Baked Egg Cups

So, my cousin's beautiful wife, Katie, pinned this recipe/breakfast idea. Having just tried something similar the other day I was intrigued. You see, my first attempt did not turn out so well. The eggs were ok, but it took FOREVER to scrub out the muffin tins for some strange reason. Oh well, here's the OP.

Source: amyskitchencreations.blogspot.com via Andrea on Pinterest

The directions were simple enough, preheat your oven to 350. Grease your muffin cups & drop your fixins into each cup & bake for 15 minutes.

My girls don't like the look of a yolk, so here's what I did: After greasing the cups, I dropped a couple of teaspoons of finely chopped spinach in the bottom of each cup. Next, I cracked an egg into each cup, piercing the yolk and "scrambling" it a bit with a wooden skewer. Next, I added half a pre-cooked sausage link, chopped of course, to each cup. Threw in some salt & pepper and called it a day.

Here are the cups, ready for the oven.

Here they are 15 minutes later, fresh out of the oven... yeah, not much different!

Since I generously greased my cups (ooh baby!) the eggs slid out easily & held their shape nicely.

Let's dig in!

These were very tasty! Imagine the combinations you could create with this.

Peppers & onions
Tomato & bacon
Sausage & peppers

I'm sure adding a sprinkling of cheese for the last 5 mins or so would make these SUPER yummy too! You could even make these ahead for a quick, grab & go breakfast. My family of 5 can go through a dozen eggs in a single breakfast! So give these eggs a try!

Have them on a bagel or english muffin if that's what you like.

We had them with out since we are trying on the paleo diet.

Until next time!!

Fruity Frozen Vodka Slush

Now that it's finally summertime, I have been wanting to try this pin from EAD Living.  An adult beverage full of promise of fruity flavor, ready to help cool down those hot, humid, summer afternoons.  On this site, we're urged to double the recipe because it's THAT good.  The following instructions are from the EAD Living site.  My notes are added in blue.  Let's see how it goes...

My inspiration pin

Ingredients:
8 cups water
3 cups white sugar
juice of 2 lemons
juice of 2 oranges
one 48oz can of pineapple juice
one 12oz can frozen Minute Maid grapefruit juice
one 12oz can of frozen Minute Maid lemonade
26oz Vodka - I prefer Ketel One (I prefer Absolute)

all the ingredients

Method:
First, make a simple syrup. Boil 8 cups water and stir in 3 cups white sugar. Continue to stir until the sugar incorporates with the water, for about 15 minutes. Let cool.  (I neglected to photo this step.  Easy enough, although my syrup took no where near 15 mins to incorporate... more like 5.  I love saving time!)

In a separate bowl, combine the juice of 2 lemons, 2 oranges, 1 48oz can of pineapple juice, 1 12oz can frozen Minute Maid grapefruit juice, 1 12oz can of frozen Minute Maid lemonade and 26oz Vodka.


Here are all the juices & vodka combined.

Once the simple syrup is cooled, add the juice/vodka mix to the syrup.

I had to switch to my stock pot to make room for the simple syrup.

Stir and transfer into an air-tight tupperware container(s) with lid(s). Freeze.

I do not have many plastic containers for freezing the slush, so I bagged my mixture.
Be careful!  You will get this sticky mess EVERYWHERE!

Ready to freeze.

When your guests arrive, stir the slush and fill the glass half-full with frozen vodka slush. Fill the rest of the glass with diet 7-Up. Enjoy!

Finished product!  So Pretty!

This frozen cocktail had a very nice consistency.

Now, keep in mind, this needs to freeze overnight before you can enjoy.  If you like fruity, tropically, drinks... this one is for you.  Hubs & I found it too pineappley.  Personally, I'm more a sour/tarty frozen drink girl.  We had so much of this mixture, I couldn't imagine doubling it!  We gave a lot away to thankful neighbors!

The directions were easy to follow.  The drink was tasty, but just not for us.  Maybe you'll try it and like it. If not, make your neighbors happy like we did!

Bubble Art

Today we had a great rainy day activity.  I saw this pin from fellow pinner, Kristina Sauerwein, she pinned it from Marcia Beckett's blog, Art is Basic.  To be honest, I didn't look up the directions from Marcia's blog, seeing that the OP's notes were all I needed.  Add food coloring to bubble solution and blow bubbles on the paper.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy baby!

I had a bottle and a half of bubble solution.  We had an extra wand from another botched attempt at a glow in the dark bubbles pin.

I also used giant milkshake straws for bubble wands too.

Here are the results:

Our Supplies

My bubble artists

Adding the food coloring

Is it Easter?

Mixa Mixa Mixa!

Dipping

Bubbling

Popping

L's Creation

V's Masterpiece

This activity kept us occupied for at least an hour!  I joined in the fun as well.  A word to the wise, wear an old shirt or an apron.  When you're close to the paper and the bubbles pop, you'll be splattered all over like a Jackson Pollock original!  It'll be on your shirt, on your table, on your walls, on your floor, on your arms, on your face... you get the picture!

We turned our newly dried creations into one of a kind birthday cards for Gramma (sshh!  Don't tell!)

Another Pinterest success!

Pull Apart Garlic Bread

Looks like I can't get enough of trying out promising Pinterest recipes!  I am so excited about this one.  It seems so easy with only 5 ingredients.  OK, the OP was Marine Willey.  She pinned this via The Virtuous Wife. 

