Day 9 of Pinterest

Day 9...Day 8 was 7 days ago. Maybe more. But the rules have changed. You can read more about that on my homepage...Today I worked hard all day at my job. As hard as I could feeling as miserable as I did. My allergies that I haven't had since I've lived in New Mexico have come back and I am not happy about it! The timing is awful. The kiddos wanted something sweet. I've been wanting to make no bake cookies like my mom used to make for a while now and that's what I started out to make...Then I realized the kids had drank the last of the milk. I had my butter melted already and I thought about the recipe for marshmallow popcorn I had seen on Pinterest. I looked it up and sure enough it took 1/2 C butter just like no bake cookies and I also had everything else I needed. So I proceeded to melt butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows.
The recipe on Pinterest I have pinned says that you can use 2T of corn syrup OR honey. I used honey because guess what? We are out of corn syrup. I'm always out of one thing or another or several things. Once we are in the new house though, my main goal is to stock up on all of my baking and cooking essentials since we will finally have a pantry to fill! Next I poured the gooey mixture over a bag of microwaved popcorn I had poured in a bowl and mixed it all together. I then poured that onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and let it cool.   Then I ate way too much of it. The End.


Not really.  Not really the end I mean.  I really did eat way too much especially for someone who is on a low-carb diet and has been on a nine day streak without eating any refined sugars.  Oh well a little won't hurt too much as long as I get right back on track, right?  I'm a little plumper than I'd like to be so I decided to go low carb for a while.  I get my real cheat day on June 11th which is my birthday.  I'm being as good as I possibly can (the popcorn is just a little oops) so I can eat strawberry cake!  Then it will be right back to eating clean again. 

Until then I will just have to trust my family to be the taste testers!

Day 8---I ❤ My Blender!

Hi!  Remember me? The girl who set out to do all kinds of fun and amazing and creative things found on Pinterest every single day of the year?  I know I've been MIA for a few days, but you would not believe the things going on around here!  The kids are out of school, we've been busy busy at work, Kraig and I are in the process of finding a new home plus planning our wedding, planning our July vacation to New Mexico, and so much more!  I'm not giving up though!  And as I said in my last little post, I'm still at it.  I've found the time to stay with my Pinterest activities, it's just this blogging I can't seem to find time for!  I may have to schedule my blogging time for weekends only.  Just seems like the only way! For now, I wanted to see if I could catch up a little.  I thought I would fill you in on some of the things I have been doing with my beloved blender...

There she is!  Isn't she so awesomely vintage?  This chic is from the 70's and still running great! (Not me!  The blender!)  My Grandma King gave it to me probably 10 years ago.  I very seldom used it until recently.  No specific reason I didn't...I think I just kind of forgot about it.  As you can imagine though it is VERY special to me.  And the fact that I can use it still to make my kids yummy stuff is really cool!  I love telling my daughter stories about how my grandma taught me to cook as I am in turn teaching her. 

The last couple of weeks I've put my completely awesome blender to work and it's thanks to Pinterest!  Remember those frozen coffees I first wrote about?  Well, that's when I brought her out of retirement.  Since then shes been whipping up coffees, frostees, and shakes galore!  It's been perfect for this extremely hot hot weather we've had. 

I've pinned and used SOOOO many drink recipes.  But wouldn't you know...I didn't take pictures of my final product.  Around here edibles and drinkables don't hardly last long enough for a picture.  They're doomed from the start to be gulped down by my family of diehard foodies!  So, anyway for now I want to share a simple recipe I've used a ton the past couple of days:

2 C Ice cubes
3/4 C milk
1/4 C Hershey's syrup (We've been using the sugar free because I'm doing a low carb thing right now...)
1/4 C sugar (or 3 or 4 packets of Splenda~again the low carb thing.  I'll fill you in more on that later!)

