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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Love, lies and lasagna - Kandy Shepherd




Have you ever had a cooking disaster—the kind that makes you cringe even years later at the memory of it?

Serena Oakley, the heroine of my second book HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS (on sale July 6), is the self-confessed world’s worst cook. Hero Nick Whalen is a big hunky guy who plays sport, works out and is always hungry.

What’s Serena to do when Nick thinks the wonderful lasagna she serves him for lunch is all her own work? She tries to tell him it was cooked by her chef friend Maddy O’Brien (heroine of my first novel LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD) but Nick is so in love with her lasagna he doesn’t hear her.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers here, but suffice to say that over the course of the novel, Serena comes to wish she’d never lied about lasagna.



It wasn’t hard for me to write about Serena’s cooking disasters as I’ve had a few of them myself. I like cooking. My “day job” as a women’s magazine editor means I’m working with fabulous food people, so I hope I’ve picked up some hints and tips. But none of the expertise I’d gained helped me with the great cheesecake catastrophe of many years ago.



I was single and had invited a group of friends around to my apartment for dinner, one of whom was a gorgeous guy I was hoping to impress. He’d mentioned his favorite dessert was cheesecake. I slaved all day over that dinner—and especially the baked cheesecake. The crumb crust. The decadently rich filling. All to be topped with cream and strawberries. (Just like in this picture.)


It turned out perfect, with not a crack to mar its smooth, golden surface. I gloated with glee as I reverently slid it out of the oven. Until the bottom of the springform pan fell out and my cheesecake fell out and smashed all over the oven door.

Yes, there was cursing. Yes, there were tears. And there were strawberries and cream for dessert.

Over coffee, I’d relaxed enough to confess to my guests about the cheesecake calamity. “Did you throw it in the trash?” asked gorgeous guy when he followed me into the kitchen. I showed him the rescued remnants hidden in the fridge and he laughed. After the other guests went home, we snacked on that cheesecake which looked a real mess but tasted wonderful. No, it didn’t lead to romance but it broke the ice for a warm friendship that lasted for years.

Do you have a tale of culinary disaster to share? Leave a comment here and I’ll draw a winner for an ARC of HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS so you can read about Serena’s cooking disaster for yourself!




http://www.kandyshepherd.com
Food photos courtesy of stock.xchange

64 comments:

Linda Henderson said...

When my ex and I were first married, he wanted a fried chicken dinner so I agreed and he then invited my brother over. I bought the chicken and fried it to a beautiful golden brown, when they bit into it, blood ran out of it. I was so embarrassed. I called my mother to ask what I did wrong and she told me I cooked it too fast. That was the last time I fried chicken, after that it was baked or Kentucky Fried.

Virginia C said...

Hi, Kandy! Love your cheesecake story--that's my kind of guy! Your new book sounds delightful : ) I love to cook, and at times I have made a living from selling baked goods and decorated cakes for special occasions. However, when I mess up, it's a disaster of epic proportions and usually a waste of expensive ingredients. I have cats now, and they would not lower themselves to help me get rid of a cooking disaster. I used to have dogs, and they were the best kitchen helpers ever! Anything you needed to dispose of, the dogs took care of it. No worries! I could always tell when something was really, really bad if the dogs wouldn't eat it! One time I was determined to create the winning recipe for a contest, and I tried to be very creative. Everything that went into it was a perfectly good ingredient, but it ended up as an ugly, smelly, yuckky lumpy thing. My mother told me to get rid of it, so I turned to my faithful dogs. When I offered it to them, one of them started to howl, and that set the rest of them to howling. My mother howled too--with laughter! I never lived that one down! Done in by my own dogs : )

Rachael Johns said...

