A Cup of Coffee Cake in Under 5 Minutes

I was a little skeptical to try this recipe because microwave mug cakes are sometimes pretty terrible...but this one was great. I love coffee cake and I especially love that I could make a single serving of it! It's made with common ingredients that you have in your kitchen so no special trips to the grocery story (great for us lazy people). The one and only thing I would change about this recipe is that I would like to add a cinnamon sugar swirl to the cake batter. Most coffee cakes have this swirl in them, but this one didn't. I will for sure try that next time.

Here's the recipe: http://www.prudentbaby.com/2011/10/cup-of-coffee-cake-in-under-five.html

Remember to vote for my next project on the right! ====>

Penne Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce and Mozzarella, Tomato, and Avocado Salad

So let's start with the pasta. This was a really delicious and easy recipe that is pretty much a grown-up mac-&-cheese dish. It's creamy and very cheesy so make sure to eat it while it's hot for the best sauce consistency. I'm definitely going to make this again.

With the pasta, I made a delicious salad with avocado, tomato, and fresh mozzarella. Mine doesn't look quite as colorful and pretty as the original picture because it was a day old, but it still tasted great. The one thing about this recipe that surprised me was when I read "drain the mozzarella". I started thinking, "drain the mozzarella? that must be a typo or something. why would cheese be in water?" Well now I just feel silly. Obviously I'm not very advanced at this whole cooking thing.

Here's the recipe to the avocado salad: http://ashleyscookingadventures.blogspot.com/2011/05/meatless-mondays-mozzarella-tomato-and.html

Here's the recipe to the pasta: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/143190/Penne-Pasta-with-Sun-dried-Tomato-Cream-Sauce/detail.aspx

Honey Yogurt Berry Pops

These are so simple and yummy...and only 3 ingredients! Greek yogurt, honey, and frozen berries. I didn't go by the recipe, but just added these ingredients together to get the right mixture I wanted. My advice on this one is that you have to add more honey than you think. Greek yogurt isn't exactly sweet so it definitely needs that honey! Also, I chopped up some of the berries because they seemed a little too big for a small little Popsicle. This also helped make the yogurt/honey mixture have a berry flavor once you mix all of the ingredients together. Here they are!

and here's the website for the recipe: http://joylicious.net/2011/07/01/honey-yogurt-berry-pops-2/

As you can see, we enjoyed them thoroughly.

Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper

Okay I'm awesome. I created my own pin. I know...unheard of, right? I was looking around my apartment for things I could fix up or change and then I realized that my salt and pepper shakers were just the cheap crappy ones from the Dollar Store. Then it hit me: Blues Clues. I decided right then and there that I must paint some old salt and pepper shakers to look like Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper from Blues Clues! and they are just soo great, if I do say so myself. I think Steve would be proud (because everyone knows Steve was 1,000,000,000 times better than Joe). I bought the shakers off Ebay and painted them up with some enamel paint. Pretty simple. I feel pretty great about them...except for the fact that my roommate is going to think I'm some sort of weirdo for having them on our dining room table. She's from Vietnam...did they watch Blues Clues in Vietnam? Well anyway...here they are!

P.S. - remember to vote on the right hand side for what my next project should be! or else you can comment if you have any other great ideas.

Crock Pot Orange Chicken

Sigh....this might be my biggest cooking failure ever. I guess we can't all be perfect! I followed the instructions completely and the chicken burned like crazy. I left the ingredients in the slow cooker on low for 6 hours like it said and when I came back from work, they were burned all the way through! I mean seriously...I cut through one of them and it was like charcoal. I think I will try this recipe again but watch the chicken carefully. I don't think this is the type of recipe that you can just leave in the crock pot for hours without a check-up...apparently. At least Austin is flexible. I called him as soon as I discovered this culinary disaster and told him that I massacred our dinner. We ended up making little individual pizzas so everything worked out alright! But still...I can't stop laughing when I look at the picture of my version of the chicken.

Here's the link to the recipe. Maybe you can figure where I went wrong :P

http://team-t-adventures.blogspot.com/2010/03/crock-pot-orange-chicken.html

Buffalo Chicken Rolls

This was a really great recipe, however I don't recommend baking the wonton wrappers like the recipe says. Obviously I'm not exactly a photographer, but as you can see by my picture they turn out kind of greasy and chewy. In my experience, wonton wrappers taste much better if you fry them in oil on a skillet. I'll definitely try that next time...but overall this was a really great and simple recipe. My boyfriend Austin and I ended up dipping them in ranch dressing (because ranch makes everything better) and they tasted great.

Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/01/31/buffalo-chicken-rolls/

Crayon Art

Okay...so I thought I would go into this project and pretty much own it. I mean, all I have to do it melt some crayons on canvas and it turns out perfect, right? Wrong. My words of wisdom? This is a very messy project so be prepared for that. It will not be perfect, by any means. So this is how mine turned out compared to the brilliant Pinner that pinned this. Mine looks much more messy, but I'm pretty happy with it! I ran the crayons through a small hot glue gun instead of melting them with a hair dryer. If you do this project, make sure to use a cheap hot glue gun that you don't mind ruining, because there will be melted crayon ALL over it. Also, be careful because the crayons that I used basically liquefied and turned to water. This resulted in painful burns on my arms (did I mention that I am an extremely clumsy person?) Nonetheless, I would definitely do this project again. It looks pretty great hanging in my apartment, if I do say so myself! ;)

Here's the link to the instructions: http://lightandspoon.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/i-feel-melty/

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! This blog is going to be all about my obsession: Pinterest. So many people love this website, however not many people actually try out the recipes and crafts that they Pin. My goal is to change that through this blog. I'm not any sort of chef or crafting genius - just a lowly college kid - so I hope to figure out what recipes are worth making and what projects are worth displaying in your home. So let's get started!

Check out my Pinterest page at http://pinterest.com/allisonj30/