Adventures in Pinteresting...

Okay, so lately I have become a little obsessed with Pinterest... Like most of the women I know. Most conversations begin with.. "so I found this on Pinterest the other day and..." My husband, recently returned home from Afghanistan, is quite impressed with my newly developed crafting skills. The reality is, I am NOT creative enough to come up with this stuff on my own, but the amazing women (and men) who are, are kind enough to blog about it or pin it. Thus my crafty skills are developing. It is fun when I get asked about something and all I can say is, Pinterest.

I have been very lucky so far with Pinterest fails. Off hand I cannot remember one. I know they have happened a few times, but they obviously have not been horrible enough to scar me. So here I go, to those who pay attention. I think I am going to try and keep track of the Pinterest things we try...

Latest one was just this last weekend. We had a baby shower for a cousin and the theme (completely adorable) was based off of the nursery, vintage travel. So we had samplers from several different countries. One of mine being Ireland. This cousin is not only super Irish, but she also spent a couple of years living there. So there was a little pressure to get something good and authentic. I am not sure how authentic my item was, but everyone seemed to love it.

I chose to do an Irish Potato Leek soup. The recipe and directions can be found here: http://spicedblog.com/hearty-irish-potato-leek-soup.html

A few changes I made: I did not use roasted garlic. Instead I dropped in 4 full cloves of garlic with the potatoes to simmer. Also, I used a chicken stock that I had made the previous day. (honestly, I will never buy chicken stock again. This was the most amazing stock and didn't have all of the yucky preservatives)

A few things I want to try: I saw one recipe during my search that had many of the same ingredients but called for coconut milk instead of cream. Thinking about it, I really think that the coconut would add a great flavor, maybe a little more depth.

Also, I crisped up some bacon and chopped it up into moderately small pieces. Not super small, I wanted it to be big enough to need to be chewed to get that salt in there. I also threw in some shredded Tillamock cheddar. The recipe did not call for it as a garnish, but come on.. We know the UK loves their cheese... Most of Europe for that matter. And it added just the right flavor.

I didn't take any pictures of my own.. Lesson learned, it will not happen again. :) But here is the picture from the site that I got the recipe from.

Enjoy!