Big Deal or Not a Big Deal....

Each week I do some menu planning for the Big Guy and I.  It began before we were married when we would play the game of "What do you want...."  You know this game, I'm sure.  You've walked through the door and you hear, "What do you want for dinner?"

I hated that game.

Which is why I started meal planning.  Recently I was scouring the internet for some new food ideas.  I was on the food network site and you can search by shows.  I know that the blogger, the Pioneer Woman, has a Food network show.  I'll be honest, I've seen 2 of her shows.  I have to admit--I'm not a fan of the show.  Just like I'm not a fan of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Guys Big Bite or some of the other shows on Food Network.  You either like them or you don't.

But that doesn't mean I wouldn't consider one of her recipes.  I have her cookbook and we do like a few of those recipes.

I clicked her name and looked through the recipes.  This one caught my eye.  I'm a sucker for a good oatmeal bar.

Yes.  I had to figure out how to take a screen shot on my Mac.  Sometimes I miss my PC. 

As I looked at it I did a double take.

That's the recipe that I uploaded to her recipe sharing site Tasty Kitchen last year.

The difference?  A little more butter, and she uses a jar of preserves, where I make my filling from scratch.

I wouldn't have thought anything of it, except that it was a featured recipe on her Tasty Kitchen blog last spring when rhubarb was in season.  Here's the proof:

While I'm not asking the Pioneer Woman to give me credit (because I don't deserve the credit.  I didn't create this recipe from scratch--I found it ages ago and cannot tell you where I found it because I don't remember.), I have to question--is this a big deal or not?


Is it OK to take a recipe, change one item and then claim it as your own?
Am I the pot calling the kettle black because I posted a recipe on a recipe sharing site that I didn't create myself nor say "not mine, but I love it"??
What's the difference between this and exchanging recipes with a friend to find that they're the same?


I want to be clear, I'm not starting a war with the Pioneer Woman (I have nothing against her).  


But it has me wondering about people who have cooking shows on Food Network.  If you're going to have a show--you are giving the viewers the impression that YOU created the recipe yourself.  I would expect that there is a great deal of borrowing going on in the internet-food loving-pinning on pinterest-changing up a recipe to meet your needs-kind of world.  So to be able to claim "that's mine!" is hard to do accurately.


Maybe she found this elsewhere.
Maybe she was given the recipe by a friend.
Maybe she found it online at it's true source (that true source not being me).


Thoughts?