It's National Chocolate Cake Day

On several occasions I have thought it would be fun to blog everyday about whatever food is being celebrated.  There is an entire calendar for these events and I have mentioned a few in the past, like National Cheesecake Day which falls on July 30 this year.

Today is National Chocolate Cake Day.  There was a time when chocolate was my very favorite flavor.  While I still love it, I often opt for something else, often lemon.  But put a piece of dark chocolate anything in front of me and I can't resist.

I would love to make a cake today, but as my kids are off on vacation, I would have to eat it all by myself.  Not that I couldn't accomplish the task.  I do have some recipes for chocolate cake in a mug - for one- so that may be my dessert this evening.

I looked at all of my Pinterest pins and there are several cakes I want to make, especially a couple of flourless varieties.  If you are looking for recipes, you can check some out at these links:

Single-layer Chocolate cakes: https://www.pinterest.com/msdeniseh553/chocolate-cakes/
Chocolate layer cakes: https://www.pinterest.com/msdeniseh553/chocolate-layer-cake/
Chocolate pound and bundt cakes:  https://www.pinterest.com/msdeniseh553/chocolate-pound-and-bundt-cakes/

One of my favorite chocolate desserts is a chocolate cake and pumpkin mousse.  Alas, I've never put the recipe on my computer.  It is made with chocolate chiffon cake.  The pumpkin mousse is great all on its own, and the cake is a great treat at Thanksgiving.

Are you a chocolate fan?  Dark or milk?  What is your favorite flavor?

Pinterest Cleaning and a Recipe

With the holidays coming you would think I have enough house-cleaning to do to keep me busy.  And you would be right.  But I am also cleaning up my Pinterest Boards.

Several years ago I decided to use Pinterest as my recipe file.  The great majority of my 3500+ recipe pins are from magazines and online recipe sites.  But many are re-pins that others have pinned. And that is where pin-cleaning begins.

Some of the pins are nothing more than a picture of food, with no recipe.  Mouthwatering, but useless.  Delete.

Some are just bad links.  Delete.  Some sites are no longer there.  Delete.  Some sites require memberships or invitations to read.  Delete.  And those are the easy clean-ups.

Then there are the food bloggers who adapt a recipe from another blog who had already adapted the recipe.  I have tried to go back to the original source and pin that recipe.  I can make my own adjustments.

I particularly liked the blogger who used a photo from another site to post their adapted recipe on their own site.  Guess they didn't have a camera.  And usually these 'borrowings' and adaptations are in the fine print someplace.

I am also leery of reviews on sites where a recipe calls for something the blogger doesn't like and then they make their own version and proceed to criticize the original recipe for not tasting good.  Like someone wanting to re-make macaroni and cheese with rice noodles and tofu. Give me a break.  Which is why I look for the original recipe.

In the midst of all this I have made my own adaptation of a recipe from America's Test Kitchen for chili.  This is one of those recipes that tastes better after sitting for a couple of days.  I finished up what I made on Saturday for lunch today.  Enjoy if you like.

Chipotle Chili

Ingredients:

2 T vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped small dice
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and diced small
2 chipotle chili peppers in adobo sauce, minced (Divide the can contents into three portions.  You can freeze the others for future use)
1/4 cup chili powder - I use Penzey's and brand will make a difference
2 T cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt, divided
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds 85% lean ground beef
2 15.5 oz cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed
1 14.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 14.5 oz can regular diced tomatoes, undrained
1 28 oz can tomato puree
1/2 cup ground tortilla corn chips

Directions:

1.  Heat the oil in a 5-quart Ditch oven over medium heat until shimmering.  Add the onions, peppers, adobo sauce, chili powder, cumin, cayenne, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Cook until the vegetables have softened, 5-7 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant.

2.  Add the beef and increase the heat to medium-high.  Cook, breaking up the beef with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the beans, tomatoes, puree, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Mix well and bring to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 45 minutes.

3.  Uncover pot and stir in corn chips.  Continue to simmer for another 45 minutes.  Season with additional salt and pepper if you desire.  (I was fine at this point without adding anything.)

