Like so many others, I have fallen into the Pinterest vortex of let's spend my non-existent free-time searching for more projects to do in my non-existent free-time. And just like so many others, I love it and can't stop. However, I recently decided that if I was going to be spending my time looking up all these projects/crafts/recipes I needed to start trying some of them. And what I have discovered is that Pinterest is a lot cooler in theory than in reality. Although I have had a couple recipes work out, I have had more result in disgusting failures and my first kid-activity was a double thumbs-down. Here are just a few of my Pinterest fails.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake:
I *love* strawberries and I love strawberry desserts even more. So, when I started planning a menu for hosting a Bunco party at my house I started looking for berry desserts on Pinterest. I came across a recipe for Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake and it sounded delish! Oh, how I was sooo wrong. First of all, it was a pain to make. But I figured, sometimes delicious food just takes a little time, a lot of patience, and a sprinkling of love. When I started frosting the cake, I took a little lick of the frosting and my stomach revolted almost instantly. I probably should have known better when I made a cake with the words cream cheese in the title. My body just doesn't seem to appreciate rich foods. But still, after all that work, I thought maybe it would taste better after being chilled overnight. Yeah, no. There was no salvaging the cake. My belly ached for a good 24 hours after eating just a few bites. The only redeeming aspect of the cake was that it was really pretty and no, my picture does not do it justice.
Pepperoni Pizza Puffs:
For the same said Bunco party, I searched for some snack foods I could make. I came across a recipe for Pepperoni Pizza Puffs. I already have a recipe for very tasty pizza rolls, but they're time-consuming to make and I was trying to make my life a little easier since as I mentioned before I don't seem to have any extra free-time these days. I thought who wouldn't love 2-bite pizza muffins. Right? Wrong! These were more like 2-bite spicy, rubbery sponges and they gave my poor hubby horrible heart-burn. Unfortunately for the blog, those little nasties ended up in the trash faster than I could take their picture.
Sock Bubbles:
In addition to new recipes, I like to search for fun things to do with the kids. I came across directions on how to make sock bubbles. I really wasn't sure if these would work. It's just an empty water bottle with the bottom cut off, a sock duct-taped to it and dipped in homemade bubble mixture (dish soap and water). So I started off making just one to practice on myself. Amazingly, they do work. After getting the first bubble maker going and adding a little blue food coloring for fun, I gave it to Colin and ran inside to make another one for Eli. Two minutes later, I came out and found blue dye all around Colin's mouth and realized that he was not just blowing through his bottle but was also sucking up the bubble mixture. I tried to show him how to do it properly, but at that point, the taste of the soap had hit his taste buds and he ran inside to wash off his tongue. Before running after him, I glanced over at Eli who was already trying to get his bubbles going and tried to impress upon him the importance of only *blowing* through the bottle and taking his mouth off the bottle before sucking in more air. Clearly I was not emphatic enough because after helping Colin clean his mouth and running back outside to check on Eli, I found his sock inflating and deflating like a lung. As I was yelling "stop" at Eli, he got the taste of soap on his tongue and ran inside to clean out his mouth. At this point, I thought my kids must have learned their lesson and would recognize the importance of only blowing through their bottles. Perhaps I over-estimated my childrens' abilities to follow that type of instructions because as soon as they both were given their bottles back, they both started sucking in the bubbles again. Needless to say, this project received a double thumbs-down and Colin continues to tell me that it was a really bad idea.
Despite these epic fails I continue to surf Pinterest and I know that I will continue to try new recipes and experiment with new activities on my kids. As I like to tell the boys, variety is the spice of life (these projects may have been just a little too spicy for our taste).