Wohoo - I am SOOOOOOO excited about this book! My cooking disaster is a Fondue story and I think its extra fitting cos it also involves a great big puppy! I'd invited my best six girl friends round to my new place for a cheese fondue for main and chocolate (yummo) fondue for dessert. Our new OLD ENGLISH SHEEPDOG puppy (lucky he was oh so gorgeous and still is) was chasing the cat around the table and took the electricity cord (attached to cheese fondue pot) with him. Five minutes before my guests were due to arrive, I had cheese fondue ALL over the puppy and ALL over the floor. Needless to say we all laughed a lot and the chocolate fondue was more than enough for mains AND dessert. Luckily girls NEVER complain about chocolate for mains!!

x
Rach!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Linda, I'm with you on the fried chicken, it's a heck of a lot more difficult than it looks.
Thank you for being the first to comment!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Virginia C, your comments made me laugh! You really know you have a disaster when your dogs howl their disgust. Thinking of your story is going to make me smile for hours!

traveler said...

Your book cover is delightful and sweet. I once made a cake that fell apart when I took it out of the oven. I had to cut it into small pieces and hoped that it would look and taste good. A trifle would have been better though.

Laurie G said...

I'd love to read your cute story Home Is Where the Bark Is.

I've had two that immediately come to mind. The first I was trying to impress my fiance with a chocolate angel food birthday cake. I bought all of the ingredients and a cake pan but forgot the slotted spoon. I beat up all the egg whites only to have it all deflate to a syrup when I tried to fold in the sugar and flour.

The second time I was making a prime rib dinner with oven roasted potatoes for my husband's partner and her husband. I accidentally set the glass pyrex potato dish on a stove burner that I had forgotten to turn off. The glass pan shattered, glass in all of the potatoes. The potatoes were tossed in the garbage.

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Rachael, lovely to see you here. I love your story of the fondue/doggy disaster. I don't know how you got to eat the chocolate you must have all been laughing so much!

CC Coburn said...

Hiya Kandy! My time in the kitchen is one long disaster. I'm impatient so often food is burnt in my haste to cook it. Many's the time the kids have come in, sniffed the air and said, "Have you been cooking again, Mum?" My most embarrassing one was making a sponge cake that rose and rose and rose, right up and over the oven shelf above! It was interesting trying to remove 2 oven shelves at once and then slicing the top off the cake. It tasted okay so I just iced it and gave the rest to our dog. None of the guests was any the wiser!
CC

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hey traveler, I was hoping you'd visit. Did you know you won the prize the last time I blogged at Tote Bags 'n Blogs? Send me your snail mail address so I can mail you your book. You can contact me on

kandy@kandyshepherd.com

I'm so glad you like the cover of HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS -- I love it.

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Laurie, you never forget those disasters, do you? Thank heaven you had those potatoes in a separate dish and the glass didn't go all over the rib roast!

You know, I have never been able to make an angel cake successfully? There must be a knack to it that I just don't get.

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hey CC, I'm smiling at your image of the cake rising so much it filled your oven! I wish I knew your secret as my sponge cakes end up looking more like pancakes.
Dogs are so handy for snuffling up culinary disasters, aren't they?

Christina Hollis said...

Oh, Kandy - you want a cooking disaster? My mother (who never cooked) bought a ready made Christmas dinner the first year we moved out of my grandparents house. She gave it to me (age 11) to heat up. Unfortunately, granny's old range worked in Farenheit. Mum's brand new cooker was in Centigrade.
Hours later, everything was still barely tepid. Ick.

Laney4 said...

My mom refused to teach me how to cook. Said my dad wouldn't eat anybody else's cooking but hers (yet he easily ate my cooking years later when I DID learn how to cook).

I lived with a wonderful woman weekdays while working away from home in my late teens. She didn't use recipes for anything, but she tried to guesstimate amounts just for me. She gave me a lovely recipe for butter tarts.

When I married a year or so later, I decided to make those tarts for my husband. I even wore an apron to serve them after the main course. My husband, God bless him, looked at them and quietly said, "Don't forget the spoons." I couldn't understand what he was talking about. Spoons for tarts? (No gross joke intended....) Apparently I forgot to put the mix into tart shells! So ... after I got over my embarrassment, we scooped the contents into bowls and enjoyed our shell-less tarts.

It is now 29 years later and my husband OFTEN brings up this story. It is a cute story the first few times, but not so funny when you've heard it dozens and dozens and dozens of times easily (yet here I am repeating it yet again, go figure). What I've tried to remember is that he couldn't tell that story if I was a bad cook today. I am a great cook (for basics), but I've never forgotten the shells again!

