We're seven days away from Thanksgiving, which means we've officially entered into what I call "hectic holiday mode." Is the turkey ordered? (It should be.) Is the pie dough chilling in the freezer? (It should be.) Is the guest list set? (It should be.) Even if your answer to these questions is no, don't fret. Come next Thursday, you and your friends and family will gather around a table, carve a turkey, slice a pie and enjoy the day. What's the worst that can happen, right?

Well, it turns out that Valerie Bertinelli learned firsthand what can happen. The host of Valerie's Home Cooking recounted one particularly memorable holiday years ago when she put a mistakenly sweet spin on a key savory element of the Thanksgiving feast.

"I was in charge of making the gravy one year, very early on, when I was just learning about Thanksgiving dinner and what it is to cook," Valerie told us, setting the scene for what we're guessing is one of those timeless stories that relatives won't let her forget. "Since it was at someone else's house — my parents' — I didn't really look," she explained. "So the powdered sugar and the flour are right next to each other. And guess what I put into the gravy. Not the flour." While her sugar snafu may have put a damper on her family's gravy goblet that holiday, she admits that it's had its benefits too. "It's become a running joke now. 'Yeah, let Val do the gravy," she says laughing, imitating her family. "That was embarrassing, but it was definitely fun fodder for the family forever."