30 Days of Pinterest-Day 7: National Margarita Day

I had no idea today was National Margarita Day.  Well honestly I had no idea there WAS such a fantastic holiday.  Imagine my joy at logging on to Pinterest this morning and finding several pins dedicated to NMD.  Any excuse for a margarita is fine by me!

We don't currently have a blender, so frozen was out and I didn't feel like actually juicing limes so I needed easy.  I went to allrecipes.com and found this recipe for Beer Margaritas.  It didn't require a blender and got great reviews so we decided to give it a shot.  Per some reviews, I subbed 7-UP in place of the water.

And what better way to honor a holiday about booze than by using Redneck wine glasses.

Cheers!

30 Days of Pinterest- day 6: Oven-Dried Strawberries

These are great, and super easy.  Lucy loves fruit snacks, and while we do try to buy the organic healthiest version, they're still not the same as actually eating fruit.  I pinned this site and used the recipe exactly as listed there, except for 2 hours instead of 3. I wasn't sure how the salt and pepper would be, but they were fine. They didn't taste salty or peppery at all once dried.

Here's what you do:
Take fresh strawberries, the riper the better, and cut them into halves or quarters.  The thinner pieces you see here turned into crispy strawberry chips, while the thicker pieces kept a chewy center.  Lucy much preferred the chips, while I liked the chewier pieces.  You'll just have to play around with it to figure out what size pieces you prefer. Place on baking sheet.  Add a little salt and pepper.  Bake at 210 for 2 hours.  Note: recipe calls for 3 hours, but after 2, my thinner pieces were brown and crispy.



They're totally gone now, but I managed to get a pic before we ate them all. They don't look very appetizing, but they're great plain and would be excellent on salads or chopped and baked into breads or muffins. They look burned here, but even though they turned dark they didn't taste burned at all.

30 Days of Pinterest-Day 5: Frozen Mudslides

Or in my case...not so frozen mudslides.  Here's the recipe I pinned and the look I was going for:


 See it looks so nice and frozen, like a Wendy's Frosty consistency.  

Here's mine:  Much more frothy than frosty.

Honestly, with that much booze added to ice cream, I don't know how it could be anything but liquid.  The recipe calls for 2 oz each of Bailey's Irish Cream, Kahlua, and vodka blended with 6 oz vanilla ice cream. I used an immersion blender.  I think you're going to have to add ice to get this frozen because the alcohol content combined with blending quickly melts the ice cream.

Here's another version from allrecipes.com that I have not tried. It calls for ice instead of ice cream. I think this has excellent potential, and I think a combo of ice and ice cream would be best.

At any rate, the flavor is excellent and I should be asleep in no time tonight if I drink much of this thing...it is strong.

Cheers!

30 Days of Pinterest-Day 4: Homemade Deodorant

Here's the original site I pinned in the search for deodorant recipes.  I admit, I am skeptical of this and will update once I've used it for a few days.  I tweaked the recipe a bit based on reading several other online versions.

Here's my version:

1/4 cup arrowroot flour/starch (Bob's Red Mill brand from Whole Foods)
1/4 cup baking soda
4 Tbs coconut oil (Nutiva brand)
10 shakes grapefruit essential oil (from Whole Foods)

Mix the arrowroot powder and baking soda, stir in oils.  Warm in microwave enough to liquefy the coconut oil and stir again.  Pour into container, then put in fridge to solidify.

I put it in a container from The Container Store, but I've read that it works great poured into an empty deodorant package as well.

30 Days of Pinterest- Day 3: Avocado Spinach Egg Salad

If you are an egg salad and avocado fan, you need to give this version a try.  Here's a link to the original recipe I pinned.

• 7 eggs, hardboiled
• 4 oz. plain greek yogurt
• 2 ripe avocados 
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 cup fresh baby spinach, chopped
• salt, pepper, red pepper flakes or other seasonings to taste
• bread for sandwiches

Peel eggs, and once cooled, mash them together with the yogurt.  Remove pits and skins from avocados (here's a quick how-to for getting to the flesh of an avocado if your a newbie to them).  Mash avocados, then mix in with the egg/yogurt mixture.  Add salt/pepper and other seasoning to taste (I added some cajun seasoning).  Stir in chopped celery and spinach.  Serve on toasted whole grain bread with slices of fresh tomato.  

I am (obviously) no food photographer, but here ya go. 

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 2- Valentine's Brownie Cake

This is an adorable recipe for a Valentine's Day dessert.  The original recipe called for it to be made with white cake mix and peanut butter icing, but I changed it to strawberry cake mix and vanilla icing.  It could be made as cupcakes (48 according to the original recipe) but I chose to use my heart-shaped pan.  I like to bake from scratch, but you can't beat this for convenience because it uses boxed mixes and prepared frosting.  I do think it would be even more delicious with homemade buttercream or cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

• 1 (19.5 ounce) package brownie mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 package strawberry cake mix
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 3 egg whites
• Vanilla Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F  Line 48 muffin cups with paper liners or grease and flour cake pan.
2. Stir together the brownie mix, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup canola oil, and 1/4 cup water in a bowl. Stir just until fully incorporated, about 50 strokes; set aside.
3. Mix the cake mix, 2 tablespoons canola oil, 1 1/3 cup water, and 3 egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.
4. Spoon the brownie batter into prepared pan (filling only about 1/3 full). Spoon the cake batter over the brownie batter until pan, or muffin tins, are about 2/3 full.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes for cupcakes, 40 minutes for heart shaped cake.

Fresh from the oven (the middle fell in)


Turned out pretty...and tasty.

Full disclosure: I accidentally reversed the water and put the 1 1/3 cup in the brownie part and the 1/4 cup in the cake part.  I then added another 1/2 cup or so to the cake part.  The brownie was a bit watery, and spongy, and just not quite right. However, I think this recipe is great and it would have been perfect had I not messed it up. 

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 1 - homemade laundry detergent

I am officially in the ranks of the Pinterest-obsessed.  I pin and pin and pin, but wasn't actually doing much with it. So here comes 30 Days of Pinterest, where I will attempt to cook/make/do something from it each day.

Today is homemade laundry detergent.  There are recipes out there for a liquid version but it is a bit more complicated, so I decided to try the powder first.

I got all the ingredients at Walmart. You need 1 bar of soap (not perfumed or moisturizing) like Fels-Naptha or plain Ivory, 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing (NOT baking) soda.  All 3 were together in the laundry isle at my Walmart.

Step 1: grate the soap. I used a cheese crater then put it in the food processor to get it as fine as possible.
Step 2: add the Borax and Soda, mix
Step 3: There is no step 3.

Use 2 Tbs per full load.  This should be fine for both front and top loaders and both conventional and HE washers.