Perfect summer dinner.

Do you lose your appetite during the summer months?  When is 100 and @*#&! degrees out?  Me too.

It was recently my turn to scrounge up some dinner, and the only relatively appetizing thing I came across were some enormous, organic avocados I had picked up at Trader Joe's a few days before, which I had planned to feed to Sweet Pea.  (I also happen to be lucky enough to live in the Golden State, so these suckers were less than a buck a pop.  Bam.)

Sorry, Sweet Pea.  Decided to do this instead, from Morsels and Musings.  Best decision I've ever made.

FIRSTLY!  Halve and cut, all crisscross like, ye olde avocados.

AND THEN!  Splash some hot sauce all over those suckers.  Don't even worry about it.  Or not.  However you roll.

AFTER THAT!  Drown those bad boys in shredded parmesean cheese.

WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH THAT!  Broil 'em!  On high, until the cheese is melty, bubbly, and golden.

SERVE!  With slices of lime, which are to be juiced all over those suckers.

Delish.  The perfect light summer dinner or lunch.  You're gonna go make some right now, aren't you?  It's okay.  Me too.

And that's how you Pinterest.

Quiet time is sanity time.

I have a two year old son.  Sometimes I need him to leave me alone.  Just, like, three minutes of silence.  Therefore, Pinterest and I are working on increasing the size of my arsenal of quiet time activities.

My sister and her children came to visit recently, and Bubs showed great interest in their dry erase alphabet workbooks, even trying to write a few of the letters himself.  I should be ashamed to admit that my first reaction was, Hmmmm, that's Pinteresting.  But I'm not.  Because I have 117 pins on my kids! board, and I haven't even been able to use ONE of them yet.  THAT'S A LOT OF PIN-TENTIAL.

I was excited to make these sensory bags from Pre-school Play for Bubs.  I thought they might be a good place to start engaging his new-found natural interest in writing.

STEP ONE!  Assemble your materials.  Take a moment to contemplate the decisions you've made in your life that have led to crafting with hair gel, food coloring, and glitter.

STEP TWO!  Throw all that crap into a large Ziploc and squish it to death.

STEP THREE!  Tape it shut.  Super shut.  I can't speak from experience, but I'm assuming a Ziploc full of hair gel and food coloring is not something you want exploding in your home.

STEP FOUR!  Let your preschooler have at it.  I gave him a popsicle stick to use as a "pencil" but I also think an unsharpened pencil would work just as well.  Or their finger.  Or anything.

Bubs showed interest in writing on it for about 3 seconds, but he did enjoy squishing the bag around for about 45 seconds.  Forty-five seconds is also about how long he will occupy himself picking his nose.  So the final verdict, sensory bags = as fun as picking your nose.

And that's how you Pinterest.

When the world gives you almost-rotten tomatoes, make pasta sauce.

We have had a slew of not-so-slowly-rotting tomatoes on our cupboard for a few days.  (The thing about buying your produce super fresh at the farmer's market... it goes rotten in about 45 seconds.)  Now, I have made plenty of pasta sauces in my day, with varying degrees of success, but never one made straight from the tomatoes.  I have always used canned toms.  (I KNOW, whole fooders, I KNOW.) 

Pinterest, teach me.

Healthy Tomato Sauce from WholeLiving.com.  This recipe actually does call for canned toms, but the other ingredients looked pretty straightforward aaaaaaaand we happened to everything in the house already aaaaaaaaaand I figured I knew enough about cooking to kind of figure it out as we went along.  We'll see.

BONUS!  I had a package of super tasty-looking pasta, bought from Eataly on a recent vacay to NYC, with which I wanted to do something Pinteresting.

Almost-rotten tomatoes?  Gourmet pasta?  The universe was practically begging me to carb binge.

FIRST!  Chop a crapload of onions.  I probably overdid it per the proportions in the recipe, but I don't care because I love me some onions.

SECOND!  Add a crapload of garlic.  I like to chop my garlic pretty chunky because I love garlic so much I want to see it while I'm eating it, so I can properly thank it for being so delicious.  I went with slices this time because it just seemed like the right thing to do.  I threw in about half a dozen cloves.  Don't judge me.

