I have come to a realization about myself: I am not into process.
We’ve pretty much finished renovations around here, with the exception of our kitchen and ensuite, and renovations continue in force in the basement, and this, combined with my love of perusing food blogs, has made me come to this striking realization about myself.
I don’t care when things are in disarray, I don’t care too much about what’s going on in that disarray, and I don’t want to know if something went wrong. When it’s done and colour and beauty and evidence of change are involved, I am there. I will ooh and aaah like nobody’s business, I will tell all my (4) friends, I will applaud, and I will love it hard.
I enjoy the experience of the process when I’m the one in it, hands-on, and I understand that work goes into things but, quite frankly, I don’t want to think about it. Clearly you combined your flour, butter and sugar if you are making a classic cookie of any kind. Clearly you put up drywall if you painted and hung pictures. Clearly you have installed pipes if you are using your toilets and sinks freely. Clearly you have spent time in the kitchen if you have a beautiful end product to tell me about. Do I have to see all the steps or can I just enjoy the fruits of your labour?
I know life is a journey, not a destination, and all those other wise things, and of course I have absolutely no problem with people who take pictures of their flour and sugar, or people who actually watch entire decorating shows and not just the before and after shots. I agree that those are beautiful things. I am just not one of those people.
Part of the problem here that makes me this way is that I am not a visual learner. I know this probably puts me in the minority, but give me a textbook or even just a well-written paragraph, or just let me try, and I will figure it out.
Have you ever purchased a piece of furniture from IKEA? In the interest of keeping costs down and only needing one instruction sheet for anyone in the world, they limit their instructions to pictures with vague arrows and, if you’re lucky, numbers as to where to start and finish. I look at those instructions and die a little inside.
Of course, even I like the occasional picture or chart in a textbook…but only because it means my reading progress will be faster minus half a page. Does anyone actually look at those diagrams and think “Ooooh, THAT’S how the digestive system works, now I see.”?
And I love pictures on blogs, or Pinterest, of finished products. For example, some oh-so-cute reindeer cookies that inspired me to make them yesterday with my 3-year-old, who promptly burned herself in our hurry to get those faces on, resulting in these delicious, if slightly moodier, fellows:
Since I didn’t change the recipe and she has much nicer reindeer, I’ll just send you over to the lovely baking Kerry for details…and as a side note, if you buy the chocolate covered Rold Gold pretzels declaring themselves “tiny twists”, let me inform you they will be quite regular sized, not at all tiny, thus requiring the broken antlers seen above…it seems our reindeer are in mating season; fighting is rampant and antlers are being brutalized.
So, to summarize, pictures = good. Process pictures = rapid scrolling. But I’m still gonna stick it out for the recipe.
But does this put me in a minority? Do you all LOVE seeing the behind-the-scenes work, or do you like the end product (the “reveal”) the best? Do you really want to see how messy my kitchen is the majority of the time? How many toys are usually scattered around my living room floor? How many meals I could scavenge from the bits carried around the house burr-style on pants, shirts and faces? Do you really want to see how my flour and sugar look in the bowl, to make sure yours is in a comparable pile before you begin mixing?
Because if you do, please, let me know. I will probably not oblige, but I am interested in knowing how you feel.
Oh my gosh those cookies are so cute! :D
Ok…those cookies are super cute! I found mini chocolate covered pretzels at save-on:) Thanks for the great idea!
Funny post. I am with you and not with you. What does that make me? I hate too many process pictures. I hate to see all the ingredients all laid out especially if it’s brands and boxes and yucky jars. If it’s all in cute dishes, out of the boxes, it’s okay. I like a few process pictures if it makes sense to see. I take very few process pics myself because my kitchen and hands are too messy for it. But, having said that, I personally enjoy the process of cooking more than the end result. I find my best memories are inside the recipe not at the end of it, because cooking is my therapy and creative outlet. I’m an artist and did faux finishing for 10 years. There was something about each day of each layer that was special, but yes the big payoff was always in the end. But then I wanted to move to the next experience because the process is where my zone is. But, I envy you for not being visual, for being able to read a paragraph of directions. That is so not me. And why I have problems figuring out simple things online. I like your honesty.
You’re truly entertaining. And the final picture is always the best.
I am a hands-on learner and not good at reading instructions and then following them. I find the photos just make me wonder if my recipe will still turn out if it doesn’t look exactly like the photo. You will never see a vacuum cleaner or toys or dishes not done at my place. That is cause I never take photos of that or let anyone come over when I am in the middle of everything and I personally don’t enjoy tripping over things anywhere. I did take photos of the step-by-step process in the reno but only because I was asked to and not because I enjoyed it. We are almost done ours and it takes a lot of humility to have anyone over before it is all done. I want it to have looked painless. :-) Cute cookies!
It’s good to know I’m not alone. Please post pictures of the renos when you’re done!! I would love to see what you’ve done, and I will assume it was totally easy and painless ;)
This is one of the many reasons Pioneer Woman gets my goat. Here I am pouring cream, and here I am still pouring cream, and here is an obligatory comment about my alien hand/manicure. WOMAN. I DON’T CARE.
I only want to see pictures of process if it’s a tricky process. Like, you fold the pastry like this and then like this (I never understand what they mean by ‘lengthwise’ or ‘half a turn’).
Or, and I love when recipes say things like this, when something is SUPPOSED to look weird at a certain stage. Like, your lemon curd will look curdled at this stage and you will think you have ruined it but YOU HAVE NOT. If it looks like this [photo of curdled-looking curd] then you’re doing it right.
Keep on doing what you’re doing, is what I’m saying.
I totally agree – if I don’t feel I have the English mastery to explain something (I also have trouble with half turns, folding to opposite corners, etc…anything requiring spatial visualization), then pictures are completely justified and useful!
So when you get to the finish, you soon realize
That medals and hardware were never the prize.
Sure they leave memories, suggest you’re successful,
But the growth and the change, that’s what we’re here for.
Those are the things that we can use in the future,
Details of progress that will work for tomorrow.
So it’s the trip in itself, the journey we went,
That make this a day to never forget.
Yes, I do see the importance of the process of growth and change…I just like to keep mine to myself and make it look easy :) Opposites attract, right? xoxo :)