Pinned It and Ate It

We had some friends over for dinner last evening...kind of an impromptu thing. I thought I would try some new recipes for our meal.
This was kind of the last Hurrah! for Valentine's Day before I pack up the decorations.

I decided on the menu and two dishes came from Pinterest.

For the main course I made

Meatball Stroganoff

from Julie May of Menu Musings of a Modern American Mom.

(She writes very detailed recipes...with lots of photos, so helpful!)

Because I was busy finishing up the dinner prep, I failed to take a photo so I'm borrowing Julie's.

This recipe was quick, easy and delicious! When I wrote to Julie to ask if I could use her
photo of the dish, she told me that she is coming out with a cookbook in May or there-abouts.
 I will want to check that out. I need to spend time perusing her blog. I saw a recipe for Puff Pastry Breakfast Pizzas that looked real good....and easy. OK, on with the meal...

I used two bags of Trader Joe's Turkey Meatballs..
You throw them into some hot oil  in the pan, still frozen, and they worked out great!
 She advises using the amount of herbs listed, even if they seem like a lot, and she's right, they give a fabulous flavor. 

The link for the recipe is right HERE.

I served the meatballs and noodles with

Steamed fresh green beans with butter and lemon

Spring mix salad with cranberries and pecans served with

homemade ranch dressing and blue cheese crumbles

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits...I cheated and used the mix,

they were awesome!

The table was set...

The decorations were up...sad isn't it..I was so late this year!

(current and past Valentines)

Valentines from Betty, Sandy, Elizabeth, Linda, Michele, Barb and Catherine.

My cute black truck filled with Vintage Valentines

The cutest Valentine mailbox from Pottery Barn Kids

The Lennon Sisters created by Elizabeth of Creative Breathing

My button heart from my niece, Wendi, of Enchanted Forest Crafts.

My heart from Mary Lou

My heart from Laurie

When dinner was finished, we were ready for dessert and coffee.

Dessert was

"The Best Apple Crisp"

from Melissa Klinker of

Mama Miss

Another winning pin!

Find the recipe HERE.

The crumble part starts with a yellow cake mix

and she had me at "thick crumb layer"!

I made it yesterday morning and served it last night,

with Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream. Yum!

I can tell you that it is even better the second day.

(I only had a little smidge for testing purposes...Ha!)

Two new recipes for my "Pinned It and Ate It" board.

Do you try recipes from Pinterest?

Thank you Julie May and Melissa Klinker 

for making me look pretty good last night :D

XOXO

Joyce

I (finally) Pinned It and Did It!

I'm sure by now, many of you are familiar, if not obsessed with Pinterest. It is a mechanism for capturing and saving inspirational ideas to bulletin boards that you create. On my sidebar, you can see a link that will take you right to my Pinterest boards. On of my dearest friends, Marie of Spun by Me has started writing posts called "I Pinned It & Did It", showing projects she has created using inspiration found on Pinterest. I thought this was a great idea and wanted to jump in too! It's taken me a while but here is my first attempt.

Mamie Jane's blog is so inspiring that I think I've pinned more from her site than any other. Jane can take the most unassuming item and repurpose it to be extraordinary. I have named her The Queen of Repurposing! Click the link and hop over there...you will be amazed! I always come away scratching my head and thinking, "Wow, I never would have thought of that!" There are so many projects that I would like to recreate but I started with an easy one.

Jane posted the tutorial and the photos (here)  for this adorable pumpkin made with a skein of crochet cotton

How cute is that?

My take on that pumpkin....

a piece of branch, gathered from the yard for a stem, wrapped in coarse twine so that the stem doesn't slip right through the hole. The stem is wrapped in wire and the wire curled around a pencil to make tendrils, and then ribbon and a plaid paper leaf are added.

It is a dark and gloomy day today so the lighting is not what I'd like but I think you can see the details.

Thanks for your inspiration Jane! Your projects with crochet cotton alone could fill a book chapter....a book, that's what you need to do....write a book!

Thanks for stopping by today. Now go find some inspiration to pin!

I'm linking to this party...

xoxo

Joyce