A Whatever Wednesday Rant…

Ok, so I know I’m going to make a few enemies here, but it IS Whatever Wednesday… and that means that I can get away with, well, whatever, right?  Right?

My beef (oh I love the puns!) today is with some, some mind you, of the recipes on Pinterest.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Pinterest boards for inspiration and, quite honestly, for the drool factor.  It’s awesome for those mornings when I just want some recipe eye candy, and let’s face it, we all need recipe eye candy in our lives now and then!

But… but, but, but… there’s something just odd going on over at Pinterest.  It feels to me like the more people get good at photographing food, the more odd some of the recipes get.  Sorta like it’s ALL about how the food looks in the photo’s and a lot less about how the finished dish is going to taste.  Some of those recipes are a crime against food!

Now I’m not going to post any actual photo’s of said food crimes, because maybe someone, somewhere in the world, would actually enjoy the finished dish.  But I’m just sayin’… ew!

I get it friends and readers.  I know that a lot of my go-to, favorite dishes are not designed to photograph well.  In fact, a lot of them look like a train wreck in photo’s, but taste like heaven on my tongue.  Therefore, I will continue to make them, photograph the ugly little things and post them.  Because they are DANG GOOD and you’ll love them, even if they’re homely and not Pinterest worthy.

So now I’m going to give you a little “for instance” example of my Pinterest sadness this morning.  Grab a huge cup of hot coffee and settle in… it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

First up, I love Brie!  My time spent in France taught me to love this melty, oozy, soft cheese.  Wanna know what I love more than Brie on a plate?  Brie En Croute!  Cover that little round of soft cheese with a layer of Puff Pastry dough, then bake it till the crust is golden and the cheese has melted and wow, that’s a drool worthy appetizer!

And then there are the “Additions” that make Brie En Croute even more wonderful for nearly every special occasion.  I’m devoted to Brie En Croute with Cranberries and Pecans for Thanksgiving!  Nothing says Christmas more than Brie En Croute with English Black Walnuts and a layer of Hot Pepper Jelly!  Easter is all about Brie En Croute with Mint, and a New Years Party HAS to have some Brie en Croute with sun dried tomatoes and a thin schmear of pesto.

This morning I was all excited over the idea of adding a Brie En Croute with Cranberries to my Thanksgiving Food Board.  There was just one problem.  It seems as though every single recipe I can find is all about the photographs and nothing about how the Brie En Croute is going to taste!  It’s such a simple dish!  Lay out a square of Puff Pastry, set a wheel of Brie on the pastry, then top it with 1/4 cup of Cranberry Chutney and 1/4 cup of Pecan Halves.  Fold the pastry over the top, decorate with puff pastry cut outs, brush it with beaten egg, then bake till golden.

There is NO need to add brown sugar, caramel sauce, candied nuts, brandy, butter, cinnamon, honey or raisins to what is already a perfect savory appetizer!  You can quote me on that…

Oh and while I’m ranting, I need to add that it does not need to be made “healthy”, or “gluten free” or “Paleo Friendly”.  Sorry, but Brie cheese is Brie cheese and Puff Pastry is Puff Pastry.  Once you eliminate those two ingredients and add a substitute it is no longer Brie En Croute!  Just sayin’….

After a very sad and frustrating 30 minutes spent staring at pretty Brie En Croute pictures and then reading the actual recipes (cringe worthy, trust me), I decided to abandon that idea and move on to a Classic Green Bean Casserole.

Ruh ruh, you can see where this is going?  Uh huh, same problem.  Pretty pretty photo’s, but jiminy pete, the recipes had little to do with the classic Campbell’s Soup Green Bean Casserole that was invented back in the 50’s in Camden, NJ.  There were lots of them with things like Pine Nuts in them, and sausage, and pecans and sun dried tomatoes, and white wine, and, well, I could keep going, but you get the picture (puns again!) and it’s just making me sad all over again as I type this. 

I just wanted a nice, easy recipe for the classic dish – it’s not so much to ask!

And then I ditched that idea and moved on to Classic Sage Stuffing.  Ok, so on this one I was SURE that I’d find a pretty picture of a dish of stuffing along with a recipe for the old standard in nearly every kitchen in the 1960’s. 

Wrong again! 

There were things like bok choy, soy beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, water chestnuts, nutmeg, allspice and….gasp… HONEY in the recipes!  And yet they were titled “Classic Sage Stuffing”.  How can this be?  Did I miss something in the 60’s?  Were all the other Mom’s in our neighborhood adding soy beans and honey to their stuffing?

I did end up settling for one Brie En Croute recipe that actually sounded very tasty, and one classic Green Bean Casserole recipe that includes lots of variations, but starts off with THE Campbell’s original recipe.  I added them to my Old Fashioned Thanksgiving board and promised myself that I’ll actually go make them pronto just to be sure that they taste as good as they sound.

Because here’s “my” thing when it comes to my Pinterest boards…

I refuse to pin recipes that I wouldn’t personally cook and eat right here in my own home.  I want each and every recipe to taste fantastic, to represent my style of comfort food on a budget and I won’t budge on that, no matter how un-pinterest-popular that might make me.

My boards may be small, but when you decide to make one of the recipes you can trust me that it’s either something I make myself and love, or something new that someone else makes and that I’ve added to my arsenal of “Man this is delicious, where has this recipe been all my life?” recipes.

Ok, rant over.  I’ll hop off my soap box… for this week.  <insert much grinning and eye rolling here>

It’s not rocket science!