Isn't That Pinteresting?

Weekly round-up of our experiments with things I found on Pinterest.

Korean Beef (http://elizabethbryant.blogspot.com/2010/05/korean-beef.html)

When I was in college, I had a wonderful friend named Yung Bok who was from South Korea. At one point, she decided that I was too old to be single and she was determined to get me married. (At this time, I would have been about 21 or 22... Yung Bok - who was also single and had no interest in being married - was in her late 30s... I did try to point out this inconsistency in thinking, but Yung Bok would not be disuaded.) Yung Bok decided that the thing that would make me more marriageable would be cooking skills. She decided that she would teach me to cook. (Again, I tried to tell Yung Bok that I was able to cook, just not interested. No effect. Yung Bok was a stubborn woman.) At any rate, I learned to cook several Korean dishes. They were great! I loved eating them. But I did not love cooking them. Yunk Bok taught me very traditional methods which were long, complicated and involved. My favorite dish to eat was Bulgogi... also known as Korean Beef. Making this dish via Yung Bok's recipe is a 2-day process. It's delicious, but it just takes SO much time! So when I came across this link, I really wanted to give it a try and I made it for dinner one night last week. It's super easy and so good! It really tastes just like Bulgogi ought to and making it with ground beef instead of flank steak means it's much more affordable and faster to cook. Next time around (sounds like a good meal for tonight!) I'm going to add some cauliflower and sliced carrots to bring it even closer to Yung Bok's version of Bulgogi... not to mention adding a little extra nutrition. It's good stuff. You should definitely try it!

Factory Tours USA (http://factorytoursusa.com/)

I took a look at this site to see what was in our area, and it reminded me of the existence of Hammond's Candy Factory in Denver. Haley had been on this factory tour before but the rest of us had never been. So on the Friday after school let out for summer, I took the day off work (because Aaron had to work on his usual day off... and someone had to watch the kids!). And I loaded up the car and headed to the candy factory. It was a fun trip. I could wish that we had gotten to see more candy-making in action. And it would have been great to see it closer up than through a couple of windows to the factory floor. But on the other hand, the fact that we just watched through windows and video monitors meant that I didn't have to worry that one of the boys would suddenly bolt over to check out some boiling hot sugar or an interesting - and possibly dangerous - piece of machinery. The really difficult part of the whole experience was the end of the tour, which ended - of course - in the gift shop. Trying to keep the kids (and myself) from buying out the whole candy store was a chore. I won't confess how much candy went home with us, but suffice it to say that our "free" tour ended up costing more than I had planned! There are a few more factory tours we want to check out in our area (though the biggest ones here are mostly beer companies or the Celestial Seasonings tea company... so not ones our Mormon family plans to check out!) but mostly I think this could be a great reference for when we're traveling and wondering about things to go see along the way. Most of these tours are free, and I'm all for free and educational entertainment!

Glow Bottles

We have been planning to do this one for weeks, but kept not getting around to it. According to the post on Pinterest, you just put 1/4" Mt Dew in bottle, add tiny bit of baking soda and 3 capfuls of hydrogen peroxide. Shake it up and it glows. Then you could use the bottle as a giant glowstick or pour on the sidewalk to "paint" in the dark... sounded like lots of fun!

So a couple of weeks ago I got a bottle of Mountain Dew and four bottles of Pepsi. After all, I needed a glow bottle for each child to play with, so I just had to make the sacrifice of emptying those bottles of Pepsi. It was for the children. Nothing to do with any supposed Pepsi addiction on my part. ;) I picked up some hydrogen peroxide at the store and we were ready to go.

Sunday night we finally got around to making our bottles. The kids waited excitedly all day, wondering when it would be dark enough. They got to stay up late waiting for dark so we could do this project, which made it all the more exciting. The anticipation was killing them! When I finally announced that it was time, they ran into the kitchen and jumped around with glee as they watched me start the mix. I added Mountain Dew to an empty bottle, followed by the baking soda and peroxide. I capped it and shook vigorously. And nothing happened. No glow. Not even the tiniest bit of light. We turned off all the lights and looked again hopefully. Nothing. I added more of the various ingredients, hoping I could tweak it into luminescence. But it remained stubbornly dark.

