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Saturday, August 27, 2016

52 Pins in 52 Weeks - August Edition

I love Pinterest.  I love pinning recipes from my favorite food blogs or scrolling down the Everything section to see what everyone else has been pinning.  I love the idea of all the crafts and recipes and everything else right there at my fingertips.

Right now I have around 10,000 pins in 60 boards.  I do use Pinterest a pretty good bit but tend to stick to the boards regarding Dinner and let other delicious looking recipes or fun crafts languish unused and ignored.  This year I'm trying to get more use out of Pinterest so at the beginning of the year I created my 52 Pins in 52 Weeks Board as well as a Results Board to keep track of it.  I'll be posting my results the last Saturday of each month.

August was a really successful month which was lots of fun.  For September I'm hoping to get some more craft type pins done since I have a little more time now that school has started and we're getting into the flow.  And in October come a few Halloween treats!  I'm really looking forward to those!

Week 31:


Reason Picked:  I like cucumbers and am always looking for different things to do with them.

Basic Idea: A sweet tangy fresh relish made from cucumbers, red onion, and apple in a apple cider vinegar honey dressing with a touch of dill.

The Results:  This was so good!  I didn't have any fresh dill so I used dried and halved the amount as it seemed a little dill heavy to me.  It was really tasty.  I ate it as almost a side (like you would with coleslaw) and topped some grilled chicken with it on a tortilla and both ways were tasty.  


Week 32:


Reason Picked:  I love a good peanut butter frosting and You Cup of Cake is one of my go to blogs when it comes to cupcake recipes.

Basic Idea: A rich doctored cake mix chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter frosting with actual Nutter Butters in the frosting.

The Results:  This was another winner though really it's hard to fail on a cupcake.  The cake was good and the additional ingredients kept it from tasting like a mix.  The frosting was peanut butter-y but a little lighter with the Nutter Butter addition.  

Week 33:


Reason Picked: I love brownies and I love pie so 2 great things go great together.  Plus, Cooking Classy is one of my favorite food blogs.

Basic Idea:  A buttery pie crust with a rich brownie filling.  The original recipe includes a bottom layer of pecans but my family is very strange and doesn't like pecans so I left them out.

The Results:  I'm not entirely confident in the pie crust because they're not really in my skill set.  This one came together pretty easily but it definitely isn't pretty and there aren't going to be any fluted edges anytime soon!  The filling is rich and chocolately though a little on the messy side.  I think it would've been better with pecans like the recipe calls for.  Otherwise, it's fantastic warm with vanilla ice cream!


Week 34:


Reason Picked:  I always feel like I'm wasting basil as I don't end up using all my plants before it freezes and I regularly forget about drying them!

Basic Idea:  Pack basil in olive oil in a mason jar and keep in the refrigerator for up to a year.

The Results:  Well I can't exactly say how successful it was because it's only been about a week and a half but the leaves till look pretty good and it was super easy to do.  Plus I love the idea of not only having fresh basil year round but having basil infused olive oil.  Basil is about the only thing my garden has produced this year and I have a few different types of basil so I'm hoping to have a few different jars.  

Week 35:


Reason Picked: Because date night was a rare thing and we wanted to fix that

Basic Idea:  A list of ideas for things that you can do at home that are fun and inexpensive and a little different.

The Results:  Okay I'm going to be honest here and we haven't actually had a stay at home date night BUT this did realize what we were doing wrong and that was the planning and scheduling.  While a lot of these aren't for J and me (we are not karaoke people) there were a ton of good ideas that will be a lot of fun and links to even more lists of ideas.  So next Saturday we have scheduled a Video Game Date.  I'll be working on our menu and figuring out what games we're going to play this week.  I'm really excited!  Next I'm thinking board games or quizzes or a game of Would You Rather.  They all sound really fun.

I'm linking up with Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads



18 comments:

  1. The cupcake and the pie sounds super yummy!!!

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  2. I admire your tenacity to sticking with your Pinterest goals. Each month you amaze we with so many new ideas and creations! I think I will need to splurge and make that nutter butter cupcake recipe.

    I have a Pinterest account but I guess it had been so long since I looked at it, didn't realize they changed the format so much. At least in a tablet it looks way different!

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  3. So your results board is for the pins you have accomplished? Good for you! I have an account and I'll pin stuff, but then forget to go back and see why I wanted to save it--what I wanted to do.

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  4. I love the sound of that Chunky Cucumber Relish, and have saved it to try. On my personal computer board :)

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  5. The cucumbers caught my eye as well as the browning pie. I also like the idea of scheduling a fun home date night. If nothing else, it will get you out of your routine. I may have to check out some of the ideas.

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  6. Lots of chocolate. Good idea.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  7. The Nutter Butter cupcake sounds delicious! Too bad I'm trying to cut back on sugar. I like the basil-infused olive oil idea, but if I had fresh basil I would probably just make pesto and freeze it like my sister does. (My tomato allergy means we use pesto with pasta a lot.) And I will be checking out the date night ideas. Now that it is just the two of us most of the year, we really need to do more date nights, either at home or out and about!

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  8. Another good post. Have a great week. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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  9. The Cupcake and pie sounds yummy and I am so looking into the olive oil basil thing cause I got a lot of basil and don't want it to go to waste. :)

    Stormi

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  10. Dang lots of good ones! Interesting on the basil. That's all my garden did this year.

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  11. I seriously want to try the chutney and the Nutter Butter cupcakes. I also always forget to dry basil, but I don't have to worry about it this year because I bought potting soil for my container garden and the bags of dirt are still stitting in each urn. Ha ha. I have only tried the freezing basil in olive oil in ice cube trays, and then transferring the cubes to freezer bags. It was time consuming and messy and I didn't feel it was worth the trouble. I think I will try the jar method next year. :)

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  12. I love seeing you work through your pins. And the stay at home date one sounds like fun. I should try that, especially with board games and nibble food, that would be fun!

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  13. My son would love the nutter butter cupcake.

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  14. Wow! You should do a movie called Pinterest Pinterest as a take off on that Julia and Julia movie! I really love this idea and plenty of great recipes. I need to make sure I follow you on Pinterest! Hugs...

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  15. I hate wasting basil.... I will definitely have to try this preservation method!

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  16. That relish sounds yummy. Have fun on your Video Game Date -- great idea!

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  17. I love the idea of the basil in olive oil. My basil is in bloom so I tell myself at least the bees are enjoying my basil! I like your idea of actually using your pins on pinterest. I have many pins I haven't used!

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  18. I had no idea you could do that with basil! We do always get our basil dried but usually have well more dried than we can use. I'd really love to have some "fresh" to pull out. Gotta go get some lids so I can this this soon!

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