Allrecipes.com Reviews

I don't know if this is a rant so much as a "this is hilarious to me", but here we go.

I discovered AllRecipes.com when I married Caleb.  It's something he used a lot, so I started to use it a little bit, too.  I've found some really good recipes on there.  But when I check out a recipe, I always read several of the reviews, to see what other people say about it.  Of course there are the people who just love it.  But so many people (most of them, actually) say they loved the recipe, but then they describe the 47 things they changed about it that made them love it so much.

I laugh at every single one of these.

This recipe is perfect, if you change everything about what the original person did.

Now, of course we all have our individual tastes, and I'm not suggesting that a teaspoon of salt really changes the quintessence of the dish, but when one substitutes potatoes for celery, omits the bouillon cubes in favor of a different route, doubles the spices, changes the main meat, and switches from rice to noodles, it's not really chicken rice soup anymore, is it?

Truthfully, many of the reviews are helpful.  I tried a White Chili from All Recipes last week, and the reviews gave me lots of good ideas.  For example, most people were saying it was too thin to technically be a chili, but that was good news to me, because I prefer soup.  And others said to double the spices, which I did, and I'm glad I did.  And I'd make my own changes, too, like half the onion, but at this point, I think it's time I write a new recipe, and just say that it's adapted from the original, instead of writing a new recipe as a review.

Love and Cayenne Pepper,
Leah Joy