I went online to see if I could find a more precise recipe that would work for us... only to learn that the whole recipe is apparently a hoax. The original video clip showing the experiment was probably faked by adding the contents of a glow stick to the bottle. I couldn't believe it! Why would someone put that up there just to trick people into trying it and failing? People are jerks sometimes.

What a crushing disappointment after so much build-up. The kids were very sad about it. Preston cried. I felt terrible that it had failed and I had to send them off to bed on such a down note. *sigh* Hopefully future Pinterest experiments will go much better.

I'm Not a Fun Mom

I'm not a fun mom. I'm just not. I read posts about all the fun things that people do with their kids and think: "I wish I was more like that!" (Pinterest, I blame you for this.) I'm just not fun. I'm more of a no-nonsense mom. By the time I pick up the kids after work, it seems like it's almost time for bed already. So there's a little play time, but mostly there's a lot of: Do your homework. Eat your dinner. Get ready for bed. This is not the time for fun, settle down!

But I want to be a fun mom. So I set a goal for myself. Now that summer vacation is here (or will be after school tomorrow), there's a bit more time to work with at the end of each day. Bedtime isn't quite as crucial when they don't have to get up for school the next morning. So I made a list (with assistance from Pinterest) of things to do with the kids this summer. The goal is to check off one activity each day. There are enough on there to last us through the whole summer - with leeway for a couple of days in case someone is sick or something. (See - this is evidence that I'm not a fun mom. Even my fun involves planning and lists and timetables. *sigh*)

So while I'm not naturally a fun mom, I'm going to do my best to fake it this summer.

Catching Up...

It has been a crazy month of May so far!

We started with Brekken's birthday on the 7th. We tried to go out to dinner the night before, but after driving 20 minutes to get to the restaurant, we pulled into the parking lot and Rylen threw up all over himself. So we turned around and went home. We then continued the celebration the next night by having the car break down, stranding us in the school parking lot, and subsequently spending about 4 hours dealing with that mess. Much of it spent actually sitting in the car with several whining, cranky kids. Poor Brekken had not planned to spend his birthday this way! We finally got to presents and cake around 10:30 that night.



The madness continued the next day, when I got a call from the school saying that Haley had fallen headfirst onto the concrete basketball court and had a massive bump. They wanted her taken to the doctor as soon as possible. Which turned out to be about 2 hours later. Because of course, I had taken the bus. Which meant I had no car. And Aaron had no coverage at work so he couldn't leave. So I took a cab from my office to his store... where I learned that he'd been able to arrange to leave after all. So we both headed for home and finally arrived to pick up Haley. We took her to the doctor's office - where they immediately sent us to the Children's Hospital Urgent Care instead. She was acting fine, but the bump was massive and frightening looking. You can't really get the full sense of it from the photo. So off we go to Urgent Care, where they ask her to rate her pain from 0-10. "Oh, it's a 0," she tells them. No headache. The bump doesn't really hurt when they touch it. She feels fine. This from a girl who regularly throws fits over the tiniest scratches and demands an ice pack every time she stubs her toe. But no, she's fine. She has no pain. I'm sure they wondered why we even brought her in. (But we have a friend who last year had a child with a traumatic brain injury from a playground fall - we're very cautious now! Plus the doctor sent us!) They sent her home with instructions to watch her and warnings that she was going to have a massive bruise, but she was otherwise fine. The next morning - nothing. Not a bump. Not a bruise. Nothing but a tiny scrape to show for the adventure. (And what's sure to be a large hospital bill, of course!)

I then continued my crazy work schedule of working from 6:30 - 5:00 every day at the office, coming home to give the kids dinner and put them to bed, and then continue working from home until 1 or 2 a.m. This was the schedule for the first 2 weeks of May, culminating in a lovely Mother's Day where I took time to go to church, fixed some leftovers for everyone to eat, and then dragged them all to my office for several hours to help me stuff folders in preparation for our conference starting the next day. (I did, however, get some great new books as gifts. And now that the conference is over, I've had time to actually start reading them!)

