Hi Brenda, it’s been forever since I’ve been on xanga, but I’ve always loved reading your posts, whether it’s something I agree or disagree I totally respect and enjoy reading your take on life in general and your own. So here’s a couple of my funny cooking stories! I’ve give you my 2 favorites:

1) I was probably about…17 or so still living in Taiwan, so you have to understand that there are some “common” cooking terms that I’m not familiar with (and it was before the days of use the internet for everything). I used to bake a lot and I decided to make icing from scratch. The “good” kind as I call it and not store bought. The recipe called for cream of tartar. We didn’t have any at home, but I figured maybe it was just the American way of calling tartar sauce. Yes….I used tartar sauce in my icing and while it was throw-away-disgusting, it definitely tasted very weird. Later when I told my grandfather he cracked up and explained the difference.

2) One of my self-proclaimed best recipes is my German Potato Casserole. I decided to made two pans of it for my college friends. Now…depending on the type of pan I use the consistency and cooking time varies. It this case, it was one of those aluminum store bought pans and it has been two hours and my friends were dying. Finally, the casserole was complete and we (another friend helped me) took it out of the oven…and the aluminum pan folded and everything spilled out. We looked at each other horrified. We do not have enough in one pan to feed everyone. So I did what any desperate and smart person would, I grabbed all the potatoes from the top that didn’t touch the floor and served it to my friends. No one complained, no one had any stomach problems, and everyone was full.