52 PINS IN 52 WEEKS - March 2017

MARCH 2017

Last year Katherine from I WISH I LIVED IN A LIBRARY decided to challenge herself to doing one pin a week from her ever growing PINTEREST boards and post about them on the last Saturday of each month. The posts were a big hit with me and I am elated that she has decided to host a LINK-UP feature this year!

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Ooops... once again I thought I had another Saturday, and I did not! I only have three pins. I didn't get my origami for this month done, so I will add it next month.

SPIRALIZER

Baz bought a spiralizer for me from his store. It isn't a fancy one, but it works.

I made a zucchini noodles recipe with THIS PIN from the Two Peas and Their Pod blog, and they were very tasty. I have no photo because I put what I didn't eat in the fridge, waiting for a sunny morning to take a picture, and Baz thought it was his dinner (he loathes zukes). He nuked it and took a forkful and thought it was spoiled pasta and tossed it in the garbage. Ha ha.

This is the pin photo. Mine looked exactly the same. I would not change anything about the recipe. It was yummy. I am going to try sweet potatoes next.

COPYCATS

Original (oriental) ramen noodle flavor is my favorite. If I use the flavor packet from the the package I have to take 800 milligrams of ibuprofen before I eat any, even though I only use half the packet, because I have a serious MSG sensitivity and a tiny amount will give me a whopping headache and neon zig-zags. A normal amount gives me a full on migraine.

I have been eating these since my college days and somewhere along the line their preparation morphed into draining the noodles, putting butter, margarine, or peanut butter in them and then adding the flavor packet, ha ha. I think it was my college housemate, Joy, who came up with this style, but I am not positive. My son has shown his college buddies this trick, too. I put cashew butter in mine now as a healthier alternative.

Anyway... between wanting that full original flavor without the MSG and sometimes buying the air-dried ramens from the Asian grocery store in bulk, and having to season them myself, I decided to see if there was a copycat recipe and there was...

2 Tablespoons ginger powder

2 Tablespoons garlic powder

2 Tablespoons onion powder

2 Tablespoons ground black pepper

salt to taste

I'm not going to add a link because all of the recipes were exactly the same.

These amounts are all off. I think they were forcing it to be an equal parts, easy to remember, recipe. First of all that's way too much pepper. I only added a teaspoon and it is still a little too peppery. Next time I'll use a half teaspoon. Next, is there onion flavor in the oriental? Hmm... there is in chicken flavor, but in the original? If there is it certainly isn't as much as the ginger and the garlic powder. I wouldn't put more than a teaspoon in. I didn't use any. Then, ginger is hot! You may like your ramens with a little flame, but I inherited the Irish taste buds from my family tree. Adding half that ginger and increasing the garlic powder by one tablespoon was good for me. I added no salt. So this is my recipe:

3 Tablespoons garlic powder

1 Tablespoon powdered ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

I quadrupled the ingredients and put them in a jar because I don't want to make the mix as often.

I have wanted to try the cake mix cookies I have seen all over Pinterest for two or three years, and I finally got around to it.

They are pretty good. Again, I think kids will like them. They were easy and quick. I made half with chocolate flakes and left half just plain yellow cake mix. The following week I tried chocolate cake mix and they didn't taste any better, or worse. They taste good at first, but then they have that bitey bitter aftertaste like cake batter, and it lingers in your mouth. One thing is, you need to get them into an airtight container right away because they dry out and become hard quickly. I remedied this with my first batch by putting them in a baggie with a piece of bread.

Baz didn't mind the chocolate cake mix version. He thought they tasted like brownies, so I think I might make a double batch and freeze the individual dough balls, so he can throw two or three in the convection oven when he has a sweet tooth.

How do you like your ramens prepared? Do you have a spiralizer? Have you ever made cake mix cookies?