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[BakerAunt]

Navyls--the ratio of oil to butter is 1/3 cup oil to 1/2 cup butter. That said, I usually substitute 2 Tbs. avocado oil for 3 Tbs. butter, although in some breads I've substituted 1:1 for small amounts. As Cass once told me, however, remember that oil, unlike butter, does not have water, so sometimes you may need to increase liquid slightly.

The substitution will not work so well in recipes that call for large amounts of butter or recipes where butter is integral to the structure. Shortbread is a good example.

For my oil pie crusts, I have found that all olive oil or all avocado oil makes the crust too greasy. Since the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of oil, I make half of that canola and the other half olive oil (apple and savory pies) or avocado oil (sweet pies, pumpkin pie).

[cwcdesign]

I made chicken salad from the leftover tenders that Will grilled on Thursday so we could celebrate Michael's (my DDH) birthday. Nice simple dinner after two bananas days at work. We had a line of guests winding around half the store for 3 hours yesterday and not quite so long today to order lunch. We've been busy before, but nothing like this. We heard the whole island was packed. There were stories of Harris Teeter being so crowded you couldn't find a parking space.next week the island quiets down.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--One reason I dropped by so often at T.J. Maxx when we lived in Lubbock was that you never knew what you would find. Sometimes, it was nothing--particularly after Christmas! It was about a ten-minute drive in off-traffic times and close to the grocery stores. To go now, means a drive of an hour (one-way), and, of course, there may not be anything I want to buy. A Marshall's and a Ross are opening together across from the Walmart, one of the three places we hit for groceries in the next town, and I told my husband that we will need to add those stores to our trip. Of course, for those stores, he will sit in the car, but I can look through them quickly. He also knows that whenever we are in South Bend, we need to go to one or both T.J. Maxx stores, and also Home Goods (part of the same company). Last time we were there in October, it was Home Goods that had the better selection.

You can order from T.J. Maxx online, but it is not the same as wandering around and discovering, and the online selection is limited. Home Goods used to have an online presence, but they ended it before Christmas.

[Mike Nolan]

With the demise of Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshalls/Homegoods/TJ Maxx (all the same company) are where I go for kitchen products the most. Can't count on them having the latest of anything, though. (Even the kitchen places at the outlet mall near Omaha have closed.)

[Mike Nolan]

Ahead of Diane's birthday two weeks ago I was looking for a source for some veal to make Veal Zurich. Couldn't find any in Lincoln other than ground veal and some shanks (for Osse Bucco), but I did find a place in Omaha called 'Just Good Meat'. It's just off the Interstate, so we went right past it on the way home from dropping David and Kelita off at the airport this morning.

I got several packages of veal cutlets, thinly sliced, and 2 packages of beef shanks for beef stock.

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[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, thanks: (1) For posting your Pumpkin Puree (accent missing) recipe. I'll never make it; I don't like pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread. In the recipe, you mentioned using a Kuhn-Rikon knife. At the time, I had an acorn squash that I didn't feel like tackling with my chef's knife. I searched Amazon for your knife. The first thing that popped up was a watermelon knife. There was no mention in the blurb or the reviews about using it for squash. I bought it anyhow. Summer will come again, and we like watermelon.

I continued to search for a squash knife. Still none with that label. I found the orange knife with a review mentioning acorn squash. I bought it, too. I'm going to use it on the acorn squash tomorrow.

(2) Thanks for letting us know you buy freezer containers from Lehman's. I buy several items from them but didn't know they sell freezer containers. To my pleasant surprise, they're USA-made. Immediately, I texted a niece about them. I no longer make the multi-course Italian Christmas dinner, but she does. She kept me in the loop about all her many, many preparations, including her Christmas Eve tamales -- all the WORK. After the holiday was over, I texted to her that she really needs to do most of the prep in October and freeze everything. Thanks to you, BakerAunt, she now knows where to buy the freezer containers.

[Mike Nolan]

My son like to order frequently from either DaVinci's or Taco Inn when he's in town, because those aren't available in Pittsburgh. I ate at Taco Inn nearly every weekday for the first two years I was in grad school, I'm fast food faux taco'd out. DaVinci's take on a cheese steak is pretty good (though not true Philly style), but one every two or three weeks is my limit. Now, good Italian Beef I could handle a lot more often, but there isn't any in Lincoln.

