Must Try Monday {Orange Vinegar}

I love cleaning with vinegar, so when my food blogger friend
 Fountain Avenue Kitchen
posted a recipe for orange vinegar I had to try it!

16 oz canning jar
3 small orange peels or 2 large orange peels
white vinegar (enough to cover the orange peels)

Place orange peels in jar. Fit as many orange peels as your jar will allow you to fit.  Then pour vinegar over the orange peels and close tightly. Store under cabinet for 2 weeks. Enjoy all the essence of orange and the cleaning power of vinegar.

Click here for my "green" all purpose/ glass cleaner recipe, I used the orange vinegar in place of vinegar and lemon juice to make orange all purpose/ glass cleaner!

Also, click here to find out how to remove those nasty water deposits off your fridge water dispenser tray!

Seriously, is there anything vinegar cannot do?!?!
Hope you are inspired to try this recipe yourself and create
"green cleaning" in your home!

Must Try Monday {Creamy Italian Vinaigrette}

 

Hello everyone! Sorry I missed last week, but I was super busy with the family. I know all you Mamas out there know how that goes! No worries, I am back reviewing another Pinterest pin.
Today's feature comes from The Big Red Kitchen.
The best thing about blogging and pinning is I have found so many new blogging friends through Pinterest!
I have actually made this vinaigrette several times and it lives up to all my family's expectations each time! I followed the recipe exact, but next time I am going to try honey in the place of sugar. This recipe is suppose to be copy cat recipe of Olive Garden's house dressing or not. I have only been to Olive Garden a few times and it has been so long ago I could not even begin to tell you how their house dressing taste.
I am a salad lover and enjoy a variety of salad dressings. This recipe is definitely a keeper for my cool salads!

This is my picture

and this is the picture I pinned. Click here for the full recipe.


If you are on Pinterest I would love for you to stop by my boards so we can share amazing and wonderful craft ideas, recipes, and stuff!

Must Try Monday {Banana Split Cupcakes}

I cannot believe it has already been a whole week. Seems like yesterday I was writing the Philly Cheese Steak post!
I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing weekend.
Well here it is... today and every Monday I am featuring a
Must Try Recipe from my
Pinterest
board and will let you know what I think and things I did differently!
So let's get started...Today I am featuring 
Banana Split Cupcakes from Six Sister's Stuff!
If you have not checked out these sister's blog hop on over there and check out their recipe index, YUM!
The reason I made these cuties is because my sister from
Cherished Bliss
moved away this week and this dessert was her final request from my kitchen :( I am going to truly miss her, she is my very best friend who lived right down the street from me and now she will live across the country from us! There will be lots of skyping! Ok, back on track...

This is mine

and this is the picture I pinned!


Click here for Six Sister's full recipe!

My thoughts and things I did differently!
These cupcakes were a big hit and
I will definitely be making these again!!!!!!
The banana cake was to die for! The things I did differently to the batter was reduced the sugar to 2 cups, used regular milk in place of buttermilk, and used about 3 bananas.
The batter was perfect!
I did not use the Vanilla Frosting but instead used a

Homemade Whipped Topping
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup of powder sugar (add more or less to your liking)
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Chill your mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Then in a large metal bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form.
Then beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form.

Then after making the whipped topping I was out of heavy whipping cream for the ganache, so I substituted the heavy cream with 3/4 cup of half and half and it worked!
Although, I would suggest to half the ganache recipe because it made a lot, unless you have other intentions for the leftovers or you enjoy more ganache than I do on your cupcakes!

Hope you enjoyed this review and I would highly recommend these cupcakes for any occasion!

P.S. My 15 year old daughter said these cupcakes were so good she wants these at her 16th birthday party!

Must Try Monday {Philly Cheese Steak}

 

Hi everyone, hope you had a fabulous weekend!
Welcome to Must Try Monday!
Starting today and every Monday I am going to feature a
Must Try Recipe from my Pinterest board and let you know what I think!

Today I am featuring Philly Cheese Steaks Sandwiches from
Christine is Cooking

This is mine

and this is the picture and recipe I pinned!

Click here for Christine's full recipe.

What I did differently and my thoughts!
When making a new recipe I always Google other recipes and see what everyone else is doing!
I am a Texas girl and have never been to Philly, therefore have never had an "authentic" Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. After doing a little research I found many people use thinly sliced sautéed rib eye for an authentic meat choice. For the cheese option many people use cheese whiz or provolone. Once I read the original recipe I knew I wanted to change the meat option to rib eye.

- I thinly sliced approximately 2 lbs of rib eye.
- I did not add green peppers, onions, or mushrooms to the crock pot.
- I did use 32 oz of beef broth
(I think this was too much broth!
Next time I will only cover the the meat.)
- I did not use a packet of good seasonings. Instead I added a 1 tsp of garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder and salt and pepper to taste.
- 6 slices provolone cheese
- Italian dressing
- 6 hoagie rolls
 
I added the steak, broth, and seasonings to the crockpot and cooked for 8 hours on low. I thinly sliced bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms and sautéed them until tender. I preheated the oven to 400 and added steak, cheese, and bell pepper mixture to each hoagie roll and placed in the oven until cheese was melted and bubbly. Then topped off each sandwich with a little Italian dressing and served with chips. This was a nice and easy dinner option that I will be trying again.
Although I do not think I will cook the meat in the crockpot but rather sauté the steak next time.

Hope you enjoy this review and I would definitely recommend this Philly Cheesesteak for a 
family dinner night.