Pinterest Recipes - Yummy and Crummy Reviews

Last year I wrote a blog about how much I like Pinterest.  A year later nothing has changed.  I am still quite addicted to it and have thousands of pins.  I am very blessed to be retired and have lots of play time.  A lot of that time is spent trying different recipes from Pinterest.  Some have turned out better than others.  Here are reviews of my latest experiments.

YUMMY - Broccoli Cheese Rice Cups

For some reason we seem to eat a lot of rice, especially since I bought my rice cooker at Walgreens.  We like Basmati rice the best.  This recipe is wonderful for leftover rice.  They freeze and reheat well too.

YUMMY - Cilantro Lime Chicken Bake

More rice!  A quote from Guy Fieri - "winner winner chicken dinner".    I think it used every bowl and electric kitchen appliance I own but it was well worth it.  We only ate half - the other half is in the freezer.

I have never used fresh tomatillo's before but they are my new favorite food.  That step required a food processor.  The rice was cooked in my rice cooker and the chicken was grilled on my George Foreman grill.  The best part was the tomatillo dressing you pour over the top when serving. 

CRUMMY - Bacon Cooked in Water

This sounded so stupid it how could I not try it?  I followed the directions and ended up with the chewiest almost inedible bacon I have ever had. 
Don't bother pinning this one!

YUMMY - Cool Whip Cookies

Once again this sounded so wheels off that I just had to try it.  I used chocolate cake mix.  The batter was very strange and stiff.  But the cookies were actually very good - a cross between a cookie and a brownie.  I will have to try other flavors some day.

YUMMY - Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti

Ooh this one is REALLY good.  I know it sounds a little strange (have you guessed I like to try weird recipes?) but the cream cheese melts and blends with the spaghetti sauce and is quite tasty.  And as the original pinner said, don't for get the onion rings on the top.  They makes the whole dish!

YUMMY - Hash browns and baked eggs

I tried these this week and loved them.  I followed the directions but I don't think I cooked the hash browns long enough since they weren't crispy.  Instead of bacon I put a sausage round on top of the hash browns.  And I over cooked the eggs but these were still really good.  I had one left over and it reheated very well.  Definately a repeat.

YUMMY - Broccoli Cheese Soup

I made this two days ago and am still craving more!  It is fabulous!  I did everything the instructions said except for the crock pot.  Some days I want instant gratification and used my dutch oven instead.  Next time I will be doubling the recipe. 

KINDA CRUMMY - Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

Don't get me wrong, this wasn't really bad but it didn't live up to to all the hype on Pinterest.  People called it the best chicken recipe ever.  It was just OK and nothing to brag about.  Will not be making it again.

YUMMY - Garlic Cheddar Bisquits

Who doesn't like Red Lobster bisquits?  I have tried copy cat recipes before but this one is the closest I have come to the real thing. 

YUMMY - Cucumber Tomato Avacado Salad

This was really good.  I had seen similar recipes using corn so I added corn to this and loved it.  We grill our corn and I used leftovers.  It had a great smokey flavor.  Unfortunately it doesn't keep very long because of the avacado.

YUMMY - Baked Garlic Cilantro Fries

Baked french fries are a new addiction.  I have used this recipe and have also made them without the garlic and cilantro.  Either way if cooked long enough to get cripsy they are even better then fried.  And certaninly better for you.

CRUMMY - Lasagne Cups

Sometimes things sound good but don't turn out very well.  This recipe was one of them.  The recipe used wonton skins and instructions said you didn't have to trim the excess.  Well they were so hard and crunchy we couldn't eat them.  The rest wasn't too bad but I wouldn't bother making this recipe again.

YUMMY -Scallops!

The website where this came from is userealbutter.com.  Yes, you must use real butter for this.  Wouldn't be the same without it.  I also add freshly ground garlic and cook it until it is crunchy.  Yum!

