Pin 137, Pin 138, and Pin 139

Original pin:

http://mycrossfitpaleojourney.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/crockpot-honey-apple-pork-loin/

It's Pinterest for dinner tonight!

First up--apple and honey pork loin in the crock pot. I used Gala apples instead of red delicious, because that is what I had at the house. I don't think it made a difference.

It was easy enough to prepare--just honey, apples, pork loin, and cinnamon. Put it in the crock pot and let it cook all day. It smelled wonderful. When Wibzy and I came home from our errands in the afternoon he ran to the kitchen and started asking for donuts. (Ha! When I make homemade donuts, they have a little cinnamon in the batter so the house DID smell a little like donuts.) 

When I opened the crockpot that afternoon I was a little nervous. The whole dish was this ugly gray color. I don't think the pictures do it justice. It looked ashen. I thought it may have been cooked beyond the crisp into just ashes. I tried to capture it on film for you:

Looks appetizing, right?

 

After I cut it opened we were all relieved to find that the meat was white and moist, and oh-so-flavorful.The juice was golden.

 

I thought the apples would be able to be served as a side dish, but they had cooked so long they just fell apart. Once we sliced it up the gray color was no longer so obvious, and with the delicious taste it didn't really matter anymore. The apples basically just fell apart in the pork and in the sauce so we cut ours up and drizzled it with the apple-y sauce. There was no liquid added to the cooking process but it surprisingly made a lot of broth/sauce. Both the boys ate the pork and the apples.

Total cost: $10

Total time: 10 minutes prep, 7 hours cooking

Final verdict: We will probably make this again. It had a good flavor, few ingredients, and was easy. Just don't let your people see it first coming out of the crock pot!

Original pin:

http://www.sowonderfulsomarvelous.com/2010/01/cooking-challenged.html

Honey-balsamic glazed roasted carrots.

Well there is no way my family is going to eat 2 pounds of roasted carrots, so I had to downsize this recipe a little. I was looking for a quick and easy vegetable to serve alongside my pork and I thought the honey would tie the two together. I love the sweetness of reduced balsamic vinegar so I was all for this one.

The kids didn't love it. the carrots were still crunchy and they were expecting them to be soft. I don't know that they liked the balsamic taste to them.

It was hard to get a good picture of these because they were so orange they were messing with my auto-focus!

Total cost: $1.30 for 1 lb carrots

Total time: 10 minutes prep (only because I used whole carrots that needed to be peeled and cut. Faster if you use baby carrots.)

Final verdict: Not a kid dish in this house, but I thought they were good. Probably won't get used much around here.

Original pin:


http://monstermama-monstermama.blogspot.com/

7-Up biscuits. I have seen this one come up often on Pinterest.

I actually have made this a few times but never blogged about it. I first made them way back before this little blog was even born. They are sooo good. But since I have made them over and over I decided to tweak them a little this time.

Here is what I did:

Mix everything together as directed in the original. Where I changed it up is at the kneading. I didn't have time to clean up the mess kneading bread on the counter makes so I decided to skip this step. I melted the butter in my 9x9 pan in the oven. I mixed everything together in a bowl and then dumped it into the 9x9 pan on top of the butter. Spread the dough out evenly with a spatula. Then I took my pastry scraper and scored the bread into 9 squares. Not only did this avoid the mess of kneading on the counter but I also ended up with evenly sized pieces and no scrap leftovers. 

Bake as directed. When they were done they popped right out at the scores without any problems. Hooray for shortcuts! I didn't have the smooth tops that rolling them out would have given me, but the taste was exactly the same. My husband and kids love these biscuits. The first time we made these, the pan was gone before we even sat down to eat.

This is the only picture I got. Notice the pan is already half-empty and was completely empty just minutes after this shot.

I am a little passionate about bread. Around two-three years ago I stopped buying refrigerated breads, biscuits, doughs, etc. It is so easy, much more delicious, and you avoid so much processed ingredients to create your own.  (I'll admit, though, in a pinch I will resort to the premade stuff--but I can taste a difference now.)  I have a collection of my favorite dinner rolls, french breads, biscuits, pizza dough, etc. These are definitely in the list. (And I actually did skip the premade biscuit mix called for in the recipe and used the old fashioned flour, baking powder, salt, shortening method.)