Garnish with sour cream, chopped avocado, cheddar cheese, corn chips, or whatever suits your fancy. The corn bread in the picture is from a mix, but was delicious.  It is from Firenza. 

New Pinterest Link

I can't tell you how many times a friend has asked for a recipe and I tell them it is on my Pinterest site and they tell me they are not 'on' Pinterest.  Well, unlike Facebook, you do not have to be 'on' Pinterest to view someone's 'pins'.  All you have to do is connect to the site.

Now, there is a new Pinterest code for blogger and you actually get to see the latest pins on a site in the sidebar.

If the Pinterest site ever goes out of business, I am going to have to start making up my own recipes.  I've pinned just about everything I ever cooked on there.  Plus I have my garden and my travels and funny sayings, and fashion... over 4,400 pins so far.

I am thinking I may be one of the few people left in the world not on Facebook.  But I am not sure I am missing anything except the ability to see what everyone else is doing.  Who cares!  But if you need a recipe, you can search for one on Pinterest.   Or see if I've 'pinned' one.  Happy pinning!

Just for Laughs

Seriously, I thought about doing a mind-probing post, very serious and intellectual, and then I checked my Pinterest pins and saw this new one I posted this week:  Here   And then I figured that today was just not the day to expound on anything of any importance.

So, if you are looking for some humor or interesting thoughts, just check out my Pinterest 'Say What?' page and I will spare you my ramblings.  You'll also be able to figure out how my mind works, lol, as many of these really express my feelings on life in general.

That being said, here is what sunrise looked like in my backyard early this morning at 6:00 am with the fog in the park.

A Friday the 13th Post - Superstition Free

I am not in the least bit superstitious.  As proof, I moved into my home on a Friday the 13th in 1972 and am still here.

I had not even realized it was Friday the 13th until another blogger mentioned it.  And since this is February with 28 days, it means that we will have another FTT in March.

I have been so busy preparing my A to Z posts that I have had little time for blogging here.  So, as a means of catching up, here are a few items:

I have, as of this very moment, 4,000 pins on Pinterest.  The great majority of them are recipes.  And yet I still have recipe files to finish sorting.  Certainly no reason for me ever to get take-out or eat a frozen dinner.  Right!

Speaking of recipes, I am absolutely sick of all the gluten-free recipes I receive in emails.  To read the web you would think this is a condition of epidemic proportions.  Yet, only about 1% of the public has an issue with gluten (according to what I have found online).

But, 25% of the public has diabetes.  Yet, I do not get bombarded with sugar-free recipes, not do I see meaningless labels on foods I buy that are sugar-free.  I bought guacamole, consisting of avocados, tomatoes, and olive oil that was labeled gluten-free.  Really?  Just where would the gluten come from anyway?

Many folks seem to be willing to jump on the bandwagon of any fad diet that comes along.  Gluten-free, Paleo, eat your blood type...  Now comes a report that our cautions about eating foods high in cholesterol are all wrong.  Well, this agrees with what I taught my chemistry lab students back in the 1970's.  I told them that dietary cholesterol is flushed through the body and eating eggs will not harm you.  But, if your liver is prone to producing cholesterol, that is a more serious issue.

And just in the past few weeks I saw a report on the decrease in milk consumption because it is touted as not PC.  Certain folks don't think we should consume the dairy of other animals.  I guess they are related to the non-meat eaters.

I guess I should just go have a green salad for dinner and be done with it.  No meat, eggs, dairy, grains...  Sheesh.

Who has time to be superstitious when all this foolishness about food and diet is going on?

Here is an Arthur video about Friday the 13th:

When Life Gives You Lemons...

This is a story of the carpet, the thorn, the rain, the cable, and CVS (not the drugstore chain).

Let's start with my absence from blogging.  That is primarily due to CVS, computer vision syndrome.  While trying to focus on the screen, I see 'floaty thingies'.  I experienced this same type of thing years ago when I worked in Special Hematology at the hospital and spent most of my day at a microscope.  The doctor had me do eye exercises.  The easiest thing for me to do now is sit here and wear my glasses.  Or, just take some time away from the computer, which should be easier, but is actually harder to do.  So much of my life is online communicating with friends and even looking up my recipes (more about that later).

