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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

A Pinteresting Week

Kate at Centsational Girl challenged everyone who uses Pinterest to stop pinning for “someday” and do it now.   Sounded like fun and I decided to challenge myself to make it “someWEEK” and do a pin a day. 

I just finished my last challenge and I’m ready to link up!  I took a sneak peak and there are tons of links already up.  It’s going to be fun looking thru them all.

But here are the things I tried this week.  Some were fantastic… others were flops.

 
Always looking for a way to make the most out of our clothes storage, I tried the Pinterest tip to fold shirts more tightly and place them vertically in the drawers.  I was a bit skeptical about this one but it really works well for me.  I can get more T shirts in a drawer and it is much easier to get to the one I want without rooting thru the whole drawer. 


 
I like to carry a small point-and-shoot camera in my purse but even in its padded carry case it was taking a beating.  When I saw this tip saying you could store a camera in a plastic soap dish I thought no way was it going to fit. 

I was wrong.  As you can see, it fits perfectly! 


 
After seeing the pin about how to clean a top loading washing machine, I realized maybe I should go take a look at mine.  OK… definitely needed to try this pin.  (Are you like me and just don’t think about a machine that cleans needing cleaning?) 

The basic instructions were:  1 qt bleach – 1 hour – 1 long wash cycle.  1 qt white vinegar – 1 hour – 1 long wash cycle.  (all in hot water)

Well folks, this one was a FAIL.  Or maybe I should say a partial fail.  The washer smells wonderful now and following the pin’s direction to wipe down the outside of the machine with some of the vinegar water as it soaked, the outside looks great (and then I did the dryer too).

But the inside soap scum was NOT removed.  Part of it was bleached so you couldn’t see it as much but by feeling you could tell it was still there.  So I took a scrub pad after it to finish the job. 

Pinned at:  http://pinterest.com/pin/76068681176768134/ 

 
I was tired of uneven cooking in my oven but never really thought anything more about it other than to grumble.  So I tried the tip of laying out slice of bread on the rack and seeing how they browned.   It explains a lot… 



 For the food pins, I have included the recipes for my friends who read my blog and don’t do Pinterest.

Maple Cinnamon Bananas 

Slice up bananas, pour on a little maple syrup, sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon, and cook on medium heat for 1-2 minutes. You're done! 

This was as simple as it sounded!  And it was delicious!!  Tips I can include are:  make the banana slices fairly thick.  Don’t go over 2 minutes as they get mushy.  Start light with the syrup… you can always add more. 


Honey Glazed Balsamic Roasted Carrots 

Roast in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes with some seasoning and a little olive oil. Then drizzle with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 tablespoons of honey, and about 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Pop them back into the oven for about 5 more minutes to achieve sweet, salty, still slightly crunchy perfection! 

These were fantastic!  I used normal carrots (as contrasted to the bagged ‘mini’ carrots) and sliced them into thirds, then cut them in half long ways.  Make sure you flip them halfway thru cooking for even browning.  I cut up 5 average size carrots and had enough glaze to do 2 or 3 times more. 


 
Apple Ring Pancakes

Again, a very simple recipe.  Make up your normal pancake batter (I used Bisquick).  Cut a baking type apple into slices and core.  Dip apple rings in batter and cook as you would a pancake.

My tips on this one are to make sure you have a fairly thick batter.  Cook on lower heat then you normally would to allow the apple to cook.  When I started the cooking, I thought that maybe I should have done a slight ‘pre-cook’ on the apple rings but that wasn’t needed.  They came out perfectly.  This recipe is another winner. 



I had a blast trying these ideas and recipes.  I’m pretty sure there will be more “pinteresting weeks” coming up!

 


2 comments:

  1. Wow, so many great tips...my bff folds her t-shirts like that and has always tried to convert me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved your approach to the Pinterest Challenge - these are really useful tips and recipes!

    ReplyDelete

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