Pinterest Reviews

I've already addressed the fact that I am a Pinterest follower.  It really is such a cool concept - and I find myself wandering for great amounts of time through all sorts of topics, tracking back to new people and blogs to follow.

With all the recipes I have for sweets and desserts, I've laughingly addressed my Pinterest Favorite Recipes board as my "menu for Heaven" - in that there's no way I could ever make all those foods, but more importantly - EAT them, without major ramifications to my "earthly body"!  But, it sure is fun looking.  =)

Practically speaking, it's been fun to search out recipes for next year's Harlow Auction Desserts.  I think I found one for sure, as the morning after posting it, I had an email indicating 36 different people had repinned it.  Given the secret to having your dessert get picked early is picking a taste that appeals to a wide audience and looks pretty....I think it might be a winner.  You can get a an advanced preview here.

There were two recipes I did give a try last week that were not sweets.  I tried the supposed Copycat to PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps recipe and then a slower cooker recipe for Orange Chicken.

The Lettuce Wrap recipe was TIME CONSUMING....it made me realize that the price for this famous appetizer in the restaurant might not be too far off base considering the vast array of ingredients and chopping time for it all.  It was kind of fun for me to put together for my Thursday Night Ladies, though, so to that degree it was a gratifying experiment.  However, it took a visit to 3 stores to accumulate all the ingredients.  It took a couple of hours to put together.  And while the texture and look were pretty "spot-on", the taste was just slightly off.  It might have been the brands of different sauces I used.

The Orange Chicken was kind of fun as it inspired a deep fryer purchase from Walmart.  I spent all of $9 on the fryer and $4.50 for a mini Cuisinart style chopper....major clearance finds!   So, once again I ended up with a result with the perfect consistency (after boiling the sauce up a bit more in a skillet).  However, I was not a fan of the very strong orange concentrate taste.  If you try it for yourself, I'd suggest halving the concentrate in it.

Tonight I tried this.  Slow cooking pork tenderloin in root beer, pretty strange right?  But, upon reading about it, apparently it works as an amazing tenderizer.  The kids both loved it, though next time I'll probably use a little less sauce (about one standard size container of bbq sauce).  As for the tenderloin, I used Costco's Kirkland brand, sold in a four-pack in their meat section.  Good stuff!

On to Pinterest cleaning inspirations.

Yesterday, I tried this to clean my couches.  Ours are brown, so they've definitely hid dirt and wear much better than any in our past.  But, the "after" effect was noticeable, and it was really a rather painless process to complete.

I also purchased some Dawn and hydrogen peroxide to give this a try on some favorite white tank tops and t-shirts that have gotten dingy.  Instead of spot-cleaning, I put a pile of about 8 items in my sink and just let them soak for a couple of hours.  I then transferred the pile into my washing machine (minus any additional detergent) and hit the rinse cycle.   I bet you might guess where I'm going with this.... =)  That much Dawn in a high efficiency front load washing machine is not a good idea.  Even after a couple of repeat cycles, it was still loaded with foamy suds.  On the positive side, Mikayla and Christina had a blast pulling it out and playing with it (pretty clean fun to let them indulge in....not to mention they helped rid the machine of it).  I ended up transferring the whole load to the bathtub and rinsed it under the shower for a while.  That was the trick, as the last run through the washing machine was successful.   As for results, yes, a lot brighter, but not all the "armpit stains" disappeared completely.  I'm not sure if it was worth all the effort, but it was worth a shot to try.

How about any of you other readers out there, any personal test-run of popular Pinterest ideas you have to review?