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Not everyone needs to be Pioneer Woman


Seasider
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Yup. I used to read her blog now and then back in 2007. Too much going on now.

I thought she had the recipes in a separate "corner" on the website? Oh, it just dawned on me that you are probably talking about the way she presents the recipes. Go straight to the printable version - that used to cut out all the other stuff.

Edited by Liz CA
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Yup. I used to read her blog now and then back in 2007. Too much going on now.

I thought she had the recipes in a separate "corner" on the website? Oh, it just dawned on me that you are probably talking about the way she presents the recipes. Go straight to the printable version - that used to cut out all the other stuff.

It's not PW that bugs me - I expect that at her site and find it entertaining. It's all the other storyteller recipe sharers that bother me. Just give me the list of ingredients and cooking directions right at the top, please! Edited by Seasider
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You need to use Copy Me That. It's a free site. You install their toolbar tool and anytime you're on a site with a recipe you click on it. It goes through the page and excises out the actual recipe. Then it's stored in your recipe file on the Copy Me That site. You can edit and print. I love it!

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I would agree with you even if you didn't ask JAWM.   I hate all the photos and chitchat.  An occasional photo of a difficult technique can be helpful.  For ex, the various stages/colors of a roux.  But,

 for the most part, just give me the recipe.

 

Agree with Lady Florida about Simply Recipes.  It is a great site.  

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Yes! All the sites with photos of each ingredient added, stirring, butter melting, on and on... And I'm almost always looking on my phone so it is double annoying!

 

 

And no, bloggers, you don't have to show each and every step of artistically photographed recipe creation.

 

I don't care how the bowl looks after you add the sugar. I hate scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to find the real recipe.

 

YES.  And it can take forever for all those photos to load on certain platforms.  I wish she'd include a "skip to the recipe" link at the top.  

 

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I love Ree, but I abandoned the site a long time ago. Partly agnst with the overwhelming nature of it making it difficult to navigate a recipe on my phone standing in the kitchen, and partially because, well, I'm not June Cleaver. LOL, I've said it. I just simply am not the queen of cooking and baking.

 

To give you an idea just exactly how much specialty item food preparation I do here, I had to buy a 4 lb. bag of sugar the other day. It was the first sugar I purchased in almost 2 years!

 

I hope my children remember that while they have never been blessed with the cookie baking, gingerbread house making mamma, they do have one that routinely preps and launches rockets with them!  :lol:

 

For me, any time I am looking for a recipe, simple is best, and a website that is easy to navigate on phone or kindle because until I've tried it once, I am not likely to print it.

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Yes, too many pictures of inane details! I like one picture of the finished product so I know what mark I'm trying to hit. And then maybe a picture or two if there are complicated steps (like shaping dough or what color to which the sugar needs to be caramelized). I also don't need a story of how your cousin's grandmother's sister's truck driver husband found this recipe on the back of a cereal box and you had to try it in memory of him. Or how the autumnal air and leaves the color of rust, mustard, and hipster rainbows called you to write a 1200 word essay on why you needed to bake a pumpkin cheesecake.

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I think OP was saying other bloggers and recipe sites try to be like Ree and they fail.  She likes Ree and doesn't mind her site.

 

I just watched at least 2 episodes of PW.  Sometimes she gets on my nerves...but today she was soothing because my dog is dying.

 

In general, if I can't skip to the printable recipe in 10 seconds I move on to something easier to navigate.  

 

 

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And no, bloggers, you don't have to show each and every step of artistically photographed recipe creation.

 

I don't care how the bowl looks after you add the sugar. I hate scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to find the real recipe.

 

 

I find those especially insulting to my cooking intelligence.  As if I can't tell my peaks are stiff enough without a picture reference.  :rolleyes:

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I think OP was saying other bloggers and recipe sites try to be like Ree and they fail.  She likes Ree and doesn't mind her site.

 

I just watched at least 2 episodes of PW.  Sometimes she gets on my nerves...but today she was soothing because my dog is dying.

 

In general, if I can't skip to the printable recipe in 10 seconds I move on to something easier to navigate.  

 

 

I feel that was a little rude of me to say she gets on my nerves.  After reading her blog for so many years her voice doesn't match the voice in my head and I can't reconcile that quite right.  That's all.  I am getting use to her actual voice vs the voice of my imagination.

 

My parents bought us a set of her dishes for our anniversary.  And her butter dish.  And my SIL bought me a set of her flea market bowls and the little set of beautiful measuring cup/bowls.

 

I am so please with all of it.

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I find those especially insulting to my cooking intelligence.  As if I can't tell my peaks are stiff enough without a picture reference.  :rolleyes:

 

 

I wish I had had such detail instruction when I was young.  It is still helpful sometimes.....but yeah usually it is over the top for someone who has a general clue about cooking.