The carpet.  Finally installed one week ago.  After telling the company I was not waiting another week for installation.  It is very soft.  One of my sons said it was soft enough to sleep on.

The thorn.  Two weeks after having had a barberry thorn go through my work glove and into a finger I finally saw a doctor.  When the incident happened, I thought I had removed all of it, but persistent pain said that was not the case.  Having experienced this before, I called the dermatologist.  She lanced the finger and tried to poke around with some forceps but said that because of where the thorn was in my finger, she needed to send me to a hand surgeon.  Not having one available that day, the plastic surgery nurse told me to go to emergency to have it checked out.  That doctor sent me for an x-ray and gave me some antibiotics.  I was told to go home and soak the finger in warm water and dilute hydrogen peroxide (which is what I did when it happened).  Two days later at the hand surgeon's office I felt like an idiot because I told him I no longer felt any foreign object in my finger.  I thought it might have been ejected after all the poking and soaking.  He agreed it was possible.  He then turned out all the lights in the room, placed the flashlight on his smartphone under my finger and pronounced the finger good as new.  He then borrowed another doctor's cell phone so that he could use the light on it to then take a picture of the finger with his cell phone.  Which he then sent to my medical file with a voice instruction.  Here is the best part:  the doctor who ordered the expensive x-ray was probably no more than 35 years old.  The doctor who took the cell phone picture?  He graduated from medical school in 1960 and is 79 years old.  I Googled him when I got home.  I must say I am very impressed.  Who says you can't teach on old dog new tricks?

The rain.  I thought last year's rain was bad.  This seems worse.  Maybe it is just my imagination.  I have puddles everywhere.  Every time I check Doppler radar I see more rain clouds.  Fortunately, one of my purchases this spring was some waterproof rain boots for the garden.  I may be wearing them all summer if things don't dry up.  I have a lot of work to do outside as the animals destroyed all of the cotoneaster ground cover.  I need to cut it all back to the ground and let it rejuvenate itself.  The last time this happened was in 2007.  I only remember it because I still had my leg in a cast and was immobile and my sister and her husband kindly cut it all down for me.

The cable TV.  For the last three weeks I have been having problems with certain channels on the cable HD network.  After issues again on Sunday, the company said they would send someone out today.  Of course, this morning everything was working fine.  When the tech called before coming out, I told him it was OK.  He said they had been working on the problem and gave me his cell phone number in case it happens again.  On Tuesday night, right in the middle of the climax (one of many) during the season finale of 'Agents of Shield', the sound went out and I had to quickly switch to the regular channel.  You can bet that I will be keeping the cell phone number taped to the back of the TV controller.

Lemons.  I may have mentioned before that I love the taste of lemon.  I have lots of lemon recipes.  So, I decided to create a Pinterest board of lemon dessert recipes.  Two boards actually.  First 'When Life Gives You Lemons' is a collection of 50+ desserts.  The other is just 'Lemon Cakes'.  If you love lemon as much as I do, check them out.  I am sure you will find something to make your moth, oops, mouth water.

Have a great day!

Where Does the Time Go????

Wow!   I can hardly believe so much time has past since I last blogged.  Eleven days.  And I didn't even leave the country.

Well, I have been kinda busy, just not sure what all I was doing.  Shoveling snow is one item.  And more to come this weekend.  Yesterday's paper had a list of the top ten cities in the USA by snowfall.  Four Michigan cities were in the top ten:  Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Flint and Detroit.  All in a large circle around the area I live in.  Sorry, but having over 70 inches of snow in this area has not been fun at all.

There have also been stories about local communities ticketing people who do not shovel their walkways.  Remind me never to buy an home with a sidewalk in front of it.  If any community wants to have pedestrian paths, they had better figure out how to keep them clean.  I have enough trouble keeping my drive and street access clean.  As one woman pointed out, she clears the sidewalk and then the county snow plow throws the snow right back on top of it.  Amen to that scenario.

