Great Sorrow, New beginnings, and Quinoa Mac n Cheese

I have been trying to figure out how to write this post for about a week and a half. I haven't figured out how yet, so I will just write.

As much as it pains me to post this, Joni has decided to end our 2+ yr friendship. So from now, I will be running the blog alone. Maybe one of these days I can find someone else to help out.

On that note, I will follow with my latest Pinterest adventure.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and immediately thought "Yummy!!". Quinoa Mac n Cheese! I love Mac n Cheese, I love Quinoa, and Quinoa is way healthier that noodles, can't beat it, right?

I follow this link to the recipe: http://aroundthetableri.blogspot.com/2012/02/cheesy-quinoa-mac-cheese.html
and follow the directions. The recipe is REALLY super easy. The only problem I had was at one point she says to "add the quinoa mixture" and I wasn't sure what was supposed to be with the quinoa.

I cooked my quinoa, beat the eggs and milk, added the cheese, added the quinoa, and then added my spices. I didn't use veggies, but I did add tuna to it. I topped it with panko bread crumbs and extra cheese and baked.

It was SOOOOO good!!!

This is definitely a Pin WILL do this again! And next time I will add veggies and green onions.

Colored Slimy Worms

I saw this on Pinterest and thought: Awesome! I like spaghetti...colored spaghetti would we even more cool! I also thought it would be fun for Caleb and I to do together. (As it turns out, Caleb played a video game while Ben and I made the spaghetti)


Directions are pretty simple:
1. Cook and Drain Spaghetti
2. Put in ziploc bag with water and food coloring. 
3. Drain, Rinse, Eat!

Before I continue, I must admit that I didn't expect this to work at all. Here are my bags of spaghetti:

I begin thinking "This might work!" and start getting excited at this point. After letting them stay in the colored water for about 10 minutes (I'm a bit impatient), I take them out and rinse them. Caleb gets in at this point to stir them all together. He thinks it's cool, and I am, for a brief moment a "cool mom". 

Here is the final product:

While the didn't turn out as vibrantly as the Pinterest picture, I was still super excited. The little kid in me thought it was awesome to eat colored spaghetti.  I am hoping that next time a combo of more food coloring and longer time in the bags will help it be more vibrant. That being said:


This is a PIN WILL do this again!

Cheez its!

Eileen Again! 


The other day, while combing Pinterest, I came across a "Homemade Cheez Its" recipe. I immediately began salivating. I LOVE Cheez its! And to make them at home?? Awesome!! I looked at the recipe and it seemed simple:

1 1/2 cups cheddar (about 6 oz.)

4 T butter

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour

1/4 t salt

sea salt, for sprinkling

In a food processor, pulse all of the ingredients together until it forms a ball (about 2 minutes).  Place the ball between two pieces of wax paper, and roll it out to about 1/8" thick.  Using a pastry wheel or small cookie cutters, cut into shapes.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet about 1/2" apart from each other - they puff up a bit.  Poke each cracker with a fork or skewer so that they don't puff too much.  Sprinkle with sea salt, if desired (I like the extra salty flavor it gives).

Bake at 350ºF for 8-12 minutes (depending on the size/shape of your crackers), until lightly browned on the edges.  Cool on the baking sheet, and store in an airtight container (if they last that long).

 

Now, I'm not one for following directions, so I  did everything except separate them on the pan. I just left mine in a big sheet that I cut in to squares. I regret this for two reasons. 1: They do puff up, so they became one giant cheez it. 2: The edges of the edge ones got brown, but not the center ones!

I barely let them cool before tasting them. Verdict? AMAZING!!! They did taste like cheez its! The texture was a little different, but they were still very authentic. I didn't take a picture so I stole this one from the recipe site:

 This is definitely a PIN WILL do this again!!!

Cinnamon Roll Waffles

Joni here!!
One of my latest Pinterest tries was Cinnamon Roll Waffles.  Overall, they were just ok.

To make Cinnamon Roll Waffles, you simply take canned cinnamon rolls and place them in your waffle maker and bake.  Here's what I did:

• Used Grands Flaky Cinnamon Rolls
• Sprayed waffle maker with cooking spray
• Closed lid and waited :-)

Pretty simple!  The reason that they were 'just ok' to me was that they were tougher than I expected.  I joyfully ate it and I'd be willing to try it again with a different cinnamon roll.  Maybe next time I'll use a smaller cinnamon roll.  These seemed big once I put them in the waffle maker.


Pin WILL MAYBE try this again...with a different cinnamon roll!

