The Pitfalls of Pinterest

Pinterest has always been so good to me.  That being said...my Pinterest inspired supper Saturday night was, as my niece would say, a "big ol, big ol" letdown. I've been pinning for awhile now, and have seen recipes for "the world's greatest macaroni and cheese" time and time again.  I'm a macaroni and cheese purist (i.e. I eat what comes out of a box...almost exclusively), but I decided to try one of these recipes for two reasons.  1. We kept my niece this weekend and she loves "mac mac."  2. We were having pork chops, and I thought they would go nicely together.  Such a disappointment.

    Because I don't think it would be particularly nice to repost the recipe in its entirety, I'll just leave you with some giveaway clues so you know which it is...you'll recognize it.

    I know it's not the greatest picture...but the macaroni itself didn't look all that bad after we made it.  It had such a promising start too.  The pasta is cooked in milk, which is supposed to make it super creamy...ours was just kind of gluey.  The cheese sauce uses cheddar cheese (which I love).  Not bad, so far...right?   Wait.
    The "secret" ingredient to this...masterpiece is dijon mustard.  I know, it does sound crazy, and you're probably all laughing at me, but I thought it might be one of those "just crazy enough to work things."  It really wasn't.  The macaroni didn't turn out awful (I surely ate two helpings...), but it just didn't make a lot of sense to me.  The dijon didn't do a thing for the flavor.  It just made it taste kind of mustardy. 
    Della loves "fork chops and mac mac," but even she took two bites of this stuff and promptly told us, "I don't like that."  Out of the mouths of babes I guess.  I tried all night to figure out what was wrong with this recipe (other than the obvious), and I could only come up with one thing.  In the recipe's defense, you were supposed to use skim milk.  We used whole because it's what we had.  That would probably have made the final product slightly less gluey, but it couldn't have done much for the taste. 
    At least the pork chops were good.
    Well, you live and learn I guess.  None of us got sick, so I guess I can live with not so great taste.  I almost didn't post this...but then I figured that blogs are about honesty, and this is what honestly (and pitifully) happened. 
    Go ahead and laugh...we sure did. 
    In other news be sure to come by next Sunday for the next installment of Sweet Southern Sundays!  I'm so enjoying sharing with all of you.
    Have you ever had just a devastating recipe failure or a Pinterest letdown?  Comment below so we all know that we aren't alone.

Better luck than I had,
Allyson

8 comments

avisiontoremember said...

I have seen that recipe...Might even have pinned it. Thanks for the heads up! Thanks for stopping by my blog I really appreciate it :)

Allyson McGuire said...

Your blog was just precious! Thanks for returning the favor!

Allyson
http://cupcakescandycanes.blogspot.com

Jamie said...

I've had a couple pinterest disasters too. Yuck.

Allyson McGuire said...

Thanks for stopping by! It's good to know I'm not the only one left wondering, "what were they thinking?"

Allyson
http://cupcakescandycanes.blogspot.com

Eat. Live. Laugh. and sometimes shop! said...

Ahhh, this totally burst my Pinterest bubble! I've been pinning everything and wanted to think I could make my entire world, dinner included, as beautiful as Pinterest.

Rats.

Allyson McGuire said...

Thanks for the comment! The Pinterest awe happens to the best of us...the next time I see something that seems "just crazy enough to work" I'll remind myself that it's probably just the crazy.

Allyson
http://cupcakescandycanes.blogspot.com

Rachel said...

I made this too, and the exact same thing happened to me. Gooey, mustardy, yucky, mess. I'm glad to know it wasn't my fault, it's just a crummy recipe.

Allyson McGuire said...

I just couldn't believe this recipe was so popular. I'm glad I didn't just do it wrong either! Thanks for your comment!

Allyson
http://cupcakescandycanes.blogspot.com