[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--When we bought the house here, it included whatever was in it, and that pan for going under pies was one of the items I kept. The lady whose family had the house for fifty years was clearly a baker, so my pan may be the same age as yours. I have a newer pan in the same style with a nonstick coating, but I always reach for the older pan.

[BakerAunt]

We re-ran Monday night's dinner on Tuesday.

[BakerAunt]

Your pie looks delicious, Len! I'm also a fan of leaving the skins on the apples. My apple pie trick is to lightly pre-cook chopped apples mixed with the sugar, lemon juice, spices, and tapioca in a skillet, but that is because I use an oil crust that I blind bake. I put the pie plate on a round pan that I have, with a large hole in the center (like a doughnut) for baking. The pan catches the drips, and it also allows the center to cook at the same rate as the outside of the pie.

We should probably do a pie thread so that we can share our tips and discoveries with each other--and can find them as needed.

[BakerAunt]

I just looked at the cookie recipe. It still calls for a stick of butter, so I will not be making it. I'm saving my stick of butter for Pfeffernusse! However, I think that I have another lemon cookie recipe from King Arthur that is oil based.

[BakerAunt]

We had rotisserie chicken and potato salad from Walmart, along with microwaved frozen peas on Sunday It was good to have a regular dinner after two days on the road with soup for dinner.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, CWCdesign! I haven't looked at email because we have been traveling. We arrived this afternoon in Florida to spend a week. Because we now have a larger vehicle, having traded in my Subaru Impreza toward a Subaru Outback, there was room for my older bread machine, which is small and not that heavy. I mixed up the dry ingredients for three different bread recipes to bring with me.

As we were eating dinner, I used the bread machine to knead dough for Len's Semolina Rye rolls, which I baked as a loaf. (We ate all the other breads I baked on the trip down.) I could not find buttermilk at the Walmart Express we stopped at to pick up some supplies. All they had was the fatty stuff with 7 g saturated fat per cup. I found 1% fat kefir and used it instead. The oven here is pretty accurate, I just needed to drop the temperature about 5 degrees. The wires on the oven racks are very far spaced. I had to lay the oven thermometer that I brought flat on the rack to keep it from falling through. The kitchen had no potholders, and I struggled using a hand towel to get the loaf out. I may pick up a pair of potholders, as I slightly burned a finger. There are also no racks, and I did not consider the extra oven rack to be clean enough. So, I used two bowls and put the ends of two table knives on each. That made an ok rack.

[BakerAunt]

Beautiful rolls, Len!

[BakerAunt]

Congratulations on your new great-granddaughter, Chocomouse!

[BakerAunt]

So much of the judging is subjective. She is a winner just for competing!

[BakerAunt]

And that, Joan, is the glory of Thanksgiving!

[BakerAunt]

That sounds like a great meal, Mike.

We re-ran our early Thanksgiving dinner again tonight.

I made a "use it up" soup to put in the freezer. I used the turkey broth from the giblets, as well as another container of turkey broth from the freezer, some mushrooms and kale that needed to be used, a large, chopped carrot, and about a cup of Bob's Red Mill Vegi-Soup mix of brown and red lentils, green and yellow split peas, and barley. It will make a good quick meal or two in December.

[BakerAunt]

Those look good, Mike.

I baked my riff on Ellen's Buns on Thursday. I formed them as six large ones to use for turkey sandwiches for the next few days.

[BakerAunt]

Joan--from my own experience, I think that the pan grease works best with cake batter. I've had some similar issues when I tried to use it with a thicker batter, such as for muffins or quick breads. Have other people noticed it?

I baked Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies on Wednesday.

I also baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough that I made last week.

Finally, because I have been craving them, I baked my oil-based cranberry scones and added some lemon zest. I will freeze some of these and set the others aside for breakfast tomorrow and Friday.

[BakerAunt]

We re-ran last night's early Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday.

[BakerAunt]

Clearly, baking talent runs in your family, Joan! I don't have cable so cannot watch, but I hope she does well!

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