Since being a Pinterest member for about 24 hours now, I’m a pro!      Seriously, I have a lot to learn but I think I’ve figured it out.  Think about it as your very own bulletin board or cork board or a really advanced bookmark list.  Say I’m looking for a recipe I might want to make for next week and I happen across a cake recipe that looks like it’s the best cake ever.  I could bookmark it but my bookmarks get pretty unorganized or I might be at the grocery store and decide I want to make that cake and want to check the ingredient list.  I could print the recipe and put it in a folder or save it to my “recipe” files on my computer or maybe I’d even import it into the Paprika app on the iPad.  But . . what if I’m at the grocery store and don’t have the iPad and don’t have the Paprika app on my Droid phone?

Once you join Pinterest, you’re able to import a little “Pin it” icon onto your bookmark bar so any time I see something on the internet I like and want to save, I just hit that little “Pin it” icon and I’m asked which Board it should go into and . . it’s there forever.  So, when I’m at the grocery store, I can go to the Pinterest app or Pinterest.com, click on my “Yum – Good Food” Board and there’s my recipe!

And, suppose I am standing with my iPad . . waiting for water to boil on the stove . . which is a heck of a lot quicker on the gas stove so I don’t have nearly as much time to play while “waiting for the water to boil” . . but just suppose I pick up the iPad, go to Pinterest and am looking at the boards belonging to others and I see a bread recipe that looks like something I must make.  I simply hit “repin” button and tell it to go into the “Yum- Good Food” Board and just like that . . I have it on my Board for future reference.

Yes, it could be a time drain . . if I let it.  I will not.  I think it will save me time . . lots of time from hunting things I thought I’d seen on the internet somewhere.  Once you find folks who have like interests, all you have to do is “follow” them.  You see good stuff on their Boards, you can repin it to your own Boards. They waste their time on the computer . . you reap the benefits!

I can see why folks have been raving about Pinterest.  It is so not hard to learn to use but I still have a lot to learn and if I’ve given any wrong information here, please some of you real experts correct me.

And, just for the record, if anyone wants to follow me, this is me:  http://pinterest.com/patchworktimes/

We’re a gadget loving family!  We love gadgets and buy way too many.  Sometimes they’re quite useful and sometimes they’re not but we’re still suckers for gadgets.

When I was teaching in Louisiana early last spring, my friends took me to a really neat kitchen store.  I can’t even remember the name of it.  It was kinda like a kitchen/restaurant supply store.  I bought some interesting dipping spoon/scoop type things, a cake tester, cannoli tubes and this:

Since I knew we were moving, I just left the whole bag of stuff at mom’s.  When we were there a month or so ago, I brought the bag home with me and I couldn’t figure out what this thing was!  Anyone know?  I looked at the receipt which was thankfully still in the bag, and it’s a citrus peeler.   You put it on your finger, poke the little peg thing into the peeling, pull it down and it slices right through the peeling.

Then the little segments of peeling just come right off.

How cool is that for $1?  Yes, a regular small kitchen knife does the same trick but it sometimes cuts into the orange.  It is a pretty neat little tool but does anyone want to guess how long before this little thing will get lost?