52 Pins in 52 Weeks - Christmas 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.

Today I'm talking about 3 Christmas-y pins I squeezed in this week!  I always love the idea of doing some of the Christmas-y pins but when it's actually December things are so busy that I always forget up until now.  I also wanted to mention that I'll be turning this feature into a linkup in 2017.  On the last Saturday of every month I'm going to do a 52 Pins in 52 Weeks post and share what I've been doing and I hope you'll join me and share what you've been doing too!

Week 48

Pin: Peppermint Meltaway Cookies from Silver Boxes

Why I Picked It: I love peppermint cookies especially with all the rich food I eat around this time of year!

Basic Idea: A meltaway dough that's lightly flavored with peppermint with a sweet minty glaze.

Results: So good!  Be careful not to overbake because they fall apart if too dry.  The flavor was nice and light and the texture was divine.  The glaze sets up nicely and is hard enough that these cookies can be packed.  Just be sure if you're adding sprinkles to add them quickly otherwise the glaze will harden and they won't stick!

Week 49:

Pin:Make Your House Smell Like Christmas from Lulu & Georgia (link just to pin because I couldn't find the graphic on the blog itself)

Why I Picked It: I love all the Christmas-y scents and this seemed easy.

Basic Idea: Fill a pot with yummy stuff, add some water, and let simmer all day.

Results: Meh.  I didn't love the scent - the cinnamon and rosemary were really overpowering and the orange and cranberry was nonexistent.  Plus even at a simmer there's still some steam which is fine if you don't have cabinets over your stove but left some white marks on mine.  Lucky they faded when the wood dried.  This wasn't awful but not worth losing a spot on the stove.  I think I'll just light a candle or two instead!

Week 50: 

Pin: Grinch Truffles from Tatertots and Jello

Why I Picked it: I love all things Grinch!  And even with my limitations in decorating I was pretty sure that I could handle sticking a heart shaped sprinkle on a cake ball!

Basic Idea: A red cake ball coated in green candy coating with a red heart on top.

Results:  Wilton Candy Melts and I don't get along.  I always seem to overcook them so the coating gets too thick and then I have to add shortening and it's always such a pain.  That aside these were pretty fun and easy.  I made the cake balls using vanilla cake mix with red food coloring and a few tablespoons of chocolate frosting because my family doesn't like red velvet (they're really weird).  It definitely looks Grinch-y and was a lot of fun!

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