Thank-you friends! Your help always is exceptional and I'm grateful.

I can't seem to manage Annie's pie efficiency re having pastry ready to go in the freezer. Just thinking about rolling out six crusts at a time for the freezer makes me tired. :) I loved my old fashioned ball bearing rolling pin, but it resisted all attempts to repair it. I really disliked using a dowel type rolling pin I have. I like the one inch one for rolling individual empanada crusts or pita, but not the 3" one for pie or cookies. So after whining about it, considering it's pie season. I don't like the rough wood rolling pins they offer nowadays. They may hold flour well, but my old, black rolling pin had just enough texture for the flour without feeling rough. I kept searching online, and searching, and searching... I couldn't find one like my beloved, and if I took my mother's old yellow perfect rolling pin to use and if it broke, I'd cry. A lot. So I searched some more. And found a picture of a possible. Which became probable. And is now mine!

It is wood, but it's polished smooth, close grained maple. It's way too slick for holding the flour, which means I don't have to worry about cleaning it so noting sticks in the wood to go rancid. if I need my rolling pin to be floured, I can use a rolling pin sock. I have several. The handles say "cinnabar". I don't know if it's actual cinnabar, or just cinnabar colored, but I love the color and they're smooth enough to be lacquer, while the turning of the handles ensures a good grip. And, the barrel is 12"! IIRC, it does have ball bearings, but for sure it handles like it. It's HEAVY. And long. And while I had to get creative to store it, it's worth it! It does all the work!! And it's pretty. And nice to touch. And I love it.

From Fletcher's Mill. They're in Maine, which made me think of Agmss and her sister. :)

So, speaking of pies, I tried using a paper pan. If You Care brand. They're shaped more like cake pans but are called cake and pie, 8" (pack of 4 for $8). I just put one in my Pyrex 9". I should have tried a deeper pie, but I had the blueberries which wouldn't keep, whereas apples would. My regular all butter, no-fuss, foolproof crust. If I did it again, I'd cut the verticals and open them up, like for setting a sleeve. For a more delicate crust, parchment would help. The results were mixed. The paper pan held up well to cutting with a serrated knife. It never got soggy or floppy in a pie safe in the fridge for a week. It was a hot day and the trimmed crust rolled down around the paper pan edge. In baking, the higher walls kept the top crust from cooking quickly, and the extra time made the berries go jammy. Another reason to flatten out the sides, or cut them down. But with the berries releasing a lot of their liquid while going jammy, the level was even lower, so getting the crust edge from being wrapped and the straight down of it, that often meant crackng, especially as the crust hardened as it finally cooked. It was just for home, so no harm. It tasted good. It baked, other than the effects of the depth and having to bake too long, equally well to just the glass. I was actually impressed by how well it worked, other than the tall sides and the effects of having to bake too long to cope with them. Thus the flattening idea.

Fruit Leather

The encouragement here gave me to the actual courage to try the fruit leather. I found a blog where she made patterned fruit leather. I think she perfected her fruit to make it the right consistency. I tried various piping strategies, including squeeze bottles and syringes. I didn't want to do the reductions and strainings, just whirred up fruit. Mostly berries inlcuding blueberries, raspberries, golden berries, kiwi (BIG berr), plus a pear and a pineapple. Turns out my oven will do ultra low temperature overnight, so I did. A silpat on an upside down sheet pan and I was all set (the background grid is part of the silpat). I didn't get pictures of most, but here's the last batch using up what was left. Everybody liked eating them! The cake is mostly slices, not puree, but dehydrated alongside the other.

Halloween

I did it all! I did the puking pumpkin disgorging guacamole, the breadstick fingers, the palmetto bugs, sans feet because non of them tasted good, and decorated with Tostitos Organic purple corn chips (recommend), Zachary candy corn, and, because they look ooky, kiwi berries and finger limes. The palmetto bugs were medjool dates with pecan halves and a paste made from dense apricot preserve mixed with dry and crumbly honey walnut butter (which was awesome!). I hid most of the bugs and fingers amongst the chips for scares and icks. :) People loved it, though the fingers got half stale overnight. A few came out toes, so I put mustard on them and melted a slice of American cheese--the warmth revived them and it was a nice, if ooky, breakfast. :)