December 2011 Pinterest Inspirations (Recipes)

We were busy making Pinterest food over Christmas! Some Mom found, some I found; she made some, I made some. These are pictures of the actual food that we made. Here's a quick recap:



Peanut Butter Creme Cookie Cups (Pin, Direct Recipe Link) - This was Mom's find. There was no doubt that these would taste good, but I admit that when we read the recipe, both Mom and I were skeptical that it would work. There's no way dropping packaged cookie dough into a baking cup in a muffin tin was going to bake up the sides and then fall in the middle to create a well, all by itself! Well, the joke was on us; they did *exactly* that!!! It was the darndest thing I've ever seen. Instead of rolling the cookie in nuts, we just used the Pecan Ultimates which have nuts on top. We also used double the peanut butter filling, since one batch didn't seem to fill the cups enough for our liking. I think they would be absolutely perfect if we could figure out a way to do a bite-size version. Super simple, super yum. Winner!



Breadstick Trees (Pin, Direct Recipe Link) - This was another of Mom's finds, and also another case of "it can't be this easy, can it?" Yes, apparently it can! I thought they would puff up to the point that the tree would be unrecognizable, but obviously they didn't. We didn't sprinkle them with anything because we were afraid Luke wouldn't eat them if we did, but the definitely could have used a hit of something salty, either straight up Kosher salt (or other flaky salt) or maybe parmesan cheese.



Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup (Pin, Direct Recipe Link) - This recipe was my find, but Mom and Jacob did all of the cooking on it. All I did was eat it! (Wait, I think I opened the cans of tomatoes, too. We used garlic and olive oil diced tomatoes.) It was very good! We made it on the stove instead of in a crock pot, but I definitely think I will try it in a crock pot next time. I think the extra time involved would make it even better! (Sorry, it doesn't photograph well.)



Creamy Chicken Marsala Pizza (Pin, Direct Recipe Link) - Mom did all of the chopping on this one (we chopped the sliced mushrooms so they would be a bit smaller), but I did all of the cooking. Everyone seemed to like it. I thought it was quite good, but I would tweak it slightly, I think. I think I would back off the mushrooms a bit (good, but not my favorite) and use a bit more chicken. I would also ironically back down the Marsala wine some (it was sweeter than I like with that much in it) and add chicken stock to make up the difference and intensify the chicken flavor. Still very good and worth trying to tweak.



Swedish Meatballs (Pin, Direct Recipe Link) - These were *the* find of the week, possibly of the year. They are phenomenal!! It was one of the last recipes I pinned before we left for Christmas, and Mom saw it and thought it looked good. Boy, was it! Wow, were these yummy. We made them nearly exactly as the recipe called for, with just a couple of very minor changes. We used 90% lean ground beef instead of 80%. We whizzed up the onion in the food processor instead of grating it. Nutmeg and Allspice are both pretty powerful, so we knocked them down to half what the recipe called for, figuring we could add more in later if it needed it. We used Anne Burrell's trick of making a "tester" and thought the seasoning was perfect just as it was with the half level of seasoning, so we left it there. We actually only made a half batch of meatballs but a full batch of the sauce (effectively doubling the sauce recipe for the amount of meatballs we had) and served it over rice, though it would probably be good over egg noodles, too. The half batch of meatballs (with the rice and a side dish or two) was still plenty of food for 4 adults with two small lunch-size portions left over. They're not fast, and they are extremely unhealthy, but holy cow, are they fantastic! I can't wait until we can make them again. You know, next Christmas.

We tried some other recipes, too, but they weren't from Pinterest. Besides, these were really the best of the bunch. Hope you enjoy!

Currently feeling: yummy in my tummy