CrystalGB said...

My cooking disaster involves meatloaf. I was mixing up the meat loaf and I started to shake some black pepper in it and the lid came off and dumped the whole shaker of pepper in my meatloaf. I scraped off what I could and made the meatloaf anyway. It was so peppery we couldn't eat it. Now, I check the salt and pepper shakers before using them.

cheryl c said...

Oh yes, I have had cooking disasters...shrunken meat, dropped pies, burnt bread, etc. Fortunately, most of my mistakes were in the early days of my marriage. I am so much older and more experienced now. ;-)

Pat Cochran said...

Absolutely, have I ever had cooking
disasters in my lifetime! But it was not a calamity in the kitchen that caused my heart to hurt! I thought I was doing something good for my family! It was during the time when "lightening" calories in meals came into being. Without telling my family, I went "light" the first time at Thanksgiving.
No one said a word until after
dinner. Mother said, You've always
been a good cook, what happened?
My heart fell and I explained, but
I then decided to never implement
such a major move without warning!

Pat Cochran

Denise said...

I can already tell that I'm going to love your book, because it incorporates two of my favorite things - dogs and cooking!!

Like Pat, my cooking disasters occur mostly because I try to make things healthier. There have been many, many experiments gone wrong - I tend to try to substitute less healthy ingredients with those that are better for you, with varying degrees of success. The most memorable? A few years ago I tried to make healthy cookies...and I probably went a bit too far by substituting too many ingredients. I replaced butter with applesauce (works for cakes/muffins, but apparently not for cookies), half the all purpose flour with whole wheat, white sugar with splenda, brown sugar with splenda brown sugar blend, eggs with egg substitute, and milk chocolate with dark chocolate. Suffice to say, they did not turn out as expected. Instead of flattening out into cookies, they remained in little lumps, and they tasted...interesting. I definitely learned my lesson...

Anonymous said...

I tried to make corn muffins, but didn't mix the eggs well enough when I added them and they kind of scrambled while they baked. They looked great, but were stuck inside of the muffin tins and had big pieces of cooked eggs inside. I know next time to make sure to mix the eggs well and spray the muffin tins.

lenikaye@yahoo.com

chey said...

I have had my share of culinary disasters. One time I was making my Grandma's cooked salad dressing, which I had made successfully before. The egg cooked out of it. Just another disaster.

runner10 said...

My cooking disasters mainly consist of the bottom of pans being burnt.

Anna Campbell said...

Kandy, actually I had a few writing friends to stay recently. Usually I DON'T cook when I have visitors these days - time's too short for me to be slaving over a hot stove although at one stage in my life, I did a lot of dinner parties. But I thought I'd make them a treat and do chocolate mousse. BLEUCH!!! My failproof recipe curdled and it looks like cat sick. I wanted to cry!

HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS sounds fabulous! I love LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD. By the way, you have the best titles!

Vanessa Barneveld said...

Hi, Kandy! I'm so glad the cheesecake catastrophe worked out in the end.

I adored HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS! It's a gorgeous story, and Serena's cooking disasters were so endearing.

I'm a bit of a disaster in the kitchen in myself, but I am learning! The most recent disaster? I'd placed pizza too far back in the gas oven and the pizza caught fire. I don't think this is what they mean by "wood-fired pizza".

Annie West said...

Kandy, that's such a sweet story! I'm glad it led to a friendship.

The disaster that really stands out for me was the one and only time I made hot cross buns. I was in my early teens and was so impressed that they looked just as they were supposed to. Just perfect, until we bit into them and I realised I'd got mixed spice and mixed herbs mixed up!

Can't wait for your 2nd book. Your first was one of my faves of last year. This should be terrific!

Annie West said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pjpuppymom said...

Hi Kandy! Love the cheesecake story! I didn't even have to think to know what story to tell. I'm rather famous among family and friends for my chocolate chip cookies and have been since I was a teen so, of course, the first time I decided to bake something for my late husband (when we first started dating), I chose chocolate chip cookies. My cookies were wonderful. Everybody said so. He'd love the cookies and fall in love with me. It was a slam dunk.

