Pinterest Wins and Losses

Have you heard of the latest internet time-waster Pinterest? When you find something you like on the internet, you can "pin" it to one of your pin boards on your Pinterest file and then it's saved for later when you want to go back and try that cool thing you saw. When you link with friends, you can see what they like from the internet and repin their stuff, and so on and so forth until the garage door opens and your husband is home from work and you realize you have no idea what you're making for dinner.

See? Fun!

I've spent the last few months gathering good ideas on Pinterest and on several occasions, taken that next step and tried the good idea myself. Some of these ideas are winners while some are decidedly losers. Here is all the stuff I've done thanks to Pinterest.

Caramel Apple Cookies - in theory, a fabulous idea. In reality, I didn't care for the TEN WHOLE PACKETS of dry apple cider mix taste these cookies had. But Robert loved them. Also a slight turn-off is that these cookies need to be inverted almost immediately after coming out of the oven or the caramel oozes out. Finally, once the cookies have completely cooled, the caramel hardens and the cookies have to be re-warmed slightly to get the gooey effect going again.

Pretzel Cookies with Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chips - Yum!  While they were kind of unwieldy to work with, I would double the recipe next time.

Brown Sugar Cookies with Maple Glaze - Meh. The kids didn't like them. I would have rather spent my time making ginger snaps or my favorite walnut cookies with maple frosting.

Photo Booth Props - Win! I was in charge of the photo booth for our ward's trunk or treat. These were easy and fun, even though they weren't the exact props I used. I found some printable ones online.

Crock Pot Sesame Ginger Chicken - This was a hit! Especially when I served it with chopsticks. A yummy Sunday dinner.

Candy Corn Jell-o Bundt - I would have written this review on my regular (or not-so-regular) "Jell-o Project" post, but I didn't get a good picture. The orange and yellow were hard to distinguish from each other until the Jell-o was cut into. I made these in individual molds and unfortunately poured in the lemon Jell-o first, which resulted in an upside down candy corn. Sad. But, the good news is that most everyone liked this Jell-o and many asked for seconds.

Painted Knife Block - This was simple and fun and was one more small detail to my summer kitchen makeover. 

Tentacled Hot Dogs - The boys liked preparing and eating this strange looking lunch a couple times. A win!

Chicken Enchiladas - These claimed to be the best chicken enchiladas ever. I didn't think so. They were fine, but I had to make my own enchilada sauce for this one. Not going to do that again.

Totally Awesome Bathroom - This one turned out GREAT! (photos in a day or two)

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder - This was quick, easy and delicious. A win for me and Robert. (Who cares what the boys thought.) I ate this for lunches and left-overs till it was gone. Yum!

Light Saber Chop Sticks - I could not resist. These beauties will be in the boys stockings for Christmas.

Rocky Road Crock-Pot Cake - I'm a sucker for crock-pot cooking and while this cake was yummy, there were a lot of steps for something that just tasted like Hot Fudge Sundae cake. 

Double Chocolate Cookies with Peppermint Patty Surprise - Technically, I have not made these cookies. I bought a bag of peppermint patties and thought, do I really want a cookie wrapped around my peppermint patty? The answer was no, so I just ate the peppermint patties.

Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken - This was easy and yummy, but I'm not really creative when it comes to food, so I wasn't sure how or what to serve it with. It made quite a bit, so for our first meal I put out tortillas and fillings for soft tacos. The next night I used the chicken for salads. The third night I finally got it right and added it to tortilla soup.

Breakfast Casserole - I don't even want to talk about this one.