My biggest blooper occurred on Christmas Eve probably ten years ago. I have an unspoken rule with the retired farmer down the road. He shares the bounty of his garden and when I bake I always make an extra pie, cake, cookies to give to him during the year. Christmas and Thanksgiving are always pumpkin pies. I figured he was getting tired of pumpkin so I decided to make him an apple/cranberry pie. When I took it out of the oven it was magazine-cover perfect and my house smelled delicious. It was getting late and very cold so I decided to place the still-warm pie in a cardboard box lid and deliver it before he went to bed. As I opened the porch door, the cardboard buckled. I quickly lowered myself toward the ground to try to salvage the pie but no luck! It slid in slow motion down the cold asphalt driveway and landed under my son's high performance sports car. Steam wafted instantly as the very warm pie plate hit the cold driveway. It was a Christmas miracle - the plate didn't break and much of the mangled pie stayed in the pan. After utter despair, I returned to my kitchen and stuck a spoon in the delicious pie....and quickly made a pumpkin pie for the farmer.

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