At the time, I lived in an apartment in Sarasota, Florida, a lovely tropical town where bugs run rampant so I kept my dry goods in glass jars to prevent unwanted "guests" in the flour, sugar, salt, etc. Unfortunately, the taped on labels had fallen off the jars but I wasn't worried. Anybody can tell the difference between sugar and salt, right? Apparently not! LOL! I slid those lovely cookies out of the oven and, proud as punch, handed one to my man. To his credit, he ate the whole thing...and about 4 glasses of water. I gagged after one bite and the ducks near our pond wouldn't have anything to do with them at all. Turns out I couldn't tell the difference between sugar and salt which meant my lovely cookies were made with 1 teaspoon sugar and 3/4 cup salt!

I've already read an ARC of your wonderful Home is Where the Bark is so please don't include me in the giveaway.

Helen said...

Hi Kandy

Loved the story I have many cooking disasters over the years LOL. One of them was for our first wedding anniversary I slaved all day to make beef strogonoff did everything according to the receipe but when I dished it up Hubby was eating slowly and so was I, I asked him if he liked it and of course his answer was yes but in the end neither one of us finished what was on our plates I had put way too much sour cream in it and really it was awful LOL and to this day after 33 years of marriage he will not eat anything if he knows there is sour cream in it LOL.
Not long know to the release of Where The Bark Is I can't wait to read it
Have Fun
Helen

Estella said...

When I got married, my husband asked for gravy with his potatoes..
Having never made gravy before, he had to eat a lot of stuff that looked like wall paper paste before I got the hang of making gravy.

Mary Kirkland said...

I loved the cooking story. This sounds like a great book, can't wait to read it. I've had a few cooking disasters as I was learning to cook. One of he biggest being fudge. I tried to make homemade fudge one year and the first batch came out like frosting, the second batch was so hard we had to break it apart into tiny bite sized pieces with a hammer. It tasted good though. lol

miztik_rose@yahoo.com

Kandy Shepherd said...

Christina, isn't it awful when equipment lets you down? I can just imagine your hungry family waiting for their Christmas dinner! Your little 11 year old self must have felt mortified--and you still remember...

Thanks for sharing your story.

Cathleen Ross said...

When I was a teen I wanted to impress a boy so I invited him and his friends over to dinner and cooked my mother's famous roast chicken. Unfortunately I didn't know to take out all the guts. Guess what they commented on when they ate the meal.

Kandy Shepherd said...

Laney4, you are so right, it is okay to make a cooking mistake, okay to be teased about it, but after a while you just want to put it behind you!
Your comment is the first time I have heard of a butter tart. I just Googled it to find it is a delicious Canadian treat kind of like pecan pie without the pecans. Yum! I bet that filling tasted great even without the shells.

Kandy Shepherd said...

I hear you Crystal GB, I've done the same thing myself! You think you can rescue the disaster by scraping off the pepper (or the paprika in my case) but it just doesn't do it!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Cheryl C, I am smiling along with you at your words of wisdom! Thank heaven cooking disasters do tend to be fewer as we find our way around the kitchen over the years.

Lil said...

My hubby and I were travelling through France and had rented a place with a kitchenette so that we could limit expenses and not eat out for every meal. We had a fabulous time trying out the fresh fruit, pates, cheeses, breads and wine. After a quick trip to a large grocery store one day, I happily set about making an herb roasted chicken to go with potatoes baked in cream and gruyere. I had marvelled at how clever the French were to sell their chicken trussed and ready for the oven. I happily lazed as the simple meal cooked. Later, I pulled out my main course and found fowl play. The string that had been on the chicken had been elastic coated with thread and the nasty stuff had melted even as the bird and taken on a beautiful golden brown. Fortunately, I was able to cut away every vestige of the affected areas and credibly carve the chicken to look as if the result was intended for ease of serving. And served it was with the aforementioned potatoes, a green salad and plenty of wine.

