Going to be 100% real right now. I make and photograph a lot of recipes that don’t make it to the blog. Why? Because not everything comes out as delicious and beautiful as I would hope. I sometimes spend hours cooking and photographing food that ends up tasting bland or frankly, disgusting.
Thank goodness for my trusty taste-tester, Travis, who can be honest with me about whether or not a recipe is blog-worthy.
I thought it would be fun to share some photos of recent “recipe failures” so you could see a different side of what goes on in my kitchen. So, without further ado, welcome to the gallery of recipes that didn’t make it to the blog!
Sweet and Sour Carrots
I am not exactly sure what happened with these carrots because a whole lot of delicious ingredients went into this recipe, but the end result was incredibly boring. If a side dish is going to take you a good 45 minutes to make, it better be worth it. Am I right!?
Gluten-Free Brownies
I had high hopes for these brownies. I used PB2 instead of flour, hoping that I was onto a delicious gluten-free breakthrough. Unfortunately, even after cooling in the pan for hours, these brownies were SO sticky. After I attempted to cut them into clean squares, it looked like a tornado hit the pan.
These three little squares were the cleanest cuts I was able to get. The perfectionist in me was screaming! So even though these gluten-free brownies tasted great, I wasn’t about to post something that didn’t look like bake-sale perfection.
Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa
Let me start by saying that I LOVE this recipe. Like LOVE. So does Travis. We’ve made it one million times. But, when I finally went to photograph it for the blog, the auto-focus on my camera stopped working. Every photo was a blurry mess. #FAIL.
Now that my camera is up and running again, I’ve been meaning to remake this for you guys. Maybe this weekend?
Frozen Greek Yogurt Bark
I’ve seen a bunch of recipes for yogurt bark on Instagram, so I decided to have a go at it myself. I must have seriously missed something with this one, because my yogurt bark turned out terribly. The bark was all crackly, plus one minute it was rock-solid and next it was a melty mess. What a disaster!
Yogurt bark masters out there, what the heck did I do wrong?
There you have it! As you can see, not everything turns out like rainbows and butterflies around here. It’s all about experimentation.
What about you? Any funny cooking disasters you want to share? But actually. Please share and make me feel better…
Reiko
I know the feeling! I have tons of disasters in my kitchen. I get so disappointed when things don’t turn out as tasty as I expected, but the hardest is the ones whose pictures do not turn out as great as the food tasted (and the food is gone when I realize that all the pictures are not satisfactory for the blog…). I’ll look forward to your future Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa post! It sounds delicious.
Rachel (littlechefbigappetite)
Reiko – I knew my fellow bloggers would understand! And YES the photography ones are the WORST! Especially because we spend so much time setting up for the photos!
Natasha @ The Cake Merchant
Oh my goodness, I’ve had so many recipe fails too! I’m glad that you posted them so your fellow food bloggers can commiserate. I hope the Mahi Mahi recipe makes it to the blog soon!
Dani @ Dani California Cooks
Hahhaha this is a great post. Some of those photos still look good though!! I’ve had a couple of recipe fails where things just don’t look as good in the photo as they do in real-life. (Looking at you, baked casserole-style dishes).
Rachel (littlechefbigappetite)
Yesssss! Baked Casseroles never look appealing for some reason. Also some soups and stews that I make!