I put my ice cubes into the blender first, followed by the syrup, then the milk, then the sugar.  I doubt that the order I put them in really makes a difference, but I like pouring the syrup over the ice...Don't ask!  Just another one of my weird quirks.  I've got plenty of those that's for sure.  So anyway, back to making this frosty drink.  Blend at the highest speed until all the ice cubes and milk and sugar and syrup have turned into a frosty, smooth, yummy drink!  We also tried it with caramel syrup.  Oh my goodness!  It was great.  Tasted like homemade vanilla ice cream.

Well, that's all I have time for tonight.  I'm still working out some kinks on all this blog stuff.  Hoping to compile a list of recipes soon with pictures along with other projects and things I've been working on.  I love love love sharing all of this.  Hopefully someone else will enjoy it too if I eventually get the hang of things! 

BRB!

Whoa!  Isn't today supposed to be like Day 10 or 11 or something???  I'm behind on my blogging, but not to worry!  I've been super busy with Pinterest activities and am proud to say that I'm still meeting my challenge, and still LOVING Pinterest!  Hopefully I will be able to catch up on here soon and post pictures and recipes and all that good stuff.  I'm also going to be re-vamping my whole blog...I'm just a really busy mom, wife-to-be, full time xray tech, cook, maid, etc, etc, etc...You get the drift.  I'm busy!  Anyway, gimme a couple of days (I hope!) and I will be caught up again.  And BTW, I'm not sure who reads my posts, but there's quite a few of you, so I just wanna say thanks!  I first started this just for myself as an outlet for my creativeness...I went so long without that.  If a person isn't careful they can lose themselves.  I did for a while, but I'm back.  Anyway, THANKS!  :)  Makes me feel good.

Day 7

Did I tell you I'm planning a wedding?  Yup, I'm getting married.  Again, I have to stress, I am NOT engaged.  Still waiting for that ring.  And let me tell you, it gets bigger and prettier everyday...in my mind anyway!  Seriously though, I'd marry this guy if he got down on his knee and pulled out a ring pop!  Regardless if my ring ends up being edible or not, I'm not considering us being officially engaged until then.  That doesn't mean I haven't started planning.  Kraig and I both started talking over wedding ideas two weeks after meeting each other.  We just knew.

Wedding ideas are really the things that first got me using Pinterest so much.  It's full of stuff!  And for ANY type of wedding.  Our wedding is not going to be large.  It will be intimate with our kids, parents, and hopefully some siblings.  It will be outdoors.  Nonetheless it will not be lacking.  Other than the small number of guests we are going the whole nine yards with dress, cake, flowers, photographer, more flowers, and most important LOVE and FAMILY.  Probably a little stress too.  But I promise not to turn into a bridezilla!

When we first started talking about our wedding we had the idea of getting married at a cabin in one of the most gorgeous places in Kentucky, the Red River Gorge.  I came across some great ideas on Pinterest for that kind of wedding.  As I was showing Kraig what I found we also came across some ideas for a barn wedding.

The picture above is my favorite pin.  We will be getting married on October 27th, so if all goes as planned we will also be using similar colors.  The trees around here are magnificent in the fall!

As I was working on Thursday I was lucky enough to visit a patient that lives at the top of  a beautiful hill in Northern Kentucky.  On the way up the hill I spotted THE barn!  In my eyes it's perfect for a wedding.  Surrounded by trees that  are sure to be brilliant colors of orange, gold, and red come October.  The thing about this barn that stood out to me is that it's white.  In Kentucky the barns are usually black or weathered gray.  I feel that white is so fitting for a wedding.  I took pictures and showed them to Kraig when I got home.  He agreed with me.

So, there it is.  I found it.  Now I'm leaving it up to Kraig to check into things and speak with the owners to see if it's a possibility.  I have a good feeling he can convince the owners to let us use it.  If  they will we will then decide if we want to do it there or go with the cabin idea.  I'm so excited!

