Pinterest Test Kitchen Part 4: Dessert Edition

Here are some recipes I've pinned and tried lately...and if you are trying to be healthy right now stop reading. :)

Pretty immediately after I pinned this recipe for Mandy's Swig Sugar Cookies I made them for my monthly bunko group.  They were an absolute hit and I could not stop eating them.  They are TO DIE for.  So seriously, make these.  Like right now. And delete any other sugar cookie recipe you have pinned, you don't need it anymore. :)

Another one I tried pretty recently was the Eclair Cake from The Girl Who Ate Everything.  I would love to make eclairs but they just sound like too much work and this was a great substitute.  Delicious!

Bakerella is famous for her cake pops, but I made her Peach Crunch Cake (I call it dump cake) and it was so easy and delicious.  Two things I love.

I'm sure you've heard of The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake from Pioneer Woman.  Man I ate this stuff right out of the pan and did not feel guilty....probably should have.  But it was that good.  Made all the extra effort totally worth it.

Finally one I made months ago, but still remember how disappointed I was.  I love snickerdoodles, so I thought Pumpkin Snickerdoodles would be amazing.  But alas, they were not my favorite.  I found myself wishing the pumpkin was more intense, OR that they were just regular old snickerdoodles (I use Erin's recipe).

Photo from http://www.5minutesformom.com/

Pinterest Test Kitchen Part 2

Some more recipes I've tried from my Recipes folder on Pinterest.

• Lemon Raspberry Muffins from WW Recipes: I loved these and will make them again.  Enough said.

• I've seen these lemon crinkle cookies floating around Pinterest and I just had to add my two cents about them.  I personally love them.  As weird as it sounds they are refreshing.  However, I took these to a party once and literally NOT A SOUL touched them. Except the bees.  I guess they aren't big party pleasers (or hubby pleasers, or kid pleasers).  More for me I guess!
• Last time I tried a white chicken chili that was not my favorite.  Erin was kind enough to send me a link to her chili and so we gave it a try.  We loved it!  Easy and came together quick. 

• Creamy lemon chicken spaghetti from Paon Blanc's Kitchen: This recipe was pretty good, and I do think I would make it again.  I didn't have all of the ingredients and used milk instead of heavy cream (gasp!) but the flavor overall was very good.  Mine came out pretty dry so I need to figure out what I did wrong on this one.
• Egg muffins from Kalyn's Kitchen:  I made these for my hubby to take as a quick grab-n-go breakfast before work.  He said they are pretty good and liked them.  The only problem was I used paper baking cups instead of the silicone muffin tin and they stuck really bad to the paper.  So I might invest in the silicone before I make these again.  And fortunately it's not a huge investment, you can get them for pretty cheap.

• Microwave Chocolate Cake from Catch My Party.  This was pretty good.  If you aren't careful it could be really rubbery, but it's really easy and quick if you need a chocolate fix (which I do quite often). I recommend it.

Pinterest: Yay or Nay

The largest Pinterest category I have is by far the "Recipes to Try".  A few of them are winners and a few of them are getting the big D.  As in delete.

Source: plainchicken.com via Amber on Pinterest

Cream Cheese Chicken Chili
We made this the other night and I'll be honest, mine looked nothing like this (and honestly was pretty dry).  So I guess I'll keep looking.

Source: annies-eats.com via Amber on Pinterest

Homemade pizza crust
This pizza dough was seriously heavenly.  I didn't even have the correct ingredients (used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose when it called for only bread flour) and it was still delicious.  We will definitely be making this again.

Source: utahdealdiva.com via Amber on Pinterest

Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup
I'm a bit sad about this one.  I actually thought it was pretty good.  The hubby however would not take 2 bites of it.  He said it was the texture (the texture was kind of like cream of wheat).  And usually he eats whatever I put in front of him, so I let it go. He said this was his one pass of the year. :)

Source: sixsistersstuff.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

Crock Pot Hawaiian BBQ Chicken

This is a pretty easy recipe but I'll just stamp my approval on it.  Good for an all day crock pot meal and nice to have something to eat when you've been running errands all day.

Any recipes you've pinned that worked out?  Any that you've given the big D?

Buried--And What I've Been Pinning

I've been gone for awhile.  We finished our house and moved in and instead of giving you all the boring details of how behind/unorganized/scattered I feel, I'm just going to jump right into some new posts.

Lately I've been addicted to Pinterest.  If you want to follow me click here:



Here are some fun things I've pinned lately:

• Cute hairstyle tutorials from The Small Things Blog.  Seriously, her stuff is darling and here's the kicker--they are totally doable.  Even for a hair-styling-impaired person like myself.  I'm going to try this half french twist this Friday night for our annual Christmas dinner.  I've also done this and this recently and love them!

• Doesn't this candy cane trifle from the The Scrap Shoppe Blog look amazing? I'm going to make it Christmas Eve.  YUM!

• The fashion on Pinterest is so inspiring.  I have yet to actually copy an outfit, but I'm always drawn to the more casual looks that still look put together--something that seems like such a challenge for me lately:

• I somehow stumbled upon Sara at The Yellow Cape Cod, and I love her style.  I'm thinking about incorporating a lot of her ideas into our new house, particularly these striped drapes:

• And finally, a little humor:

Source: someecards.com via Amber on Pinterest

Do you Pin?

After hearing about this addictive site for months, I finally joined Pinterest....at least I tried to.  I was all excited to join and then I get an email saying "you're on the waiting list".  It felt a little anti-climactic.  I have been browsing a little bit anyway, and wow there are some amazing images on there.  I can see why it is so addicting.

I wish I had taken this photo. Via Pinterest.

Side note: is it just me or is there a lot of nudity on Pinterest?  I entered one totally innocent search and got back at least 10 nudy pics--not really my thing.