[BakerAunt]

Well, Mike, the group wants what the group wants!

I had a major vegetable craving and some kale that I needed to use, so I made Spanish Chickpea, Kale (replaced spinach), and Bulgur stew for lunch on Thursday. Having some frozen chickpeas in the freezer that I remembered to put in the refrigerator to thaw last night was a plus. My husband cannot eat it due to the spices, onions, and tomatoes with chilis, which is why I only make it for lunch. I have enough for more lunches this week and weekend, and I froze a serving for a future lunch. I bought some freezer containers from Lehman's a while back, and I find that they work very well for these defrost and heat lunches, and they stack nicely in the freezer.

[RiversideLen]

I pulled a 10 ounce steak from the freezer and ground it up and made stuffed peppers with it. Had one for tonight's dinner and one will be for tomorrow.

For Christmas, I was invited to a neighbor's, so that was no cooking for me but I did bring a pan of cookies (oatmeal coconut, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip and Noel nut balls). We had Italian sausage, penne pasta, fried chicken, roast potatoes, and a real delicious eggplant parm. There were plant based meatballs there too but I missed them (one of their son's and daughter in law are plant based eaters but I saw her munch on a piece of fried chicken as they were getting ready to leave).

[Mike Nolan]

They've had a few instances of big cats (probably cougars) in trees in suburban Omaha and I think one wandered into a building at the Veteran's Hospital in Lincoln a year ago, but so far we haven't seen any big cats in our neighborhood. We do see coyotes, though not recently. A mile or so from here there's a woods with a resident flock of turkeys, we see them along the side of the road frequently. Down by the middle school I've seen some game birds (probably pheasant) just standing in the road, in no hurry to get out of anyone's way. A neighbor tells me they see ducks and geese in their front yard on their security camera, there are several hundred geese that are full-time residents at nearby lakes and ponds, the Merlin app hears them frequently flying over.

[BakerAunt]

For Christmas dinner, I roasted sweet potato chunks, which we had with ham, green beans (frozen this summer from our garden), and applesauce, with pumpkin pie for dessert.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

[BakerAunt]

We love the Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars) with the baked meringue topping. I will not be baking them any other way. I wanted to post a link to the recipe, but the exact one I used is not coming up on Google. I found one with the same proportions, so if you are interested, and have a surplus of egg whites, here it is:

https://www.food.com/recipe/zimtsterne-cinnamon-star-cookies-262925

I did not find that I needed to thin the meringue with milk.

I used fine almond flour, by weight, rather than grinding almonds.

I'm in favor of making the larger stars, unless you have patience for spreading the meringue. I used a small spatula to spread it out to the star tips.

I would NOT use the second method for spreading meringue specified in the recipe, as it would waste a lot of dough that could not be re-rolled.

We also love those three meringue cookies I made with the leftover meringue topping. I could see baking these using a recipe of the topping.

[Mike Nolan]

Today my wife assembled two trifles (a big one and a smaller one with remains of the pastry cream and fruit.)

David is making the potato casserole, the ham will go in the oven around 4:30.

[BakerAunt]

After dinner on Christmas Eve, I baked the Zimtsterne (cinnamon star cookies) from dough I made last night. I used the same star cookie cutter as last year, which is probably too large (about 3 inches across) and got 14 stars and a circle from the leftover dough. This year, I did the meringue topping that is spread on the cookies before baking. Because my cookies are larger, I baked them for 15 minutes, just until the tiniest part of the tips of the stars started to get a bit of light brown. When I baked the Zimtsterne last year, I used a glaze that I found online that was ok but not so great, so I am looking forward to tasting these cookies tomorrow with the traditional topping.

I had about ¼ cup of the meringue frosting left over, so I stirred some hazelnuts and mini-chocolate chips into it, then used a #40 scoop to make three cookies. I baked them for 15 minutes, at 300F, until lightly browned. The three cookies made from the leftovers came from my vamping off of a hazelnut cookie recipe that calls for one egg white, hazelnuts, and sugar.

After I finished the cookies, I baked a pumpkin pie. It will cool on the counter overnight.

[Mike Nolan]

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of oyster stew and chili, with a relish tray and a dessert platter of cookies and candies. Then we opened one present each. (Diane actually got 2 of them, because one was one I figured she'd want to use tonight and the other was one I really wanted to give her this evening.)