Recipe substitutions - share yours

[nycgirl]

Please share with me your most or least successful recipes substitutions either done on purpose or in a cooking emergency.

Today I planned to make cornbread and realized that I bought the wrong mix. I did not have regular cornmeal to make a recipe from scratch but I did have a box of fish fry mix with cornmeal as the main ingredient. I wound up with a highly seasoned (a bit on the salty side) but basically edible "corn bread"

[xnyorkr]

I use sugar free/fat free vanilla instant pudding mix in a lot of things that do not require cooking but require sweet creaminess.

[digkv]

The first time I made Chicken Marsala, I got some tips to add lemon to the sauce to cut through the sweetness of the wine. I didn't have any lemons so I added White Wine vinegar instead and all the sauce tasted like salad dressing. I didn't realize that the tip was to add sauteed lemon slices, which would add minimal juice, I added a whole tablespoon of vinegar. i ended up just eating the chicken sans sauce