Madeline Wigen

Alternate titles: It’s Working & I’m a Marketer’s Dream

I recently finished graduate school and my new found free time has got me reflecting on the past two years and all the things that got me through it. It also got me thinking about the little things that either by my own doing or those outside of my control made it harder. Jimmy Fallon does a clever segment on his show called “Thank You Notes” each week and that inspired this post.

Thank you Pinterest,
For becoming the third most popular social network in the world during my last 6 months of grad school. You were always there when I felt more like looking at 17 different recipes for slow-cooker pulled pork or 99 uses for a mason jar than doing research.

Thank you AutoFormat,
Whenever I thought I was five minutes away from pressing send on that next draft to my advisor, you always knew how to turn it into 25 minutes of formatting hell. Thanks for all the extra indents and inexplicably inconsistent line spacing.

Thank you University of Oregon Library online reservation system,
In the age of modern media, it can often be too easy to obtain information, but by making me authenticate 3 times before requesting an item from the Summit system, you kept it real.

Thank you Huffington Post,
Why yes, I did need to see a slideshow of 35 Too Tan Celebrities. How you overlooked Will Arnett I will never understand, but I appreciate your effort nonetheless.

Thank you American Psychological Association Style,
We’ve spent a lot of time together over the past few years and just as seven years of piano lessons failed to make me a good sight reader, 21 months of citations and I still screw it up all the time.

I’ve been noticing the “food dyed rainbow colors” trend on Pinterest for a while now. As a baker, I can appreciate the aesthetic of a 6 layer cake where each layer is a different color, I really can. However, as a baker all I can think is “who wants to dirty 7 different bowls, mixing spoons and spatulas?” Not to mention the crazy amount of food dye required to produce those results. And then there’s the mess. Have you ever made red velvet? It looks like a horror movie was filmed in your kitchen by the time you get the pans in the oven. It seems like rainbow colored food is everywhere on Pinterest, but I’m pretty sure no one I know in real life has actually made any. 

Here are some of the most glorious and horrifying rainbow foods I’ve seen:

The Rainbow Layer Cake - The grandmama of all rainbow colored foods. Neat, orderly, exhausting. Enjoy the delicate nuance of the flavors: Blue No. 2, Green No. 3, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6.

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The Rainbow Cupcake - The adorable kid-sister to the cake. A little funky, a little messy, still a lot of dye.

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The Rainbow Jell-O Mold - This one’s extra fun because you get to chill it in the fridge and wait between every single layer.

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The Rainbow Pancakes - When making pancakes is too simple and not messy enough. The breakfast of champions.

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And finally, the rainbow that broke the camel’s back (and inspired this post):

Rainbow Deviled Eggs - They look like a beautiful rainbow colored chicken laid them and a Care Bear prepared them for a church potluck. It’s really too bad egg yolks are already yellow, otherwise you could dye the filling. Imagine all the possible color combinations!

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I can’t be the only one out there that has rainbow food fatigue. I think this trend has run its course. I propose we give it a gorgeous send off with a rainbow food potluck and get back to admiring food that actually looks like food.