fresh thyme over the whole thing.

We had the tart for lunch both days this weekend.  The tomatoes popped a little in your mouth and combination with the cheese was perfect.  It would be good for a savory brunch or side dish.  Instead of warming it up in the microwave on Sunday, I put the leftovers in the oven.  I think the crust would have gotten soggy in the microwave  I think next time I would try and make something like this when I knew I would be able to finish the whole thing.

Fresh Tomato Pasta

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First thing this morning when I logged on to Pinterest, I found this beauty and knew I wanted to make it ASAP.  However, I also knew we had our first hand full of cherry tomatoes and wanted to give them a place in our dinner, so I altered a few things to make it work for us.  Also, we’re out of bread right now (getting ready for vacay = no grocery shopping this weekend) so I subbed in some parmesan for the bread crumbs.  This photo was probably the hardest part of prepping dinner tonight.

 

While pasta was boiling and cooking, I started my cherry tomatoes on the stove in some olive oil.  I like cooking them in the oil over medium heat until they start to pop and the juices from the tomato mix into the olive oil.

While they were sizzling, I chopped up some parsley I’d just picked fresh from the backyard.  By then both the pasta and the tomatoes were done so I drained the pasta and added in the tomatoes

Then the parmesan

Last, the parsley.

I gave it a good mix and salt and peppered the dish.  I used garlic salt in place of the garlic powder called for.

Then I dished it up and added another sprinkle or two of cheese and called it a day.  So easy for a Monday night!  I think next time around I’ll add some fresh garlic to the pan with the tomatoes.  I didn’t think we were getting enough garlic flavor from the salt.  I think we could sub out the tomatoes for some chopped up zucchini or squash later on this summer too.  As easy as it is to put together, it’ll be served up pretty regularly around here.

Dessert of the Month/Pinterest Recipe of the month- Strawberry Vodka Collins Popsicles

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I’m trying to do a 2 for 1 post to make up for my lack of posting during the month of May.  I’ll do a second post for both in another week or so.  Anywho…

I’ve been seeing popsicles of all kinds all over blogs, pinterst and magazines for quite awhile now and have been itching to try one.  Garden of Egan had some fresh strawberries at the farmer’s market on Saturday so I used that as my starting point for picking out my popsicle recipe.  I chose the Strawberry Peach Vodka Collins Popsicle recipe from EndlessSimmer.com.  I altered a bit since we didn’t have fresh peaches to work with.  I’ll walk you through it as I go.

First up, I started working on flavoring my simple syrup.  We still had quite a bit from making Manhattans a few weeks ago.  I place of the peaches, I picked some mint leaves from the garden and used a pestle to get the flavor to come out of the leaves and into the syrup.  If you can, do this over night at a minimum.  I used about 6 leaves for the 1/4 cup of syrup I used.

With that sitting off to the side I got started on pureeing my strawberries.  The recipe called for about 10 berries but these were a bit on the small side so I ended up using about 15 to reach the 6oz. needed.  I added in the vodka while the strawberries were still in the blender to make sure it was well mixed.

I started dividing my strawberry/vodka mix into my popsicle forms.  They were a little larger than the recipe suggested so I ended up with just 8 popsicles instead of the 12.

Next I pulled the mint leaves out of the simple syrup and added in my tonic water and the remaining vodka.  After a quick stir so make sure it was well blended, I divided the rest of the liquid between the molds and popped it in the fridge.  Then waited until the next evening to pull one out to try.

They tasted pretty good and refreshing.  The vodka wasn’t very strong, and I think you’d probably have to finish the whole 8 before you really felt effects, but they’d be fun to bring to a summer BBQ.   One thing I would change though is the tonic.  I didn’t realize it until after the popsicles were in the fridge but the tonic we had was lime flavored.  The lime flavoring really came out and while it didn’t taste bad it just wasn’t what I was hoping for.  I’ll stick to regular next time.  I was surprised at how well the popsicles held up too.  I thought with the alcohol mixed in it would turn to slush pretty quickly, but it held up about as long as you would expect any other fruity popsicle to.

When these are gone I’ll try a couple other flavor combos.  With all the mint we have growing out back I’m thinking some mojito pops would be about perfect!

Pinterest Recipe of the Month- Blueberry-Balsamic Glazed Rosemary Chicken

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This month for my Pinterest Recipe, I picked a recipe that utilized blueberries in a way other than dessert.  I’m really hoping that by next summer we’ll have more blueberries than we know what to do with, and we’ll be so tired of blueberry pies and jam we’ll need another way to use them up :)  Dream big right?

The recipe is originally pinned from Driscoll’s.com, you can find the full recipe here.  Since blueberries aren’t in season right now, I used some frozen Minnesota blueberries in place of fresh.  It worked just as well and still had full blueberry flavor.  I also used larger bone in, skin on chicken breast (also from Minnesota) in place of 4-6 boneless, skinless.  The weight ended up being about what was called for in the recipe and made more sense since it was just for the two of us.

To start off, I pre heated my oven and melted half of the butter and oil in a heavy bottomed pan.  When it was starting to bubble, seared the chicken until it had a nice golden brown finish.

Then I set the chicken off to the side in a baking dish and got started on the glaze.  I added the remaining oil and butter to the pan and then tossed in my chopped shallots.  They browned up really quickly, faster than suggested in the recipe.

With the shallots browned I added in the blueberries.  I’d rinsed and drained the blueberries first (actually, I talked the Hubs into doing it) before I added them to the pan.  They really steamed up because of the extra water.