Your book sounds like fun!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Pat Cochran, I sympathize with your comment that your Thanksgiving cooking disaster caused your "heart to hurt".
When it all boils down to it :-) we cook because we want to please family and friends with our efforts. The end result is the smiles on their faces and if they are disappointed, yes, our hearts hurt.
I reckon Thanksgiving and Christmas are probably not the time our families want to go "light"!
My hubby turns into an almost unbelievably greedy eating machine on such occasions!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Denise, like you and Pat, I've gone the trying-to-make-things-healthier route and, like you, have found it just doesn't seem to work as well with baking. Cutting down on fats and sugar and increasing fiber works fine with savory dishes, in fact often improves the recipe. But sweet treats... sometimes I think it would be better to just have a smaller amount of the real-deal cookie than mess around with the applesauce and Splenda. Trouble is, I find it almost impossible to stop at just one...
But if you don't have a few cooking disasters like your cookies along the way, how do we learn!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Leni, your muffins do indeed sound like a cooking disaster but I bet they tasted okay! In fact your comment has made me feel I'd like a corn muffin right now...

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Chey, eggs can be so tricky can't they? They've been my downfall too, just recently in a custard that cooked for just a few seconds too long and curdled...

Kandy Shepherd said...

Burnt saucepan bottoms, runner10? Yep, been there! And that horrible burnt flavor goes all the way through the dish...

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Anna, so sorry to hear about your chocolate mousse disaster. If you're like me, you probably apologized over and and over and said "It usually doesn't look like this" until your friends wanted to throw it at you!
Thank you for your nice comment about my titles, I was delighted when my publisher Berkley kept them! And I love the cute covers they gave me...
I hope HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS makes you smile when you read it.

Kandy Shepherd said...

LOL, Vanessa. I'm never going to think of wood-fired pizza in quite the same way again!
I was so relieved to hear that you liked HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS as I know you loved LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD and I was having a case of second-book jitters...

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hey Annie, hot cross savory buns--such an easy mistake to make but one that would make such an incredible difference to the recipe!
Yes, not long now until HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS goes on sale--I so hope you like it as much as you did LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD. I will be nibbling my nails while I wait to hear your opinion!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hey PJ, I love the picture you paint of your DH manfully chowing down on your salty cookies and downing four glasses of water but not wanting to hurt your feelings! And I love that the ducks turned up their beaks (or is it bills?) at them...
Thank you for your nice comment about HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS.

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Helen, OMG, the stroganoff must have really been overloaded with sour cream to turn your DH off sour cream for 33 years!
Funnily, though, I like sour cream so much I can't imagine that I would not like your stroganoff, which goes to show that one person's cooking disaster might be another's wonderful new culinary invention!
Yes, not long until July 6 and HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS goes on sale. As I said to Annie and Vanessa, I'm suffering from second-book syndrome and hoping readers who loved LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD will like HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS, too. It's had some fabulous reviews already so that is going some way to settling my nerves!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Fowl play, indeed, Lil! Your description of your wonderful French dinner made my mouth water. Thank heaven you were able to cut away that string and turn possible disaster into culinary triumph!

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hey Cathleen, what a dating disaster! I remember years ago, they used to put the "innards" in a little plastic bag inside the cavity of the chicken, what a catastrophe if that had been roasted.
I know you learned from your mistake though, as you are a marvelous cook now!

Kandy Shepherd said...

I'm sorry 誠紋 but I was not able to translate your comment.

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Estella, I had to smile at the thought of your hubby patiently waiting there with his potatoes while you learned to make gravy!
My mother was not the world's best cook but she was the best-ever gravy maker. Even today, I follow her method, I don't think I could have figured it out by myself.

Kandy Shepherd said...

HI Mary, I must admit I had a lot of fun writing about Serena's cooking efforts in HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS, I hope they make readers smile!
Making fudge can be so tricky, can't it? All that soft ball, hard ball stuff. I have to admit it never worked for me until I got a candy thermometer and finally got the temperature right!
But isn't it the way with cooking disasters that sometimes it doesn't matter that the texture isn't right or it looks awful, they can--like your fudge and my cheesecake--taste just fine!

Sharon Archer said...

