Pinterest Fail or Nail| Balsamic Glazed Steak Rolls

This past week has been a crazy one with moving, and far too many people in this household getting pink eye [did I mention mine came, went and came back. Awesomeeee.] that I knew if we grabbed takeout every night no one would judge us right? Well, I must have hit my head while packing because I prepared not one but THREE Pinterest meals this past week! Pat myself on the back and give me a gold star, who the hell do I think I am these days?!

Today we will talk about the first meal I prepared on Monday and this was Balsamic Glazed Steak Rolls, sounds fancy right! Here is what I pinned that I later figured out it lead me nowhere so I did some digging and found the original recipe/blog post here, she has a ton of other amazing recipes on here as well! My pictures are not nearly as enticing as hers but I was also wearing a small child and cooking in a kitchen that is about as put together as a hoarders kitchen might look [okay not that bad!]

This post will not be giving you directions on how to make this meal as I legit just [didn't read directions] followed the direct post I have linked above. So for all the ingredients, measurements and directions, please follow the link above.

Lets take a look...

|Questions|

+Was this a hard meal to prepare?
-Directions were easy to follow in the post [when I read them].

+Were the ingredients odd/hard to find?
-No, I had everything but the steak which I bought ahead of time.

+Did your meal turn out how you thought it would?
-Yes, it was amazing and just what I thought it would be. Jer even enjoyed it, which was my main goal!

|Change|

+Make sure to read directions [duh} and use TOOTHPICKS and not assume large kabob squires would do as they didn't hold together when they fell apart. I then cried and Jerek made fun of me for acting like Tracen. [hater!]

+Use the same vegetables in the post [IE: read said post before starting the cooking]. I used cucumber instead of zucchini and the structure is just not the same. It was mush in a nutshell.

|Conclusion|

+I would make these again in a heart beat. I would try out different glazes, fillings and perhaps even a different meat, the possibilities are endless!

Stay tuned for next weeks Pinterest Fail or Nail, it's one of my best ones yet!

Pinterest Fail or Nail?| Carmel Apple Slices

I'd like to meet the person who came up with Pinterest. More importantly, I'd like to meet the people that make things like this Cake, or who plan these types of baby showers or, how this mom of four has time to take these kinds of photos.

When I first started Pinterest I would Pin things and then that was that. I swear I never went back and actually read what I pinned or tried making something on there! I guess I wasn't up to speed on how Pinterest really was supposed to work. Since then I've tired multiple recipes, attempted to knit things, clean things and make shit turn into sparkles, since that's what Pinterest is for.

The other night I finally put Sky down for the night. Jer was busy threatening Tracen to get out of the bathtub if he dumped one more cup of water on him [he did by the way]. There I was, craving something sweet but remembering it's only been two whole weeks on my lent stint that I can't give in. I looked through the panty and the fridge and saw the carmel dip I bought a couple weeks back and saw some Jonathan apples that needed to be eaten. BINGO, I knew what I was going to make, well attempt anyway. I've been dying to make these carmel apples for some time now.

I love seeing other photos of Pinterest fails or nails so I think I'm going to keep these posts coming when I attempt to make, bake, craft or clean something. Whether it works or not, I'll keep you informed. I do have to warn you though, Jerek is the maker and the baker here. I'm just really good at finding the ideas, getting everything we need and stepping on his toes and telling him what to do, even when he doesn't ask, imagine that!

Remember when I said that Jerek is the maker and the baker here, well I forgot to mention he is also the one that READS  and FOLLOWS directions. Hence why I decided using caramel dipping sauce was what I was supposed to do. I just "read" the pictures and figured it was fine...

W-R-O-N-G!!!

That was until the carmel wasn't hard after 8 hours in the freezer and it oozed everywhere whilst cutting the wedges. Since making this disaster creation, I've now read the directions and know that I should have melted caramel pieces and poured into said apples. You live and you learn right? Stay tuned as I try my luck at more Pinterest creations. Considering we just bought a house, I'd say I have a lot of time to F some things up!

Weekend Recap

|FRIDAY|
It was a long week. I spent too many hours in my car, driving to and from work and too many minutes giving time outs to a certain three year old. The weather turned to crap again and I will admit it, but I wished we lived somewhere nice and warm, like California. Speaking of Cali, my best friend, and other half was coming back from Europe after spending 3 weeks in 3 different countries. We met in undergrad and worked together for about a year before she made the decision to go back to school and get her Masters at Berkeley. She was home for a few days before heading to Europe so I wanted to make sure I got to see her before she headed back to the beautiful, warm state of California. So I left work and raced over to her house to spend some much needed time with her and her parents.  The hardest part is, I'm not sure when I'll see her next.  As we live totally opposite lives on totally opposite sides of the country and I can't except the fact that it might not be until NEXT Christmas, I just can't.

||SATURDAY||
Forts were made, naps were taken, amazing pizza was devoured eaten and a movie (Argo) was watched until 3am (bad idea on our end, we were exhausted come Sunday!)

|SUNDAY||
This day is precious to me. Weekend after weekend, I live for Sundays. We spend the whole day with family and we never get sick of it. We started off with our usual Starbucks order and headed to Air Time to meet our nephew so the boys could run around like the crazy little three year old boys that they are.

Followed by brunch and then nap time. While the boys napped Jer and I watched another Redbox movie, Elysium, which was better than I thought it was going to be.  I did too many loads of laundry and picked up what felt like a billion toys for the millionth time.  Sunday family dinner is one of my favorite and least favorite parts of the day. I usually get depressed because it means in about 12 hours we have to get up again and head to work. But today, today is different because Jer and I don't work tomorrow for MLK day. Thank you corporate job world and also thank you daycare for NOT being closed! Day date tomorrow ya'll! Jer's mom made her classic spaghetti for dinner, which never disappoints and we are almost caught up on Homeland now, just the season finale to watch. If you know what happens do NOT spoil it, we are weeks behind, ugh!

|Hope you all had a wonderful weekend spent with the most important people in your life, I know I did|

Pizza Party Friday, on Saturday

I think I've mentioned this before but I'll mention it again. Jerek is THE best at whipping up AMAZING creations from things around the house. I think it has to do with our college years where we lived on the standard Ramen and canned goods.

Here's one thing I think I've also mentioned before. I am NO chef. My dad was a chef growing up and when it was Friday night and mom was home with my brother and I we either ate pizza, mac & cheese or left overs from the night before. So I got my mothers cooking skills, and I say this loosely!

Fast forward to Saturday night and we are doing the usual 'what do you want to eat?' 'I dunno, what do you want to eat?' conversation. As soon as I turned my back to pick up Skylor there was my counter, covered with delicious items from our panty and fridge. Then came the pizza crust. I knew what he was thinking, I got his vibe, but I was still shocked and amazed when it all came together!

INGREDIENTS: 

• fresh spinach
• milk
• feta
• semi-firm tofu
• fresh mozzarella
• yellow peppers
• cappers
• spices (Jerek's own mixture)
• thing crust pizza crust

There was no red pizza sauce used, instead, Jer made a spinach/Alfredo sauce and it was ON. POINT! I can't tell you if I've ever seen Jer eat pizza without some type of meat on it. I'm pretty sure this was a first! I'm extremely partial to my usual pepperoni and yellow pepper pizza so this was a change for me as well. I can honestly say I would love to have this more often! Not only was it something different but I didn't feel like a fat tub-o-lard afterwards. Score!  For the past couple weeks I've been trying to persuade Jer to start a Youtube channel so stay tuned folks!