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You need to use Copy Me That. It's a free site. You install their toolbar tool and anytime you're on a site with a recipe you click on it. It goes through the page and excises out the actual recipe. Then it's stored in your recipe file on the Copy Me That site. You can edit and print. I love it!

Brilliant! I need that! I have a thousand book marks on my phone, this looks like a good solution for that!

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I love Ree, but I abandoned the site a long time ago. Partly agnst with the overwhelming nature of it making it difficult to navigate a recipe on my phone standing in the kitchen, and partially because, well, I'm not June Cleaver. LOL, I've said it. I just simply am not the queen of cooking and baking.

 

 

 

Neither is Ree, no matter how hard she tries to make people believe it.

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I think OP was saying other bloggers and recipe sites try to be like Ree and they fail. She likes Ree and doesn't mind her site.

 

I just watched at least 2 episodes of PW. Sometimes she gets on my nerves...but today she was soothing because my dog is dying.

 

In general, if I can't skip to the printable recipe in 10 seconds I move on to something easier to navigate.

I like Ree's site, but I am only a rare user and know what to expect there. And if I am looking for a culturally authentic dish, I don't mind some historical narrative, in fact under such circumstances I like it.

 

But when I want to browse-compare recipes because I'm looking for a new way to jazz up baked chicken, I don't need the details.

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I would love to be able to google up some recipes without having to wade through pages of debatably amusing commentary and scads of ads. I love the original but most of the spinoffs just get in the way. Maybe JAWM.

 

Yep.  Completely agree.  Before PW, food bloggers would blog a recipe with some commentary and usually one photo of a finished product- maybe a before photo of the ingredients used.

 

Now it's step by step AND everyone has monetized their blogs so that they are loaded with affiliate links.  No thank you.

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Oh, is she one we can blame for the pages that scroll for.ever. with endless high res DSLR photos of artful dustings of flour and the little crumb on the counter to lend 'realism' & omnipresent links to affiliate stores?

Another reason to dislike her then. I don't like her & have been avoiding her for years but it's a bummer she's infected so many people. 

 

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I like Smitten Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated.

 

I'm not a PW fan.

I get frustrated with Cook's Illustrated because I have to sign in and provide a credit card when I do. I have a subscription to their magazine; that should be enough for me to register easily. If there's an easier way to do it, I'd love to hear it!!

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You need to use Copy Me That. It's a free site. You install their toolbar tool and anytime you're on a site with a recipe you click on it. It goes through the page and excises out the actual recipe. Then it's stored in your recipe file on the Copy Me That site. You can edit and print. I love it!

I'm going to check it out. Does it have a mobile version or an app. This is exciting.

 

 

Yeah, I really don't need an amusing story about the shoes you bought last Wednesday in the middle of a cheesecake recipe. And my biggest pet peeve is when I get through all the inane chatter and there isn't a printable version of the recipe. 😡

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I love Ree, but I abandoned the site a long time ago. Partly agnst with the overwhelming nature of it making it difficult to navigate a recipe on my phone standing in the kitchen, and partially because, well, I'm not June Cleaver. LOL, I've said it. I just simply am not the queen of cooking and baking.

 

Those of us who remember Ree from these boards probably get the impression that she herself would laugh at a comparison to June Cleaver. She was pretty down to earth while she was here and I kinda miss her spark. I too have abandoned reading the blog because it became too time consuming and now everything seems to be filtered through the marketing analyst.

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And no, bloggers, you don't have to show each and every step of artistically photographed recipe creation.

 

I don't care how the bowl looks after you add the sugar. I hate scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to find the real recipe.

AMEN.

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Oh, is she one we can blame for the pages that scroll for.ever. with endless high res DSLR photos of artful dustings of flour and the little crumb on the counter to lend 'realism' & omnipresent links to affiliate stores?

 

Another reason to dislike her then. I don't like her & have been avoiding her for years but it's a bummer she's infected so many people. 

 

 

 

To be fair, I don't think she started the whole affiliate links thing.  But the scrolling forever with billions of pictures? Yep. 

 

When she made it big, it was like a clarion call to every food blogger wannabe, and they started emulating her style.  I suspect it was some of the mommy blogs that really got the afflink thing to take off.

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I would love to be able to google up some recipes without having to wade through pages of debatably amusing commentary and scads of ads. I love the original but most of the spinoffs just get in the way. Maybe JAWM.

Yeah, this annoys me, too. I feel like the rest are PW knock-offs and I can make a brocolli cheese soup without 49 photos and fifty paragraphs of wisecracks.

