The Great Pinterest Experiment

All righty,

I'll admit it. I've become addicted to Pinterest. I know, I know, it's a time-sucking black hole when you're trying to write, but I just can't help it. And what's worse is it seems I'm following some of the best cooks on the face of the planet. I now have over 107 recipes I'd like to try on one board alone.

And so, adventurous spirit that I am, it's become my personal mission to try at least a few of the recipes that looked enticing.

Wow, was I surprised.

The first one I tried was a recipe that involved only two ingredients. A box of yellow cake mix and a can of pumpkin filling. Best muffins ever, the first comment touted. Wonderful! I love this recipe, said another.

Last week, while I was at the store, I picked up a box and a can with the intent to surprise my children with yummy pumpkin muffins for the morning.

Except the muffins tasted like really dense uncooked cake mix with a hint of pumpkin and metal.  Even the dogs wouldn't eat it.

Hey, I thought, maybe you didn't read it right. I mean, you just scanned the thing. Maybe it has to be these exact brands. Maybe that pudding-in-the-box thing you bought pushed it past the edge of nasty. Maybe there was an unknown egg or, I don't know, dash-of-taste, somewhere in the directions and you just missed it.

Nope.

Let's just say the woman who thought these were the best things ever has obviously never tried my mother's blueberry cream cheese muffins with those crunchy things on top.

Not to be discouraged, tonight I tried another easy recipe. Baked avacados. How hard could that possibly be? 

I cut the avacado just as the direction said. I didn't have one of those fancy racks, so I threw it in a pan. And japaense bread crumbs? Honey, I live in Kentucky.   We are raised making our own.

Fresh-avacdo-dipped-in-homemade-bread-crumbs-and-put-in-a-baking-dish-at-400-degrees-for-twenty-minutes-later, and those little babies were ready to come out of the oven.

All right. I now have a new definition for gross.

The good news is the dogs liked this one. Although I might be sorry for that decision later on tonight.

Now I don't want to seem unfair. Maybe it was the japanese bread crumbs. Maybe they are the bees knees, and I really messed up the recipe because I didn't make a mad dash to the multi-cultural isle at the Walmart. Or maybe I've discovered I really don't like the taste of oven baked hot avacados doused in egg and breadcrumbs.

I'm banking on the latter.

By the way, you should know I started cooking when I was knee-high to a tadpole, and I rarely measure anything. I was raised on a pinch of this and dash of that mentality. The recipes handed down in my family look more like Snape's potion book than Betty Crocker's cookbook, so it is a good possibility that I might have to learn how to follow the directions in order to be successful with trying anything on Pinterest.

Lord, I hope not.

So here's to all my Pinterest buddies. How goes the recipe hunting? Are you finding that some of those scrumptios claims to be not so tasty, or is it just me?