When it comes to cooking, I regard my kitchen as hostile territory. I enter carefully, do my business quickly, and then get out. But I am good at one thing in the kitchen, and that’s making desserts. I really bake pretty well.

Still, even in the friendly confines of dessert-land, danger lurks if I let down my guard. Every now and then I experience a dessert disaster. It happened on Christmas night.

We were at the home of some of our oldest friends, people with whom we always have Christmas dinner. He is a great cook, and every Christmas he makes a goose, with all the trimmings.

I always bring the dessert. This year I made a warm chocolate tart and a lemon tart, both from scratch (easy recipes, and I had plenty of time, for once).

It’s here that I would normally show you a picture of the beautiful desserts. Sadly, that will not be happening, because of a mini-disaster.

Let’s just say that next up on my Howdini to do list will be: How To get a lemon tart pan out of the plastic carrier you brought it in when it’s wedged in so tightly that you can’t even slide a knife blade in between the pan and the carrier.

I’ll have to work on the title.

In any case, my truly beautiful lemon tart, which I had spent hours creating, was stuck. It seemed like an especially difficult physics problem to me. Quickly, I enlisted aid. Two moms and two 21 year-old daughters tried everything to pry the pan loose, but to no avail. My daughter, seeing that the tart itself was not stuck, only the pan it came in, took the plastic container, gave it a quick flip straight up, as if she were flipping pancakes, and the tart landed, in one piece, partly in and partly out of the tart pan. Eventually, using everything we could find except a screwdriver, we got it on to a plate. In three pieces. Three not-quite-fitting-together pieces.

Luckily, being airborne briefly didn’t affect the taste. But pretty? No, not so much. So no picture.

I probably should have thought to place the plastic container into hot water to cause it to expand, huh? Maybe I would have thought of that if I hadn’t been drinking such a lovely bottle of wine.

By the way, if you’re bringing a bottle of wine, or champagne, to a party, here’s How To wrap it, courtesy of a very gifted wrapper from the cool New York paper store, Kate’s Paperie.

–Shelley