Of course our roads are in terrible shape with all the potholes.  And I can't imagine how bad it will be when all this snow actually melts.  Maybe by Memorial Day?  That being said, I had a tire damaged hitting one of the potholes and had to take it in for replacement.  While at the tire store they uncovered some other damage and it needed to be taken care of.  I asked was it covered under my extended warranty and they said 'no'.  I had the work done and paid for it.  When I got home I called the warranty provider who said that 'yes', it is covered'.  He explained that some service providers do not want to bother with a call to find out what is covered.  So now I have to send in my paperwork to receive reimbursement.

To make matters worse, when I went to retrieve my car the door handle was broken.  Now they have to order one to replace it.  They guy tried to assure me it wasn't their fault, but I told them it was perfectly fine when I dropped the car off.  Nuff said!

Yesterday was another frustrating day.  For several weeks I have had an irritation on my back.  Just itched like crazy.  I finally decided to see a dermatologist.  It was like she couldn't care less.  Said that 'if I wanted, I could have her freeze it with liquid nitrogen'.  Well, duh!  Since my only other option was to do nothing, what did she think I was there for?

Then I asked her about some spots on my face that had suddenly appeared and were also itching.  She said to buy some acne medication.  At 67 years I now have acne?  Anyway, when I went to my yoga class I saw the woman who does the skin care at the spa and she took me into her office and removed the little spots.  She said they were probably from sweating and the oils getting trapped under the skin.  Spots no more!

And speaking of yoga, my new favorite move is the standing splits.  No, I cannot get my body completely vertical.  But I do find it very invigorating.  I've posted a couple of pictures on my Pinterest yoga board.
One of these days I'm going to schedule a private yoga class and have my instructor take pictures.  I have no idea what I look like in my poses since yoga studios do not use mirrors.

Today I am off to do some shopping.  It is cold but relatively nice outside.  With more snow on the way, I'll need to stock up on books and food for the weekend.

Enjoy your day wherever you are.

Me and My Smart Ideas

My project this last year was to move most of my recipes to my Pinterest account.  Gone is most of the collection of old magazines, files and clippings.  I am still in the process of scanning anything I could not find online.  Heaven help me if my Internet fails and I want to cook, LOL.

So now that I am preparing my Thanksgiving menu, I am looking for recipes.  First I gave each of my dinner guests the opportunity to vote for what they wanted to eat.  And then I decided what I would cook. 

I chose to make the roasted butternut squash soup (done and in the freezer), but thought I would check the recipe for the chestnut soup that I had not made in quite some time.  And then I couldn't find it.  I looked through everything I have until I remembered Pinterest.  Yes, there it was online.

I plan to make the chutney today and need to run out to the grocer's for some apricots, but I decided to line up the rest of my recipes while I was searching.  How was it I had shown a stuffing in an old menu (I save all of them), but could not find a recipe?  Not even in Pinterest.  A Google search located it.  I am sure it is someplace at home I didn't look, like a cookbook, but I spent quite a bit of time sorting through stuff.  Again.

Anyway, my menu is set.  I think.  You just never know when I will change my mind. 

Baked Brie en croute w Fig jam

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup w Pumpkin Butter

Deconstructed Roast Turkey ala Julia and Jacques

Sausage, Chestnut& Fennel Dressing
Potato-Fennel Gratin w sweet potato puree
Brussels Sprouts w caramelized shallots and pancetta
Cipollini Onions
Brandied Cranberry Chutney
Romaine salad w pear and pomegranate
Honey mustard and maple dressing

Black Forest Cake

Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie

Happy cooking!

Double Berry Lemon Mousse Trifle

As I promised yesterday, I am putting in the links to my various 'sweet tooth' boards on Pinterest. 

I would love to bake everyday.  Since starting Weight Watchers two months ago, the only thing I have baked was English Scones with currants.  The only reason I made them is because I am a recipe tester for Cook's Illustrated magazine.  I can honestly say they are each worth the six points apiece.  I gave a few away, ate one, and froze the rest.  As soon as they publish the recipe I will share it with you.

