I love your disaster stories, makes me feel a lot better about my major goofs! My worst mistake happened when I was trying to make a special Christmas treat for my elderly mother-in-law a few Christmases ago. Her favorite family Christmas cookies are Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars). Among other ingredients, Mom’s recipe called for 2 tsps. of cinnamon. I was in a hurry - I had been making cookies all day and had just this one recipe to make before I started dinner. I reached into the spice cabinet and grabbed what I thought was the glass spice jar of cinnamon. Well, it DID have a “C” on the front! I dumped the cinnamon into the meringue mixture and folded it in. As I stirred it, I wrinkled my nose, sniffed and thought, boy, I must be REALLY hungry, I smell Mexican food! Then I looked down at the spice jar I had just set on the counter and shrieked, I had grabbed the cumin, not the cinnamon! Cumin is spicy but it was pretty disgusting in the meringue/almond mixture, bleah! I had to throw the whole mess out. My daughter still teases me about that one! Yeah, I'm not so sure you can back up from that particular boo boo. And Zimsterne are a little touchy to roll out anyway. My sympathies! Susan

• Reply