Putting Pinterest to Use!

One of my many "P" activities this weekend was a Pinterest recipe night with Webb.  We both like to find awesome dishes on the site, but hardly ever actually make them.  So, the challenge to ourselves on Saturday?  Make a salad, main, and dessert straight off Pinterest, no modifications.  Challenge accepted.

If I do say so myself - the food was AWESOME!  Of course, I had a great time cooking, but who wouldn't with this cute sous chef?

Main Dish: Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells

Oh my yum.  The traditional Italian comfort food is given an Autumn twist and eating it is like wrapping yourself in a quilt and cozying up to watch It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Two of my weaknesses are baked pasta and anything Fall-related, so this dish called my name!  The shells are stuffed with creamy ricotta, spinach, and the buttery squash, and topped with this amazing sage brown butter sauce, which we almost skipped but I'm so glad we didn't!

First, we chopped the squash. Make sure to use a heavy knife as these suckers are tough when raw!  

Getting all artsy with my squash.  Chop chop!

While those were baking in the oven, we made the delish mixture and cooked the shells.  When the chopped squash came out of the oven, we let it cool for about 10 minutes before we mixed them into the mixture and stuffed the cooked shells.

Ta-da!  

Here's the full recipe!

Salad: Tomato, Mozzerella, Avocado Salad

If Webb has anything to do with the menu, avocado will be involved, and this fresh and simple salad was a great way to use it!  I just adore all of these ingredients.  My first instinct was to throw everything in a bowl haphazardly, but the recipe's suggested method really made for a great texture and consistency-- bright and not too soggy.  We didn't refrigerate the pre-avocado mix for a whole hour, but the 20 minutes we did really made a difference.

I image a big serving of this and a glass of white would be an awesome summer meal.  Bookmarking for 7 months from now…

Dinner is served...buon appetito!

Dessert: Nutella Cookies

Now, I'm the first to tell you I'm not the world's best baker.  But, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy consuming fresh baked goodness.  These cookies are probably the easiest thing I've ever baked that wasn't a "just add water" box.  We found them to have more of a straight chocolate flavor than Nutella, but still ridiculously easy and yummy nonetheless.

1 cup Nutella.  1 cup flour.  1 egg.  6-8 minutes at 350 degrees.  That's it.  I swear.  You're welcome.

I hope you finally get around to making some of your pins, too!  At home dinner dates are the best :)