[skeptic7]

I've used sandpaper and steel wool pads before. The Steel wool does a better job of getting into the corner where the pan bottom meets the edge. I think the sand paper is less messy or at least drier. This is mainly to clean off old finish if there is a thick layer. If there isn't enough finish, just wash and dry and rub a little oil on with a paper towel to remove the rust and bake.
I've had to refinish several times because I put too much oil on at once. Oil the pan lightly and then wipe off all the oil you can with a dry paper towel before baking it in the oven. Bake at 400 degrees, 350 degrees is to low to properly bake the oil into a solid surface.
Refinishing a cast iron pan is a lovely excuse for running the over for a couple of hours on a cold day. I might refinish my chicken frier. The bottom is fine but the sides are lumpy so it doesn't really NEED to be redone its just prettier.

Heating a skillet really hot on a stove top, will weaken the old finish so its easier to remove. I did this on a pancake skillet last year.

[skeptic7]

Baker Aunt;
I was counting up my pie pans a couple of days ago and realized that I have 4 of the rimmed pie pans. One I bought new years ago, and three that I found in various thrift stores. I can't find this style new so I check each thrift store and buy all available. One of the pie pans is only 7'' in diameter but so cute the rest are normal 9'' pie pans.

[skeptic7]

I did a pumpkin pie on Sunday from puree from baking small pie pumpkins. It took two cups of pumpkin puree about 1 1/2 pie pumpkins. This was combined with a butter flavored oil based pie crust and it turned out fairly well.

[skeptic7]

For Thanksgiving I made an apple slab pie -- it was easier to cut than a regular pie and had plenty of crust for crust lovers, and pumpkin cornbread with cranberries.

Thanksgiving evening I baked whole wheat chocolate scones to bring half to a friend who was working overnight at Penneys for their Thanksgiving night sales.

Friday I spent all afternoon baking a 14 lb Red Warty thing -- which was either an odd looking pumpkin or a odd looking squash and had 4 1/2 pints of pumpkin puree out of it.
Today I have sage and rosemary Focaccio -- rather odd shaped I put in too little water and it didn't flatten out completely.

I don't feel like baking or eating anything right now. My Thanksgiving leftovers included a green bean casserole which contained bacon and more bacon and cheese and fried onion bits and while it was all so very tasty, it was very filling.

[skeptic7]

For Thanksgiving I made an apple slab pie -- it was easier to cut than a regular pie and had plenty of crust for crust lovers, and pumpkin cornbread with cranberries.

Thanksgiving evening I baked whole wheat chocolate scones to bring half to a friend who was working overnight at Penneys for their Thanksgiving night sales.

Friday I spent all afternoon baking a 14 lb Red Warty thing -- which was either an odd looking pumpkin or a odd looking squash and had 4 1/2 pints of pumpkin puree out of it.
Today I have sage and rosemary Focaccio -- rather odd shaped I put in too little water and it didn't flatten out completely.

I don't feel like baking or eating anything right now. My Thanksgiving leftovers included a green bean casserole which contained bacon and more bacon and cheese and fried onion bits and while it was all so very tasty, it was very filling.

[skeptic7]

I cut my pie pumpkins with a Chinese chef knife. The thicker knives wouldn't bite through the skin. They had a lot of seeds and less flesh than I expected. It was hard removing the pumpkin strings from the seed cavity.
I like looking at the stories of left over pumpkins going to the zoo. The elephants especially seem to enjoy Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins.

[skeptic7]

I use all the big winter squash and pumpkins interchangeably. In the past I've used long necked pumpkin, Long Island Cheese, Boston Marrow, Pink Banana and now I have Red Warty Thing ( I thought the name was a joke but I looked it up and there is a seed company that sells it ). This year the local supermarket had a sale on small pie pumpkins for 50 cents on Halloween, so I got three.
I've been disappointed in some pumpkins which didn't have enough flavor but mostly all of these work well. A check on the Internet showed that pumpkins and squashes are all in the same family and can crossbreed easily.
I was warned that the Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins were bred for color and size and are too watery and tasteless to be good to cook, but all pumpkins are edible.