 

Althought, even for PW, I really just like her cookbooks and never really liked the blog so much.

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Oh, is she one we can blame for the pages that scroll for.ever. with endless high res DSLR photos of artful dustings of flour and the little crumb on the counter to lend 'realism' & omnipresent links to affiliate stores?

 

Another reason to dislike her then. I don't like her & have been avoiding her for years but it's a bummer she's infected so many people.

 

 

Monitizing ruined blogging for me. I pretty much stopped blogging myself because I didn't want to randomly monitize (such as Goodle Ads) because it would probably put ads for idiotic things that I am speaking out against on my blog. :D Like, I would probably have a post about drying your clothes on a line to save money/energy and Google Ads would find the "drying clothes" keywords and put in there ads for dryer sheets. As a blog reader, my experience of reading was totally ruined when they would say something like, "...and then I shred in my Kraft Real Aged Cheddar Cheese and mix it thoroughly with my KitchenAid Mini-Stand Mixer in Rose Gold...."

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Yep. Completely agree. Before PW, food bloggers would blog a recipe with some commentary and usually one photo of a finished product- maybe a before photo of the ingredients used.

 

Now it's step by step AND everyone has monetized their blogs so that they are loaded with affiliate links. No thank you.

I used to love reading blogs. Now, I avoid them like the plague! Aff-Links and ads have pretty much ruined 98.9% of the internet for me. Especially the dang "subscribe now" pop-ups within 5 seconds of opening the site. Let me see what you have to say first!! I miss the good ol' RSS link in the corner. I subscribed to WAY more sites in those days than I do now. Annoying me with an instant pop-up is a guaranteed "F you" to subscribing or purchasing from me unless I really, really, really need your 100% one-of-kind product (so like 0.0000000000001%) of the time.

 

But, it must work - they're still using the model and it's growing in popularity. I wish more people would follow my lead and boycott all annoying "gimme gimme" subscription pop-ups and exit the site immediately so they have to learn a new way!

 

 

 

Signed,

 

A grouchy old woman

 

Damn kids, get off my lawn!!

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I want you to know I'm typing this on my Dell XPS computer (in cool white) 

[insert photo of my unmanicured but still cool looking hands in slight blur over a Corsair gaming keyboard (MSRP 129.99). A plant is in the background (avail at Ikea).  Also a dog (avail at your rescue center).] 

Click to subscribe to all my threads! 

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It's not PW that bugs me - I expect that at her site and find it entertaining. It's all the other storyteller recipe sharers that bother me. Just give me the list of ingredients and cooking directions right at the top, please!

 

yes!!  Exactly. It is so annoying to have to scroll through a gazillion photos of food in various stages of cooking just to get the @@ recipe. 

 

Everyone thinks they're an arteest.  :rolleyes:

 

Another thing I'm finding on those sites is music or video ads.  No... just no.  If I want to hear something whilst looking for a recipe I'll turn on my own music thankyouverymuch. :glare:   I leave those sites immediately.

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I like Smitten Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated.

 

I'm not a PW fan.

 

I used to love Smitten Kitchen!  She was doing artsy photos with a story before PW though.  (athough she only used a smattering of photos).  I liked her because she was a chef but her apartment kitchen was this tiny little thing with a down-sized oven.  It was refreshing to see someone create beautiful and yummy things with very little space and gadgets. 

 

I know she had a kid or two and I'm sure she moved.  I haven't been to her site in years.

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I used to love Smitten Kitchen! She was doing artsy photos with a story before PW though. (athough she only used a smattering of photos). I liked her because she was a chef but her apartment kitchen was this tiny little thing with a down-sized oven. It was refreshing to see someone create beautiful and yummy things with very little space and gadgets.

 

I know she had a kid or two and I'm sure she moved. I haven't been to her site in years.

Yes I never got into the food network thing because i never had a dishwasher nor miles of countertops.

I am loving some of the more realistic kitchen ones, such as Mark Bittman, NY times cooking and smitten kitchen.

Cooks Illustrated is to me like the AOPs of cooking, completely amazing but more complicated than necessary. Turn chicken inside out and such.

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I think we talked about this a while back and the word was that keeping you on site longer (while all those stooopid photos load and you try to scroll past them) makes it possible to charge more for ads.

 

Not that I've ever clicked on an ad at a recipe site, but I guess someone must.

 

Emily

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I really like Budget Bytes. She has step by step photos, but usually AFTER the recipe. So it's easy to avoid them and only use them if you want to clarify some instruction. The only time she does it differently is when she is blogging about a process (like she just did one on how to brown butter) and the photos are kind of the point. 