And without further ado, here are the Boards:

Cookie Monsters
Bars and Brownies
Just Creamy Desserts
Fruity Desserts
Puddings, Flans, Custards - Creamy puddings, rice puddings, bread puddings, flans and creme caramel
Chocolate Desserts
Let Them Eat Cake
Let them eat LAYER Cake
Pound and Bundt Cakes
As American as Apple (and Pear) Pie - Apple and Pear pies, tarts, and crostatas
Berry and Cherry Pies and Tarts
Stone Fruit Pies and Tarts - Peaches, plums, apricots
Creamy Pies and Tarts - Lemon, sweet potato, pumpkin, key lime
Chocolate and/or Nut Pies and Tarts
Say Cheese - Cake - Cheesecakes and cheese pies and tarts
Crisps and Cobblers
Cold Treats - Ice cream and frozen desserts
Candy and Nuts

And there you have it.  I definitely have a sweet tooth.  At a buffet I check out the dessert first.  I figure I will eat it anyway and I am more likely to eat less real food if I eat the piece of cheesecake I really want. 

Here is a recipe for one of my family's favorite desserts.

Double Berry Trifle with Lemon Mousse

2 quarts of fresh strawberries, stemmed

2 pints fresh raspberries
Or use a combination of berries in season to your taste
1 loaf Lemon Bread (Williams-Sonoma sells a mix), prepared and cut into cubes
12 ounces lemon curd
½ cup sugar
2 T cold water
4 T boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups whipping cream
2 tsp unflavored gelatin
2 T lemon zest
2 cups confectioner's sugar
3-4 Tbsps lemon juice

In a small bowl, add gelatin to cold water and allow to dissolve. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the whipping cream, vanilla and sugar.  Whip the cream to soft peaks.  Remove a small amount of the cream to a medium bowl and add the lemon curd and 1 T of the lemon zest.  Fold the cream and the curd together to lighten the curd.  Add the lemon mixture back to the mixer.

Add the boiling water to the gelatin and stir until dissolved.  Add the gelatin to the mixer and immediately turn the mixer to medium high.  Whip until the cream forms stiff peaks. 

Make lemon glaze by adding lemon juice to confectioner's sugar to reach thin consistency.

To assemble, start the trifle with 1/3 of the bread cubes and drizzle 1/3 of the glaze over the top of the cubes to moisten.  Add 1/4 of the cream and start layering your berries.  You should end up with three layers.  Finish the trifle by spreading cream over the top (use a pastry bag with a star tip for an elegant presentation) and garnishing with berries and lemon zest.

Pinterest Frustration

This will be my last post before I start the A to Z Challenge on Monday.  I've written A - L, but last night, while trying to write 'M', the Pinterest 'embed' code disappeared.

First off, I opened my Pinterest account and saw a whole slew of photos from boards that I do not follow.  I ended up deleting all the boards I do follow, and that seemed to get rid of everything else that shouldn't have been there.  I then went back and added a few boards, but I decided that for now I will just check boards I enjoy for new pins.

Meanwhile, I tried writing my next post for the challenge and when I tried to get the 'embed' code I got directed to a page for setting up a business Pinterest page. 

I followed all of the Pinterest suggestions for correcting the problem, but had no luck.  So, now when I want a picture I guess I will have to 'copy and paste' and provide some kind of link.

As for the challenge itself, I have been browsing other blog pages trying to see who I want to visit over the next month.  It has not been easy to find five bloggers I want to follow, but I did find three so far. 

Tomorrow I will be busy with family.  I have my coconut cake made and my lamb shanks.  But I still have a lot of last minute type things that I cannot prepare ahead of time which is due to my own poor planning. 

The weather appears to be improving for tomorrow, but we are back to cold temps for Monday and maybe some snow on Tuesday.  I had to spray for the deer this afternoon as two of them managed to push through the deer netting.  I'll have to get out there and get it repaired when the weather improves.

