[BakerAunt]

On Thursday, I baked for the first time this week. I wanted some Christmas spirit, so I baked the King Arthur Spiced Rye Ginger Cookies, with two changes. I cut the salt in half and added 1 Tbs. Bob's Red Mill milk powder. To make them festive, I rolled them in an equal mixture of coarse red, green, and white sugar. The spice mixture does not agree with my husband, so I told him that I will bake another kind of cookie tomorrow.

By the way, Navlys: this recipe does not call for baking powder, just 1 tsp. baking soda. I suspect that you are correct about less baking powder for more crispiness.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Wednesday, I used leftover turkey, which I added to sauteed mushrooms and red bell pepper, before adding a bit of broth, 1 tsp. rehydrated onion, then the rest of the gravy from Thanksgiving. I boiled some mushroom noodles (German ones that I bought at our last T.J. Maxx visit) and added fresh broccoli florets for the last 2 minutes of cooking. Once drained, I added it to the gravy mixture and tossed. I had some grated Parmesan on mine. We have enough for another meal tomorrow.

Joan--Your pie sounds like a gourmet Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!

[BakerAunt]

We had more leftover turkey for dinner on Tuesday, along with roasted sweet potato chunks and microwaved frozen combo of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. A member of the contractor crew fixed my utility cabinet today. (The back was pulling away from the sides.) I am now re-arranging the contents of that cabinet to see if I can organize it more effectively.

[BakerAunt]

Monday's dinner was leftover turkey, roasted honey-nut squash (the last from our garden), and microwaved frozen green beans from our garden.

I also made yogurt.

[BakerAunt]

Although I still have some containers of pumpkin in the freezer from last year, I decided on Sunday that I needed to start processing the pumpkins I bought in October at the farmers' market. Today, I roasted, pureed, and packed into containers a large peanut pumpkin.

I could spend the time on the pumpkin because we have Thanksgiving leftovers (except for dressing). I even had time to put my feet up and finish a book while roasting the two halves of the pumpkin consecutively. (It was too large to fit in a single roasting pan.

[BakerAunt]

It is always nice to have an "emergency dessert" in the freezer, Chocolmouse!

I baked pumpkin snacking cake on Saturday evening. Earlier, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. With guests this week, the last batch disappeared faster than usual.

[BakerAunt]

The rest of our pumpkin pie was finished at lunch today.

We had two small boneless pork chops left over from dinner earlier in the week, so for Saturday's dinner I made a small stir-fry with the pork and the soba noodles, deglazing liquid, carrots, celery, green onion, red bell pepper (ripened off the vine on the porch), and broccoli from the farmers' market

[BakerAunt]

Everyone must be in After Thanksgiving Day Mode.

We enjoyed re-running yesterday's feast on Friday.

[BakerAunt]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The 18 lb. turkey is in the oven. I have some downtime before I need to cook potatoes for muddled mashed potatoes, make the dressing, and then make the gravy. We think that we will be eating between 6 and 6:30 p.m.

[BakerAunt]

Stella Parks is an advocate of using sugar for blind baking. I think that Aaron started a conversation on it a couple of years ago.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I baked Pumpkin Maple Rolls, using Stella Parks' recipe for Yeasted Pumpkin Bread. I did not use a food processor. Instead, I made it in my bread machine and substituted in half white whole wheat and added 2 Tbs. special dry milk and 3 Tbs. flax meal.

I also baked my pumpkin pie on Wednesday evening. I made one change, since I use an oil crust and did the initial 10 minutes at 400F instead of 425F, before dropping the temperature to 350F for the remaining 10-15 minutes.

[BakerAunt]

My husband cooked boneless pork chops for dinner, and I roasted some cubed sweet potatoes tossed in olive oil. We also had microwaved frozen peas. We also had some of the applesauce that I made on Tuesday. Since my son and daughter-in-law have to leave early Friday morning and will miss leftovers, this way they get the leftovers in advance!

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I made yogurt. I also made my first batch of applesauce from the Ida Red seconds that we bought from the orchard two weeks ago. The applesauce has a lovely pink color. I made it for Thanksgiving, but we will likely have some with tomorrow dinner.

Dinner on Tuesday was leftover turkey, spinach, and mushroom lasagna and roasted honey nut squash.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--I started by using canola oil. When I tried using all olive oil, the dough was not as easy to handle, although that was back when I used AP rather than pastry flour, so maybe I will try it again. I have used half olive oil with the canola for quiche or savory tarts. One reason I have incorporated avocado oil in my pie crust is that it, like olive oil, has 2 g saturated fat as opposed to 1 g in canola oil. I found that a bit more oil made for a better crust, with a bit of flakiness. The recipe uses 1 part buttermilk to 2 parts oil.

The original oil crust recipe came from the King Arthur 200th Anniversary Cookbook. I've adapted it over the years, by reducing the salt by 25% and adding some Bob's Red Mill milk powder. The pastry flours were my idea as well. The original recipe is designed to be pressed into the pie pan without rolling it out. However, with the two pastry flours, I find that I can roll it out and transfer it to the pie dish.

What I found took so long with how I made butter crusts is that once it was rolled out and put in the pan, it needed to be refrigerated, then I would put it in the freezer before blind baking. (I was following Cooks'' Illustrated directions.) The oil crust is put into the pie plate immediately after being mixed, rests for an hour, and then is ready to be blind baked.

I have my old recipe posted, but I should post my updated one. I will do so once I have tried some variation in the savory pie crust.

As for avocado oil, I also like it when I need to brown roasts or in bread recipes where I do not want the olive oil flavor. In whole grain breads, like the Grandma A's Bread, I can use olive oil and the whole grains cover the flavor. In the pumpkin braid I baked last week, I used avocado oil.

[BakerAunt]

What I remember about butter crusts is how time intensive they are. The oil crusts I now make (having given up eating most butter), are easier, and we like the taste and texture. I keep refining my recipe and now use a combination of pastry flour and whole wheat pastry flour, as well as half canola and half avocado oil.

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