Wednesday, October 31, 2012

I pinned, and then I did...

I crafted...

*Made my sweetie a card, using blackout poetry. (Sorry for the crappy photo.) Yes, the example of blackout poetry that I pinned was far better, but guys, this is so much freakin' harder than it looks! Or maybe it's just me. Care to guess what book this page came from? (Btw, don't shoot me--I did not purposefully destroy a book; the pages of this were just falling out all over. Figured giving it new life was better than the recycle bin.)

*Here is the image I pinned. It's from a shop called Googly Eye Art. I fell in love, and knew immediately that I wanted to make something like this for Maxidoodle's ornament this year. Every year, the kiddos get a new ornament for their own personal little Christmas trees. Sometimes store bought, sometimes homemade. Obviously, this year I'm going with homemade.





*And on the happy side, I crafted up two other pins as well, but on the sad side, I can't share them because recipients might see this.

And I kitchened...

*Another crappy picture, sorry. But oh my heavens, is this delicious! Pinned from BH&G, it a rice pudding recipe made in the crock pot. (I've made rice pudding many a time in my day, but never in a crock pot before this.) Like I said, so yummy! I think it's the dried cranberries that really have me swooning on this one. And it made such a big batch that we not only had it for dessert, but I had it warmed back up with milk for breakfast several mornings.

*And I finally got around to making homemade vegetable broth from A Year of Slow Cooking. This is so freakin' awesome--I just can't believe I haven't done this before. I will certainly never buy vegetable broth again! So damn easy. And essentially free, except for the electricity used by the crock pot. It just used vegetable ends and peelings destined for the compost pile. And after you make the broth, they can go into the compost pile anyway. The house smelled so good all day when this was cooking! So good that Rich threatened to just drink the broth straight from the slow cooker--ha! this coming from the guy who doubted it would work to start with. :P I froze some of it, and used some of it in my final pin...

*Which was this incredible soup, pinned from here, yep, from none other than Amanda of Fig and Thistle. I changed it up just a bit (to make it work for us vegetarians in the family), by using the veggie broth from above pin instead of the water and chicken bouillon granules and by eliminating the bacon. And as I don't have an immersion blender and I like chunks in my soup anyway, I just put about half of it in the blender and then added it back with the unblended portion. SOOOOOO YUMMY! Even Rich, who isn't a fan of creamy type soups, loved it! Heck, even Max ate some--and he *never* eats soup. Thank you, Amanda!!!

So yes, I'm counting this a successful Pin It and Do It for me--seven pins did (though I could only share five). Thanks again to our lovely hostess, Trish! You are so adored, lady!


7 comments:

Jean said...

I may just have to try that veggie broth recipe. Thanks for sharing!

Patty said...

well done with all your pins! I'm repinning the ornament - just love it!

Amanda Roper said...

Success!!! I'm so glad you enjoyed the soup. My husband asked me the other day to please make it again soon.

I'm glad I saw this post because it has reminded me that I need to write-up my Pin it and Do it finale post.

chrisa511 said...

Ummm…I am SO freaking in love with all of this!!!! Especially the black out poetry card!! That is such a neat and sweet idea :) Think I'm going to have to make Matt one of those. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE Maxidoodle's ornament :D And that soup looks to DIE for…totally trying that out! GO YOU :D

Carl V. Anderson said...

Ah, so cool! I love the blackout poetry. I can't recall the name of the guy who seems to have gotten this all started but it is such a cool idea and I'm so proud of you for diving in and doing it!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

*jumps up and down in excitement* 7 pins is fantastic Debi!! :) Though I'm sad we can't see them all. I'm wondering if I can guess at what those two might be?

Love the blackout poetry! And I haven't made veggie broth but I do chicken stock in the crockpot and love it. So nice being able to just pull it out of the freezer and add just the right seasonings to make it the way I want it to taste. Glad you had success with yours.

Joy Weese Moll said...

I love making stock with veggie bits and pieces -- and still getting to compost them! I feel so green when I do that. And it really does improve my soups.

Your soup looks great!