[BakerAunt]

We re-ran Thanksgiving dinner, except that we had microwaved frozen mixed vegetables instead of peas. We both had our pumpkin pie in the afternoon, me with coffee, and Scott with tea.

[BakerAunt]

Thanksgiving dinner was turkey, dressing (Blue Bag Pepperidge Farm forever!), applesauce, Dried Cherry and Cranberries with Cardamom (all mine, since my husband does not care for cranberries or cardamom), applesauce, peas, turkey gravy. Dessert was pumpkin pie.

Earlier in the day I made yogurt.

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[BakerAunt]

The turkey is actually a little over 17 lbs., which was the smallest we could find at Aldi's. It was mostly defrosted, after six days in the refrigerator, although it had a chunk or two of ice still inside. Scott put it into the oven at 2:05 p.m.

[BakerAunt]

I made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers on Wednesday. I will bake them early next week.

My oil-buttermilk pie crust has been resting in the refrigerator. I am about to blind bake it while I combine the filling ingredients for my pumpkin pie. I'm using fairy tale pumpkin puree that I froze last year.

[BakerAunt]

I moved our turkey to the refrigerator on Friday morning. Today, I turned it over. My experience is that it takes at least a week in the refrigerator to thaw a 15 lb. turkey.

[BakerAunt]

I miss Cindy also. Thanks for reminding me about the pan.

I baked Pumpkin Soda Bread on Tuesday, a recipe from Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker that I have baked twice before and have been craving. I alter it by substituting 2 ½ cups of King Arthur's Irish style flour, adding ¼ cup of Bob's Red Mill milk powder, and replacing 4 Tbs. of butter with 4 Tbs. avocado oil. I also cut the salt from 2 tsp. to 1 tsp. I used a small egg rather than just the egg yolk. The recipe also uses cornmeal, and I use medium grind. It has a lovely orange color, and the flavor sets off the golden raisins and walnuts. It makes two loaves. I will freeze one.

[BakerAunt]

I made soup for dinner on Tuesday, using broth from the freezer, Bob's Red Mill Vegi-Soup mix (combines red and brown lentils, green and yellow split peas, and barley alphabet letters) ground turkey, chopped carrots and celery, sliced mushrooms, kale, and chopped red bell pepper from our plants, which are now on the enclosed porch for the winter. I harvested the rest of the red peppers and put them in the refrigerator. I used a tablespoon of Penzey's Ozark seasoning in the soup, as well as some minced garlic and dried onions. We will have it for dinner tomorrow as well, then I will freeze the rest.

[BakerAunt]

That's a lovely loaf, CWCdesign. What size pan did you use? I tried that recipe once, and seeing your loaf, I think that I will put it on my future bake list. I've never used wholegrain bread improver. I too think that using the bread flour instead of AP does the job.

[BakerAunt]

I concur with Len: the pizza looks great!

We finished the leftover pasta and squash for dinner on Monday which worked out well as we had to go to Fort Wayne this morning. After we got back, I devoted the time to making another four quarts of applesauce. I will freeze two of these, along with two 1-cup containers of unsweetened applesauce for baking. The rest went into a large bowl and will appear on the table as part of Thanksgiving dinner. I only had ¾ cups of apple juice this time, possibly because I cooked the apples longer, and I froze it for later use as well. My next project will be apple butter.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--That's disappointing. Let us know if it is the chips or the recipe. I'm thinking about my caramel candy recipe (which makes so many that I do not make it anymore, sigh), and butter and vanilla are the main flavoring. Maybe toasting the sugar or browning the butter?

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--Did your older son graduate? Time is flying! It's so nice to have a baking family.

Baking bagels is on my list of baking projects, but probably not until after the New Year.

[BakerAunt]

Good luck with your snowy dinner, Chocomouse!

I made four quarts of applesauce on Sunday, which I froze. I left out another cup for us to enjoy. I am pleased that the Weston Tomato Strainer that I bought last year made the process quick and painless. I liked it last year, and I like it even better this year. I mostly used Ida Red apples (seconds), but I put in some other varieties from the other two bags of seconds we bought. I cooked the apples whole, only removing the stems, in a Le Creuset 5 ½-qt pot and a 7 1/4 qt- pot. I save any remaining juice to use in making my oat bran cereal, which is cooked in half milk and half apple juice. I froze 2 cups of it and set aside a half cup for later this week.

For dinner, we warmed up some of last night's chicken-vegetable pasta and roasted delicata squash. That gave me plenty of time to do the applesauce in the early afternoon.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Saturday, I made an entrée with 8 oz. whole wheat rotini pasta, which I added to sauteed sliced carrots, celery, green onion, mushrooms, and spinach, along with a large can of fire-roasted tomatoes, and the rest of the roasted chicken breast meat.

As a side dish, I roasted a 2 ½ lb. delicata squash that I have had for over a month, using a recipe that the vendor texted to me. The recipe called for coating a large, rimmed baking sheet with olive oil (I went ahead and lined my pan first with parchment paper), then sprinkling grated Parmesan and garlic atop it. I cut the Parmesan down to 2 oz, but reserved ¼ cup as stated. I did not use fresh garlic because it would burn. Instead, I sprinkled a teaspoon of garlic powder over the Parmesan. Half moon rings of the squash, cut ¾ inch thick, are then laid on the Parmesan bed. The tops are rubbed with a bit more olive oil, then the rest of the Parmesan is sprinkled on top. It bakes at 425 F for 30 minutes, but I probably should have pulled it out at 25, since some of the Parmesan overbrowned. This delicata squash recipe came out better than my previous attempt, and from what I read online, high heat for a shorter period of time is ideal. The skin was still a little chewy but acceptable. I do not know if the chewiness is because it has been lying around for a month or because it is large. The original recipe called for a 1 ½ lb. squash. I also wonder if it used the commercial Kraft Parmesan, since there is no way that 1/3 cup freshly grated is 1 ½ oz.

[BakerAunt]

The holiday season is never easy for retail workers, CWCdesign. Hang in there.

I made spaghetti squash and mushroom quiche on Friday afternoon. I will have it for lunches, beginning tomorrow. I used 100 g of pastry flour and 140 grams of whole wheat pastry flour in the crust.

For dinner, I made Crispy Oven Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar Sauce. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

I love my intricate Bundt pans, but even with The Grease, they can be hard to clean. I found that I was not using my specialty pans as much, but I want to use them, so I broke down and bought the Vegalene spray that King Arthur sells, and which is used on lots of baking shows. On Thursday, I pulled out my intricate Nordic Ware autumn wreath pan and baked my adaptation of their recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cake. My version replaces butter with avocado oil and uses part whole wheat pastry flour, with the addition of flax meal and milk powder. The cake came right out of the pan, and the clean-up was a breeze. Vegalene spray is much better than the sprays sold in grocery stores. The cake will rest overnight, and we will begin slicing it for dessert tomorrow night.

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