THE WINNERS!

They've been chosen at random! Here are their stories again:

Tracy: When I was 18, I was asked to bring a dessert to a university group pot luck. Instead of buying something because I had no money, I decided to raid my mom's cupboards and make chocolate mousse. I measured and stirred and slaved over it. I came to a part of the recipe with options. One of them was to add coffee. I was not a coffee drinker and had never considered what happened to make coffee edible but I loved the smell and all things coffee-flavored. I took out my mom's can of Folgers (1982), measured the grounds and poured them into my already amazing mousse. As you can guess, the recipe meant to add brewed coffee. I ruined the chocolate mousse. There was no way to save it! I showed up empty handed to the pot luck with my sad story. I'm pretty sure no one believed me.

Meg: My most embarrassing dessert moment was when I was making strawberry shortcakes (for the first time) for my date. He came over and I was cooking dinner and making dessert. I was so distracted by him that I put the ramekins in the oven quickly. Then, I noticed they were not rising at all. Panicking ensues and I begin going over the ingredients in the recipe. I realized that I did not add the flour!! So, I have to get the individual ramekins out of the oven, and I have a decision to make. Do I admit what I did and start over or try to salvage it? He was busy watching a basketball game, but in my apt. the t.v. faces the kitchen. So, I very discreetly begin scraping the hot liquid mix into a bowl and then add the flour. I was sure it would be a disaster. However, in a kitchen miracle the shortcakes rose perfectly and tasted great. He never knew. And now the recipe lasted longer than the date! Here's to recipes that stand the test of time.

Erin: When I was twelve, I was making a smoothie in the blender my parents had received many years before as a wedding present. For some reason, I thought it would be helpful to (while the blender was running) stick a fork inside to poke the stubborn fruits back to the bottom where they would be properly blended. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, this didn't go well. The heavy glass blender shattered COMPLETELY and sliced open my hand in the process. My mother still liked to remind me to this day that she got to clean up broken glass, peaches, and blood that had splattered ALL OVER our kitchen while I was getting doctored back up that night.