The latest Doctor Who starts in ten minutes, so I will finish this and get myself comfy in front of the TV.  If you are celebrating Easter tomorrow, have a beautiful day.

Eating My Words

Just one week ago I wrote that I would no longer be buying cooking magazines or cookbooks.  I am still pinning recipes that I have clipped from publications.  I also found some food magazines in the pantry that appear to have not even been read.  This is truly a work-in-progress.

So, when I arrived at the local library to work a volunteer shift, I told myself I would not even look at the cookbook section.  Instead, I steered myself to the large travel books with the pretty pictures. 

There I saw a book about Oceania Cruises.  It looked very interesting.  I have looked into these cruises and the wonderful meals of Jacques Pepin.  Unfortunately, I have been on two cruises and both experienced bad weather, high seas in the Mediterranean and a hurricane in the Caribbean.

Nevertheless, I sat down with the Oceania book and started flipping the pages.  It turns out it was really a cookbook.  Wonderful recipes of foods served on the ships.  And, of course, I ended up buying the book and adding it to my collection.

Even if I do not make any of the recipes in the book, I already have one idea for serving my next batch of fruity gelato or lemon ice cream.  Doesn't this look delicious?

A Day in the Life

What a day. 

It was twelve degrees when I went out to get the paper this morning.  That was when I discovered that my mailbox had been smashed up - again.  A little detective work led me to find broken tail light glass inside the paper shoot, the post and box all beat up and cracked, and tire tracks leading back and forth across the street from the box to the neighbors driveway.

I heard the snow plow out there late last night, but never thought I would have to be out there supervising.  I walked over to the neighbor's drive to get the phone number off the little flag on their driveway.  I left a message for the plowing company, but haven't heard back.  If they don't return my call by tomorrow, I will make a police report.

Then I was off to the Home Show in Novi.  I went to see what deals were being offered on flooring and some bath work my son needs done. 

I was royally ignored by just about every booth representative there.  I am convinced this is because I am a woman walking around by herself.  I would hear sales people saying 'hello' to every couple that walked by.  I guess it was better to be ignored than to be asked if my 'husband' was going to help me make a decision.  That's happened before and I want to slug someone when it does.

Back home, I found that I was starving and rather than wait to make my planned dinner of pasta, I had a sandwich and a bowl of homemade onion soup.  My son and I discussed the idea of having his tub refinished rather than replaced.  I even think this might be a good idea for my tub which has some scratches that have accumulated over the years. 

More pinning on Pinterest today as I have now started scanning in my travel photos.  I started with some photos of Frank Lloyd Wright homes I have visited.  There were a few homes whose names I could not remember.  Well, I have many books on FLW, but the best one is a complete catalogue of all of his homes.  The only problem was that I could not locate it.  I must have spent 45 minutes searching the bookcases and all the closets.  I looked every place I could think of.  I began to think I had left it in the hotel on my last trip to Oak Park, IL.

Somehow it ended up in the cabinet I use for the printer in my office.  I have absolutely NO idea why I would have put it in there.  Then again, I am still looking for that missing photo of me and Bob Newhart. 

My evening ended with Downton Abbey and The Mentalist.  And despite not having any caffeine since three, I still feel wide awake. 

I can hear the snow hitting the side of the house.  Everything outside is covered with a fresh layer.  This is supposed to change to ice and then, with rising temps, turn to rain.  If I am smart, when I get up from here, I will go sleep in the guest room.  Last week when I tried to sleep in my room it was next to impossible because of the wind.  If the ice starts hitting the deck outside my window, I'll not get any sleep again.

Rain, snow, ice and temps that go from zero to sixty on one week.  Nothing like Michigan weather.

No More Cookbooks or Cooking Magazines

I have finally made it through all of my recipes cut from magazines and newspapers.  I have pinned more than 1,600 recipes on Pinterest.  I have also saved over 200 recipes on magazine sites where a picture did not exist. 

I have lots of cookbooks.  I have several years worth of Cooks Illustrated magazines and an online subscription to their site.  I get emails every day from Food and Wine with recipes attached.