[skeptic7]

I used Indian Head Old Fashioned Stone Ground White Cornmeal. I think this is a medium grind as its courser than corn flour, and more fine than polenta.

This makes very nice baking powder type cornbread both Southern and Northern styles.

[skeptic7]

Riverside Len;
Those look beautiful. I'm sure they will taste fine.

[skeptic7]

I had November 12 th as a holiday so I baked 3 little pie pumpkins. I bought them on sale on Halloween for 50 cents! I actually bought 4 pumpkins but one started to mold and had to be thrown out. These had a lot of seeds and not so much flesh. I only have 2 pints of rather dry pumpkin puree.
I also made a cornmeal - whole wheat bread flavored with dried rosemary, sage and thyme. I've given the recipe in another posting. The temperature was so cold I felt wonderfully happy to be able to preheat the oven and then bake the bread for nearly an hour and a half. There was no guilt about heating up the kitchen for so long as there would have been in the summer.

I also made a gluten free, vegan apple-walnut maple syrup quick bread the next day. This is the first time I used Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour. Its very white. It seems to behave just like regular white wheat flour and bakes for the same amount of time. I made it for a friend and didn't actually taste it or examine its texture.

On Friday I made the Easy One Bowl No Knead Apple cake from KAF 200th anniversary cookbook. This starts by slicing and cooking two apples with sugar and spices and a little butter. Then making a yeast batter with both white and wheat flour and brown sugar and spices. Place the batter in a 9 inch round, and then carefully placed the cooked apples on top. Let rise ( it says 1 1/2 hours ), I let it rise over night and then bake. This was actually good! Its very strange, I thought it wouldn't rise with the apples weighing down the batter but it does. I also thought the liquid from the cooked apples would wreck the batter but it doesn't. This is amazing.

I also make a cornmeal-whole wheat yeast bread with cheese on Friday, but that is described in detail elsewhere.

[skeptic7]

Years ago, I did a white rice and white flour bread from "English Bread and Yeast Cookery" by Elizabeth David. I only did it once but it starts with cooking the rice in a large amount of water until very soft and then mixing in flour and yeast. I gave it to a friend who was suffering from morning sickness and she found it very digestable.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
The Cinnamon Apple Flatbread looks fascinating. It reminds me of apple pizza, but I commonly slice the apples for apple pizza not dice them.

I tried to write about my experiment with a whole wheat version of Portuguese Broa which didn't turn out very well. It didn't turn out inedible but it reminded me of hush puppies only baked, or of oyster crackers only whole wheat.

[skeptic7]

I have used oil crusts with reasonable success on pies. Then there is yeasted crusts which could be made with oil instead of butter. The texture is different but it would be better than no pie.

[skeptic7]

Len;
Pumpkin raisin bread would be great, and even better with a cinnamon swirl.
I once made pumpkin cinnamon rolls with bits of candied ginger in the cinnamon spread.

[skeptic7]

On Tuesday, I did two batches of pumpkin corn bread, northern style with pumpkin instead of buttermilk, and maple syrup instead of honey. Both batches of bread had cinnamon and ginger and allspice, but one of them was made Vegan with ground flax seed and water; and the other one had the normal egg. The normal one was enlivened with 1/2 dried cranberries.

On Wednesday I did cinammon currant whole wheat bread in the slow cooker. I was working from home that day and had a two hour project, so I put the bread dough in the slow cooker and cooked it on high and 2 hours and 37 minutes later it had risen was at 175 degrees and I decided it was cooked. Its very tasty but a little too moist, next time I will try for at least 180 degrees. I gave the Vegan pumpkin bread away and ate the normal one. My vegan friend wants me to make her gluten free vegan treats but I don't like gluten free flour and got tired of Southern style pumpkin bread.

Today I did strawberry quick bread -- a double batch of whole wheat bread sweetened with 1 cup of strawberry jam instead of honey and baked in a 9x13 pan. This is a birthday gift for a friend who likes strawberries.

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