I will continue to post updates as we go along.  Hopefully, it won't be too long before I can post an engagement announcement.  ;)

Days 6,7,& 8

Ok, ok, ok.  I know that putting 3 days in one is slacking and it's kind of like cheating, but come on...It's hot, and I'm tired, and...it's hot!  Besides that my entire apartment complex had no electricity today from 6 am.  until 7pm.  I don't know why???  I'm still confused at how that can happen at such a large complex in Cincinnati.  People, this is not the hills!  And it's over 90 degrees outside!  Ugh!  So, you just need to give me a break!  And I really haven't been slacking.  I've been going nonstop for the past couple of days.  AND how can it be cheating if there are no rules?  Remember when I said that?  So, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!

Sorry.  Did you think that was directed at you?  Nope, it wasn't.  That was me arguing with my biggest critic: ME.  Yes, I not only talk to myself, but I also argue and then type it in a blog.  Have I gone mad?  I'm afraid so.  I'm entirely bonkers.  But I'll tell you a secret.  All the best people are!  Know what movie that's from?  I'll give you three guesses...
Oh, you are good!  Yes, it's Alice In Wonderland.  Just watched it on blue ray for the first time last night.  Awesome!  I love all Tim Burton and of course Johnny Depp movies! 

Guess what else I got to see?  Men in Black III.  It was also AWESOME.  Kraig and I got to see it at a private screening at midnight on Thursday.  Or would that be Friday?  Do you know that I've never even seen I or II?  I've led a pretty sheltered movie life.  As you can imagine seeing a movie at midnight makes for a very long night with little sleep.  In fact Kraig and I got about an hour.  That's because after the movie we decided to go grocery shopping. 

Are you wondering how any of this can possibly have anything to do with Pinterest?  Well it does.  Thursday was day 6 and for my challenge...Drumroll please!  I made a grocery list!  Why do I imagine crickets chirping?  Where's the applause?  Sorry to disappoint, but let me explain.  I never ever use a grocery list.  I make them.  But I leave them at home.  I'm a little forgetful.  You know, I am recently self diagnosed with ADHD.  It just makes sense to me.  Because blondes can't just be this way because of their hair color, right?  It sounded good to me.  Better than being bipolar.  That was my self-diagnosis for last month.  Next month I promise you, I will diagnose myself with something else.  Hopefully it won't be terminal!  Ok, so those of us who suffer with self diagnosed ADHD have very little organization skills.   I decided I needed some organization in my life!   I looked up grocery list on Pinterest.  To my satisfaction I found several good lists made by some amazing people who have much more patience (and time!) than I do.  Here is the one I used:

Sorry the image is difficult to read without a magnifying glass.  But here's the link:
Grocery Shopping List

This website is really good!  Lots of neat stuff!  I'm going to continue to pin and blog more from this site.  Back to my grocery shopping.  This list was very thorough and organized.  So easy to use.  I love the space on the side for price matching and the list of meals.  I have only price matched a few times, but it was always a hassle.  This is a great way to do it.  I'm trying to be a little more thrifty, frugal even.  It's not only just the smart thing to do, but it can be so much fun and it feels good too! 

So that's day 6.  Now on to day 7.  Nevermind.  I changed my mind.  Day 7 and 8 are going to be separate posts.  I have to apologize.  See that's another typical symptom of self diagnosed ADHD.  We find it hard to make decisions and when we do make a decision we rarely stick with it.  On to the next post!

Day 5

Awesome!  We are on Day 5 and I'm still here!  Today's post is short and sweet, but I haven't felt the best and well, lets just face it...there will be days like this.  When I say sweet, I mean it.  I made a pineapple sheet cake.  Of course I found the recipe on Pinterest and of course I didn't follow it.  I am out of white sugar.  Do you know how horrible it is to be without sugar???  Oh yeah, besides Pinterest I am also addicted to sugar (and all carbs!)  So anyway, I'm out of white sugar but did have brown sugar.  Did you know that you can pretty much substitute brown sugar for white in all baking?  It obviously makes your baked item a little darker and also has a slightly different taste.  But heck, when you are down and out it'll do!  So I proceeded to make a pineapple sheet cake with brown sugar.  I also didn't have enough of ALL the ingredients for the icing.  I had enough to make about half a batch.  It's soooo time to go to the grocery store!  So, what I did was made it a little thinner but with all the same ingredients and poured it over the cake while the cake was still hot.  It soaked in a little and made it fantabulous!  It was rich and gooey and warm and just pure yumminess. 