The next week was spent running a conference for 350 participants from across the U.S. and Canada. (Okay, technically there was only one attendee from Canada - but that makes us international! Right? Next year we'll have more.) It was actually a great conference (she said modestly), and fun, but a lot of work. I was working from 6 a.m - 11 p.m. every day. I worked those hours last year, too, but also had to factor in a drive of about 45 minutes to and from home. This year I wised up and stayed at the hotel where the conference was held. It was a bit strange to be away on a business trip while so close to home. But it was a really nice hotel. Since I was one of the conference organizers, I was classified as a VIP and got a great room. It had a wonderful patio attached with comfy-looking lounge chairs. I saw it when I checked into the room at 6:00 Monday morning.

And this is all I saw of the patio until time to check out at the end of the week.

I did thoroughly enjoy the bed, though! The Westin calls it their signature "Heavenly Bed," and I don't think that's overselling it. It was SO nice for the short stretches of time that I got to use it!

Conference over, I went home on Thursday afternoon. And immediately fell into bed for a 2-hour nap. And then I went back to bed a few hours later. And got up in the morning long enough to take kids to school and drop the (other) car at the mechanic for a brake job. And went back to sleep for most of the day. I think I had finally caught up on most of my sleep by the time Sunday came... and time for another birthday!

Preston had a bit more luck with his birthday. He got to go to church where they sang to him. Then we came home and did presents. We headed out for dinner at his chosen location of Cinzetti's. (I know we're not supposed to go out on Sunday... sorry. We bend the rule for a birthday.) Preston ate a lot - which always thrills us. It's so hard to get that boy to eat! He had dinner, then cake, then ice cream. Then the servers sang Happy Birthday and brought him a huge piece of a special birthday cake. And he ate almost all of that, too. That's probably more than we get him to eat in several normal days! We finished off the night with family movie night - Jurassic Park. Not exactly a restful bedtime story (as Grandma Schurz pointed out - LOL), but it was the birthday boy's choice. He's currently quite obsessed with dinosaurs. (How convenient that he has a mother raised in Dinosaurland who can talk dinos with him!) I was a little worried that he'd be scared by the movie - but instead he and Brekken thought it was pretty cool when people got eaten. Especially the bad guys. However, they were quite relieved to check through the house and realize that we were velociraptor-proof... all round doorknobs at our house! (I'm sure you've seen the movie - where the smart dinos learn how to open the doors with the lever latches.)

And now we're on to the end of school festivities... kindergarten graduation yesterday, delayed birthday treats for Preston to take to school today (I need a new recipe for rice krispie treats... mine did not turn out well - anyone have a good one?), field day tomorrow, and the last day of school Thursday. Whew! But all in all, a much better end to the month than it began!

Isn't That Pinteresting

Weekly round-up of our experiments with things I found on Pinterest.

Bubble Snakes (http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2011/04/bubble-snake-maker.html)

The kids were VERY excited to try this one. And it seemed pretty easy. We had everything we needed right there in the house. So it seemed like a perfect project to keep them busy on a Sunday afternoon. We made the bubble blowers out of some empty water bottles and some of Aaron's old socks. Squirted a bunch of dishsoap into a paper bowl. And headed out to make some snakes. The first try seemed very promising... I dipped the blower, blew hard, and bubbles immediately started foaming out the end! So I turned that one over to Haley and started some blowers for the boys. Those worked ok, though not quite as well as Haley's. I'm not sure what the difference was. So everyone had fun for a couple of minutes. And then they just kind of stopped working. I don't know if it was a problem with technique (I had to blow pretty hard to get the bubbles after that first try). Or the socks weren't pulled tight enough. Or if the socks just got so full of dish soap and that was the problem. Or maybe another brand of dish soap works better. But it didn't really work well after that first try. We ended up a little disappointed. But at least we tried it - points for a family project! And now I'll need to buy some more dish soap.

Brownie Cookies (http://www.pureandyummy.com/?p=523)

Don't those look delicious? I thought so. I pinned this recipe because I wanted to try combining two wonderful things, brownies and cookies. Then I went back and looked and the recipe again and realized that it was a lot more complicated than the kind of baking I usually do. And the more I looked at it, the more I realized I was just never going to make that recipe. But looking at it more also helped me realize that there didn't seem to be much difference between that recipe and a traditional brownie recipe. So I decided to go my own way with this one... I guess you could call it another "recipe inspired by Pinterest."

