Pinterest Challenge: Fails

Keeping it real around here. I am not always successful at making Pinterest Challenges. Not even when I follow the directions. Rather than take up a whole post on each of these failures, I thought I'd lump some of them together.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie Pie.

The original photo looks so good. My version? Not so much.

This is the before I tried to cut it but after I let it cool for 1 hour photo. I'll spare you the after being cut photo. Pudding, and not in a good way.

What went wrong? It didn't bake enough. I knew the brownie part wasn't done, but I thought it would continue to bake even after I put the cheesecake layer on top. And okay, it probably did, but it wasn't enough. I'm not certain if this is another illustration of my oven not baking evenly, or if I should simply have added some cook time for each layer.

Would I try it again? Kind of. I figured that much time in the oven probably meant I wouldn't get sick from eating it, so I tried a slice couple spoon fulls. The flavors were good - but quite rich. I think a slice would have been overwhelming. So, if I try it again, I will swap out the pie plate for a square cake pan and hope that I can cut it into small bars instead of slices. And that I can cut it at all.

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This would have been a Pinterest Challenge, if the delicious looking potatoes I pinned had led anywhere. Instead of a recipe, I got tips on how to lose weight. Searching for the image led me to my own pin. Searching for the source of the watermark led me to error messages.

So, instead I found a different recipe HERE at Epicurious.com for roasted potatoes with garlic, lemon, oregano, and chicken stock. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but I had all the ingredients and figured I'd give it a go.

And the potatoes have now been in the oven thirty minutes more than called for - and still aren't done. They smell amazing... but I'm beginning to question if potatoes cook differently at different altitudes? It's not my oven, since the chicken is done (and eaten).

Later: Two hours of bake time and I gave up. And no, the potatoes never got done, never got fluffy, never even approached soft.

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I'm not going to link anything for this one, but I assure you I only tried it because Pinterest was making it look so good. 

One grapefruit, about to be broiled, half with brown sugar, half without. 

Yeah, that was more of a mess than it was worth. I will continue eating them my way (like an orange) and leave the fancy bits to other people...