Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I disagree about a lot of the candy items mentioned here.
I, for one, LOVE the fun-sized (or mini, if you prefer) candies. It's a tiny bit of something insanely tasty, enough to give pleasure without causing tummy pains. When I was a young'un and I went trick-or-treating, one house gave out mini Clark bars. Yum-o-delish! I polished those off first.
I think the chewy peanut butter kisses taste absolutely divine.
Candy corn, I think is plenty of tasty, as are the candy pumpkins made of candy-corn base. Think little dollops of hardened cake-frosting.
As for apples and raisins, those I didn't mind in the least.

However, some items, I do agree about.
Toothbrushes -- a boring reminder
Religious pamphlets -- disappointing and WEIRD to boot.
Packages of "normal" food -- oh, for crying in Manhattan, what kid wants to receive a can of baked beans or a box of oat bran in his little plastic jack-o-lantern.
One time I received cough drops -- and not the Ludens or Pine Bros or Smith Bros or F&Fs, which are tasty and could pass as hard candy (as can the Ricolas). These were nasty little green pellets that were -- and tasted like -- MEDICATION. Like I said, for crying in Manhattan! For crying in Manhattan, Chicago, and San Francisco

Oh well. At least I didn't get a ROCK

How could any D.C. restaurant list omit both of Michel Richard's gems? Central and Citronelle are must-eats in D.C.! And for gelato, Pitango in Logan Circle is also now a must. I agree with most of the other ones on this list though, yum. And Good Stuff Eatery is delish too, I almost forgot! Get a mini-moo sized milkshake, you'll be glad you did.

dropping the entire casserole on the oven door

As a kid, my best friend and I made sugar cookies. She read the ingredients as I incorporated them. She read off 1/4 cup of salt, I then asked her if she read that right because that was a lot of salt. She insisted she was correct and I added that amount in. Once the cookies had baked, we couldn;t wait to try them, we each took a bite and spit them out. She was wrong, it was 1/4 tsp salt!

My biggest success was baking my husband's favorite pie, a Lemon Meringue Pie. garrettsambo@aol.com

My most disasterous was when I was about 8 or 9, I deceided to make my mother a surprise cake. I got up about 4 in the morning and decided to make of all things a chiffon cake. Well it calls for lots of eggs and etc. When that cake came out it was flat as a pancake and I cried and cried, but my mother said it was the thought that counted, but she was not happy I had used so many eggs.

Oh, just pick me, I always enter and never win, but this book I REALLY want. I now live in the south (KY) and really need to show up my next door neighbor, she's just a little too cocky about her pies. And I'm telling you, they aren't that good. This old lady needs to be taken down a couple of notches!

My baking disaster was the time I made a red velvet cake and forgot to put in the baking powder. I ended up with a 1/2 inch thick red, tough cake. It didn't taste bad, but the texture was horrible.

Success: Three layer chocolate wedding cake
Catastrophe: Three layer chocolate wedding cake that fell over...

In college, I made my own chocolate ganache cake. Definitely a big success for someone who never baked!

My greates baking success was making about 12 full loves of pumpkin bread from scratch for family as gifts at Thanksgiving time! They turned out delicious too! =)

MovieMomma@gmail.com

I am still learning so it is all a disater.
erma.hurtt@sbcglobal.net

My parents and grandparents were meeting my fiance for the first time - I was preparing my FIRST Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people.....guess who forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie? They never let me forget it - 25 years later!