So I bought a brownie mix at the store. I know! Baking purists are shaking their heads in disgust... but hey, I'll have put in around 60 hours of work on just my day job by the end of this week, plus my additional job of being mom to four hungry, messy children. This ensures that not only do I not have time for real baking, but I really need the chocolate fix. :) So yes, I started with a store-bought mix. When I'd mixed it together, I knew that it was too thin to work as cookies - it would just spread all over the baking sheet. So I added some flour to thicken it up. Probably about a cup by the time I was finished adding a little at a time. That thickened it up to more of a cookie dough consistency, so I scooped it out, dropped it on the cookie sheet in little dough balls, and put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

They came out perfectly! Beautiful big cookies just like the ones in the picture! The texture was great - the edges of the cookie are like getting the edge piece of brownie... just a little bit of crunch. And the center is soft and dense, just like a perfect brownie. And the tops had that little bit of flakiness that you find on a really good brownie. So really, just a perfect brownie, but in cookie form. I guess really it's just a novelty factor - plus you don't have to slice up a pan of brownies. (Not that that's such a huge amount of work or anything.) You might prefer to just make a pan of brownies. But for some reason, I have never had much luck with brownies. I try to cook them, but they somehow always turn out so soft you have to eat them with a spoon, or so hard that you have to knaw your way around the edges looking for a piece you can manage to bite off. So I'll make these cookies again, because it seems I've finally found a way to make a successful brownie!

Hanging Out in the Shallow End

In a moment of unjustified optimism a while back, I promised my kids I would take them swimming. For some reason, at just that moment I thought that I was perfectly capable of taking four small children - none of whom have yet had swimming lessons - to the pool by myself. So when they begged to go to the pool, I said yes. Not convinced that I would follow through, they pressed me to set a specific date that we would go swimming. After some calendar juggling, I picked Saturday, April 28th as the big day. And believe me, Haley is perfectly capable of tracking the upcoming date on a calendar and reminding me (and her brothers) daily of when the date would arrive. So there was really no getting out of it.

And as the date got closer, I was wishing for a way to get out of it. I was really starting to wonder about my ability to manage all the kids without having one of them take off to the deep end on me. Then the day before the big day, I came down with a nasty cold. Plus I had a lot of work that I needed to get done over the weekend. I really felt like just staying home all day in my sweats and letting the kids run wild while I worked on my presentations. But there was Haley, reminding me that tomorrow was the day I promised to take them swimming. And there were three sets of big blue eyes shining with excitment at the upcoming trip to the pool (Rylen didn't know or care about the upcoming activity). *sigh* I wasn't going to get out of this one.

Saturday morning arrived... and I realized something exciting. Aaron had too many hours at work. And he had to stay late to host a recital Saturday night. Which meant he wasn't going to work until 2:00 p.m. Which meant if I moved our plans for an afternoon swim to a morning swim, I could have another adult with me on this adventure! Aaron took a bit of persuading. (I believe his exact response when I broached the idea was a groan and: "I was afraid you'd think of that.") But after some pretty pleasing on my part, he gave in and we took off for the rec center.

We had fun at the pool. The kids really enjoyed splashing around and playing on the slides. Rylen liked playing with the fountains - though I really thought he'd enjoy it more than he seemed to, given his love of bathtime. It was probably just the strangeness of it and he'll like it more the next time. Preston started eyeing the BIG waterslide as soon as we got there and was convinced that he wanted to ride it. We warned him that it would move pretty fast and that at the end, he would probably have to go all the way underwater, but he was sure that he wanted to try it. So I agreed to take him down the slide (he's too little to go on his own). Brekken and Haley clamored go with me next, but he got to go first since it was his big idea. We climbed the stairs and from the top he looked down with wide eyes: "Wow! We're really up high!" And then he looked at the rushing water heading down the slide: "Wow! That's really fast!" I double-checked... are you sure you want to do this? And he looked at me and exclaimed: "Yes! This is so exciting!"

