Mother's Advice
1) When in doubt, belt up and listen.
2) Always bake biscuits, cakes, and cookies on the highest rack possible in the oven (with a pan of water on the lower rack if it's a loaf that you don't want to scorch on the bottom.) When baking pies, put them on the middle rack and halfway through the cooking time place a ring of tinfoil over the edge to protect it from burning while the rest of the pie bakes.
3) If you're on the verge of a nervous breakdown, don't listen to Radiohead ("Paranoid Android" is especially perilous.)
4) Ask for help. You'll usually get it.
5) To quickly and effortlessly mix a Christmas duff with the consistency of cement, use an electric mixer - but NOT with the regular beaters (which would burn out the motor.) Use the dough hook (fairly inexpensive to purchase and will save you from breaking wooden spoons in half and/or pulling a muscle.)
(socialised_medicine quietly returns to Saskatchewan for Lurkfest 2007, Sat 2 Dec 2006, 15:28, Reply)