Cooking with Pinterest

After feeling quite proud of how many pins I had collected on my pinterest boards, the realization hit me that I never do any of this stuff.  Here I was pinning happily away but as soon as I pinned, I forgot about it and moved on to the next pin.  This behavior made me think about our new pinterest culture.  Is it simply like collecting stickers like we did as kids?  While I love all my pretty boards and being inspired by images that I want in my life, I decided I needed to take action on some of these ideas that I saved.  So I gave myself a new challenge - every couple of weeks, I will attempt to do something on pinterest. Most likely it will end up being cooking, photography, or wedding related but I am taking action with my pinterest board!

Last night was my first time to attempt my challenge.  I wanted to do something special to recognize one month of being engaged so we decided to cook together - something we always love doing.  I found a recipe off of pinterest and tweaked it slightly.  Ed tried it and said that I knocked it out of the park and asked me to please not forget what I did.  So below is the recipe - it is definitely worthy of not only pinning but actually cooking!  Enjoy!

 Chicken and Mushrooms in a Garlic White Wine Sauce

• 8 chicken tenderloins, 16 oz total
• 2 tsp butter
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 oz sliced mushrooms
• 1 golden onion, sliced in strips (the original recipe did not call for onion but I cook almost everything with onions!)
  
• 1/4 cup white wine (used Middle Sister Drama Queen)
  
• 1/3 cup fat free chicken broth (added a little more as it cooked down)
  
• salt and fresh pepper to taste

Add olive oil and butter to skillet and heat.  Add chicken to saute.  Throw in the wine.  Toss in the garlic.  After the chicken is half way cooked, add the onion that was cut in strips by fiance (sorry he is not on loan so get your own to help).  Add chicken broth. After onions have started to soften, throw in the mushrooms cleaned and sliced by fiance (he is the knife handler in the relationship). You may want to add a little more chicken broth if needed and one more tbsp of butter because that tastes good.  Cook until the liquid is almost gone and after fiance pokes at the chicken to make sure it is done.  

Serve over brown rice with english peas! Yum!!!

 If you want to see the changes I made, go to the original recipe that I pinned and tweaked.

Ed's favorite type of white wine is Sauvignon Blanc so I picked up a new bottle for us to try.  If you want a citrus, unique flavor of passion fruit kind of wine then try this one. The taste was very refreshing and we will definitely be getting it again.  Ed loved that it had a screw off cap but I missed the experience of uncorking the wine. Overall we gave the wine a 7.5 out of a scale of 1 to 10.

Kim Crawford 2011 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Indulging My Inner Belle: Pottery Obession

I never actually knew it until now but looking back I suppose I should have seen the classic signs.  Any clay piece with swirls of blues, greens, and browns always made me detour to stop and inspect. Yes, I am talking pottery.  Being recently engaged with all kinds of tips coming my way about everything including registries have allowed me to fully understand my obsession with pottery. Most brides-to-be want to talk flowers and centerpieces but I bypass those items to daydream about clay masterpieces.

I am not a china girl nor do I care about expensive bouquets at our wedding. Thankfully Ed could care less about these things....but then again what groom-to-be is obsessed about dishes that stay in a cabinet most of the year and flowers that will get thrown at the end of the night? I thought because those details lose their importance on me that I was super low maintenance when it came to wedding planning.  Then pottery walked into my life....well not really walked....but you understand what I mean.

Supposedly as a Southern Girl, I am told that I am to own a certain type of pottery, which for the purposes of avoiding slander shall remain nameless.  This unnamed pottery is quite lovely but was relatively unheard of in South Mississippi where I grew up. Okay, I will admit it - I never even heard of this type of pottery that graces every household until I moved to North Mississippi.  I actually had to have someone explain to me what it was.  Yes, I am making some of you Southern ladies shake your heads in disgrace right now.  And it only gets worse....even after it was explained to me about this precious clay collection, I can't identify it with 100% accuracy.  But my inability to be able to tell the difference between this line and other lines led me to my new favorite.

Last week, I went into a local store to gauge if future hubby and I should register for the "unnamed" pottery.  I picked out some gorgeous pieces that made me think I might just buy into the tradition of having  a few of these required pottery items. Feeling quite southern belle, I flipped over the piece to look for the signature marking at the bottom to realize that I had fallen head over heels for - gasp - another collection! Trying to convince myself to find the "unnamed" collection, I did some online research but no matter how hard I tried I could not quit going back to the beautiful designs of The Good Earth.

I called my matron of honor, who is truly a modern day Southern Belle, to ask her how many pieces of the required "unnamed' pottery she had.  And her answer confirmed another reason why we are meant to be friends: "Oh, I am a Good Earth girl."  Now, I know I am getting a tad ridiculous about pottery and North Mississippi tradition but the little belle came out in me and I decided I wanted to be a Good Earth girl too!  (Insert: Squeals and over the top girly jumpy right here!).

Yes, I know I am having a bonafide Legally Blonde moment right now but see for yourself in the picture below.  But I promise it is not all superficial desire for pottery. On the serious side, the pottery reflects what the South prides itself in - artistry.  By supporting our local artists, we aren't just giving into the required,  "Well the Jones have it so I have to have it," mentality. It actually goes much deeper into a support for Southern culture and our artists.  Ed always tells me he loves to buy cds, books, art, etc. to support the act of creating.  I agree.  Without art we wouldn't have beautiful things that surround us and help us celebrate life.  So I am proud to say I would love to surround myself with the following beautiful things while supporting our Southern artists. And, yes, I really really think it is so pretty! (Insert: Another girly squeal!).

The Blue Heron Pattern(from their website)

My favorites are the bluebird, the highlands, and the blue heron. 

If you have fallen in love with it too then you need to go to their website:
The Good Earth Gallery