The Recipe:

1 can Grands biscuits (NOT the flaky kind), cut into quarters
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning

The Directions:

I don't think these directions could get any easier.  I was hopeful that being so simple to follow that it would still turn out as wonderful as promised.

Here we go!

Our starting point

Our ingredients

Preheat oven to 350.  Melt 1/2 stick of butter in a bundt pan while the oven preheats.

While butter is melting, in a separate bowl, toss garlic, cheese, biscuits & seasoning.

 *The OP omitted the Italian Seasoning, I used Celestial Seasoning salad dressing mix in lieu of a traditional dried oregano, basil mixture.

Add biscuit mixture to the bundt pan with the melted butter.

Bake until golden brown.

 ** OP suggested baking for 20-22 minutes.  Mine took at least 25 minutes.

Invert the bread ring on to a plate & serve!

Here's hubs digging in... never mind the Diego place mat!

Mmmm...

This bread was crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.  We served ours along side steak, potatoes & steamed veggies.  This pull apart bread ring was devoured by my family of five in no time!

This recipe definitely passed the easy-peasy test!  And it was also super yummy!  I highly recommend this recipe if you like garlic bread and want a fancy looking side dish that is easy to prepare!

Hershey Kiss Pies

Just when I thought I'd be done testing Pinterest recipes, here I sit ready to share with you our latest sweet treat!  This was one of my first repins.

This easy peasy desert was originally pinned by Jayne Hale.  And comes from Jenny Flake's Picky Palate site.

Ok, let's get started with the recipe (my personal notes are in red):

Kiss Pies

1 refrigerated pie crust, thawed

14 Hershey Kisses (use your fave flavor... I used plain)

1 egg white whisked with 1 Tbsp water

Granulated sugar

Powdered sugar for dusting

Here we go... will I get as good results? Have I mentioned I'm not the best at baking mini anythings? lol

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

I Saw it on Pinterest!



Our Ingredients



 Roll out pie dough onto a lightly floured counter top.

Rolling out the dough

 Place 10 kisses around the edges of pie dough, about 2 1/2 inches apart (as in the photo below).

Spacing the kisses

Take a knife and cut a 2 1/2-3 inch circle around kiss. (I used a large biscuit cutter for mine). 

So much potential!

I even managed to get the sullen teen to whip up the egg wash.
See how talented she is?  Whipping with one hand, ipod-ing with the other!

 Fold half of pie dough around top of dough and pinch edge around top of kiss. 

Pinching up the sides

 Now, fold up both sides of remaining dough up to the tip of the kiss pinching edge. Next, press together edges and form criss cross.

So far so good

 Continue cutting dough around kisses until all dough is used up. I got about 14 rounds cut when I re-rolled my scraps.  Brush all little pies with an egg white wash then sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 20-28 minutes or until little pies are golden.

My apprentices have our pies oven ready

Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. 

Right out of the oven

Not too shabby!

Rut roh!
Admittedly, the dough for these were re-rolled.
I guess I didn't roll it thin enough.

 Dust each with powdered sugar and serve.

Dusted with powdered sugar & ready to eat!



Sweet!



 Our Kiss Pies didn't turn out as flat as the OP's.  I'm not sure if my dough wasn't thin enough.  I didn't roll out my pie crust any thinner than it was right out of the package.

The verdict?  Kids say, "Mmmm!"  Hubs says, "Those are good.  Not too sweet, just right."

Easy-Peasy?  Yes!  Yummy?  Yes!!





Another sweet Pinterest success!

Buttery Garlic Shrimp

Here we are again in my Pinterest Test Kitchen!  When I repinned this recipe last week I swore I would try it so here we are.  There is no real title for this recipe so I've dubbed it Buttery Garlic Shrimp.  I can't really call it Scampi since, to me, that is WAY over powering.  Anywho... we did this recipe for dinner tonight.  My family was skeptical at first.  Oh no!  Not something "new"!  Good gracious!  I get so tired of having the same thing week in and week out!  Don't you?

Ok, back to it.  The OP (Original Pinner), known as "Diana", claimed this was supposed to be "The Best Shrimp You Will Ever Taste!"  So, let's see!

Here is the recipe pin.  Easy peasy instructions. 

Preheat oven to 350. 
Line a shallow baking pan with foil. 
Melt a stick of butter in the pan.  (I chose to nuke my butter in the microwave.) 
Layer lemon slices on top of the butter.
Add the shrimp.
Sprinkle the Italian seasoning packet over the shrimp. (For whatever reason, I chose Hidden Valley's Italian Salad Dressing Seasoning Packet I'm not sure if the OP meant dried herbs like oregano, basil, etc. but the term packet made me think of that stuff anyway!)
Bake for 15 minutes.

Our ingredients!  Just enough for a family of 5.

Oven Ready

Buttery Italian Yummy Goodness

I'm thinking my shrimp aren't as golden as the OP's, since mine were peeled already.  Now, let me just say, if you don't already know me, we are a family of five and rarely do we agree on ANY dinner menus.  Everyone thought this was FABULOUS!  Even the sullen teenager said it was "yeah, pretty good."

We served ours with broccoli and brown rice.

So I asked my husband if he thought it was the "best shrimp ever".  He thought it was REALLY good and wished I doubled the recipe, but it comes in a close second to Red Lobster's Parmesan Shrimp.  So, I'm thinking next time I'll add a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

I drizzled a little of the herb butter from the pan over the shrimp.
Mmmm.....

Easy Peasy?  Yes!  Yummy?  Double Yes!!
So far, I'm two for two on Pinterest test recipes!  Yeah!

Can't wait to see what's next!