THIRD!  Drown it in olive oil and simmer till the onions/garlic are dead dead dead.

FOURTHLY!  Dump in a bunch of oregano and basil flakes.  I know, whole fooders, fresh chopped  herbs would be best, but you gotta work with what you've got.  (THE GUILT, WHOLE FOODERS, THE GUILT!)  And anyway, Pinterest hasn't taught me how to grow herbs yet.  (Note: If you let Bubs help shake in the seasoning, you will get it all! over! your kitchen.)

FIFTH!  Chop, into chunky chunks, a crapload of almost-rotten tomatoes.  We had about a dozen.

SIXTH!  Simmer the crap outta all this.  Stir whenever you remember you have something on the stove.  So about twice.  I was waiting for the SECRET INGREDIENT to arrive from the grocery store, so it simmered for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.

AND THEN!  Take a break to watch the Olympics with Sweet Pea.

Some dude from somewhere won a medal for something.
It was emotional.

TIME FOR THE SECRET INGREDIENT!  When the grocery shopper returns from the grocery store with your secret ingredient, add about half a cup of red wine.  We're a dry household, so I have no idea what to do with the rest of the bottle of wine, but I know someone who does!  (I'm looking at you, Pinterest.)

SEVENTH!  Not that the recipe told me to do this or anything, but I threw in sliced zuchinni and mushrooms.

LASTLY!  Simmer down now.  For another half hour or so, until the veggies are soft, but not too soft, ifyouknowhatI'msaying.

AND THEN SHOVE IT INTO YOUR FACE!  Smother in parm first, of course.

It was delish, if I say so myself.  It needed salt and probably could have used a little more in the herb/seasoning department.  But even so, those almost-rotten tomatoes made a tasty, light sauce for my fancy pants pasta.


And that's how you Pinterest.

A great deal... of confusion.

A recent pin that has gone viral.  Shouting about things that EVERY TARGET SHOPPER NEEDS TO KNOW.

"If the price ends in 8," Pinterest says, "it will be marked down again.  If it ends in a 4, it’s the lowest it will be."

Awesome.  I love Target.  I love a good deal.  This was Pinteresting.

I was excited to exercise my new-found dealing-making knowledge during my next trip to Target, where I was on the hunt for shorts for my Bubs.  And believe you me, I was not going to buy them if that price ended in 4!

The hell?  I'm pretty sure the big fat 0 at the end of this price opened up some kind of worm hole through which my decision making abilities slipped through, because I was so confused and sad that I just quietly and calmly walked away.  With no shorts.

And that's how you Pinterest.

This is my happy place.

I have mixed feelings about word art.  On the one hand, I firmly believe language can (and has) changed the world.  On the other hand, if I see one more Live, Laugh, Love placard... throat punch.

So I debated how I felt about this little ditty from South of Main Street:

But finally decided: LOVE!  It's the perfect combo of two strongly-held beliefs of mine: home can be a heaven on earth + happiness is a choice you can make.  A few weeks after pinning it, I decided to make this my home's motto, and boldly risk getting throat punched by someone someday by displaying it proudly.

Then!  I found this easy-peasy tutorial from Southern Belle Soul, Mountain Bride Heart:

And immediately thought, This is my happy place!  I can do that!  Uh huh.

STEP ONE!  Get yo'self a stretched canvas, vinyl letters (or stickers from the scrapbook section of Jo-Ann... that'll probably work... sure...), acrylic paint, modge podge, and your choice of background material (I went with newspaper... that'll probably work... sure...).

STEP TWO!  Modge podge the crap out of your canvas + newspaper.

STEP THREE!  Apply vinyl letters/stickers.  (Jo-Ann only had the super sparkly version of the font I wanted.  Don't judge me.  Also, Shane thought I was done at this point.  He might have better pin-tuition than I do...)

STEP FOUR!  Paint!  (There is a lot more blue in this "slate blue" than is apparent in this photo. It was all artificial light up in my kitchen. Shut your face.)

STEP FIVE!  Watch paint dry.  Remove stickers.

STEP SIX!  Say swear words.  Order the original on Esty.

And that's how you Pinterest.