Winner Announcement

The winner of the cooking/grilling prize pack from The Spice Hunter is Ms. Alitha Smith!  She is a classmate of mine from grade school; haven't seen her in 20 years. Congratulations, Alitha! I know you are going to cook up a storm with all these goodies.  Start checking your mailbox...

Thanks to everyone else who entered to win my giveaway.  You can still try some of these great products--at a discount! My blog readers can go to www.spicehunter.com and get 25% of your entire order online!  If you spend over $25, you will also qualify for FREE SHIPPING.  I promise, you will love the quality and taste of these spices, marinades and cooking mixes.

 

I've also found out that Duke's Mayo is available locally at The Fresh Market store in Rogers, or you can shop online for that, too.

Disclaimer: The products mentioned and pictured above were given to me for the purpose of sampling for this blog giveaway. All opinions are my own and I have not received any further compensation for this promotion.

Pinterest Made Me Do It

The Bramell family's latest adventure in Pinterest brought us to homemade fruit snacks. Yum! If you have ever lived with kids, you know that fruit snacks are like another food group. My kids ask for fruit snacks every day after we come home, and some days they ask at breakfast.

When I saw THIS RECIPE on Pinterest, I knew I had to pin it. It's so super easy---only three ingredients. I hit up the dollar store for a small candy mold or ice tray (without any luck), but then remembered the star shaped ice trays that my Nanny had given me a while back. They are a little bigger than I'd like to use, but they worked just fine. The trick is to only fill them enough to cover the bottom of the mold.

I only made one batch to make sure we'd like them. I personally liked them better than store bought.  And the kids didn't complain any either.  Today, I bought more supplies so we'll make two or three batches tomorrow.  We are hooked!

Pinterest Made Me Do It

It was hard for me to choose the title for this post, as I had thought of several.  Some of the alternate titles to this post:

Pinterest is Making Me Fat  

or 

Damn You, Pinterest

Anyway, it seems like we've been on a Pinterest binge here lately. Honestly, I don't spend a lot of time on there because I don't have a lot of time.  As for recipes, I tend to fly through the boards and pin things willy-nilly, and go back later when I'm making our weekly meal plan.  I've gotten really lucky with the last few things we've tried.  All home runs, actually.  And now, I will share with you.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread--I got this recipe from blog-stalking Reba at Cooking with the Clouds, who got it from Pinterest, here. I like to plan my meals for the week, and on her blog she does the same thing. So I let her do the work for me!  Ha, ha just kidding....sort of.  Whatever, the bread is freaking fantastic!  It was very easy to make and I had all the ingredients in my kitchen already. The hard part was waiting until breakfast the next morning to slice it.  Two thumbs up!  And I'm making a double batch this weekend.

Photo credit: wiskandaprayer.blogspot.com--we ate ours too fast for a photo.  Oops.

Pepperoni Quesadillas--Are you kidding me?  I've been making quesadillas for years and never thought of this!  Just like it sounds:  pepperoni and shredded mozzerella between two tortillas.  Use pizza sauce for dipping. Genius!  Again, no photos.  But here is the link to the recipe with a photo HERE.  Tip: I used the mini pepperonis and it worked great. I also made a few with the sauce inside, which was fine, but a bit more soggy than I like.  I know Lee liked this dinner because of his reaction:  "These are awesome. You should blog about it!"  

Monster Cookie Dough Dip-- Just a warning: if you make this, be prepared not to stop eating until it's gone. OH. MY. GOSH.  Seriously, I made it for our Christmas festivities and then again for a potluck at work this week.  The recipe just happens to contain a few of my favorite junky snack treats--chocolate chips, M&M's and peanut butter.  Oh, and we ate ours with pretzels, but I bet graham crackers would also be a tasty dipping partner.  Here's the recipe and here's my photo:

This is my photo, as I'm sure you guessed. Not a professional.

I think I will probably make Pinterest Made Me Do It a regular feature on the blog. This is a fun way to share recipes and document other projects that we are doing (ex: the advent calendar).  Leave me a comment to let me know if you like this idea.  Or if you just want to share in my love/hate relationship with Pinterest.