Total cost: I had everything on hand already, so they were basically FREE!

Total time: 10 minutes to mix, 15 to bake

Final verdict: I think you know--I've raved about them enough by now. I know we will make these again. (From a fat/calories/carbs standpoint, they are not the healthiest think, so TRY and limit yourself--ha, ha! Just try! Bet you can't!)

Pins 54, 55, & 56

Original pin:

http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2010/08/everything-i-know-about-spray-paint.html

Spray painting furniture how-to

plus



http://serendipitychicdesign.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-distress-furniture-and-home.html

Overview of distressing painted furniture

plus




http://www.prettyhandygirl.com/2010/09/aging-is-so-distressing-techniques-for.html

Whoa. A triple pin project! A few months back I scored some new furniture for the boys future room (when I determine they are old enough to bunk together--which I hope is sooner rather than later). This furniture came from a friend who offered me a deal I couldn't refuse! It was truly a bargain. The furniture was in good condition structurally, it had just had a little love from the previous little boy so it needed a little tlc.

 My little one's dresser is literally falling apart. I can no longer put the drawers back together on a weekly basis AND keep my sanity. I decided it was time to start moving in the new furniture, beginning with the dresser. I read a lot of blogs about refinishing furniture. It was probably a little too much because my plan got a little muddy. The pins I shared here are the sites I actually used techniques from. The first pin inspired me to prime with spray paint rather than brush on primer. I quickly hand-sanded all the parts first and then put on a sturdy layer of Kilz spray primer. Then I started painting. After two coats, I decided I needed a third. After three coats, I decided I needed a fourth. I love deep, rich colors which always require extra paint. Such a chore. I have painted two rooms red (requiring three coats) and one room deep brown (requiring four coats) and I still go for these colors. I finally achieved the color and coverage I wanted.

Ready to distress

 I'm not going to lie to you. This is the point I got really nervous about the distressing part and nearly backed out. All this time and work to get the perfect color and now I was just going to bang it up? Something didn't feel right about this. What if I messed up the messing up part? But I am dedicated to the pin so I jumped right it before I could over think it any longer. (The second pin, above)

The stressed out drawers.

Now onto (what I thought was going to be) the final step. Providing a protective coat, per pin three above. I thought I was going to be really smart here and apply a sealing finish with a spray paint sealant specifically indicated for indoor furniture. I was horrified.

This spray sealer did this to my perfect paint job. It was powdery and gritty, and I was just so disappointed. When I finally pulled myself up by my bootstraps and went to the hardware store armed with these pictures, the paint expert took one look and said, "You spray painted over a water based paint? Can't do that. All spray paint is oil-based." Dang. Luckily he had a solution for me. I had to sand it down, again, and paint it, again, and seal it, again--but with a water-based sealant this time. And so I did. Sanding the whole piece, I actually was glad this had happened. I saw the effect of sanding the entire surface, not just the edges as I had done originally, and I really liked how it looked. Sanding made me brave. After the fifth coat of paint, I sanded much more aggressively than I had the first time and I was much, much more pleased with the results. Ready to seal, again. As soon as I started, though, I noticed that the sealant was smoothing out the texture that the sanding had provided.

See the difference between the top and the bottom color and texture, this is after the sealant had dried.

 I was not going to sand or paint this thing again. So I just stopped. Nope, no sealant. What is the worst thing that can happen? The paint might scratch off. Great! I've already spent a lot of time doing that intentionally. So I put the knobs on the drawers, put the drawers back in, sanded off the three or four slats of sealant, and called this turkey done.

One other non-pin related snag I had with this project--I intended to replace the knobs. However, after taking them off I found they are some sort of fancy custom knob that would require me to repair the current holes and drill new ones. At that realization, I decided these knobs would work fine.

Total cost: $30 because I bought way too much paint and two kinds of sealant. Not including the price of the dresser. It was a steal and part of a set.

Total time: I feel like I've been working on this for absolutely months, but probably more like 3 weeks, off and on. I needed recovery time in between defeats.

Final verdict: I love the way it turned out. I have two more pieces of the set I am going to do in this color because I have so much extra paint. However, I will be buying an electric sander before I start the next piece.