Pinterest Experiment 8 - Easy Peanut Butter Pie

One of my mother-in-laws passed away this year. She made the BEST peanut butter pie I've ever had. I have the recipe somewhere in my tons of paperwork (that I intend to organize). I've made that particular recipe many times before.

This recipe is almost identical to her pie.

Here is the original pin.

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter
8 oz cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
2-12 oz. bowls cool whip.

Check out the pin for mixing and layering. It's fool-proof unless you do something like don't leave it in the freezer/refrigerator long enough. Believe it or not, I have NOT made that mistake. But while traveling over the river and through the woods to Grandmaw's house, it can melt some. Be sure you stick it in the fridge or freezer to chill again.

This is one of my husband's favorite pies. I added Reese's peanut butter cups on top in this pie for Thanksgiving. But the pb cups are not necessary. It's plenty good without them.

Pinterest Perfect 7 - There's A Map For That Necklace

This pin is not a DIY project. I also use Pinterest to find gifts. We usually go the gift card route for birthdays and Christmas. We actually did that for most of the Christmas presents this year. But for my sister, I found this necklace on Pinterest. I thought it would be a cute gift because she is a world-traveler.

My sister's job carries her all over the country and the globe. I meant to take a pic with her wearing the necklace. I plum forgot.

But here is the pin.

The necklace is from ModCloth. It was $19.99 plus shipping.

The only problem was ... she is not big into jewelry. hahaha!!! You can't win them all. She loved the necklace, but I'm pretty sure she will display it on a dresser or a knick-knack rather than wear it.

But hey, it's the thought that counts right? She blew the gift she gave me out of the ballpark giving me a FitBit. So yeah the gift I gave her gets a womp womp...

Pinterest Experiment 6 - Santa Claus Wreath

This one turned out Not Pinterest Perfect! I got the sadz taking this wreath down last night and storing him for next year. I loved pulling into our driveway and seeing this wreath on the door. Nobody else in our neighborhood had this wreath. He was a couture wreath!

This is one you do not want to wait until Dec. 22nd to make. I made this one at the beginning of December. Next year the day after Thanksgiving I'm hanging it up!

Here is the original pin.

This project was so fun! And time consuming! But worth every minute of it. I'm not good at crafts, as we all know by now. So I took my time and yes it took about five hours over three nights to finish this.

Here is the supply list:

12" styrofoam wreath

3" red ribbon

gold rope [Christmas Section]

hot glue

red ornaments, regular size (you will need about 30 or so)

2 boxes tiny red ornaments (you will need about 30 or so)

tiny red, foam balls (I did not use any foam balls because I could not find any)

It was a ballalooza overkill! Fact: you do not need as many ornaments as seen in the above picture. I used felt and a sparkly gold padded material for the belt. I was completely over the whole thing by the time I made the belt. So yes, the buckle is too SMALL for the belt. haha! Better luck next time.

I plan on making one for my mother-in-law if I can find more red ornaments. I suspect that one will be easier. The hardest part was making that belt buckle. Seriously, it was tough. But I finally learned how to use a glue gun. I also gained crafty confidence after this one.

It came out Not Pinterest Perfect! but I loved this experiment.

Pinterest Experiment 5 - Cheesecake Cookies

Cheesecake, cheesecake, cheesecake. Wow, I'm a girl in love with cheesecake. This recipe turned out really good, although just like with the Trisha Yearwood Crock-pot Chocolate Candy it seemed like I was missing something. It was good, but not must-eat-an-entire-batch great.

I made a batch for Emily's daycare staff for Christmas. I also made these for a Christmas friend gathering. Both times people raved about the cookies.

Here is the original pin.

The list of ingredients is not too long:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
Graham Cracker Crumbs, for coating

HOWEVER, both times I ended up using graham cracker crust for the coating. I had to based on, you guessed it - Wal-Mart - either being out of regular plain graham crackers or they do not carry them at all. All the boxes they did carry were flavored with cinnamon or honey.

