Recipe Inspiration- Lemon Chicken Stew

A couple months ago, I had some lemon chicken orzo soup at Panera.  It was so good!  So when I was looking through my recipes trying to decide what to make, I had to try this soup (plus, our area has been hit with a "Polar Vortex" the past week or so and it has been so, so cold).

I basically followed the recipe with a few slight changes.  I had a few frozen split chicken breasts, you know, the kind with the bones and skin still on them.  I boiled those to create my own chicken stock and cook the chicken.  I pulled out the chicken and let it cool, then poured out the stock, and then basically followed the recipe.  I only had baby carrots, so I used a few handfuls of those.  I also bought leeks (since the recipe calls for them), but when I bought them, they only had bunches of leeks that were HUGE, and since I had no other plans to use leeks, I used both the big leeks instead of one leek and one onion (too much detail here?)  I let that cook in a little bit of oil to soften up the veggies, then added the broth back in. By that time, the chicken was cool enough for me to shred it and add it back (after removing all of the fat, skin, and veins...ewww...)  I let that come to a boil and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  Then I added about 1 1/4 cups of orzo pasta because I really love a thick soup and because it's my soup so I can.   I did not buy the fresh tarragon to add to the top (the leeks were already super expensive!)  This is a very tasty soup.  It is not the yummy lemon chicken orzo soup from Panera, but it was very good.

You can find the Pin HERE.  I will be making this one again...

Card Inspiration- Pet Sympathy Card

 This year, I've known lots of folks who have lost their furry family members.  I've been there before and know that pain.

I wanted to make these cards to let my friends know that my thoughts and prayers are with them when/if they experience this type of loss.

These cards were inspired by THIS Pin.

These are some basic pet sympathy cards with a little glittery red heart.

 They two above cards were not the first one I made.  This card without the red glittery heart was the one I made first.

This is another rendition of the card.  Instead of using the wood embossing folder on this card, I used a heart embossing folder and the sentiment "with Love" instead of "With heartfelt Sympathy."  It could be a sympathy card or a note card.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Recipe Inspiration- Honeybun Cake

I have to apologize for this picture, that it's only of half this honeybun cake.  I suppose it's proof that this cake is so FRIGGIN' AMAZING!

To be fair (have you noticed that I like to be fair), my greatest weakness is baked goods and pastry of all sorts.  A doughnut is my one of my greatest weaknesses, and a honeybun is pretty darn close to a doughnut.

To be honest (another thing I like to be), I've made this cake before.  The first time I made it, we cut it, and about one minute later, the cake was almost all gone.  This cake is seriously that good, people.

It is also super easy.  I changed nothing in the recipe.  I didn't need to.  It's a keeper!

Trust me... make it.  You won't regret it.  You can find the Pin HERE.

Recipe Inspiration- Baked Mozzarella Sticks

I wanted to make this recipe for Mozzarella cheese sticks the second I saw it on Pinterest.  It looked SO GOOD!  And according to this Pin, it was really good.

Well... I cannot confirm that.  Now, to be fair, I did follow the baked recipe.  I wanted a healthier option.  Maybe if you did fry the mozzarella sticks they would be better, but I didn't want all the oil.

Now, I am of the firm belief that you can fry just about anything and it will taste good, but the baked version is not good at all.  The cheese did ooze out of the egg roll wrappers (not won-ton as the recipe dictates).  When it was super hot, fresh out of the oven, the cheese was ooey-gooey good, but the egg-roll wrapper was like this flavorless, flour blah-ness.

I was thinking of making these for a baby shower that I am hosting, and I am sooooo glad that I tested the recipe before I decided to make them and serve them to a bunch of people.

Recipe Inspiration- Pizza!

Today in my county is a SNOW DAY!  I'm reading all these complaints from folks on Facebook, but I could not disagree more!  I LOVE snow!  (To be fair, I am a teacher and get the day off to play, and my husband and best friend shovels the snow so I don't have to.  Trust me, it's a win-win for me.)  So after my morning reading/Bible study, I started poking around on Pinterest and saw THIS pizza recipe.  I had the Bisquick, the tomato sauce, and cheese.  And pizza sounded good.  No delivery required, thank you very much.

Here's my pizza, before and after.
 I won't call this a Pinterest fail exactly, but I will tell you that I won't be making it again.  I don't have the technical cooking/pizza dough vocabulary to tell you why I wasn't crazy about it, but I can tell you that if I just made biscuits, split them open, and made little mini-pizzas on them, it would have tasted about the same.  The crust was basically a biscuit.  I shouldn't be surprised.  It was made with Bisquick after all, but that's not what I want for my pizza crust.

Now, off to remove this pin from my board.

Card Inspiration- Valentine's Day Card

This is a card that I created from THIS PIN.  (Original card posted below.) I loved the card as soon as I saw it.  I also loved that I could use my stamp set, One in a Million.  I bought the set because of another sentiment it had, and I'm so pleased that I can finally use another stamp from the set.

Obviously, I changed up the colors, using Smoky Slate, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, and Cherry Cobbler.

Recipe Inspiration- Taco Soup

In an effort to prep food for the week, and because of the cold weather looming, I decided to make a soup recipe that I Pinned for Taco Soup.

Here's the picture of the pin, and below is my results, still in the crock pot after cooking on low for about 6 hours.

I used the ingredients I had and exchanged others for the ones I don't like.  I had a pound of ground pork, not beef.  I used the onion, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and corn, and I used one can of black beans and one can of white beans.  Instead of a packet of taco seasoning, I made my own following a recipe for taco seasoning.

