We have had lots of struggles and challenges in our lives, but we've had even more blessings!

Friday, December 5, 2014

'Recipes I'd like to try'

   The other evening, Brian had said that he'd like to find a new good recipe for a certain food product. I had replied that I knew I had some on my 'Recipes I'd Like to try' board on Pinterest. He was sure I did too. o;-p  I remembered our conversation the next day and went looking. My search revealed two different things.
   First - That in the end, we're going to end up making our own specialized recipe. See, after looking at several, I found one along the lines of what he wanted, so I copied and pasted it to an email to send him. Then I kept looking. I found first this then another recipe, which was kind of similar to the first, y-e-t ... So maybe if we replaced this product in the first recipe, with this one from this other recipe. Oh, and maybe if we also added this ingredient to the first recipe from that fourth recipe. Yup, I think I have the possibilities fine tuned to a recipe we're going to try making. And he thinks he got the just of it from the explanation in the email. Gonna try it out ourselves before we plan to serve it elsewhere. 
  Second - That my board needed some help! Often, like many other pinners, I just re-pin something one of the people I've chosen to 'follow' has pinned. The pictures look yummy, like something somebody in my little family would like, etc.. Occasionally I'd click on the pin so that it opened another window to the source of the pin (recipe) and verify that we actually would like it (or that with slight tweaking we should). That 'occasionally' needs to change to a habit of always doing so!
     I am literally mind boggled by how many recipes led me to a notice from Pinterest, stating that they had "blocked" the link due to spam, nudity, etc.. Mind boggled. Reportedly, x-rated web sites often draw visitors to their sites, by attaching their web page/site to pictures of things which have nothing what-so-ever to do with what their site is actually about. But to have had that many "recipes" on my board which weren't recipes at all.... mind boggled.
     So I decided to take the time and one by one double check each and every one of the pins on that board. Quite the undertaking, seeings how I had over 700 pins on it. (and yes, that first sentence does sound rather redundant, so did this task.)
     In the process, I found that I had duplicates of about a dozen pins. I was impressed that it was that low. I deleted the duplicates. Or at least I 'think' I got all of them.
     A couple of other times I thought they were duplicates, but it turned out they were from different sources and different recipes. I kept both in case I try one and it doesn't pass the test.
     I was surprised to find that I couldn't actually access certain recipes, unless I signed up to some recipe site/blog. While the pins pictures looked appetizing, instead of signing up, I deleted those pins. I just prefer it that way. Other times I was informed that viewing the blog was by "invite only". didn't realize their were private cooking sororities on line.
    Quite a few times, I found that instead of leading me to the recipe itself, the link led to a web site. Sometimes I was successful in finding the actual recipe, deleted the original pin and then pinned the actual link onto my board. Other times, my searching was unsuccessful and I ended up just deleting the pin altogether. 
    One time I got quite the surprise. The pin stated that it was for a chicken dish that Olive Garden makes. I figured it led to a 'knock off' version of their recipe. Instead, it lead to the restaurant's on line - carry out ordering page. :-p  Here's that link in case you wish to use it -  http://www.olivegarden.com/menu-listing/pronto-lunch.
    There were a few that got deleted just because. I had clicked on it, got to the recipe and said "nope, I don't want to make that".
     Then there were the ones that led to a picture somebody somewhere had posted on Flicker.  No recipe link any-where, just a clearer view of the yummy goodness.  :-[
    Okay, I will admit that I did keep a couple of the pins that led to pinterest blocked warnings. The reasons that I kept the couple that I did, was because there was enough of the recipe included in the pins description itself that I could work with.
    For the record, w-a-y into the process, I realized that instead of deleting the original pin, I could just delete the 'source' of it (click to edit pin), thus redirecting where you go when you click on it. Technology, I'm slow, but eventually I catch on.
    That board has now been totally edited/checked. Can't believe that the number of pins on it dropped down to 600 (601 if you count the recipe Benson sent me and I added last night).
    "Do you ever plan on trying all of them?" you ask. As a matter of fact, we have come up with a 'plan'. We are going to start trying recipes off of it at least twice a week. Once, during the week for dinner. The second one will be as part of Sunday's dinner, albeit the main course, side dish or dessert. Or maybe we''ll do all three and get further faster :-].
    You are hereby invited to go browse through the board yourself and try and all recipes you find intriguing. http://www.pinterest.com/cherylbz/recipes-i-d-like-to-try/