Pinning Away

Well, no recipe blog today. Pooh! I have to blame myself, however. I am the SharePoint administrator at work, so I thought I could figure out all this blog stuff, but it’s trickier than I thought. Ah well. I'll keep playing with it and figure it out in the end.

One of the other reasons I wanted to blog was that I hoped it would get me doing some of those crafts and things that I feverishly pin on Pinterest. If you don't know what Pinterest is, it's basically a visual bookmarking tool. I don't know about you but I find it much easier to remember things with a picture.

Like most of my friends I pin like crazy, but don't get back to actually doing or making any of the things I've pinned as recipes or crafts. Well,I did make a few of the recipes I’d pinned for Christmas, and they were hits! Oh, I guess I could share those with you, right?  I’m just sorry I didn’t take any pictures of anything but the apple cake. Wait. I do have this picture of our kolde bord. Oh, you can’t see everything, but I’ll point out some of the Pinterest highlights.Whew! I made seven new things that I had pinned.  Go me!

One was these Sugared Cranberries from a cup of mascarpone. I made them just like she said and they were fabulous! I thought they would be mostly for show, but they ended up being devoured by me  everyone, young and old! Next time I do them I think I may try adding some Triple Sec to the simple syrup and hitting them with some orange zest for a little citrus burst.

Another hit was this overwhelmingly easy dip made basically from tomatoes, feta cheese, olive oil and scallions, from Clover Lane. I made my own flatbread to go with it and used fresh basil and oregano instead of the Greek seasoning. I’ve made this twice since then on a small plate, just for me! Once was for lunch with a bagel sliced at an angle, and the next time with some bread I toasted and rubbed with garlic, kind of like a deconstructed Bruschetta ! This is so amazing, but I really am looking forward to the summer when the garden is full of tomatoes, basil, oregano and rosemary!

Oh dear! I can't find the apple cake!!! Did I not pin it? ARG! I will look around and see and come back with it if I find it. I'm gutted! It was such a lovely cake!

Another treat was these Chai Flavoured Almonds from Amazing Almonds, the Australian Almond website. I used my Stash Double Spice Chai simmered in almond milk with a little extra cardamom thrown in. They are great, but next time I will make them a week or two before I plan on serving them as the flavor has continued to deepen as time has gone by.

This Wild Rice Salad from dinner with julie is out of this world! I used a full cup of wild rice to ¾ cup of basmati rice, dried cherries in place of the cranberries because I love them so, and 1 chopped peeled small granny smith apple in place of the apricots because I was out of dried apricots. For the dressing I started my sesame oil at ½ teaspoon because it can be overpowering if you’re not careful.

 

And, finally, I made this Chili-Covered Gravlox and adapted the corn pancakes from Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s webpage. I first saw Chef Samuelsson on television years ago showing how to make the traditional dill gravlox. This year I made both! And I adapted the corn pancakes by using just yellow stone-ground cornmeal. I didn't have any corn, so I didn't add that, and I used whole wheat pastry flour for the all purpose flour, and 0% Greek-style yogurt in place of the sour cream.

Wow! The more I look the more I see! I guess in the end I went Pinterest mad this Christmas, but everything was fun and good and I hope that you think about trying some of these recipes!

Peace,

Shannon