More Nesting

I've been cooking & baking A LOT since I got home.  I cook quite a bit usually, but I usually do it for a couple days and then get burnt out for a couple days (then repeat).  I've been on a longer streak than normal though.  I thought it'd be a fun task to attempt to organize my mass amounts of Pintrest recipes into tried and not tried.

I wanted to share some of the ones I've tried this week.

Meatball Subs courtesy of Spoon Fork Bacon

I've never made meatball subs before.  I'm not sure I've even ever had one before this week.  I had ground beef though and I'm on a sandwich kick (which is difficult to satisfy without deli-meat!) AND I thought Jason might like this.  

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  The meatballs weren't too hard to make and the end result looked almost exactly like the image above!  I went easy on the spices because it seemed like a lot and I'm so glad I did.  I might decrease it by half next time even.

Grilled Salmon courtesy of All Recipes

This is not a new find, but its definitely a "tried-and-true" in our house.  My husband actually found this recipe and we continue to use it both for grilled and baked salmon.  I don't cook the fish in our house, that's all Jason.  I wanted to share though because its a really simple recipe and a lot of the stuff we usually just have on hand already.

Fresh Cranberry Scones courtesy of Shop Girl

These were great to have on hand this week.  I had never baked with fresh cranberries, so it was a little new to me.  These are very scone-like scones - i.e. not overly sweet.  I skipped the icing, but did sprinkle a little sugar on the egg wash prior to baking.  The cranberries are tart and they're not overly sweet (and also not really that bad for you!), but they were perfect with a cup of tea in my opinion.  

I will say though, that I had to use a lot more milk than it called for, just FYI.  I would start by adding a 1/4 c. at a time until the dough comes together.  Mine was still fairly sticky so I just did blobs for scones vs. cute little triangles.

Courtesy of The Recipe Critic

This is my contribution to the Super Bowl snacks tonight.  I had made puppy chow once in Home Ec in high school, but not since.  It was really easy and turned out good!  I did end up mixing in the chocolate with my hands which was pretty messy, but I found it much more effective than trying to do it with a spoon.

Cranberry-Orange Breakfast Buns courtesy of Smitten Kitchen

Oh I saved the best for last!

These are amazing!  My husband said it was in the top 5 things I've ever made.  That and the fact that he ate 3 of them is the highest praise I could get.  He doesn't get overly crazy about food in general.

The dough for this turned out awesome - just like it was supposed to and the fresh cranberries (leftover from the scones I made earlier in the week) mellowed out after baking and complimented perfectly with the orange flavors.  

I used storebought icing because I had run out of confectioners sugar, but I still mixed in the fresh orange juice.  Also, I had some red juice from the cranberries sitting in the bottom of the pan when I took them out in the morning.  This didn't seem to affect anything though, just FYI.  

These would be impressive to make for company and it wasn't terribly hard.  I'd really recommend this recipe.  My favorite of the week by far!