On a Roll!

July 16th 2014 I wrote this and never posted it. I was actually looking for the bread recipe I had tried in the past and thought that I added to this blog... Gonna post this just because it's here :P


This might be a long one so stick with me.

Homemade Fruit Rollups!

I have 2 examples that I saw from Pinterest...

The First One <- Click link for the Pinterest goods.

I tried this one first because I LOVE mango, however, I am starting to realize that mango anything doesn't taste like fresh ripe mango, even if it contains nothing but mango. :(

I got myself two perfectly ripe mangoes, and had some strawberries left over so I threw them in too.

I don't have a "food processor" but I do have a Nutribullet!

Here she be, on the baking tray... I didn't add anything but the fruit.

Golden deliciousness!

And the after...

WTF?!

Wow, I was surprised at this turn out. I didn't have a fancy special sheet like the OP did, but I read that parchment baking paper worked just fine. I also sprayed it with a touch of Pam just in case. I was very dubious about sticky dried fruit NOT sticking to the paper all on it's own. Maybe it was the strawberries?? I didn't really stick to the exact timing but I did check it frequently near the end. P.S the Pam didn't affect it at all, other than making it easy to peel. At least it didn't taste Pam-ish.

I cut up my baby vomit roll ups with my kitchen sheers and rolled them dutifully into "Fruit Roll-ups". Wasn't really impressed. They were ok... Sort of? They did taste kinda like mango, but more a tired sad attempt at mango. I couldn't taste the strawberries at all, it just didn't do it for me.

The mango was fibrous... Like mangos tend to be - Which is why I usually stay away from them in home made smoothies or Yogunfruz. So that was upsetting. I must have assumed that they would taste kinda like the fresh mango since the OP's looked magically delicious. I really don't know what she did to make them look that colour.

 I think there are still a few dejected "rolls" in the fridge. One look at these and my brother said "Hell. No". I don't even think he likes mango. No more mango Fail Roll-ups.

The Second One

OK, so I really didn't do this recipe at all, but seeing it inspired me to try the first one again with different fruits and a touch of sugar and cinnamon.  It turned out surprisingly well. I even used frozen fruit and it turned out great! The boyfriend was dubious at first, but after a taste, he was soon asking for more! We ate the entire batch between himself, my mother and I.

I used a multi-berry pack from Sobey's that was 50% off and I froze it, along with the remnants of strawberries I had in the fridge. Added cinnamon and sugar and bam!

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of that one. I completly forgot about my blog only to remember to take pictures after I've stuck it in the oven.

Right now it's 2:09 AM and my apartment smells like wonderful fruit pie. I told you I'm a night owl right? I am trying the first recipe again. This time with left over strawberries on their last legs, some previously frozen blueberries, and some seedless purple grapes, again- on their way out. I just threw it all in my Nutribullet using the small cup and mulched it up good. I added some sugar to this batch because the strawberries were from 10 countries away and tasted like they had sour lemon genes spliced in there for good measure.

It was a dark, wonderfully, antioxidant rich (I hope) colour...

Into the oven it went... And I shall have to continue this story tomorrow when they are finally done! I did a taste test prior to baking and so far so good!


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In the end, they turned out great. I really think these tend to work best with berries. Not so much with mango or bananas but to each their own. Apple ones tend to come out good too, but you could just eat the paste as apple sauce. Maybe peach would do well?

 I think I should make these more often, especially since I found a place that sells fruit baskets full of "on their way out" berries for 1$

Fluffy Dessert... In a Wine Glass

Ola!

I told you there would be more! I have been lazy, I'm a terrible blogger... Lev has been giving me heck for not using my professional camera for these posts, but at this point I am just testing things out. No need to go all professional noob here.

Moving on...

Here is my Pinspiration!

I had dreams of eating pumpkin fluff that tasted like pumpkin pie without heating up the oven. I was delusional.
Nothing tastes like Pumpkin Pie like Pumpkin Pie. Not your pumpkin pie spiced latte (NO! It really doesn't!), not pumpkin fluff, not pumpkin pie flavoured pumpkin seeds... or even pumpkin pie flavoured lube... No I've not tried it but yes, it does exist- according to Google.

SO

Here is my adventure in Pumpkin Fluff - sans Reese's Pieces, because let's be honest, we all know that if there had been Reese's Pieces, there wouldn't have been a need to make the fluff.

Calories 152 | Fat 0.11g | Carbohydrate 36.66g | Fiber 0.5g | Protein 1.06g (Updated as of 10/29/2012)
Weight Watcher Recipes
Points Plus: 4
serves 4
Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (1 1/2 ounce) box sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix - Opted for the real stuff as sugar free is nasty and I can't have any kind of sugar substitute due to allergies, and it's nasty.
1 (8 ounce) container Cool Whip Free or 1 (8 ounce) container fat-free cool whip - I thought cool whip WAS fat?!
pumpkin spice (to taste)
Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in order.
2. Chill for 2 hours

I had no idea until just now that this was a Weight Watchers Recipe... Honest.

