Snap, CRACKLE, Pop

OK, let's be fair, really I just wanted to use the Rice Krispy slogan because nothing about this paint job reminds me of breakfast cereal and I didn't snap OR pop when I was done.

One of the great things about Pinterest, as you'll find out with this short post and the next (much more involved) post is that I feel a little more confident to try things I haven't tried before. I've never thought of myself as a "smokey eyes" gal or a "nail art" gal and when I saw a staff member with the crackle/shatter top coat last year I was blown away-- it looked SO COOL! But, Sam was a much more chic person-- she's several years younger (literally only several, though, I kind of sequester myself to old-ladydom since I'm married and run a child care center) and way more fashion forward than myself so I didn't think about it until I saw it on Pinterest again.

Then I saw this one:

(via)

And thought, "You know what, I run a child care center and it would be AWESOME to do this for Halloween!"

So, to start things out, I thought I'd go sorority-tastic and do a red and white combo since I thought it would be the least loud combination I could come up with to start myself out. I happen to think it turned out alright!

Of course, for the next week I was craving peppermint bark, but my cool points went up infinitely with the 2-5th grade girls!

Products Used: Sally Hansen Snow Blast Crackle Overcoat, Sinful Colors Professional in Ruby Ruby
Time: Minimal-- an hour or two, which is long for nails but not for nail ART! (ha) I do suggest letting the bottom coat dry for a while if it's significantly darker. I noticed a little red coming off on my white, so I waited an hour and didn't have that problem.
Cost: About a $10 up front investment since I got them both on sale, but I'll definitely use both colors again, probably at Christmas :)

Caprese Breakdown

We still had some tomatoes and mozzarella left (the basil decided to peace out, the little twerp!) after those caprese bowls/balls/bakes and I love that caprese salad so I thought to myself, "Now that you have some balsamic vinegar, you could make a REAL variation on caprese!"

Yeah, anyone notice something wrong with this picture?

Correctamundo, dear reader, the Red Wine Vinegar and the Balsamic Vinegar have a nearly identical label and I did not manage to notice this until AFTER I'd started dashing a decidedly NOT dark substance on my deconstructed caprese!

Before that, I chopped up the tomato...

And pulled out some mozarella balls to be quartered...

Then tossed it all together with the salt, olive oil, and red wine vinegar...

Gotta love the glow of olive oil on mozarella! And the red wine vinegar actually wasn't a bad addition-- you have to super like sour stuff, though, because it was on the tart side. Thankfully, I adore sour/acid so it was right up my alley. I ate the tomatoes first and let the cheese soak up some of the liquid... superb!

Rating: Easy Peasy
Cost: Cheap-- it's leftovers!
Conclusion: Delish! Definitely a great "re-hashed" leftovers sort of deal

Bacon Chipotle Poppers

Oh, wow, y'all-- if I've learned nothing else from Pinterest, it's that you can make anything with crescent rolls. ANYTHING. And those of you who know me know that I would DIE for bacon. Or because of it. I haven't figured out which yet...

I saw this on Pinterest, a recipe from Lindsay over at "From the Aisle to Aloha"-- it had bacon and a title that referenced one of my favorite rap songs, what wasn't to like?

I bought my husband as an only semi gag gift a product called "Chipotle Toppers" from our local Marshall's which is just pre-chopped chipotles in adobo sauce ready to squeeze on to unsuspecting and bland sandwiches.

Since we love chipotle almost as much as we love bacon, I decided to use that instead of the jalapenos. I then raced to the store and promptly bought BACON and CREAM CHEESE! Wait, I'm missing something... oh, right, crescent rolls.

Two days later...

I cook-a the bacon-- I chopped it up first so it didn't get over-cooked and so I didn't have to worry about evenly sized pieces in the poppers.

I took Lindsay's advice and cut the crescent rolls in half-- I'd say that if you're a little clumsy like me, your first time around it wouldn't hurt to try it just with the regular crescent rolls.

I chopped off a small block of cream cheese and then cut the ends off to fill the pastry

Add cream cheese

Add chipotle 

Add bacon

I could just eat that now, right?

After about 10-15 minutes in the oven at 350 they were ready to go!

The only change I made was that instead of twisting the tops up, I sort of went for the diaper/swaddle fold with the three-sided pastry. and didn't have any problems with the filling busting out. 

Rating: Easy
Cost: Cheap
Conclusion: There were no leftovers. Need I say more?

Baked Caprese, Caprese Bowls, Caprese Balls...

OK, so I'm not starting this off right since this one didn't originate from a specific Pin, but there were so many awesome Caprese salad variations I just went for this one on a whim! I was still INSPIRED by Pinterest, so it counts, right? OK, fine, I'll get around it by pinning it myself!

All you need is a few fresh tomatoes with the top half scooped out, some mozarella (I used mozarella balls from the farmer's market) and some basil! I topped it off with a little kosher salt and some olive oil, then popped them in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes. Next time, however, I will poke some holes in the bottom of the tomatoes because the juice almost got in the way of enjoyment. I didn't have any balsamic vinaigrette, but I picked some up the other day and will be adding it to round 2: deconstructed caprese! 

Rating: Easy Peasy
Cost: Cheap
Conclusion: Delicious-- if you like caprese salad, you have to give this a try! People will think you're super fancy!

A Pinterest A Week Makes me Kind of a Geek

If you asked me what my most favorite thing on the internet was two weeks ago, I would have gone between Jenny Lawson at The Bloggess and Karen at The Art of Doing Stuff-- those women are AWESOME! Jenny is just flat out funny and Karen... man, if I had half of Karen's get-up-and-go I could no longer quote Aerosmith.

So where do I find my middle ground? Where do I find my space on the internet? I tried being snobby and private-collegey and that just didn't work; I have friends who are snobbier than I am so I just looked stupid all over again! I have my own business, Agape Events, but I felt like some of my posts over there were a little too much for an events blog-- I get so carried away when I find something that inspires me I can't contain myself and self editing has ALWAYS been a thing for me...

Along comes Pinterest. Oh, Pinterest, my love for thee is unending! Every time I thought about a website I wish I could have designed, it's Pinterest. I come across so many things and bookmarking just doesn't do it for me-- I'm way more visual than "Pearl Necklace Tutorial" and I forget about it, which I DON'T want to do!

Pinterest has changed this, and I'm hoping I don't jinx myself by making this blog, but my goal isn't a Pinterest a Day, but at least a Pinterest a week-- A Pinterest a Week just doesn't sound very cute and I couldn't think of a sweet little rhyme. Meek? Beak? Leak? Deke? Geek? Oh, wait... A Pinterest a Week Makes me Kind of a Geek? 

Oh, well, the name is here so let's get some real posts up!