The pin that wouldn’t die

Hi! I’m still alive. Many thanks to Tiffany for holding down the blog fort. There has been a lot of take-out in my house this last month, due to work and other conflicts, so there has not been much to blog. I’m getting back to my CSA ways, however, and should have a couple of new recipes to share soon.

Today, however, I would like to talk to you about Pinterest. Pinterest can be a gigantic time suck. But it can also be a great resource for recipes. It can also lead to this. The thing is this: pretty pictures do not a good recipe indicate. Or possibly any recipe. So be a responsible pinner, and check the links before you repin, share, post, or cook. I have discovered some fantastic food blogs through pinterest, and some fantastic recipes. By applying some healthy skepticism and common sense, it is fairly easy to determine if a pin will lead you to cooking glory, or a dinner dumped in the trash. Here are Michelann’s 5 Commandments of Pinterest:

1. Thou shalt not pin without checking the link.
   The link may take you to a blog, but not the recipe, something totally unrelated, or to a virus-laden spam site. Check. The. Link.
2. Thou shalt not pin without reading the recipe.
   I use Pinterest mostly to track recipes I want to try, or ones that I have tried. You would not try a new recipe without reading it first. Sometimes the pretty pictures distract you from the fact that it either makes no sense, isn’t in a language you speak, or is filled with things you dislike.
3. Thou shalt read the comments.
   Normally I hate reading comments, but I make an exception for recipes. It’s always good to see if anyone has tried the recipe and reported back on how it worked. This really goes for all online recipes (are there any other kind?) – seeing where people had trouble with it or how they adapted it can save you a lot of time and stress.
4. Thou shalt filter thy followees.
   I just made that word up. You don’t have to follow every single pin someone makes – it will clutter the crap out of your feed and make it hard to find anything useful. Just follow the boards you are interested in. Follow pinners who post reputable links, not everything shiny they see.
5. Thou shalt report back.
   If you try a recipe and it sucks, make a comment on your pin or unpin it. If it’s good, comment on it and make any suggestions for changes. That way you will be more reputable to other pinners and not be shunned as a spamhound.