Food: Cooking 101 - Lessons Learned the Hard Way

I get nervous about making food for people. Why? Well, you see, I have had my share (plus a few) of cooking/baking disasters. To save you the trouble of trying them out, please review the following:

• Add all ingredients to your recipe. Trust me, pumpkin bread without baking soda is not the same as pumpkin bread with baking soda. "Funny tasting pumpkin mush with crust" is a better description.
• If you use too much flour while trying to grease and flour a pan, do not attempt to blow the extra flour out. Your face will end up thoroughly floured. Ask me (or my sisters) how I know.
• When your in-laws visit for the first time, make them something impossible to ruin. I managed to mess up pancakes, so go very simple. How does a person even mess up pancakes? 
• Soup is your friend. Throw things in a pot and pretend they are supposed to be there. Just don't burn it. 
• Make sure all parts of your meal will be ready at the same time. How? I have no idea. I have learned that it is important, but rarely succeed. 

I hope you can avoid disasters in the kitchen by reading these tips. I am sure that such disasters are inevitable in my case.

Have you had any unfortunate cooking or baking mishaps?