CRUMMY -Crustless Quiche

This was pretty good the night I made it.  But I really wanted to freeze individual pieces to eat for breakfast.  I tried that but there was just too much spinich in it for breakfast and it didn't really reheat well.  I ended up throwing it away.  Fail!

YUMMY -Baked Tomatoes

These are really good if you have tomatoes that are a little over ripe and you want to use them up.  I've made them a number of times.











I think that is all I have tried lately.  I have over 400 recipes pinned so it it is hard to remember everything.  Might help if I blogged more often!  Obviously I love to try new recipes.  Which if you know me well is quite funny since I have a lapband and eat very little.  But I still love good food.  Thankfully I have that lapband which allowsme to try things without over indulging or else I would be as big as a house thanks to Pinterest!  I am also blessed to have a husband who will try anything and likes most things I make. 

I have a lot of new recipes I am looking forward to trying and will review them at a later date. I also try a lot of the craft ideas I find but that will be fodder for another blog. 

Happy pinning and eating!

Newport Beach California

Last week we took a 5 day trip to Newport Beach, California.  We flew into Orange County Airport then drove about 10 miles to the Marriott Newport Coast Villas.  It is a sprawling resort set on the side of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. 







  

Photo taken from Marriott Website

Our 2 bedroom 2 bath villa overlooked the golf course and the ocean.  We had a fully equipped kitchen and lovely balcony.  There were 3 pools on the property.  All the comforts of home but a much better view.  The weather was warm for them - in the eighties during the day and 70's at night.  Perfect for us to get away from the Texas heat.



We ate well at a variety of restaurants.  Two of our favorites were The Chart House and The Rusty Pelican - next to each other on the inland waterway.  We had some fabulous fish and seafood.  There were beautiful yachts to drool over while eating on the patios.  But the best were the "wedding cruises".  We saw a number of them - on very large 3 and 4 level boats.  All parties seemed to be having a great time. 

Another favorite was an old English pub and restaurant in town.  We ate in the smaller part which reminded us of our trip to England in 1991. 

Our last night we found a restaurant called Gulfstream.  That was our best fish and seafood meal of the week.

The highlight of our trip was the day we took a whale watching cruise in Dana Point.  The whole area was beautiful and one of my favorites of the trip.  But the whale watching cruise was the icing on the cake.  We saw close to a dozen blue whales, which are the biggest.  They came as close as 50 feet from our catamaran which was a little intimidating because of their size.  And countless dolphin putting on a show right next to the boat.  The one thing I really wanted to see was a sea lion and I wasn't disappointed.

Just a few miles from the resort we stumbled upon Balboa Island - full of little streets, a few shops and lots of tiny (but million dollar) bungalows. 

Of course no trip with Rich is complete without finding old cars and this one was no exception!

 Real estate in California is quite pricey.  One day we sat at one of the pools looking across at huge houses on top of a cliff.  Technology nerd that I am I broke out Zillow on my iPhone and looked up the prices of the houses we were looking at.  The one below is on the market for $18 million but there was one for $35 million that we couldn't see.

We had a great 5 days.  Below are some random shots.  We now look forward to our next adventure in Oahu next year.  Love the retired life!





Dana Point



This boat was in the Pirate of the Carribbean movies





Laguna Beach



Memorial Day Memories

When I was little my parents joined a private lake club in New Jersey called Deer Lake.  The official opening day of the summer season was Memorial Day and I don't think we ever missed going on that day every year.  In 1965 we purchased our campsite in the camping area.  There were a lot of wooden platforms where people would set up their large tents, generally old army tents, moved in makeshift furniture and spent the summer.  Memorial Day weekend was always the BEST!  I had numerous friends there, many of whom I did not see during the fall and winter months.  It was so exciting to see everyone again.  As so many others did, my mom and I spent the summer there while my father commuted to work from the tent.  The campground originated during WWII during the gas shortage so people could just stay at the lake. 

