Pinterest Recipes Reviewed- Round 2

I love Pinterest and I can't seem to get enough. My recipe boards definitely have the most pins, but I love to cook and have all the time in the world to do it so it's perfect. Some recipes I can't make right now since we don't have the same ingredient here in Italy as we do in the States. Plus, I am lacking in my cooking appliances (I would kill for a hand or a standing mixer right now). But I've still been busy in the kitchen. Check out my latest dishes.

Recipe 1: Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna isn't an easy dish to make, but it is so convenient because you can prepare it ahead of time and there are usually leftovers (at least there are with only two people). I've made this lasagna twice since pinning it and I can't wait to make it again. I'm sure this dish would be perfect if you followed the recipe exactly, but I did modify it a little.

First, I substituted a small eggplant for the yellow squash. I also used 8 oz of ricotta and 8 oz of cottage cheese for the filling to help me watch my waistline. In regards to the spices, I used fresh basil in place of dried and didn't add the nutmeg because I could find it here. The recipe says you can use any sauce and I opted for homemade.

Recipe 2: Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Actually my cake was just Blueberry Breakfast Cake since I have no idea if they have buttermilk here and didn't care enough to find out. I just used regular milk in its place. I made this cake when we had guests visiting and I would say it was a hit because it didn't even last 2 days. Kevin never even got a piece, but don't worry, because I have all the ingredients to make another one tomorrow.

Recipe 3: French Onion Soup

For the last four years I have been using the same recipe for French Onion Soup. It was good, but not great. Since I started using Pinterest I have tried two new recipes. The one I made a few months ago was okay, but nothing to blog about. Today I found a new recipe by Tyler Florence and decided to give it a try for dinner tonight. I must say, it is delicious and my favorite French Onion Soup recipe so far. I've already had a bowl (without the bread and cheese) because I can't wait until Kevin gets home.

I read a couple of reviews before I started so I tweaked it according to what they said. First I used 6 onions (4 yellow and 2 red) instead of only 4. I also used half chicken broth and half beef broth because that is what I had on hand. When caramelizing the onions, I found that it took about 40 minutes (not 25) and the red wine took about 15 minutes (not 5 to evaporate). I haven't tried it with cheese yet, but the recipe calls for Gruyere. It don't have any Gruyere and again, I don't know if we even have it in Italy so I'll be using Emmental (Swiss) cheese.

Sorry about the small picture, but this is the only one there is on the website.