Pasta - most of my favorite dishes are pasta-based, and I'm always coming up with new concoctions. When I was little, the women in my family would make hard candy every Thanksgiving to give out for Christmas. I was much to young to be around all the hot candy they cut by hand, but I remember that they used to make us special suckers, too. Spaghetti with Italian Vegetables (in my recipe box) was a happy accident - it was just a concoction I threw together quickly, and it turned out fabulous. One woman even said it was the best spaghetti she's ever had, and she's had a LOT of spaghetti. When I was about 15, I tried to make homemade SuzyQ cake treats. The cake mix box didn't have a baking time for a jelly roll pan, though, so I had to estimate. Apparently I overestimated by a longshot, because when I took the cakes out of the oven, they were burnt all the way through!