Cooking with Pinterest

in addition to the occasional crafty inspiration from pinterest, i've been cooking up a storm after pinning delicious-looking recipes left & right to my food board. i really enjoy cooking (even if i'm not really that great at it - i definitely am the type of person to Need A Recipe) and feel much more virtuous about myself if i cook dinner from scratch rather than eating out or relying on something processed from the freezer section.

it's been a bit harder since starting this job back in april though - only because i now metro to work, and i didn't realize how convenient it was to be able to swing by a grocery store on my way home to pick up whatever ingredients i lack for that day's recipe inspiration. but with some meal planning (and subsequent targeted weekend shopping) i've managed to pull together several home-cooked meals to try out new recipes in the past few days. some poor quality phone-pics of those meals? don't mind if i do!

first up, 2 dips i had been dying to try out:
artichoke dip (originally from my man's belly) and beet hummus (originally from simplyrecipes). the verdict: the beet hummus is... interesting. i'm really not sure if i like it or not, but it's definitely interesting. i'm not sure it's worth the hassle of preparing / cooking / peeling beets for, but it's certainly a striking, gorgeous color. it went much better with the plain cucumber slices than the pita chips i'd made - i can envision making this as individual-sized apps, with a spoonful of the hummus on top of a cucumber slice, all laid out on a platter.

the artichoke dip is deeeelicious. the only problem i had with that one was that it called for 1 clove of garlic... and i used the biggest clove of garlic known to man, assuming that more garlic is always better, because duh. unfortunately, Gigantor Garlic completely overwhelmed the other flavors and very quickly became too much for me to handle. i'm definitely going to try this again - it's really quick/easy to make - but with a more reasonably sized garlic clove (or maybe saute the garlic first to take off some of the bite?).

next up: bacon & egg toast cups (originally from annie's eats).

these were a big hit - chris described them as "like egg mcmuffins.. but.. like.. real." they were a little trickier to put together than i'd expected, but just LOOK at the result! they're freaking ADORABLE. also: tasty as heck. a definite make-again.

and then last night, i pinterest-mined for a side dish: these parmesan potatoes (originally from foodlush).
(the rest of the meal is just italian sausages in red wine and sugar snaps steamed in the microwave.) holy cow, were these some tasty potatoes. i mean, of course they were: they're sprinkled in parmesan and garlic powder and then cooked in butter. YES PLEASE.

some other recent finds that were worth note (although i took no crappy phonepics):

• pink bites' mongolian beef. this was SO SIMPLE to prepare and really tasted like chinese takeout.
• kayln's kitchen's roasted green beans with mushrooms, balsamic, and parmesan. i made this to go with the mongolian beef, so i nixed the parm, and it was still SO. FREAKING. GOOD. i see why everyone raves about roasted veggies now - i'll definitely be doing variations of this with different veggies & flavors.
• food lush's wilted baby bok choi salad. i would seriously eat this every single day if i had an unlimited supply of baby bok choi.

do you have any other good recipes for me? please share!