Hi Kandy
Fun blog! Cooking disasters are always good for a giggle - but definitely AFTER the event! I loved your cheesecake story - it'd break your heart but at least it tasted fab.

Years and years ago, I roasted a corned silverside - horrible! Salty and tough!

I'll look forward to Serena's lasagne tales!

:)
Sharon

I

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hey Sharon, great to see you here!
I laughed at your mis-roast--especially as I did the same once.
It was actually a corned leg of lamb and in the UFO (Unidentified Frozen Object) category, and I baked it alongside a proper unsalted leg of lamb. (Heck, I knew about corned beef but I actually didn't know legs of lamb were corned in brine as well.)
The real disaster was that I was working as a cook in an old peoples home and didn't notice my mistake until carving and serving. It was a vacation job while I was at college and I was only in my teens so fortunately I was forgiven, both by the old people and my boss.
They say you are supposed to write about what you know, and in writing about Serena's mishaps I write from experience!

Alison said...

I used to burn soup (I'd actually read about this and thought 'how can you burn soup, it's a liquid?'). But if the bits in it stick to the bottom because the pan is too hot, yes, they can burn! Not even whizzing with a blender can take away the taste, although it does destroy the burned bits. Lower the heat, and let it simmer away nice and gently, that's what you need to do...

Kandy Shepherd said...

You burned soup, Alison? But yes, the way you explain it, I guess it would be only too possible! There are traps for the unwary in every aspect of cooking!

Kirsten said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Kirsten
What a disaster! Not so much the meal but the guy! Lucky you saw what he was made of early in the relationship...
I love the way you wrote "The pie resembled my hopes" --that so sums up those important early meals when we want to impress our man. (It might not be PC to say it, but I think there is still a heck of a lot of truth in the saying "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach'!)
I so hope you get a chance to read HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS because I think you would enjoy Serena's story!

Kandy Shepherd said...

I am so enjoying reading everyone's comments on their culinary disasters.
For many of these disasters, I am imagining the cook's family and friends politely (or not so politely!) putting up with the inedible food so as not to hurt her feelings!
And then there are the dogs, cats and ducks who refuse to play along!

Kandy Shepherd said...

The winner of the ARC of HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS, is Virginia C
Can you please contact me on kandy@kandyshepherd.com
with your snail mail address so I can mail it to you.

Thanks everyone!

Virginia C said...

Whoo-hoo! Thank you! I have emailed my info : )

Laney4 said...

Congrats to Virginia C!!!

Kandy,

Here's my recipe for butter tarts. It's really really easy and not an exact science, so don't worry if you're off a tiny bit. BTW, I had no idea it's a Canadian treat. Makes sense: I'm Canadian!

Laney's Butter Tarts

1 cup (250 mL) brown sugar
⅔ cup (160 mL) corn syrup
2 eggs
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
24-34 frozen mini tart shells (or make your own)

Mix first five ingredients well. (I use the electric mixer.) Pour into tart shells (about 3/4 full). (Can add raisins if you like.) Bake in 425oF (220oC) preheated oven for 13 minutes. Let cool (a bit!) before eating (as they will "deflate" in a minute or two).

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hey Laney4, thanks so much for sharing your Butter Tarts recipe. They sound delicious and the recipe so easy--I can't wait to try them!

Chris J. said...

I really love the cover of your new book and I would love to read it. :)
My cooking disaster is I was fixing a home made cherry pie for my kids. They were so excited and it looked good but it turned out yucky. The crust wasn't done and it was a bit bland. The cherry's were the only edible part and they weren't even that good. :(
I stick to cakes now because pies are just not my cup of tea.

Thanks for sharing your story with all of us.
Have a Great Weekend.

Kandy Shepherd said...

Hi Chris J--cherry pie, yum! Shame it didn't turn out quite the way it should have!
I'm with you on the pies, they seem to be so much work and I never seem to make enough pastry to cover both top and bottom. I'm more of a cake person, too!

I'm so glad you like the cover of HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS, I think it is pretty special. I love the dogs, and purple is my favorite color so I'm happy.
Thanks for sharing your cooking disaster with us!

prashant said...

I called my mother to ask what I did wrong and she told me .
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