Once the steam settled down, I added in the vinegar, syrup and salt and pepper.  It was at this point that I realized the rosemary, I was sure I had, was in fact gone.  Whoops!  Well, too late to turn back now.  The mixture simmered and reduced on the stove for about 10 minutes.  Driscoll’s recipe calls out the blueberries should collapse at this point, but since they were frozen and a little collapsed to begin with, I just followed the time.

I spooned the mixture over the chicken breast and popped the chicken in the oven.  It said it would only take about 10 minutes but in reality, it took about 30-35 minutes because of the size of the chicken.  Just keep checking it with a thermometer.

Overall it was a really tasty recipe.  It was a great way to spice up regular chicken breast and I liked that it only used two pans to make something that sounds so complicated.  Most of the ingredients you might already have on hand to make it even easier to whip up.  I’ll keep this guy on hand and maybe try the glaze on other meats from the grill throughout the summer.

Pinterest Recipe of the Month- Rustic Artisanal No Knead Bread

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For the Pinterest Recipe this month, I wanted to try something other than a main dish and take a stab at bread.  I pinned this recipe form Anna’s Table and with only 4 ingredients, and the promise of minimal labor, this seemed like a good place to start.

Talk about easy!  First thing you do is combine your flour, yeast and salt with a wooden spoon or your hands.

Then you add in your water.  Anna didn’t call out what temperature it needed to be, I nuked mine in the microwave for a minute to make sure it got the yeast working.

Then I slapped some cling wrap across the top of the bowl and left it alone for a little over 12 hours.  You can leave it for up to 24, but I didn’t want to wait that long for my bread.

After 12 hours, you scrape out the dough onto a floured piece of parchment paper.  Make sure you have a good amount of flour down so your dough folds easily later.

Then spread it out to about a 10×10 square, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Then you fold in the edges from side to side and top to bottom.

Flip the dough, folded side down onto another floured piece of parchment and wrap with parchment loosely, then cover with a dishtowel.  Let it rise under the towel for another couple of hours.

When the two hours are up, put a cast iron dutch oven in the oven with the lid on  and pre-heat  to 500 degrees.

Once the oven has reached 500 degrees, put the dough in the dutch oven folded side up, place the lid back on, and let it bake for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes are up, remove the lid, turn the oven temp down to 375 and let bake for another 15-30 minutes depending on how dark you want your bread.

I ended up making 2 loaves this weekend.  The first one because I didn’t turn the oven down to 375 for the last 15 minutes.  The crust was burned a bit on top but the inside looked (and tasted) pretty good.

I gave it a second shot tonight and turned the oven down like I was supposed to.  The top came out a beautiful golden brown.

While it was still warm we sliced it up and buttered it to have along side some cheesy chili.  Pretty perfect for a night with a temp of 33 degrees:)

I was really happy with how the bread turned out and with such a simple recipe, I want to try making it again adding in some herbs or top with cheese.  I also want to try adding in some cinnamon or sugar to make a sweet bread for breakfast, I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Pinterest Recipe of the Month- Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

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Hey look!  Another monthly post I worked up for you!

Pinterest is a fun social site that allows you to ‘pin’ images of things you like on a virtual pin board that links your right back to the original source.  It’s much faster than copying and pasting images in to files to save and easier to keep track of than bookmarking a bunch of your favorite sites and pages just to be overwhelmed by the list later.  I’ve been on it for about a year but for all the great looking foods I pin, I’ve never tried any of them.  Well, that’s all about to change.

The first recipe that caught my eye for this project was Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese.  We still have a box of squash hanging around and thought this would be a great way to use some of it up, and it’s pasta and cheese, you can’t go wrong.  I used their recipe almost to the T.  I’ll let you know where I changed it up.  One thing I wanted to call out though, is their servings calculator.  If you want to make this as a main dish, add a serving or two.  We ended up needing some extras + a big piece of tart to fill up.

First up, measuring the pasta.  I used bowtie pasta because it’s what we had on hand and, well, it’s fancy.  Once it’s cooked, drain and set aside.

In a separate pan I melted the butter, then added some flour and milk to make a roux base for the sauce.

Once that was all mixed together, I added in provolone cheese, cream cheese, squash and a few spices.  Their recipe called for Monterey Jack but I’ve been wanting to finish up my provolone.  I bet you could use cheddar in here too if you wanted.

Once your cheese-y sauce is all melted and gooey, add in your cooked pasta and mix it just to combine.

That’s it, you’re done.  It goes together really quickly.  I should say though, I had some leftover squash in the fridge from making some the night before.  If you don’t have any prepared it might take you a bit more time if you can’t find it already pureed in the grocery store.

The pasta was pretty good, but like I said, I wanted a little bit more.  It’s a great dish for a cold night staying it, very much a comfort food.

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
From TastyKitchen.com
By Meredith of {in sock monkey slippers}

Ingredients: Based on 4 servings

2 cups Small Pasta (Shells, Elbow Or Piccolini)
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon Flour
¾ cups Milk
½ cups Butternut Squash Puree
1-½ cup Monterey Jack Cheese
2 Tablespoons Cream Cheese
½ teaspoons Salt
⅛ teaspoons Pepper
⅛ teaspoons Paprika

1.  Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. Once boiling, add pasta and cook until pasta is tender (about 7 to 10 minutes). Strain and set aside.

2.  Melt butter over medium low heat in a saucepan and add the flour. Whisk and cook for 2 minutes. It will resemble a paste.

3.  Slowly add milk. Whisk until combined. Next add everything thing else. Stir until combined.

4.  Add sauce to the pasta and stir!

Note: If you can’t find butternut squash puree, simply cut a butternut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and discard. Place face down on a oven safe dish. Roast in the oven for 50 minutes at 400°. Allow to cool. Scoop the “meat” from the skin and place in a food processor or blender. Pulse until smooth.