Saturday, June 25, 2016

52 Pins in 52 Weeks - June 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.

Week 23:


Pin: Marinated Celery Salad from Breakfast to Bed

Reason Picked:  It sounded really refreshing

The Basic Idea: Slice up celery and marinate it in a tangy viniagrette

The Results:  The basic flavor was good but the blogger didn't include an actual recipe with amounts listed and I don't handle that very well.

Week 24:



Reason Picked: We're always looking for science experiments to do in the summer and I had everything I needed for this one on hand.

The Basic Idea: Add water, oil, and food coloring into a clear container and then sprinkle salt on top and watch what happens

The Results: This is a really simple experiment and fun.  If you're looking for a real volcano go somewhere else but we had a good time setting it up and then adding different things - more salt, more water, more oil - and seeing what happened.

Week 25:


Reason Picked: Chocolate Chip Muffins are yummy!

The Basic Idea: A big chocolate chip muffin that tastes like something you'd get in a bakery.

The Results: Really freaking good!  They're a good size and just chocolate-y enough and sweet enough without being too messy or too sugary sweet but sweet enough where the Tornado still enjoyed his.  The texture is fantastic which can be a little difficult sometimes in muffin recipes.  Next time I will definitely make sure I have some turbinado or sanding sugar on hand because that added crunch would have been amazing!  Also I want fill up the muffin cups to the very top because some leaked over and the edges got a little burnt.  The ones where they were just a tiny bit under full did better.

Week 26:

Pin: Ooblek recipe from Preschool Powol Packets off a list of 55 Dr. Seuss Activities from No Time for Flashcards

Reason Picked: The Tornado really enjoyed the mixing and adding part of the salt volcano so I thought this might be another fun one.

The Basic Idea: Make slime out of cornstarch and water

The Results: This didn't go quite as expected.  For starters I picked the wrong day to do this.  The Tornado was tired and cranky and I had a headache and was fast running of patience.  The stuff doesn't mix up as fast as I expected.  I was thinking you add the stuff, stir it up and than poof Ooblek but the mixing is actually part of the project as you kind of have to get your hands in to do it.  It's very simple and cheap as the only materials you need to buy is a box of cornstarch which is only a few dollars.  The ooblek itself was really neat and the texture was really fun.  I think if we had been in better moods this would have been a lot of fun.  Plus I love that you can read the story to go along with the experiment.  I'll definitely give this another try when we're feeling more adventurous.

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



21 comments:

  1. I am all in for those chocolate chip muffins!! Yum!!

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  2. Well, other than the slime it sounds like everything else went off without a hitch! Obviously I am more focused on the muffins. Mmmmm

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  3. I commend you on controlling your Pinterest. I had to stop because I realized I would have to spend way too much time to organize it and find my favorite sites, like falling down a hole! You are having fun so it's totally worth it for you.

    I think I'll check out those muffins. I'm a better cook than baker, which isn't saying much for my baking, but I do love muffins. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Muffins!! Yay. I love following your progress with this. And I'm going to remember the volcano next time I'm in charge of some little-ish ones.

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  5. Fun to see what you've been up to. I hear you on those muffins! :)

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  6. Sounds as if you are having a fun summer vacation.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  7. I'm going to pin the chocolate chip muffin recipe ;-) and try the salt & oil experiment this weekend with my grandson. He loves to mix up "potions".

    This is a great idea (52 pins in 52 weeks) that I may just have to try!

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  8. Mmm... I'll echo the group, those muffins sound quite tasty and the science experiments sound like lots of fun. You always make me think that I need to do a better job of documenting the pins I try. ;-)

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  9. I think it's a good thing you didn't include a picture of the chocolate chip muffins because I would be extra hungry right now - they sound delicious!!

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  10. Celery salad - who knew? Have a great week. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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  11. Wow, this challenge you set for yourself is awesome! I am not sure how to feel about celery salad, but I am a very picky eater.

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  12. You really know your Pinterest and find some goodies there. I am on so many social media sites I am staying away from that one, I might like it too much, ha ha.

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  13. I can eat celery all day - love it! Mmm I'll have to look up the muffin. I rarely use Pinterest, but maybe I should look up some good recipes.

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  14. You were brave with the celery recipe! I never considered celery as a main ingredient before. Maybe you can find a recipe that actually has ingredient amounts in the future. I loved doing experiments at home with Sebastian, but that was back in the stone age and we had to get books from the library. Ha ha. The internet is fabulous for this. I have a ton of things on my Someday Grands boards to do with them. And kudos to the at home enrichment activities you are doing with The Tornado. Sebastian's teachers were always impressed with the extra knowledge he had. It really gives them a huge leg up in school. The muffins sound wonderful I will have to pin them to my board. Again, this is one of my favorite features to read! :)

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  15. You were brave with the celery recipe! I never considered celery as a main ingredient before. Maybe you can find a recipe that actually has ingredient amounts in the future. I loved doing experiments at home with Sebastian, but that was back in the stone age and we had to get books from the library. Ha ha. The internet is fabulous for this. I have a ton of things on my Someday Grands boards to do with them. And kudos to the at home enrichment activities you are doing with The Tornado. Sebastian's teachers were always impressed with the extra knowledge he had. It really gives them a huge leg up in school. The muffins sound wonderful I will have to pin them to my board. Again, this is one of my favorite features to read! :)

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  16. Like you I need some directions...at least the first time I make something (or have had something). I can't just wing it. I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. There are so many great things on there but also a lot of crud as well. That said, I should make a better effort to do some of the things that I've pinned! I love how you've made it a goal to do one a week.

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  17. I don't even try to make a recipe that doesn't have ingredient amounts. Makes no sense to me why a recipe wouldn't include that info.

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  18. Fabulous all the use you're getting from your boards. For me, Pinterest would be one more thing to do, as would tweeting. I just copy recipes I like to my recipes file on the computer, they're all in automatic alphabetic order, though find I usually delete as many as are added.

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  19. Summer experiments are one of the things I miss about having young kids. We loved doing them and it's great for kids to understand that science can be fun because so often the textbook learning sucks all of the fun out of it. Oobleck was one of our faves!

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  20. Wow! I've got make sure I follow you! I share my blogs on Pinterest, and use it to find info on decorating and clothing from the 50's. I'm not on it as much as I'd like, but once I do, the pins are endless! Hugs...

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  21. Oh I'm always disappointed when recipes or projects don't have detailed instructions. I need that too!

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