So my plan was to make this for dessert, but something tells me I should have followed the OP (Original Poster/Pinner for all  you Anti Pinterest heathens!) and used it as filling for grahm crackers.

I got all my stuffs out... I decided to go all out and use the regular vanilla pudding mix, what is pudding without sugar? Geletain. With chemical flavourings. Eww.

I then realized that I had more pumpkin than the recipe called for because up hur in Canadur we have strange ways of canning things. Things like massive cans of stewed tomatoes - when you only want 2.5 tomatoes, and pumpkin filling. But I digress...
I threw it all in anyway. There was only a little bit left. I'd show you but it's a terrible picture.

Here is my end result, again, sans Reese's Pieces :(

It looks nice.... Yes there's a but. 

Firstly, there was a bit too much here in this glass, maybe use one of my smaller wine glasses... Yeah, who am I kidding, I only own XL wine glasses. So, in smaller bits it probably wouldn't have been that bad. Secondly it was ever so slightly gritty. Not sure if this was from the pudding powder/flakes or from the pumpkin. Gonna put this in the "Do Not Make Again" pile, as it also got a similar review from the boyfriend and my brother. Thanks a lot Weight Watchers. Totally just wasted those 4 points...

NEXT!!!

Bakingmania... at 11:00 PM...

Hello!

It's been a little while and I had so many plans for Pins to try... Fear not, they are coming! Have been kinda busy lately. Last night I got the baking bug. It happens to me at strange times, usually later in the evening.Can you tell I'm a night owl?
Anyway, I decided to bake some bread. This would have been only my second attempt at baking bread. This time with real yeast! The first time I baked bread I was in some sort of homesteading mindset after making my very first batch of home made butter after watching this video. It really did work despite the beard...
I made a yeastless Irish bread. Was pretty proud of myself at the time. However, that bread was very heavy, and I don't think I've ever had a similar bread... it was strange.

Well, this Pin I found had a great list of different breads and link to the recipes. I chose the first one, the easiest since I didn't have any whole wheat flour on hand. Yeah I know, it's better for you, I just can't get past the gritty taste when I use it to make other things like pancakes.

So, I started with the following recipe:

3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour - Never heard of the stuff, I used no name all purpose flour.
1/2 cup milk **
1/2 to 2/3 cup hot water, enough to make a soft, smooth dough  - This confused me as it says to add everything together, so do I add 1/2 a cup or 2/3? In the end I don't remember how much I added
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) melted butter or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 packet active dry yeast dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water  - Big problem with this. First, it doesn't say how big the packet should be and to a noob bread baker like myself, I wanna know specifics. Secondly, the packet I had said to dissolve it in 1/4 a cup of warm water, not the 1 Tbsp the recipe said. I went with the packet instructions. 

Never having seen active dry yeast before (tiny round beige balls), it didn't look like it was dissolving, and I worried about the yeast sitting in the water too long.

**Mix the cold-from-the-refrigerator milk with 1/2 cup of the hot-from-the-tap water to make a lukewarm combination. - I tried to do this with the Luke-warm yeasty water. Dumped it all in there and a second afterwards I wondered if Milk was bad for yeast... said oh well and dumped everything into the dry ingredients, hoping for the best.

Mixing: In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients and stir till the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes, or until it begins to become smooth and supple. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 to 2 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. - What this recipe didn't tell you was that the dough would be sticky as all hell and no matter how much "grease" you put on your hands, it would still stick. I kept adding a ton of flour thinking I had added too much liquid to it with my yeast experiment gone wrong. It also doesn't tell you what to cover the bread with. Is air allowed to get in there? Should I NOT cover it with a tea towel like I've seen somewhere on TV? - I covered it with a tea towel.
It was about here that I decided to research the correct way to shape my dough log. I found this wonderful site that explains EVERYTHING about this recipe.
Shaping: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, and shape it into an 8" log. Place the log in a lightly greased 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan, cover the pan loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the bread to rise for about 60 minutes, until it’s domed about 1" above the edge of the pan. A finger pressed into the dough should leave a mark that rebounds slowly.

So this is my bread log after it has risen for the second time. So far so' good...

Baking: Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until it’s light golden brown. Test it for doneness by removing it from the pan and thumping it on the bottom (it should sound hollow), or by measuring its interior temperature with an instant-read thermometer (it should register 190°F at the center of the loaf). Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a wire rack before slicing. Store the bread in a plastic bag at room temperature. Yield: 1 loaf.

And I totally forgot to link that website I found the above on... sorry ><

Even after all my uncertainties with the yeast and kneading, my bread turned out splendidly! See!

