When I sorted through some of my piles of recipes a while ago, one that I saved was for "Pumpkin Waffles with Cinnamon Syrup," which came from a blog entitled "No Empty Chairs." I'm always looking to expand my pumpkin repertoire, but while the recipe contained some oats, it used regular flour but some cornstarch to reduce the protein level. I prefer more wholegrains., but the recipe's need to reduce the flour's protein level made me think that I could probably replace the cornstarch with flour and use lower protein whole wheat pastry flour and barley and use less than a quarter of regular flour. I replaced the 8 Tbs. of butter with 1/3 cup canola oil, reduced the brown sugar by half, and deleted one of the four eggs. I added milk powder and some flax meal. I was confident in my choices, because I compared the recipe to the Cornmeal Pumpernickel Waffles, and the flour and liquid proportions were close to the same. The waffles are excellent. My husband and the dog enjoyed them, as did I. Due to all the changes, it is now my recipe. I did not make the cinnamon maple cream syrup included in the recipe. We used our regular local maple syrup.

Last week was good. Sam came home on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. My in-laws came in Monday night which stressed out Kate some. But her dad cannot make the long drive for now, at least.

I made the crust for the pumpkin and pecan pies. Violet rolled out the crust, mixed, poured and baked the pumpkin pie all on her own! And her crust looked better than mine. I think I am trimming it too much.

Now I need to get her making the pie crust dough and melting the chocolate for the chocolate, hazelnut pie.

I made baked doughnuts, scones, and coffee cake for breakfasts. Sam took the last of the scones when he and his buddy drove back to NYC yesterday. They drove in a soft-top Jeep with no windows and mesh doors. It was in the 30s so I can only imagine how cold it was at highway speeds.

I have to make a birthday cake for Henry this week. He keeps asking for a citric acid cake. I am going to make a lemon cake. I have the frosting and filling figured but do you think I can just add some lemon juice and lemon peel to a yellow or white cake?

I made a batch of blueberry corn muffins from one of the Silver Palate cookbooks for dinner tonight. I used to make them all the time when the boys were young and hadn't made them in years. They would turn up their noses when I offered, and preferred the regular cornbread. Times change - Will thought that was a good idea for tonight.

Baker Aunt, I was wondering what you thought of KA's alternative sugar. I happened to see it when I was looking through the site to use up my gift card. (again)

Could someone please post the name of the peanut butter cookies you all love so much? I have quite a few recipes, and don't know which, if any, might be the Nebraska Kitchen "most popular" one. This time, I want to be sure that's the one I am making. Thanks in advance!

Thanks, Mike. I had searched the Forum Tools section for the recipe, and finally this morning looked at Favorite Recipes and found it there. I think I've made it before, but I have so many peanut butter cookie recipes (my husband's favorite) that I'd given up trying to remember which I used. I'm working on my list of Christmas Eve cookies, as I put out several cookie trays for our family Christmas dinner. I'll freeze the doughs, as slice & bake or scoops to be baked the week before our gathering.