I haven't tried it yet, but my hubbie did and said it was soooo good.  I plan on making corn muffins and topping the soup with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of cilantro.

Card Inspiration- The Final Evolution

This one little card that I pinned has given me so much inspiration! 

This is my third and final evolution of this card.  For this evolution, I changed the shape in the middle.  I used that groovy new(ish) punch for the sentiment that I wanted to use.  This sentiment was important to me because I wanted to enter into The Friday Mashup's weekly challenge of making a birthday themed card that included twine. 

Once I picked out this sentiment, I went searching for a punch to use.  I really wanted something that wasn't a circle... you know... shake it up a bit.  This punch was perfect.  I punched little scraps of the lighter blue (I think it was Pool Party).  Then I removed that second little shape altogether. 

I used different dotted embossing folders for the darker layer.  You gotta emboss! 

(This just in.... I missed my chance to post the cards to The Friday Mashup... grrrrrr.... I hate it when that happens!)  

Card Inspiration- More Masculine Birthdays

 This is one of my Pins...
There's just something about this card.  If you saw my last card inspiration, it was also with this card.  I guess you can say I've experienced what I like to call a card evolution.  It starts off with some sort of inspiration, but then it just keeps evolving... 

I have two different cards with the same basic sketch.  I started with a desire to use the "wish big" sentiment in the small circle.  I decided to add a picture of a cake with this one.  Because of the stripes on the candles, I used a stripped embossing folder.  And because I wanted to add another card to The Friday Mashup's weekly challenge, I added the twine. 

On the second one, I wanted to put some words in the larger circle with the smaller circle reading "wish big," and I decided on this stamp, which says so much more than Happy Birthday.  I added the wood embossed layer for a masculine card.  I also changed the position of the smaller piece and moved it up and overlapped it on the the larger circle, popped up of course,  (and thus, the evolution begins).

I also sponged around the edges of the smaller circle with brown ink.

Picadillo in the Crock Pot

This is the PIN that inspired my attempt at this recipe! 

Here's mine in the crock-pot before I left for my 2nd job.

To be honest, I have made this a couple of times before.  It is SOOOOOOOOO good, which is why it's had a frequent spot on my rotation.  It's actually been awhile since I've made it (definitely not since I've started this blog... two days ago).  So I thought I'd add it in. 

I followed the recipe almost exactly.  I only had two pounds of ground meat, one of beef, one of chicken.  I added a small bag of olives I got in Italy (shout out to my good buddy, Molly!  Hey, girl!), which was probably more than what the recipe calls for, and I just added a whole red pepper and whole onion.  I did not bother to measure, but I'm sure it was more than one cup.  You do have to brown the beef/chicken first, which I am often too lazy to do.  However, it is worth the extra work. 

I cooked some brown rice, and when I get home from work at about 7:30, my house is gonna smell good!  But that's not dinner.  (Dinner was my own creation, not Pinterest inspired so I won't go into detail.  Let's just say, it's gonna be pretty darn good!

And this is the finished product..... Yum! 

Card Inspiration

 

This is the card that inspired me to make several different cards (I love that!) 

This card is great.  It can be found on Pinterest HERE.  But I am just drawn to this card, and while I do want to use exact layout and make some Valentine's day cards, this week, I used this basic sketch and combined it with the card challenge this week on The Friday Mashup. 

This week the ladies have a challenge for use to make a birthday themed card/project or a card/project with twine, or mash-it-up and create a birthday themed card/project with twine. 

I'm having issues adding my photos.... but here's a sideways one (just tilt your head really far to the right).  It follows the same basic Pinterest sketch, minus the sentiment on the front...

I went with a more masculine birthday theme (as I have lots of boy birthdays coming up!)




Here's the inside of the card....

I did make several more cards using this Pinterest Inspiration card and this Friday Mashup challenge....  I hope I get more posted! 

The Birth of a Blog

 

So time for honesty... I never really wanted to get onto Pinterest.  People would frequently say to me, "Lisa, I can't believe that you are not on Pinterest.  You would LOVE it!" 

I eventually caved in two Christmases ago when my sister showed me the board that she had created for me!  And I do, in fact, love it. 

I really enjoy that when I am waiting in line some where, I can be patient and pass the time by checking out some cool stuff.  So I pin.  And pin.  And pin. 

But to be a person who truely uses the site for what it's intended purpose is, I also want to create.  I want to make those yummy recipes, to try to DIY, to take inspiration from Pinterest and put it to good use. 

And then I thought I'd share my adventures with Pinterest with you, World Wide Web.  Because I am sure that you care oh so very much what I think. 

But it's also a way to hold myself accountable.  If I spend the time browsing the site, I also want to be productive.  Right now, at least one experiment a week.  Maybe it's a recipe I tried.  Maybe it's a card inspiration.  Either way, I will make my mark on it, and give you some of my feedback. 

One of the things inspired by Pinterst this week for me was catfish nuggets.  I have eaten them in restaurants before and love them.  I had some catfish in the freezer (and I am trying to use what I have before I buy new), so I jumped on Pinterest to find a good recipe for the nuggets.  Above you see my finished product. 

They.  Were.  Good.  I will totally make them again.  I will say they they didn't get as dark as the picture (they never do), but I also didn't deep fry them so it is much healthier than the ones I got at that BBQ joint. 

You can see my original inspiration HERE. 
Mine look very similar! 

This is a Pinterest win! 

Welcome to the blog!