pinterlisciousness

Last week I got down and dirty with some of my recent pins. Because what good is it to just always pin stuff and never try it out?

I made these pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies. They were ok. I don't know whether I'd make them again or not, but it was fun to try something different with pumpkin. Have I mentioned how much I love baking with pumpkin? I have a whole pinterest board dedicated just to pumpkins. Check it out here.

One recipe I'd highly recommend is for these make-ahead-and-freeze breakfast burritos. I used 8 eggs in mine and ended up with 19 burritos. It's nice for the hubs to have something to grab and go. I typically don't do that great on packing him a breakfast. He usually ends up with hard boiled eggs. And how many hard boiled eggs can one actually eat in a week? Ya, that's what I thought. Anyway, these heat up great and taste good too.

We went to the anual fish feed on Saturday night, a big party hosted by Phil's aunt and uncle. I usually don't go over there for anything without dessert - because dessert is just my thing. But when we got the invitation, I saw that families with last names beginning with A-F were supposed to bring appetizers. Now usually I have a hard time with appetizers. I don't have anything tried and true that people love. Until now. I made this recipe for jalepeno popper dip and took an assortment of crackers to dip. Holy cow! That stuff was divine. And because desserts are my thing, I rebelled and took one anyway and made these buckeye brownies. I made them for the 4th of July and they are amazing. Lesson learned the 2nd time: avoid using reduced fat peanut butter. Doesn't work nearly as good as the full fat kind.

And finally, the one that made me most happy last week. . .

My church hosted the Fall Festival of Missions for the women in our conference. I was asked if I had any good ideas for centerpieces and I said, "No, but I know where to go for some inspiration!" So I set up a pin board for ideas and came up with these: a conglomeration of three ideas. One used mason jars and I knew we'd be able to scrounge up plenty of those. One used the layers of beans and seeds and our trusty Winco grocery store has a huge bulk food section that had a ton of beans and stuff in a variety of colors for cheap. And the other idea I included was the twine wrapped around the jars with a glittery leaf. Set it all on top of burlap squares and stuck in some Dollar Tree tea lights.

One thing I learned was that it takes more beans than you think it will. I had to run back to the store and get more (and then I had way too much, but oh well). Also if I had to do it all over again, I'd put more stuff in the large jars. I think we ended up making enough for 15 tables and had a few extras for the food table. They were fun to put together and try different textures and color combinations and everyone loved them. We already had the jars, leaves and twine. So Total cost for the beans, burlap and tea lights: $45.10. Three bucks a table, not bad.

Your turn. What have you pinned and tried recently? Do share.