So here it is...That indention there is the big ol' bite mark I put in it before I realized that maybe I should take a picture now since this was my third piece and I wouldn't (shouldn't!) be having any more for the rest of the night (unless I wake up at 3am thinking about it!!!)  So so good!  I'll be putting this along with all the other recipes I've found on Pinterest and also a few of my own that I plan to have available for pinning on my Tracy Lynn Cooks page eventually.  As for now, I'm being summoned by someone who loves me lots and has been feeling a little neglected since I've started all this blogging stuff.

Day 4 of 365 Days of Pinterest!

See this guy?

I really love him...A LOT.  That's Kraig, my boyfriend....Well, fiance, but I can't call him that yet because he hasn't "officially" asked me...because he's taking his sweet little time getting me a big pretty ring since I am spoiled and he thinks that's what I need...but we have a date set!  So yeah, he's the guy I'm going to marry here pretty soon.  Today while searching on pinterest I came across an amazing pin that got the wheels turning in my head and has caused my heart to swell and gives me a lump in my throat.  This means so much to me.  Let me explain.
First a little history...In 2008 way before Kraig and I met he was diagnosed with throat cancer.  It started as a sore throat that kept being diagnosed and treated as strep throat.  Finally he went to an ent who immediately diagnosed Kraig with throat cancer.  He was only 36 years old.  Kraig has never been a smoker or a drinker.  He took very good care of himself.  He had even been a personal trainer for 9 years.  It just goes to show that cancer is not picky.  It can be random and spontaneous and no one is immune to it!  He was started on a series of radiaton and chemotherapy back to back that lasted a total of 12 weeks.  12 weeks that as he has described to me as being an awful experience yet life-changing.  Somewhere around his 5th week of treatment he lost 100lbs in an unbelievable 7 days!  He told me that he was so weak and miserable that at one point he felt so bad and just felt like he couldn't make it through another treatment.  Thank God his doctor's assistant called him and she convinced him to keep going.  I so badly want to meet this woman and thank her someday!   A few weeks after the end of the treatments his CT showed that the cancer was gone!  I can't explain to any of you how often I think about what Kraig went through and how it makes me feel.  I am so thankful that he is here with me today healthy and in my eyes so very perfect!  I have always been a worrier, full of stress and anxiety and I'm known to let the smallest things turn my world upside down.  Since Kraig has come along, when I am about to have one of those moments he reminds me how precious life is and that the things I tend to put so much negative emphasis on are in reality so small and unimportant.  What's really important is that we are alive and healthy and we have love in our lives that some people are never lucky enough to find.
As I was browsing and pinning today I came across this:

I was amazed to see that all the cancers have their own ribbon.  Of course we are all so familiar with the pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness because of the number of peoples lives it affects is so great.  I was really excited to see that head and neck cancer had a ribbon.  As I said before, once I saw this the wheels in my head started turning.  I googled "throat cancer ribbon" to see what I could find.  Here are a couple of images I found and liked for my idea...

And just what is my plan?  Well in less than a month I will be turning 34.  At that time exactly 16 years ago I got my first and only tattoo.  I've got a butterfly on my left ankle.  Over the past 16 years I've wanted more but it's just never happened.  Well this year it's going to happen.  I will be getting my second tatt and it will have the burgandy and ivory throat cancer ribbon incorporated into it in some way.  I plan on having someone (Hopefully Miss Kayla!) custom draw a design for me.  As of now I am undecided on if I will get it on my chest (left side because he is my heart!) or on the back of my neck. 
I love this man.  I'm going to marry this man.  He has brought so much meaning to my life.  So much love that I never realized truly existed.  I have no doubt in my mind that just as sure as I am that I will spend my life with him that I want this tattoo. 
What will Pinterest bring me next?!?!