So I sat down with him between my legs, we pushed off, and away we went! And you know, that water WAS really fast. Quite a bit faster than I had expected it to be, actually. I tried to brace my feet against the side of the slide to slow us down just a little, and had absolutely no success. So I just held on to Preston a little tighter and accepted that we were going to go down fast. I warned him... "We're going so fast, I'm sure we're going to go under water at the end, so be prepared to hold your breath." And as we rounded the last turn, I told him: "Take a big breath now - here we go!" And it dumped us into the pool. Under we went. I had hold of Preston around the waist and I pushed him up ahead of me. I could feel his head break the surface a little ahead of mine. I came up for air and there he was... sputtering, shaking water off his face, and eyes huge with shock.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Was that fun?"

"Yes!"

"Do you want to go again?"

"No way!!"

Haley and Brekken had watched us go down the slide and go under at the end... they both opted out of a trip down the big slide and decided to stick with the kiddie slide for now. LOL

It really was a great morning. Aaron even had fun and said he'd be willing to do it again. And having done it once with company, I really think next time I CAN do it on my own. Especially since the most complicated part was getting everyone changed from street clothes to swimsuits and back. (Why is changing clothes such a difficult task? It's not like they've never done it before.) That part will be easier once summer is fully here and I can have everyone go to the pool already in their swimsuits and leave still in their swimsuits... they can drip-dry on the way home.

(And a nice side benefit to this little excursion... I had been having back troubles again and that morning had a hard time even bending down enough to pick up the baby. A couple of hours in the nice warm pool and my back muscles stopped spasming! The whole rest of the day I was able to bend and twist easily... it was great! That alone is enough to convince me to take the kids back to the pool.)

Isn't That Pinteresting? (part 3)

So in the last post I promised a recipe for Lasagna Soup. This stuff is incredibly good. And pretty easy. Easier than making lasagna, even in the crockpot. I might never make real lasagna again.

Lasagna Soup (http://www.afarmgirlsdabbles.com/2011/03/24/lasagna-soup/)

The recipe looks long. And generally a recipe that long can kind of scare me off. I guess my general assumption is that if it takes that many words to write it down, it's going to take more time and effort than I want to expend to cook it. But my friend Sarah had raved about this recipe so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. It's actually not complicated and doesn't take that long to put it together. The hardest part was waiting for it to be finished so we could eat it! I cooked the pasta separately and just added it to each bowl. (I didn't want it to go mushy since Aaron and I were eating later than the kids.) It was a scoop of "cheesy yum," add a couple scoops of pasta, ladle on enough soup to cover the cheese and pasta, then top with a sprinkle of mozzarella. It was so good. So very, very good. Writing this post has reminded me just how good. I am going to have make it again. Soon.

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chicken (http://www.food.com/recipe/melt-in-your-mouth-chicken-breast-37336)

We're not huge fans of chicken at our house. Actually, let me rephrase that. Aaron doesn't like chicken. Then rest of us like it fine. (Unless I'm pregnant - then I can't stand the sight, smell or even thought of chicken. Or eggs. But since I'm not pregnant, I am fine with eating chicken.) But even though Aaron doesn't like chicken, I thought this recipe looked interesting and decided to give it a try. It's quick. It's easy. And it tastes pretty good. As Aaron described it: "It doesn't taste so much like chicken. That makes it okay." I added some panko bread crumbs to the topping for a little extra crunch. I like it quite a bit, so I plan to keep making it.

Cheesy Crockpot Chicken Spaghetti (http://cookingwithkim-kim.blogspot.com/2008/07/crockpot-cheesy-chicken-spaghetti.html)

So I was about to say that this recipe was unsuccessful, but the more I thought about it, I realized that I really didn't give it a fair shake. It's kind of like when a movie comes out that was "inspired by a true story" and then it turns out that the actual events were nothing like what happened in the movie? But hey, it doesn't have to be real, it was just INSPIRED by the true story. That's kind of what happened with this recipe. I decided to make it for dinner on Sunday - and because it was Sunday I was limited to the ingredients in my pantry. No running out to the store for the one ingredient you need! But I thought I had most things... I didn't take an actual inventory of the things in my pantry, just a quick browse through in my head.