It was delicious! I was so proud of my bread! I ate half of it between that night and the next day >< I call this one a success... even though it wasn't really a "Pin" more a bookmark to some people who really know what they are doing. So, I have 2 more packets of yeast to go and a bunch more recipes. I think next time I'm going to try one of those breads with bird seeds in them...

Yummy, noshy, comfy foodz

OK, this one was pretty easy, and it got good reviews from my brother and my boyfriend.

THIS... Wonderful pot of comfort food.

VERY easy to make. Turned out pretty good. The link this Pin is from was broken, but I just went from the description at the bottom. I have no idea where to get ziti noodles from, so I just got some regular old rigatoni noodles.

Just follow the recipe, I eyed up the cheese, and you're done! I think I will add this one to my recipe list with some additions. Would have been nice with mushrooms, onion, garlic and maaaaaybe even some broccoli. Can use wholewheat pasta, extra lean ground beef, low fat cream cheese for a slightly healthier option, but if you're gonna go this far into comfort food territory, you might as well go all the way.

Here is a wonderfully lit picture of mine... half eaten of course.

Here is the recipe for those who don't "Pin" Gasp!!

-3/4 bag ziti noodles - rigatoni noodles work fine - and who really cares about exact proportions right?

-1 lb of ground beef 

-1 pkg taco seasoning nosh

-1cup water 

-1/2 pkg cream cheese, 

-1 1/2 cup shredded cheese - I think I actually added less than this. 

-- boil pasta until just cooked, brown ground beef & drain, mix taco seasoning & 1 cup water with ground beef for 5 min, add cream cheese to beef mixture, stir until melted & remove from heat, put pasta in casserole dish, mix in 1 cup cheese, top pasta/cheese with beef mixture & gently mix, top with remaining cheese, bake at 350* uncovered for 30 min

Molto bene!

Fast and preventing Furious!

Just another quick post about a pin that I had found previous and before I had a change to attempt and fail it, Threadbangers already tried it for me!

The Pin...


Hilarity ensues.


Enjoy!

Organizing Pretty

Well, I had better add some content or this will be a very short blogging experience. I would like to start on a good note and share one of my most successful pins!

Pinned 37 weeks ago - according to Pinterest of course, was a real neat way to hang your necklaces. The link goes onto a blogger's site WAY more experienced than I myself am. I browesed through these neat ideas, but seeing as I dont have a TON of space to have cute teacups everywhere, and I don't have pierced ears and have earrings to hang in a painted frame, I was stuck with the necklace options. Some I found to be quite ugly, but when I saw the weeping willow look, I knew I had to try it!
Since my walls are sadly not drywall, but horrid plaster that makes it impossible to tack anything into, I headed to the dollar store and found some kind of foam core board for 2$. Didn't really find the silver push pins there, but they did have some with neon coloured stickers on, so what the heck, I bought them too.

I'm gonna go on a tangent and express my undying love for the dollar store. Who needs Michael's when you have all of this meterial for so cheap?!! Every time I go in there I can spend a disgusting amount of time perusing the isles and trying VERY hard to not buy everything in the craft section. Sometimes I fail and come home with countless bits and bobs that I intend to turn into wonderful crafty things... Sometimes I'm successful and sometimes I'm not. Shhh...

Onto the willow tree!

Everything from this project I got at the dollar store and it was of course super cheap. So, here is a list of items I used:

• Pencil and eraser for drawing out the tree
• Sharpie for outlining the tree
• Black paint - paintbrushes is a given, as it would be even more tedious to finger paint this...
• Foam core
• Double sided tape
• 2 packs of thumb tacks

Once the tree was drawn and painted, I sat for a bit and pulled off the coloured stickers from the thumbtacks. I wanted a classy, black and silver tree with the neclaces, not much room for funky neon circles. BUT I had a neat idea and since the back was still sticky, I stuck them to the board in a vague flower shape :) No waste!
I was a bit worried that the tacks wouldn't be long enough to hold my necklaces, but everything went very smoothly.

Here is my final result! Granted, it would look WAY better painted on a wall and perhaps even extend the tree to turn it into it's own decor item. But ya gotta deal with whatcha got.

Sadly I don't have anywhere near the amount of necklaces that the girl in the original did... but this just gives me an excuse to go out and get more!

Guess who's back... Back again....

Here I am again! Going to give this another go. This time I have an idea! Something better than just a boring old journal/rant page. The idea came as I was attempting to re-arrange the mess that is my "Cooking and Baking" folder on Pinterest.
I have many a wonderful looking goodie on there. But how do you really know if it's going to turn out? Ya don't.
A while back I discovered a wonderful series of videos on Youtube from a group called ThreadBanger. The playlist was called Man Vs Pin. Hilarious idea. Gave me one myself. So, here it is. A revamped blog to display my attempts at re-creating Pinterest marvels to wonder and excite! And who knows, I might just throw in some blurbs about daily life, exciting right?!

Catchya soon with my first, albeit, old attempt!

-Lady J