Day 3

Here we are on day 3 and the first weekday of my challenge.  Thirty minutes ago as I was lazing on the couch I was 99.9% sure that day 2 was going to be my last post...Today was a Monday, and a typical Monday at that!  I work full time as a mobile x-ray tech.  I go to people's homes and do the exams ordered by the physicians I work with on patients who are home-bound and have a hard time getting out.  Well, in order to do an x-ray I have to have an x-ray machine.  An x-ray machine is not a simple little piece of equipment as you can probably imagine if you've ever had an x-ray in a hospital.  My machine weighs about 100 lbs...Cincinnati is built on hills.  Nearly every home I go to has steps just to get to the front door.  Sometimes 3 or 4 steps, sometimes 25 steps. Then typically those homes are 2 stories, sometimes 3.  And wouldn't you know that the home-bound patient more often than not lives on the very top floor.  Anyway, what I'm getting at is that my job can be freakin' hard some days!  Today was one of those days.  I started it off by taking my machine to the 3rd floor of a building just to find out that my patient was on the bottom floor.  Tonight I was TIRED!  Dinner was Pizza Hut and my first night to use our new gym membership that Kraig got us was a big ol' FAIL.  I wasn't going to do anything at all.  But then I really started thinking about it and knew I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't do something from Pinterest.  I really did not want to declare my little escapade a failure after 3 days.  I knew there would have to be something I could do especially since I've really not given myself any rules to follow.  So I started brainstorming...and pinning of course.  Finally I came up with the idea to do some photo editing.  I love photography.  I don't consider myself a photographer. I don't have a fancy camera and I don't know if the photos I take here and there are very good, but I love doing it.  And even more than taking pictures I love editing them.  I'm by far no expert.  I've used different photo editing software and what I know about them is strictly from what I teach myself.  I really liked the Picasa Piknik online editing.  As of April they shut it down.  One of the websites it recommended to start using was PicMonkey.  I've used it several times and it's a lot of fun. Pinterest had several pins about PicMonkey and one with a few tips.  So...I went ahead and started a new board for photography and am going to spend some time editing a few pictures I've taken here and there around Ohio and Northern Kentucky.  That's one of my favorite parts of my job.  I get to travel to see patients in the country.  I always have my camera with me in case I see something that is photo-worthy to me!

I thought this beat up mailbox I saw along a country road looked pretty cool...
Played with it a little on PicMonkey and made it even cooler:

 Have you ever wondered why we spend lots and lots of money on digital cameras and software so we can make our pictures look like they were taken with that old polaroid mom had and then kept in a dusty atic for years and years?  I just think it's ironic.  I don't know about everyone else, but I miss those good ol' days and anything that can give me a little nostalgia is perfectly fine!

Here's a picture of Derryk's girlfriend, Kayla, and there's Derryk in the background.  Hi Derryk!  They are always taking goofy pictures.

And here's what I did with PicMonkey:

Sorry Derryk!  You are still in there somewhere! 
Look at that eye color...

K, since I practically faded Derryk out of that pic, I'll do one last edit of him...

And here it is now...

Didn't have to do much to it.  Awwww!  Isn't he handsome????

Well, that does it for today.  I'm satisfied.  I feel that I met my challenge.  The tips I found on PicMonkey are pinned to the photography board on my Pinterest.  It's time for this girl to get in bed.  Tomorrow brings promises of much more strenuous work and I'm sure and another challenge of what in the world I will blog about from Pinterest even though I'm so darn tired!