If I lived to be 1,000, I could never make all of these dishes, though my goal this year is to make a new recipe every time I cook.  So far, I am doing that and have had some good dishes, which I will probably never make again.

I opened my mail and there was a notice that my Bon Appetit subscription was expiring.  I looked at it and wondered why do I need to keep reading about more ways to cook food?  I threw it in the trash.

Last year I let my subscription to Cooking Light expire.  Last week I threw out invitations to subscribe to Saveur and Southern Living.  I know that these magazines need subscribers to stay in business.  They just need to find someone other than me.

My January resolution is to cook new things and stop looking for more ways to do it.  I believe that we eat with our eyes.  So, I will just head to my Pinterest account, see what looks good, and forge ahead.  The other night I had pork medallions with balsamic reduction for dinner.  It was delish.

Today I am making pasta with roasted butternut squash.  Tomorrow, who knows?  But I know where I can find lots of ideas.

Who Needs their own Camera?

I've been busy 'pinning' on Pinterest.  I am on the second run through of my recipe files.  I've 'pinned' lots of recipes (over 1,000).  The neatest thing is that when I want to prepare something to eat, I just take my Kindle Fire into the kitchen, look up the recipe on Pinterest and get busy cooking.

I have also 'pinned' lots of travel photos.  Most of them are not mine.  The great majority of my travel photos are in one on two places:  hundreds, upon hundreds of slides on boxes or in photo albums.

Those in albums I can scan and post and I do intend to do that. 

The slides are an entirely different matter.  For those I need to sit down and go through them with the projector.  I look at the boxes, and assuming there is still an image visible, the task seems daunting.  And then I need to have them transferred to digital media and I am not sure it is worth the cost.

My solution has been to look at pictures on Pinterest and 'repin' those that others have taken.  I have been thinking that unless I am going to be in the photo, which rarely happens, I really do not need my camera anymore. 

Need a picture of Rockefeller Center or Acadia National Park?  Just search for it.  I even found pictures taken in Budapest, Hungary that are 1000% greater than any I took when I was there.

The pictures almost look better than the real thing.  And most of them do not have tourists in the way.  How cool is that!

Searching Pinterest is kind of a mindless thing I can do during commercial breaks while watching TV.  I am truly enjoying this.  There are things about the digital and technological age that I really appreciate.

Pizza, Pizza Day, Week, Month

I just received an email from Driscoll's berries informing me that January 28 is National Blueberry Pancake Day.  Now, I like pancakes, but I prefer berries other than blueberry.  So I decide to google National Strawberry Pancake Day, but only found National Strawberry Day, February 27.

OTOH, National Buttermilk Pancake Day is coming up on February 5.

This 'food for a day' got me wondering 'When is National Pizza Day?'  Pizza is my favorite food.  I discovered several days to celebrate pizza. 

Seems that I just missed National Pizza Week, January 9-16.  But on February 9 we can celebrate National Pizza Pie Day.  September 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day and November 12 is National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day. The entire month of October is National Pizza Month. I have lots of days to eat pizza.

Without question, pizza is my favorite food. I try to limit my intake to only a few times a year. I even order salads at California Pizza Kitchen.  This is not calorie-conscious food.

I grew up with an Italian mother who made her own pizza.  Before Little Caesar's arrived in our neighborhood in the 1960's, we got great pizza at the local bowling alley on Seven Mile or the Italian bakery on Eight Mile Road near our home.  I still remember going with my Dad to pick it up and taking in that wonderful aroma on the way home.

I've made my own pizza from scratch a few times.  I took a cooking class with Michelle Bommarito who taught us to make a wonderful barbecue sauce for barbecue chicken pizza.  (Her family makes THE BEST cannolis I have ever had.  No wonder she is such a great baker.) 

My youngest son worked for Hungry Howie's while he was in college.  I have three pizza places less than a mile from home and several more within a less than five minute drive.  It is like living in pizza heaven.  And I have exercised the greatest restraint in not picking one up each time I go past. 

