That's right, Tina, she did write an acclaimed cookbook! She was also a food and restaurant critic for a time, writing for some major publications. Love drooling over her recipes and reading the cooking tips. There's always a yummy photo. Food Gawker is a scrumptious foody site, with luscious photos of their recipes. There's another site that's very similar, but the name escapes me right now. Here is a link that might be useful: Food Gawker

Don, I was especially interested in who had a birthday today and made it to one of your lists. My son Jim would have been 61 today and I wanted to know with whom he shared a birthday. Glad it was Achebe, an amazing African writer whose works I have taught. I miss my oldest child more than I can say. This was a hard day. But his daughter will deliver a beautiful boy at the end of November. We don't yet know what the baby's first name will be but his middle name will be James for the grandfather he will never know. I've been crying all day!

Saw today that one of the bloggers I subscribe to, Melissa Norris puts 1 1/2 cups of water in her instant pot, pops in a pumpkin, cooks it for, I think she said 13 minutes then lets it do a slow release. She said it practically falls apart when she takes it out. I think she said she removes the rind, seeds and strings then you could use a blender or immersion blender on it. Madonna

Yesterday I made some pie crust using a different recipe for the first time in 40 years. Previously I'd used mostly butter and a little Crisco. The butter's for flavor and I had always assumed the Crisco was what made it flaky. Not so fast... I can't remember if my flour is King Arthur, Whole Foods 365, or Gold Medal. It's in a canister and I'll just call it unbleached all-purpose flour. I've decided that 120 grams is the most common weight given for a cup of white AP flour. I fluffed and aerated the flour and gently spooned a cup measure full and leveled with a knife. It weighed 135 grams. :( Put the flour back in the canister and weighed out 120 grams. Then I gently spooned it into a 1 cup measure and it fit PERFECTLY. So I measured 300 grams (2-1/2 cups) and cut up cold butter into 1/2-inch cubes. Pulsed half into the flour, then the other half, so I had various sizes of butter. Pulsed in a total of 6 Tbs ice water. Formed it into a disk, wrapped it up, and stuck it in the fridge to rest and cool for 3 hours. For test purposes, I took about 1/10 off and made a tiny galette with jam on one side and cinnamon sugar on the other. I've made a LOT of pies over the years and this is the best crust I've ever made, hands down. It would win 1st place at the county fair. Beautifully golden, flaky, crisp, and tender, like pie crust heaven. Buttery beyond belief. Did a bit of research this morning and learned that shortening has 0% water, whereas butter has 20% water. It's the water that causes steam/expansion to make the flakes. This pie crust handled nice and easy. I think my flour by volume was all over the place. And I'm never putting shortening in my crust again.