Day 2

I'm really glad that I started this challenge on a weekend and a weekend I had no particular plans at that.  It gave me a chance to really get a feel of what I'm getting myself into.  I expect the weekends to be easy to fill with different projects and recipes.   The weekdays kind of worry me.  I'm a fulltime mommy, soon to be wife (if he ever asks!!!) and I also work full time at a job that is pretty strenuous on a day to day basis.  I foresee myself searching Pinterest for anything that might help me distress after a long day of work.  Maybe some quick and easy suppers...Some make at home bath stuff...tips on getting your man and kids to do all the housework for the week.  Ok, maybe that's wishful thinking, but that's the really great thing about Pinterest.  You can find ANYTHING!  And if you can't find exactly what you need, then you can search the web and pin it yourself for everyone else.  I know I'm going on and on about this.  But I'm an addict.  And that's why I'm even here writing this blog, right?
On to the events of day 2...It turned out to be a really great day.  I spent the morning cleaning and used the first pin of the three I ended up doing today.  I have a dishwasher in my apartment, but have always been disappointed in it.  No matter what detergent I used or what kind of spot free product I tried, my dishes were never clean enough.  Well, while browsing on Pinterest one day I came across a make your own dishwashing detergent pin.  I decided to try it today.  HOLY COW!  I was amazed!  I am never buying dishwashing detergent from the store again!  Never EVER!  My dishes were spotless, my glasses shiny, the silverware were absolutely gleaming.

This picture does not do it justice, but my ice cream scoop came right out of the dishwasher shinier than the day I bought it.  Pretty cool!  This is also going to be very cost effective.  That's always a plus around here!

After cleaning and while making lunch for my family I also started on two more projects.  I have been craving tuna salad for the last couple of weeks like my mom makes.  She puts tuna, boiled eggs, onion, mayo, and pickle relish in it. I've found myself desperately wanting to recreate this and other meals mom made lately.  I just miss my momma.  It's hard being 1400 miles away from her!  So, anyway I decided I would make some for a light supper for Sunday night.  I've come across the pin about baking "boiled" eggs instead of boiling them.  I thought, what the heck?  Might as well try it.  I preheated the oven to 300 degrees and put 6 eggs in a small muffin tin.  They baked for 30 minutes and then I filled a bowl with ice water and transferred the eggs to it and let them rest for 10 minutes.  I peeled one egg right away.  There were a couple of dark spots on the white where it looked like it was a little over-cooked.  I'm wondering if maybe I should have turned the eggs during baking?  I don't believe the website I got the directions from said anything about doing that, but I may try that next time.  All in all though it worked pretty good.  One out of the six eggs was hard to peel but the rest came right off.  I'm still undecided whether or not I like this better than boiling them.  It was interesting to try though!

I also started making dough for some pretzel bites.  We had planned on going to the lake for Sunday afternoon, so I thought those might be good to take along.  I've made homemade pretzels a couple of times.  Once in home-ec in jr. high and once when Derryk was a baby.  Pretzels are really fun to make and most people, especially if they aren't bakers, don't realize that you have to boil the pretzels before baking.  That's what gives them their chewy texture.  Kraig was in and out of the kitchen while I was making them and he couldn't believe it when I told him what I was boiling.  I made one batch of regular pretzel bites with coarse salt and then I made another batch with sugar and cinnamon.  I also made an icing that I drizzled on top of them.  They were fantastic!  The sweet ones were gone within minutes and the regular ones followed close behind.  They were pretty much devoured by the time we left to go to the lake.

 I didn't have anything to make cheese sauce for the regular pretzel bites... :*(  Oh, that would have been good!  But instead, remember my chipotle ranch I made for the pizza on Saturday?  We dipped them in that.  Not too bad!

The recipe I used only had directions for the regular ones.  So, the sweet ones I just kind of came up with.  I ran out of white sugar but had brown.  I mixed it with cinnamon and rolled the bites in it after brushing them with egg wash.  The icing was a little cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla.  Not sure of the amounts.  I always make my icing and glazes by feel and taste.  I've always planned on making scrap-book type cook books filled with my favorite recipes for my kids.  I know that if I ever want to do that I'm gonna have to start measuring my ingredients!

I feel like I'm off to a good start.  I've got lots of ideas planned for next weekend.  Hopefully I'll get out of the kitchen and get some much needed organizing done.  One of my big projects involves organizing all the dvds we have.  I've procrastinated for far too long! Of course I've already found an awesome idea for that on Pinterest.  As for now, it's my bedtime.  After such a busy day around the house and an afternoon full of sun at the lake I'm exhausted.  I'm sure I'll be pinning in my dreams...