I think the pie crust may have affected the coating of the cookies. Not in a bad way, but I'm curious to see how it turns out with actual graham crackers.

The pin explains how to make the cookies. It's relatively easy, except, she instructs to form the cookies into balls. I'd advise flattening them a bit.

The batch I made for the daycare staff turned out a lot of cookies, but I thought they were too small. The next batch I made them as big as regular cookies (flat, bigger than coin-size though). These turned out a lot tastier.

Once they come out the oven, they are bigger and flatter than when they went into the oven.

They are not pretty. But they were delish and easy. Especially for the holidays when we are smacked down busy like our pants are on fire for a month. I'll definitely put these in the cookie rotation.

Pinterest Experiment 4 - Trisha Yearwood's Crock-pot Chocolate Candy

Who doesn't love Trisha? Or Garth? I have never actually watched her show. Honestly the fact that it was Trisha's recipe is not the thing that convinced me to make this. It was because of the good ol' trusty Crock-pot (except when you don't turn it on - this has happened to me twice in the past).

The crockpot is quite possibly one of the greatest inventions for the kitchen.

The original pin is here.

I won't go through all the details of the recipe because the pin will explain it much better than I ever could. But the list of ingredients is a tad lengthy and can become somewhat expensive.

2 lbs (36 oz) salted dry-roasted peanuts
4 oz (4 squares) German's sweet chocolate
1 12-oz package semisweet chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
2½ lbs white almond bark

It doesn't seem like it would be expensive, but you have to buy two cans of the peanuts and two packages of the white almond bark.

I had to buy vanilla white almond bark because that is all my store (Wal-Mart) had at the time. I did not like the vanilla flavoring, but others did.

Follow the pin on how to layer the crock-pot. I let it sit on low for one hour, then I stirred the ingredients. I was unsure if the bark had actually melted, but it in fact melted. So I was good to go for the next hour.

You may want to use a crock-pot liner for this recipe. It is messy, but I soaked the crock-pot after I made the candy and the chocolate cleaned off with no problem.

Ingredients after the first hour:

In the muffin cups, ready to eat: 

I added sprinkles for a bit of holiday cheer. Overall this is an easy project.

It makes TONS though. I made this for Thanksgiving. I have a small family and we had so much leftover I gave some to friends.

I think this would be good for a church gathering or school dessert (beware the peanut allergies though cause this has hundeds of peanuts). You'll want to use it for an event to feed a lot of people.

Pinterest Experiment 3 - Holiday garland

Well, haha! It's after Thanksgiving and Christmas and I'm just now posting these. Seeing as how I don't have many followers, not too many people are affected by this. But, we all know how it is during the holidays. So, these next few posts will be catch-up.

First up is holiday garland.

The original pin is here.

So I loved this pin because the possibilities are endless! You can have a Thanksgiving one, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, etc.... all you need are ornaments. Now is the time to get those ornaments on sale and gahhhhh!!!! I'm having a hard time finding any. I waited oh a day or so too long.

I first made a Thanksgiving garland. I have a small dining area that actually does not have curtains, but blinds. The curtains are a project for 2014. So needless to say that area is very boring. The garlands definitely gave the area pizazz.

All you need to make this is ribbon (be sure it will be sturdy enough to hold all the ornaments) and the ornaments themselves. I used about 50 or so, but I also included small ones which do not take up a lot of space. So expect to use more ornaments if you use small and large ornaments.

I added sparkly branches at the ends to cover up the ribbon.

I only had a basic drop of the ornaments. But if you look on the original pin, that author made nice dips with the garland.

Thanksgiving:

Hmmm, that big gap on the left was fixed after this pic was taken.

Christmas:

The great thing about this project is you can suit it to your own preferences. I'm halfway thinking about doing an Easter one, but I'm trying to hoard ornaments for an Easter wreath.

This is also a project kids can help with because they can string the ornaments with you. For the Thanksgiving one, I was unsure how this would turn out so I did it by myself. For the Christmas one, my child helped me somewhat. She's three, so she got bored quickly.