On Pinterest Anything is Possible

On Pinterest anything is possible.  Shrunk clothes become un-shrunk; eggs peel effortlessly; every cat is a cute little kitten that never poops; pie crusts are works of art; the blind can see, the lame leap like a hart... you get the picture.

Pinterest is an addiction a trend that I resisted for some time, until I realized that my complicated and time consuming not to say Cluttered System of Bookmarks was the same thing except less cool.  Vinegar is modge-podge, baking soda is chalkboard paint (I didn't actually know what that was before pinterest), and you can use mason jars for anything.

So here's a run-down of the pins I've tried recently--drumroll, please.  *radio voice*  Does pinterest stand the test of an inept cook and housekeeper?!  Or is it only for the expert with an expensive camera, endless amounts of time and sophisticated photo editing software!?

APPLE CHIPS

These apple chips constitute a pinterest fail, in my opinion.  It seems like a great idea--we love chips, we love apples, so surely apple chips would be delicious.

NOT.  They are not delicious.  As one of my poor victims said, "They are like an entire apple in your mouth, all at once." They bludgeon you over the head with their flavor and sheer overwhelming APPLENESS.  I love apples.  But these were nasty.

Fun to make, they are.  Attractive, they are.  Delicious?  Not so much.

Consume at your own risk.

PERPETUAL GREEN ONIONS

Okay, so not likely to be immortal, still, putting your green onions in water seems to work as well as can be expected--very well, in fact.  I used the green parts of the onion for my Colcannon recipe and put the rest of the green onions in the fridge, where they were well on their way to Hades in a couple of hours.  I wanted to use them for baked potatoes yet, so I hastily removed them from their stark and cold environment in the fridge and put them in water.  In a couple of hours they had perked up.  A day later you can see the new growth on the previously only white onions.  Pinterest success!!!

EASY PEEL EGGS

I can't remember ever buying baking soda.
It's like Elijah's promise to the poor widow:
as the LORD liveth, your jar of flour shall
not run empty, nor your jug of oil run dry...

I recently discovered the deliciousness of an artfully boiled egg.  I used to boil eggs when I was a youngling, imagining I think that it made me more like Laura Ingalls (I don't think it did, but I felt rustic).  In those days it was a process that was anything but artful--basically boil the heck out of an egg until it was the texture of rubber and tasted like sulpher.  I decided I didn't like hard-boiled eggs. 

I don't go through all the trouble of boiling eggs that I might--simplicity and ease are part of what makes hard-boiled eggs an ideal snack/breakfast.  I boil smallish eggs for seven minutes in boiling water (I'll take a cracked egg every now and again as a sacrifice on the altar of expedience), and largish eggs for eight minutes.  The result is soft eggs which unfortunately, are even harder to peel than hard-boiled. Pinterest advises adding baking soda to the water, which so far has worked very well for me.  After all, Julia Child's no doubt fail-proof method is out of the question, as it would probably take forty-five minutes (no way!).  Pinterest success!

By the way, if anything is NOT possible with pinterest, be assured that we have a back-up: Baking soda!  I love baking soda; it is my cleaner of choice, the apple of my eye... 

CAKE BATTER PANCAKES

Okay, so originally I was VERY EXCITED ABOUT THESE PANCAKES.  But I must be honest.  If you want cake, eat cake.  If you want cake batter, eat cake batter.  If you want pancakes then eat pancakes!  This is like the rape of the pancake.  The Cake Batter Pancake Batter tasted like Cake Batter.  The finished pancake tasted like cake except not as soft and good.  So why not just make cupcakes and be done with it?  Gimmicky, I say.  Blueberry pancakes, please.  

Pinterest fail. 

As a side note, perhaps I am particularly inept, but pancakes are hard.  Getting the batter the right consistency and the pan the right temperature, flipping them without making a mess--all tricky and not something I have completely mastered yet.

I noticed something when I edited my photos today--mostly the last one because it turned out really dark and I burned all the other pancakes and ate this one as soon as it was done so I couldn't retake the picture...  Anyway.  When you click "remove blemish" in iphoto (yes, it was the pancake that had a blemish--not! ;-) ) it gives you a HUGE brush for your presumably HUGE blemish.  Excuse me, iphoto.  I don't have zits the size of a UFO.  Just calm down...