Recipe FLOPS

WHAT IS IT with the recipe flop fairy following me around these days? It's driving me NUTS!
Paula Dean's FAMOUS Crab Cakes. One of Food Network's Top 10 recipes for 2008... Check mine out...They look NOTHING like the picture (below). They tasted great but I couldn't for the life of me keep them together while I was frying them... they just totally fell apart. FLOP!
And here we have Lettuce Wraps that tasted SO GOOD 2 years ago when I requested the recipe from my fabulous Floridian neighbor but when I made them???... just not that great! FLOP!
Rachel Rays Braised Pork Chops. This was good... but it wasn't THAT good. It was quite filling and tasty but just NOT good enough to find a permanent place in the book. I call that a FLOP! I really would like to only spend my time and money on utterly fabulous recipes.
And below is my crooked picture of Pillsbury's Cherry-Blueberry Pie. This is still not going in the book but it wasn't a flop for 2 reasons: it was a spontaneous decision where I had all the ingredients on hand (score) and it really was pretty dang good just not utterly fabulous. (and Bryan doesn't like berry pies anyway so I had to eat it all myself).
And because of all these flops I am currently having a love affair with Tostitos Salsa Con Queso. And it MUST be dipped with Tostitos 100% white corn round chips. I could eat this and watch "24" every night and be perfectly content. On the menu tonight... Tator Tot Casserole! That stuff is good. There's no way it could flop.