Sunday, April 22, 2012

Yum Yum Yum: Pinterest

It's no lie that I love food. I am excited to report that some quiz on Facebook has informed me that I have tried 70 rare food items which is a clear indicator of my love of all kinds of food. If the quiz on Facebook says so, it must be true. However, my typical jump in the kitchen and whip something up desire during pregnancy is really very low. Conversely, my addiction to Pinterest is on an all time high. I have a Yum Yum Yum board which collects several food items that spark my interest, mostly ridiculously sugary things like s'mores pie or oreo cookie casserole, more than likely each of these are divine and more than likely I will never make them because they are way over the top. (Mental note: consider internet virtual eating habits.)

Regardless, I have managed to make a couple of things on my Yum Yum Yum board. One I tried at a friend's house and the truffles were so good I had to make them for Easter. Oreo truffles are deliciously. It said easy and no bake, so I assumed it was true. Sadly it  wasn't. I must admit some of the issue is user error. The truffle portion really was easy: a package of oreos into food processor with 4 ounces of cream cheese, then roll into little balls and put them into the frig to harden at least an hour. Now, the harder part, the directions recommended vanilla melts that you can purchase at the craft store for candy making but I thought to myself white chocolate is bound to be tastier and I can dye them to Easter colors! Genius! Um. No. Chocolate that is not meant to stay melty is hard to work with. I learned this during Christmas a couple of years ago but apparently I don't retain any knowledge acquired during hectic holiday times. I melted the chocolate first by a suggested microwave instructions added my pink food coloring and though a little cumbersome not too bad, other than a little ugly. I melted another batch and added blue and it instantly turned into grain. Again. And then again. I wish I was a chemist, not in a Breaking Bad sort of way but in a Alton Brown way so I could understand what was in the composition of the blue dye that changed the chocolate so drastically but instead I decided time was of the essence so I melted just white chocolate. It was cooling too quickly so I tried to remelt, another mistake; it caught on fire and burned. So as soon as the chocolate harden I had to make a whole new batch of melted chocolate. Between the ugly pink ones, the grainy couple and the white ones I got about 20. I set aside 10 to take to my cousins and 10 to my in-laws and called it quits. There were still another 20 to coat. I bought the melts at Jo-Anns and never made the rest, so we tossed them. The last thing that should be noted is that even though they were awful looking they tasted amazing. http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/11/no-bake-oreo-truffles.html
The next recipe was super easy. Once again, I am not always smart enough to follow actual recipes but this time it was to our benefit. I used a package of Bertolli Cheese Tortellini, Aidell's organic Apple & Chicken sausages, onions, and Roma tomatoes. Eliot is always a little touch and go with peppers which is why I sauteed onions instead and we had tomatoes to use so I threw them in at the last minute after the sausages and onions were ready. Of course I added salt to the water to boil the tortellini and after everything was done I mixed them. The directions called for adding Italian dressing and then heating everything together just a bit but we had my mother in law's super delicious homemade Italian dressing which she jars up for us because we are all addicted to it. That could have been the game changer for this recipe by taking it to the next level. It was really good. And like many pastas it was even better the next day. http://family.go.com/food/recipe-790972-tortellini-with-edamame-and-smoked-sausage-t/

Both pictures are from the original sites since I didn't photo record these as I made them. I also made Easter cupcakes, which were very easy because I just used the box mix. Lydia got to help  for the first time by stirring, then I decorated with the Pinterest inspired picture. Since M&M packages don't have all "oranges," I used various colors in the shape of carrots and I picked up some candy butterflies for the occasion. These are my cupcakes.


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