Day 1

BBQ Chicken Pizza with Chipotle Ranch Sauce
&
Frozen Caramel Coffee


At the beginning of my day I wasn't sure which of the ideas that I could pick up on Pinterest I would end up attempting for Day 1.  Since it was a Saturday I had plenty of time, but it's a non-pay week Saturday and I knew there would be no trips to the store and I'd have to incorporate things I already had into my unknown endeavor.  That turned out a lot easier than I expected.  I love love love to cook.  I knew when I began this challenge that a lot of my days I would be trying new recipes.  That's what I ended up doing on this day.  And not only did I try 1 pin, but ended up using three different pins.  I'm what you might call a cooking "rebel."  I collect cookbooks and have over 100 of them, but I rarely ever follow a recipe.  I don't like to follow the rules, I make up my own!  So far that is what has worked best for me and I find myself doing the same thing with the ideas I get from Pinterest.  I knew I had seen a pin for BBQ Chicken Pizza.  I found one, but it happened to be one of those pins that really irritate me and was not linked to a page with the recipe.  Oh well!  I had the ingredients I figured I needed and I would just wing it.  I planned out our Saturday night dinner in my head and put the chicken in the crock pot to cook.  There wasn't much else to do until later, so guess what that meant?  More time for Pinterest.

As I spent the afternoon searching and pinning I came across the pin for Frozen Caramel Coffee.  I love frozen and iced coffees and this one looked delish!  The link took me to the Smuckers website.  Score!  I just so happened to have the caramel syrup this recipe called for along with the rest of the ingredients. Into the kitchen I went to create this yummy frozen coffee that would tide me over until suppertime.  I blended all the ingredients, took a test taste and was pretty pleased with the outcome...Until...I spotted Kraig's bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream on the counter.  Ooh!  How great would a small bit of that be in my drink???  So I poured about a capfull in.  And then another.  And then I poured an unknown amount straight from the bottle into the blender.  Didn't I tell you I don't follow the rules?  And after a day of strenuous pinning and planning I felt I deserved to turn my frozen coffee into an adult drink.

Recipe Here

By the time I had finished drink number one it was time for me to start making my pizza dough.  Nothing relaxes me more than baking.  Kneading dough makes me happy!  So making pizza dough while drinking my creamy frozen yumminess  was the absolute perfect combination for a very content Tracy Lynn!  I usually have really good luck with yeast doughs, but every so often I will have one that just flops for whatever reason.  I crossed my fingers and hoped that this one would turn out.

An hour later my dough had risen beautifully and it was time to start assembling my pizza.  I poured another coffee and got to it.  Kraig got home from work and I made him a frozen coffee.  He loved it!  I get so much satisfaction when I make something for him and he likes it.  We are still a fairly new couple and he seems to be impressed with everything I make.  I cherish things like that!  Sorry, I have to warn you this happens a lot...I'm very in love and sometimes it's all I want to talk about!  So back to my cooking.  I don't know where the idea for my chipotle ranch sauce came from.  It just happened.  I added some chipotle seasoning to ranch dressing and that became the sauce.

I then shredded my chicken breasts from the crock pot and added mixed it with bbq sauce.  I used Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory and Brown Sugar.  Sweet Baby Ray's is by far my favorite sauce I can get in Ohio. I shredded my mozzarella cheese and assembled my pizza.  For a finishing touch I added jalapenos.  My family loves spicy!

I preheated the oven to 450 and just let the assembled pizza rest until it was time to go into the oven.  15 minutes later I had my masterpiece!

This pizza fed me, Kraig, my 16 year old Derryk, and his girlfriend Kayla.  Those three went on and on about how good it was which in my eyes declares Day 1 a success!  So far so good!

Soon I will post the exact ingredients and amounts I used for both the coffee and the pizza.  You can also find the coffee recipe on my 365 Days of Pinteres board on Pinterest of course!