I have posted pizza recipes on my Pinterest account, even a recipe for pizza dough.  But in a pinch, just order take-out.  It's pizza.  The only bad pizza I ever had was in Italy.  Seems like all the guys who really know how to make the good stuff are in this country.  And they have it perfected.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Oh my.  As if I did not have enough to do, now I am engrossed in my recipe collection.

I've been busy making my cookie doughs, wrapping my gifts, planning my menu and then, I somehow think it is a good idea to put the recipes I have collected over the last 40+ years on Pinterest.

Remember the old days when we had little 3x5 cards with our recipes written on them?  Well, I kinda cleaned those out last week.  Then I decided I should go through my files, yes multiple files, of hundreds, if not thousands of recipes.

I started putting them in my Epicurious app, but you cannot organize it except alphabetically.  So, I decided to expand my Pinterest boards. 

Right now I have eight boards relating to food  -  appetizers, mains, sides, desserts, cookies, sandwiches, cake - well, you get the idea.

So, I have started going through each file folder and looking for the recipe online.  If there is a picture, I 'pin it' and throw the paper away. 

Obviously, this will take some time.  And if I am 'pinning', I am not 'blogging'. 

I know it can be done.  When I first retired, I went through all my family photos and made albums for my children.  But, I never did get around to going through my thousands of slides.  I guess I'll have to tackle that when I am done with these recipes. 

Take a look at http://pinterest.com/msdeniseh553/

Bon Appetit!

Pinterest and Food

If I thought blogging was going to take up a lot of my time, I have now found that Pinterest can take up even more.  I've started boards, deleted boards, and created new boards from existing ones.

I started posting recipes on a 'recipes' board.  But before I knew it I had something of everything and it got difficult for me to find stuff.  So, I broke it down to 'desserts and sweets', 'wonderful side dishes', and 'food, food, food'.

I have found that the boards have come in handy when cooking.  I just load the recipe on my Kindle Fire and follow along.

I have already posted the recipes I am going to use for my Thanksgiving turkey and brussels sprouts.

Yesterday I made my brandied cranberry chutney.  It sure beats that stuff they sell in a can.  And with the brandy, it will keep for weeks.  Here is the recipe, in time for you to enjoy it with your dinner.

 

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped fine

1 cup dark brown sugar OR 1 cup light brown sugar plus one Tbsp molasses

1/2 cup raisins

1 cup Brandy

 

Combine above in a sauce pan, bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.  While simmering, prepare the following:

 

3 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and small diced

1 tsp lemon zest

 

Add to above mixture in pan and simmer until cranberries are slightly broken, about ten more minutes. 

 

Squeeze juice from lemon.  You should have about 1/4 cup.

Finely chop 1/4 cup crystallized ginger.

 

When cranberries are slightly broken, stir in lemon juice and ginger.  Add a dash of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes.  Cool and refrigerate until ready for use.  (Or eat it out of the pan.)

 

I serve this at room temperature with some toasted walnuts on top.  You may substitute water for all or part of the brandy and add more brown sugar if you want a sweeter taste.  If you like it hot, double the amount of red pepper flakes.

 

I've also given this as a gift in a nice glass jar so that folks can enjoy it with their own dinner later.

How 'Pinterest'ing

Pinterest.  Sound familiar?  Know what it is?

If it weren't for fellow blogger 'Buttercup', I am not sure I would know what 'Pinterest' is.  Even at that, I only had a very vague idea. 

So, when I heard that our local library was going to hold a workshop on the topic, I signed up.  Last night we had our class.

Now I have a Pinterest page.  I've set up three 'boards'.  One is for 'Recipes' and another is for 'Gardening'.  I've already 'pinned' a recipe from Buttercup's page.  I am sure it is a delicious and lo-cal (lol) version of French Toast.  The third is for 'National Parks'.  I think I will have to end up creating boards and then subdividing them. 

I can imagine that I could spend a lot of time here at my computer.   Imagine having over 1,000,000 followers looking at your posted pictures.  Then again, if I am posting and looking at pictures, when am I blogging and/or doing anything else?

When I was growing up, relatives would yell at me to get my nose out of a book.  Now it is stuck to a computer screen.  Is this progress?