Trix Treats

Eileen Here!


So Trix Treats was my very FIRST experiment from Pinterest. We love rice krispie treats, so I figured making them fruitier would be even better!


The recipe is fairly straightforward:

• 1/4 cup margarine or 1/4 cup butter
• 35 large marshmallows
• 7 cups Trix cereal  

I actually used 1 tub of marshmallow cream instead of the marshmallows. Melt the butter in the pot, add your marshmallows until melted and then add Trix. Press into a waxed pan, let cool, cut, and serve. Simple Right?  They turned out just like rice krispie treats: 

My only problem with them was....they weren't crunchy. It was like biting into stale Trix. :(

I think these would be better with a crunchier cereal like Froot Loops or Cap'n Crunch. 

Pin WILL NOT do Trix treats again, but may try another cereal :)

Memaw's 7 Layer Casserole

Joni here!

I have to confess.  This post is not something that is on Pinterest yet but it should be and will be when I finish!  My Memaw was an amazing woman and she made some of the best pies I can remember.  But this post isn't about pies!  Recently my dad found a recipe of hers that looked wonderful and, of course, EASY!!!  Here is the recipe.

Helen Pollard's 7 Layer Casserole 

 

Ingredients:

·         1 cup         Rice, uncooked

·         1 cup         Corn, whole kernel, drained

·         15 oz.        Tomatoes, stewed

·         ½ cup        Water

·         1 cup         Onion, diced

·         ½ cup        Green pepper, diced

·         1 lb.           Ground meat, uncooked

·         Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350°. 

2.      Grease 2-quart baking dish. 

3.      Layer ingredients in the dish adding in this order (add seasoning to taste on each layer):  rice, corn, ½ the tomatoes, ¼ cup water, onions, pepper, ground meat, remaining ½ tomatoes, and ¼ cup of water.

4.      Cover casserole and bake for 1 hour.  Uncover and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Yields 3-4 moderate-sized servings.

The above recipe is unaltered from at least 1991!  Here are my hint and tips.

• YES, rice and ground meat is uncooked
• I used Brown Rice and 90/10 ground beef
• I suggest a little more water.  I used about 2/3 cup instead of 1/2
• I used the entire can of corn instead of just 1 cup
• The seasonings I added were Season salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• Finally, I added cheese during the last 10 minutes of cooking!

Pin Will make this again!!

Melted Crayon Art

Finished Products from Joni and her sister.

 

 

 

 

Melted Crayon art was the first Pinterest project Joni and Eileen tried together. Eileen saw it and showed it to Joni who immediately agreed it was the most awesome idea she'd ever heard of. Ok, so maybe that's not how it went, but it sounds good. We searched Google images for ideas and then gathered supplies. Supplies you will need:

• Canvas (we used flat but stretched works great too!)
• LOTS of crayons. You can see the ginormous boxes in the picture below.
• Hot glue gun (with glue of course) 
• Hair dryer
• Masking tape (or painters tape) stickers (those with 3d qualities ten to work best)

In the beginning....

Step one: Decide on your design and choose colors. Please note that colors will run together (so yellow and blue still make green) so choose them accordingly. We found that staying with the same color family worked best. Place crayons on canvas in desired design (we had to break crayons in some designs). When you have your design finalized, hot glue crayons to canvas. We found that leaving the crayons in the paper helped the crayons stay on the canvas better. When the crayons melt they tend to slide off the canvas. (See Eileen's design below. After gluing on crayons, add stickers. In the picture below. We made the music notes out of masking tape and placed them on. The "Mrs. Stephenson" is made of puffy scrapbooking stickers.

Crayons lined up and ready to go!

Step two: Blow dry!!! Well, technically it should be line your floor or work area with newspaper or something else to catch the drips and splatters. THEN blow dry! We blow dried on low setting with hot heat. With the heart, we blow dried one section at a time so the inside of the heart stayed white. We manipulated where the crayon flowed by changing the direction of the dryer so that all of the canvas and the stickers were covered. With the flower picture (from the first picture) an embossing heat gun was used in order to get the stems. This is not recommended for other projects! The heat from the embossing gun melted the stickers off, so a blow dryer really is best for most projects. 

Eileen's Rain and Ben's Shine.

Step three: Remove stickers. We found that pulling the stickers off while the wax is still slightly soft is best. If the stickers or tape are not on well, the wax will seep underneath. This happened with Eileen's rain, but she found the back side (non sharp) of an exacto knife removed the unwanted wax quite well. 

TADA!!! 

This is a PIN WILL do this again.