I am utterly, completely, and UN-shamefully addicted to Pinterest!  I didn't really get the whole idea when I first came across it.  Didn't pay much attention.  I can't even tell you how just recently I happened to try it out again.  Probably all the hype about it: newscasts, articles, and of course all the posts by many of my friends on Facebook. Anyway,  how ever this addiction came to be, it happened and it happened quick.  Once I started pinning I couldn't stop. Very similar to my Facebook addiction!  But O M G, this in my opinion was so much better!  What a great "guilty pleasure" that I really didn't have to feel too guilty about.  It was a wonderful way to search and organize for all kinds of new things I was determined to try. Well, that was the idea anyway...But then after pinning hundreds of different ideas, recipes, crafts, etc, etc, I realized like many of my fellow pinners that I was spending WAY too much time pinning and not nearly enough time "doing."  My guilty pleasure was making me feel very guilty.  This led me to create a board I called "Tried It And Liked It!." My thinking was that every new idea or recipe I actually tried that I would move to that board and soon I'd have a collection of new and exciting things I had  introduced to my family.  In a couple of weeks time though, I had only tried two new recipes.  Not quite the achievement I was looking for.  I knew my idea was good, but it still wasn't keeping me off the long long road of hours of pinning that really led to nowhere.  After a little more thinking and of course more pinning,  I came up with 365 Days of Pinterest.

 MY PERSONAL CHALLENGE
Basically 365 Days of Pinterest is a challenge I have given myself to put my pins in use.  No more procrastination or excuses.  No more feeling guilty about sitting on the computer all day pinning ideas and never trying them.  I, not unlike many people I know, have gotten into a rut.  With families dedicated to busy schedules and so much going on it's obviously easy to stick with what you know. After serving the same meals over and over again, some favorites have turned into, "Not that again!"  Unfinished crafts and projects crowd my closets and my shopping list is always the "same ol' same ol."  We use the same products, shop at the same stores, go on the same vacations.  You get the drift.  Now I'm not saying my family and I never try anything new.  Life is full of changes and of course we are continuously have to go along with the changes and we naturally experience new things everyday.  But there's still that rut I mentioned earlier.  The one that has been caused by failing to step outside of our comfort zone.  Or maybe it was caused by laziness...or stubbornness... lack of time, lack of money.  Regardless of what caused this rut, I'm ready to attempt to get out of it!

STARTING TODAY
Today is May 19th, 2012.  It's a Saturday. This is the day I am finally going to start my challenge.  Every day for the next 365 days I'm going to try something new that I have found on Pinterest.  One day it may be a new recipe, the next an exercise I've never tried, the next a project for the kids.  I'm not creating any boundaries for myself.  No real rules, only that every single day I have to do this. Some days I may commit myself to a day long project, other days may have to be something less time-consuming.  I may read a new book, try a new lipstick, or paint my walls a new color.  Maybe we'll play a new game, build something, do something nice for someone else.  Who knows?  Of course I've thought about life's little obstacles that may or may not come along.  I might get sick, or I may be grouchy and just may not feel like doing much of anything.  I may work late and come home to a messy house...Southeastern Ohio may be struck with severe thunderstorms or the worst blizzard in history and God forbid...the internet might go out! Hopefully in the next year very few of these kind of dreaded obstacles will occur, but I feel that regardless of what is going on I should be able to find at least some little thing that I can use to meet my challenge.  I am replacing my "Tried It and Liked It!" board with "365 Days of Pinterest" where daily I will pin my project, event, or whatever it turns out to be.  I'll also blog about this hopefully fulfilling experience here and fill you in on my opinions of these new things I plan to try.  I'm hoping this will be an exciting and fun experience.  The feeling of accomplishment is always wonderful and I think this is just the thing for me.   A year from now, on May 19th 2012 I plan to look at the 365 pins on my board and feel great knowing that I at least tried!   Ok...Time to start day one of 365 Days of Pinterest!  Wish me luck!