Pinterest Recipes

Lately, I've become a big fan of Pinterest.  I know.  Who isn't?  But I've decided of late that Im going to try some of the delicious-looking recipes I've been pinning.  I've been selective, I think, and only pinned and made the ones that everyone gets raves about "I make these every year and my family loves them." "This won fourth place at my church's bake off"--you know...stuff like that.

Here's what I'm learning, though:  People will tell you anything about your food in order to make you feel good.

We've all done it--someone hands us the rock hard, salt-lick cookie. "Mmmmm!" we say. "I have GOT to get this recipe from you!"  

Little does the well-meaning baker know that we want the original.  So that we can burn it.

Today's recipe mishaps?  Sweet meatballs, bacon and ranch pea salad and a baked potato.   The baked potato was actually quite delicious....but, then again, it's kind of hard to screw up a baked potato with butter, sour cream and cheese....and who DOESN'T love that?? 

Here's what mine looked like on my plate all ready to eat:

The peas were OKAY.  The problem was with the ranch.  Here's the link: 

http://carzycook.com/showthread.php?tid=5249

#1, they must've put ALL the bacon that they told you to cook in that one little picture...because the four pieces that I cooked up and crumbled were hard to find.

#2, Even though I put in more peas than they called for, the amount of ranch dressing was WAY out of proportion.  1/2 cup of ranch to the little 16 oz (more like 20 in my case...) of peas is WAY too much.  Maybe it would have tasted different had I used homemade ranch instead of the bottled Hidden Valley stuff...but even so...BLEAGH.  For a condiment-lover like me, that's saying something.

And #3, This one may be me...but I didn't actually put the onion in like it calls for...I know, I know...bad idea...but we don't actually seem to have a knife in my kitchen...no clue where they all are...(put that on my shopping list next pay day...)..but even so, I don't think I could save it.

Then we come to the meatballs:

I've eaten meatballs like this before.  My family made them and I remember eating so many that my tummy hurt in a very good way.  I went to make them again...not so amazing.  The lady said to cook them for 8 hours.  Not a good idea.  I think 2 would have been better.  By the time I got home from work and got around to eating them, they were SO saturated through with all of the oils from the sauce, that they were kind of mealy in texture and overly sweet.  I think next time I'll either 1-cook them in the oven for a shorter time or 2-skip the sweet sauce and stick to marinara.  Totally not worth it.

Although, it should be noted that the sauce was DELICIOUS on top of my baked potato...

Now, I'm at the crossroads of deciding if I should give up on trying the new, shiny recipes with pretty pictures on them that Pinterest has to offer, or if I should stick to the family favorites that I know and can be certain of tasting good?  Have any of you guys had any success with Pinterest recipes?  What are the secrets and what are some of your favorites? 

Stay tuned for more elucidations...this single working girl is in the process of getting her butt back in gear and blogging once again.

Happy Tuesday!