 

I also find her ingredients and recipes are ones I can use everyday. Typically stuff we have or I can adapt easily. Typically fairly easy to prepare. And I don't think I've made anything from her site that was not good. 

 

 

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I am not a pioneer woman and never have been.  I have made her rolls for Christmas on occasion.  I spend an hour making them and they get gobbled up in 10 min. by my 4 boys.

 

They gobble up store bought cinn rolls in the same amount of time and don't compliment me for spending the hour making them, so, store bought it is!

 

I think I am just cranky as the holidays approach and I don't want to go through a lot of work to decorate, purchase gifts, or bake this year.  I want a SIMPLE Christmas.  SIMPLE.  Is that possible?

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I think we talked about this a while back and the word was that keeping you on site longer (while all those stooopid photos load and you try to scroll past them) makes it possible to charge more for ads.

 

Not that I've ever clicked on an ad at a recipe site, but I guess someone must.

 

Emily

 

You've got it. I teach web design and multimedia at the college level, and that's exactly what is going on. Certain design issues mean more ad revenue. When it was just a sideline for her, I remember her saying that she included pictures because she like that when recipes do that. Usually it was just a few though. Now though they're much more extensive and the narrative has increased.

 

I actually like her cookbooks and watch her show sometimes.

 

Totally different than my messy life, but that's OK. It's an escape.

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I have a crush on Mel from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. She does just the right amount of 'splaining and her recipes aren't overly extravagant. It's good, simple, home-cooked meals.

  

I really like Budget Bytes. She has step by step photos, but usually AFTER the recipe. So it's easy to avoid them and only use them if you want to clarify some instruction. The only time she does it differently is when she is blogging about a process (like she just did one on how to brown butter) and the photos are kind of the point. 

 

I also find her ingredients and recipes are ones I can use everyday. Typically stuff we have or I can adapt easily. Typically fairly easy to prepare. And I don't think I've made anything from her site that was not good.

 

These are the only two cooking blogs that I read regularly. Mel is the best. I've been following her for years and love her recipes, her tone, and her personality. Budget Bytes is fairly new for me. I actually found her book first at the library and started reading her blog after liking the book a lot. I love her cost breakdowns and how her recipes shows how she uses up larger items/leftover ingredients for less waste.

 

I haven't read PW in years. The pictures and stories are meant to be the "stars" but they always felt overdone to me. I love reading about cooking when it's focused on technique or science, so I'm another CI/ATK fan. But the cooking as storytelling only works for me when reading someone like Ruth Reichl.

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I love Sally's Baking Addiction. She does have lots of photos, but she explains why recipes work and gives lots of thorough tips for those who are interested. I have made tons of her recipes and they are all really good and easy. She has a huge variety as well. She has a couple cookbooks now too.

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I have a crush on Mel from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. She does just the right amount of 'splaining and her recipes aren't overly extravagant. It's good, simple, home-cooked meals.

 

Yes! I love her too! Every recipe of hers that I've tried has been so good.

 

and I, too, dislike the whole heart-warming story of how I came up with this recipe and here are 8 gazillion professionally photoshopped pictures of how to make it trend. Earlier this week I found a great recipe for coconut chicken strips but the blogger wrote  2 pages of 'this recipe is best made with feelings of love and peace and serenity' nonsense. I almost thought it was a joke.

Edited by Mothersweets
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I used to love reading blogs. Now, I avoid them like the plague! Aff-Links and ads have pretty much ruined 98.9% of the internet for me. Especially the dang "subscribe now" pop-ups within 5 seconds of opening the site. Let me see what you have to say first!! I miss the good ol' RSS link in the corner. I subscribed to WAY more sites in those days than I do now. Annoying me with an instant pop-up is a guaranteed "F you" to subscribing or purchasing from me unless I really, really, really need your 100% one-of-kind product (so like 0.0000000000001%) of the time.

 

But, it must work - they're still using the model and it's growing in popularity. I wish more people would follow my lead and boycott all annoying "gimme gimme" subscription pop-ups and exit the site immediately so they have to learn a new way!

 

 

 

Signed,

 

A grouchy old woman

 

Damn kids, get off my lawn!!

 

Oh yes, I forgot about the subscription pop-ups!  

 

When I was blogging regularly, people who really wanted to subscribe had to hunt for the RSS button somewhere in my sidebar.  Those pop-ups are beyond irritating.

 

I loved blogging, but I was doing it when it was genuine and not just a job.  It was a fun little hobby and the people who read and commented on my blogs were genuine.  I keep thinking about getting back into it, but I feel like food blogging is kind of beyond saturated and nothing I would post would be unique anymore.  Though, my ad-free, pop-up free format might be revolutionary in its own way. 

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