To start off, I didn't have time to cook it in the crockpot. Plus I was kind of worried that the spaghetti would turn to much in the crockpot. So I decided to just make it as an oven casserole instead. So I cooked the spaghetti. (Strike one against this as a crockpot recipe. I've already mentioned my dislike of having to cook things ahead when it's going into the crockpot.) Then I was going to cook the chicken, but Aaron insisted that I use some other protein. (He really doesn't like chicken.) So I substituted beef instead because that's all I had. I did have the Velveeta. (Not because I keep it on hand, but because I'd bought it ahead with plans to use it in this recipe.) I added the cream soups. Then realized I didn't have the diced tomatoes. Okay... I'll just add some tomato sauce. The kids don't like chunks of tomato anyway. Oh, and I'm out of green chilies? (How did that happen? I always have those.) Oh well, I guess it just won't be spicy. And the mushrooms are gone too? (I really need to go grocery shopping.) Well, there are bits of mushroom in the cream of mushroom soup. No onion... the dehydrated ones will have to do. And then I stirred it all together into a big mess and tried to get that darned Velveeta to melt. It took forever... it just stayed as a big lump of semi-cheesiness. Ick. When I finally got everything mixed together, I dumped it in a casserole dish and topped it with a little panko - jsut because it seemed like it needed some extra texture and I really like panko. It was okay. Not horrible. But not great. And it seems like I can hardly blame the recipe, because I barely followed the recipe at all. And yet... my version was inspired by the recipe. Specifically the Velveeta part of it. It's not something I've ever cooked with before (really, my only experience with Velveeta is that my dad uses it as bait when he goes fishing), but I thought I'd give the recipe a try. And as it turns out, the Velveeta was my least favorite part of the recipe. It was gooey and glumpy and didn't taste very good. I think I'll stick to thinking of it as fish food instead of people food.

Okay, last one for now... Krispy Kreme Muffins (http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/glazed-doughnut-muffins/)

The Pinterest pin calls them Krispy Kreme Muffins, though the actual blog post calls them Glazed Doughnut Muffins. Being a huge fan of sweets in general, doughnuts in particular and especially Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts, I just had to give these a try. For weeks I kept telling myself that I was going to make these on the weekend. But finding time to bake is little difficult with all these little ones. But I finally had a chance to make them this week when I had a kid-free hour (I had to work at home because of a doctor's appointment and thus had the hour I would normally spent commuting home free for little projects like this). They're pretty simple and quick enough that I was able to mix up the batter and bake the muffins in the allotted hour. I made the glaze later that night and glazed the muffins shortly before eating them for dessert/bedtime snack. I have to say, I don't know why the pinner would call them Krispy Kreme Muffins, because they don't taste anything like a Krispy Kreme doughnut. For that matter, I don't know why the original recipe refers to doughnuts, either, because they really bear no resemblance to doughnuts... except for the glaze I guess. That's similar to a doughnut. But you could just call it a sugar-glazed muffin, because that's what it is. But don't take that to mean that we didn't like them! They are really great muffins. They have a perfect muffin texture - a little dense and not too crumbly. They are not too sweet and have just enough cinnamon. The glaze is fantastic and I will definitely find other places that I can use it. I double-dipped the muffins so there would be plenty of that sugary vanilla goodness. The kids liked them (Brekken devoured two in about 3 minutes flat while I was out of the room) and so did Aaron and I. The recipe says it makes 12 muffins - I must not have filled my muffin cups as full as hers because I got 18 muffins out of the batch. I put half in the freezer so we wouldn't try to eat the whole big bunch in a day, and the one I defrosted (strictly as a test for the blog, not because I was sneaking an extra muffin!) stood up to the freezing and defrosting very well. Big thumbs-up for the Sugar-Glazed Muffins!