We camped every summer all through high school and up until I got married.  My parents kept the campsite and and we and our kids would go almost every day just for the day.  After my father passed away my mom continued to camp by herself every weekend.  My girls loved the lake as much as Rich and I did and made many friends.  In 1988 we were transferred to Pennsylvania but not far enough away that we couldn't go to the lake.  We resumed camping with my mom every weekend until we were transferred to Texas in 1991.  She continued camping for another 2 years until she made the move to Texas. 

Once Deer Lake gets "into your blood" it never leaves.  Evey Memorial Day I think of the lake and all the fun we had growing up there.   We sailed and raced our Sunfish sailboat, we participated in swimming races, rowboat and canoe races and mile long swims.  We all learned to swim there and Rich and I took lifesaving classes.  We go back to visit once in a while and it always feels like going home.  Jennifer has also taken Lacie there twice.    My grandparents were original members and my aunt and uncle and cousins also were members.  Rich grew up there with his family but weird as it may seem that is not where we met.  Most of our friends moved away years ago, although a few still go every summer.  Unfortunately we lost contact with a lot of our old friends over the years.

Through the miracle of Facebook I started a Deer Lake Group page a couple of years ago in the hopes of reconnecting with some of these old friends.  I succeeded - there are almost 200 members of the group and I have once again been in contact with friends I hadn't seen or heard from in 40 years!  All my Deer Lake friends are very special to me and always will be.  We created life-long friendships and memories at the most special place on earth!

Now my Memorial Days are spent at home in Texas with the family in our pool.  Yesterday they all came for a swim and "breakfast for lunch".  It is amazing how fast one family can fill a pool!  They swam in the morning then we cooked a pancake lunch on our grill's built in griddle.  I have no idea how Jennifer and James can afford to feed these kids!  We went through 2/3 of a box of pancake mix, 1-1/2 pounds of bacon and half a family size bag of sausage.  They were still hungry so Jennifer scrambled 9 eggs for them.  And after that they devoured most of a large home-made cheesecake.  We ate outside in

our outdoor room that Rich built last year.  My Deer Lake friends might think they recocognize the design of the structure.  Yes, we were thinking of the camper's shelter when we

drew up the plans.  You can't see very good in the picture but the

railing around the structure is a duplicate of the railing on the bridge to

the campground.  And if anyone remembers Janet Farnow and her

renouned cheesecake - that is the recipe I used.  And as usual we talked about past summers spent at Deer Lake and how much we miss it. 

Happy Birthday Lacie

Yesterday was Lacie's 10 birthday!  Seems like just yesterday that she was born.  She has blossomed into a beautiful young woman who makes us all proud.

Her celebration started Friday nigh with a sleepover at home with 8 girls.  So as not to bother the party we had 2 of the other kids, Georgia and Daphne, overnight and Gabbie and Grant went to Hoyt and Beth's, the other grandparents.  It was your typical late night sleepover with a bunch of giggly girls.  How fun!

Sunday afternoon was her family party.  Lots of kids, presents and of course a cake made by Jennifer.

Our present to Lacie was an overnight stay at our house last night followed by a trip to The American Girl Doll Store in Dallas today.  As most girls would be she was quite excited at the prospects of picking out her first very special American Girl Doll.  On the way home last night we stopped for dinner at Chilis along with Mimi.  After breakfast this morning we peaked at dolls on the internet before we headed out to "the store".   I was pretty sure she had already decided what she wanted from our internet browsing.  I had hoped for one who looked just like her but she had other ideas.  She fell in love with a beautiful Native American Indian doll named Kaya in a blue dress.  Of course the doll came in a brown dress, the blue one being sold seperately.  But it was her special present and we left the store with doll and blue dress. 

On the way home we treated her to lunch at The Rainforest Cafe.  Of course her new best friend also attended. 

If I haven't mentioned before (and I am sure I have) Lacie is a very special young girl to us.  She is of course beautiful but also kind, thoughtful, smart, sensitive, caring and just an all around good child who has never given any of us any trouble.  She is the product of her great up bringing by Jennifer and James and a true gift from God.

Happy Birthday Lacie - we love and treasure you!