Isn't That Pinteresting? (part 2)

To recap... what happens when an average mom and homemaker, average crafter, average cook takes on the incredible projects, ideas, and recipes found on Pinterest? Sometimes it's great! And sometimes it's not. Here's a few more results of our Pinterest experimentation:

Teriyaki Salmon with Sriracha Mayo (I actually combined tips from here: http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2011/09/teriyaki-salmon-w-sriracha-mayo-1394.html and here:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/07/pams-day-of-deliciousness/)

 Let me just say: A-MAZE-ING! This salmon was awesome. I loved the teriyaki salmon and the spicy mayo was a great touch. But if you don't want the extra calorie count from the mayo, the salmon is still great without it. After I took the salmon out of the oven, I broke off a piece to make sure it was done and gave it a quick taste. And then I had another quick taste, because the first taste was SO good. I think I ate about a quarter of my salmon before I managed to get everything plated and ready to "officially" eat. I think I served it with rice, but I don't really remember - the side dish was pretty forgettable. But the salmon was delicious and - even better - super easy. I mixed up a quick marinade in a gallon ziploc bag, dropped the fillets in with the marinade and put the bag in the fridge for about an hour. Then I used the tip from the 2nd link above about how to cook a perfect salmon fillet. Fish is something I always seem to have trouble cooking to the right level of doneness. But this method (put salmon in cold oven, turn oven on to 400 degrees, leave it alone for 25 minutes) is my kind of cooking! And... perfect. The salmon was just right. This is a recipe you've got to try!

Baked Fontina (http://smells-like-home.com/2011/11/baked-fontina/)

This recipe also turned out well. It was easy and fast - two of my requirements for a truly successful recipe. And Aaron, the kids, and I all liked it. I don't have a cast-iron pan like the recipe calls for, so I cooked it in a stoneware baking dish and that worked just fine. I think pyrex or any other casserole dish would work, too. I had to cook mine under the broiler for longer than the recipe called for, but that's probably because I was too lazy to move the rack closer to the broiler. It only took a few minutes longer - not a big deal. We ate the melted cheese with chunks of homemade bread and it was yummy!One thing I will say is that this recipe makes a lot. Even with four kids and two adults eating it as a meal, (yes, I know that's not the most nutritious meal - next time I'll plan ahead and have some veggies or something to dip as well as the bread) we couldn't quite finish. So you might want to cut down the recipe some. Also, the cheese starts to firm up again pretty quick. By the end, we were basically just cutting off hunks of warm - but no longer melty - cheese and placing it on a piece of bread. Maybe if you had something like a tiny crockpot (d'oh! I HAVE one of those! I didn't think about using it until just this minute) or a fondue set to keep the cheese warm and gooey it would be better. But even when it set up a little, it was still very tasty.

Crockpot Lasagna (http://www.creatingthroughlife.com/2011/10/crock-pot-lasagna.html)

This makes some pretty decent lasagna! I really love lasagna, but it's a lot of work to make it. This recipe definitely cuts down on the effort required. I'm not a fan of having to brown the ground beef before adding it to the crockpot... this is because I am lazy when it comes to crockpot cooking. I really prefer to just throw everything in as-is and let it go. So from that point of view, the recipe takes a bit more effort than your standard crockpot meal. You have to layer the beef and sauce and noodles and cheeses. But then you do get to walk away and leave it to cook on its own. Of course, you get to walk away and leave it alone in the oven when you make it the traditional way, too. So really, the main difference is that you don't have to cook the lasagna noodles ahead of time. And let's face it, that's the part that is the biggest pain when it comes to making lasagna. Cooking the noodles... and just the right amount so that they're completely cooked in the final dish, but not too much so that they've turned to mush when you serve the lasagna. And then keeping the cooked noodles from all sticking together as you're getting ready to layer them in your casserole dish is always a pain for me. And I generally either don't cook enough noodles so I have to stop halfway through my layers to cook more or overcompensate and cook too many noodles... and I don't really have a good recipe for leftover lasagna noodles. So the crockpot version eliminates those noodle headaches - though maybe I'm the only one who gets so worked up over lasagna noodles. And the final product tastes pretty good, too. Though it is lacking the slightly crisped texture of the cheese on the top of the casserole that you get when it cooks in the oven. That's a matter of taste, though. I like it, Aaron doesn't. So he was fine with the crockpot version. I'll probably make this again... but if you want a really great lasagna-type recipe, come back for the next part of Pinterest recaps so I can direct you to an incredible lasagna soup recipe!