When I was a little girl, one of my favorite books was Tasha Tudor's "A Time to Keep." Did you have a copy when you were a wee one? I hope so.
It still fills me with delight and wonder as I flip through the beautiful pages of an old fashioned family, cheerfully celebrating each month of the year. If you don't own it, put it on your Christmas list. It would make a remarkably charming gift, a monthly reminder to live life to the fullest.
I loved each colorful and lively month in the book...except I was disturbed by a poem snippet on the November page, written by Thomas Hood. Since my birthday is in November, I wanted it to be the superlative month, preferrably with a birthday cake lit with candles, floating down the river. (That was on the August page, and my brother Jack still brags that he has the best birthday because of that floating cake illustration.) Here's what the book said about November:
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November!
This made young Prudy a bit forlorn and confused. Especially since I grew up in California, the land of eternal fruits, flowers, leaves, and birds. I thought (and still do) that November was the best month of the year. There was the holiday anticipation in the air, the miraculous Thanksgiving feast, and 5 out of the 10 kids in my family had November birthdays.
I felt that Thomas Hood had it all wrong. It wasn't until I was a college student that I read his pessimistic poem in its entirety:
No park--no ring--no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease.
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November!
Now I knew that Thomas Hood got it all wrong! No company??? For Pete's sake, I just said good-bye today to the last of the 40 visitors that came for Thanksgiving.
I prefer this poem about my beloved month instead:
"November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.
With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.
The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring."
~ Clyde Watson
Farewell, fair and favorite month.
Enjoy the last sunset of my favorite month. See you tomorrow with Dark Brown Sugar Caramel Corn.
Enjoy your leftovers, your shopping, and your naps. 
I'd like you to meet someone. 
It's your new favorite pie. 
If you've never heard of a Brown Bag Apple Pie, think of a simple 
These are Sailor's hands. Sometimes I use her hands in pictures and readers think that they are my hands. Mine are old and haggard and they are coming up in later pictures. I don't want to take credit for young, nubile hands. 
Pour it into your crust and pat it down. 
These are the old hands I was telling you about, the ones that need Palmolive Madge to come over and give her some pointers.
Place the pie in a brown bag. 
Ask your grocer for a plain brown bag, or use an old paper gift bag. Secure the bag with staples and place the bagged pie on a cookie sheet. 
Bake for two hours without peeking. Peel back the bag.
She'll march up on stage and play her little heart out. I can sit in the audience and feel perfectly at ease. But then there is West. And with West you never know for sure what you will get. Sometimes he is confident, dashing and bold. And other times he is shy, timorous, and wary. And when that happens, he likes me to be on stage with him. Right behind him, so close that we are touching. 
Be back later tonight with that Apple Pie in a Brown Bag (for cousin Julie and my reader Lucky) and a report on West's performance anxiety or 
I love this recipe, but it requires a little foresight. Basically, I soak my turkey in a 2 day brine, which makes it juicy and flavorful. But you've got to plan ahead. For a 16 pound frozen turkey, you've got to start thawing the FRIDAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING. The turkey will brine between Monday morning and Wednesday night. But look what you get for your advanced planning? 
is that some see them, and some don't. I'd never spotted one here on PP, so I kind of thought it might be something like the tooth fairy, or maybe the Great Pumpkin, or those snipes we always "hunt" at girl's camp, or at the very least one of those pictures that you had to squint and tilt your head to catch the message. But one of my kind readers and (dear friend from my New York days), captured the image and sent it to me. Ah-hah! Gotcha!
Welcome to Tuesdays with Dorie, the day in which our weekly online baking club creates a Dorie Greenspan sweet. I'd been waiting for this recipe because it appeals to my gobbling greediness. If you're a glutton for the flavors of pumpkin, apple, pecans, and cranberries mingled with the warm autumn spices of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, then this is the recipe for you. When the Thanksgiving smells of this cake come wafting through the house, you'll feel like singing "Over the River and Through the Woods." And you might even start tap dancing too. Just warning you.
You won't be able to stop yourself and it'll put you right in the holiday spirits. And that's even before you take your first heavenly bite. If you can wait, it's even better the next day.
Next Up: Let's talk Gravy.
Waxed paper and a rolling pin, I wouldn't make a pie without them. If you have a pie cutter, your job will be quicker, but you can use two butter knives instead. I really can't say why I took a picture of a fork and ice water. They're not exactly special equipment, and if you don't have access to a fork and some cold water, then making the perfect pie crust isn't your most pressing issue.
It's more expensive, but I like to buy the shortening in cubes (pictured above) in the baking section of the market. I only use shortening for pie crusts, and if I buy even the smallest can, I end up having to throw it out. The cubes are individually sealed and premeasured, so they're ideal for butter-bakers, like me.
You can use two knives in a slicing motion, if you're piecutter-less. It takes just a couple of minutes of constant cutting before the mixture resembles coarsemeal, with a few larger-pea size pieces. 
Stop there! You want bits of uneven fat throughout the mixture that will melt into your dry ingredients and create layers of flakes. 
She's my dear little friend. She's wearing dear little pink pajamas and looking at me with a dear little Gerber expression. I can't stop saying dear little whenever she is around, so shall we get back to my dear little pie?
Get out a generous sheet of waxed paper and a pen. We're going to trace a 12 inch circle onto our waxed paper as a size guide for rolling out the crust. 
(Just flip the waxed paper over after you make your circle, so that no ink comes in contact with your crust.) Put your crust in the middle of the circle and pat it out a little to make your rolling job a little easier. 
(If your pie crust is at all moist, lightly flour your waxed paper.) Pat your dough out from the center. 
There's very little rolling to do, if you pat your pie crust down first. 
But let's roll now. Start from the center and push lightly on the rolling pin. 
Move your pin 1/8th of a turn, and continue around the pie, pushing the crust to just outside your circle guide. If you like, you can trim your pie to a perfect circle with a pair of kitchen shears. I never do, but I always think it would be nice. Now, lightly flour the top of your pie crust 
and fold it in half with the waxed paper. 
Peel back 1/2 of the waxed paper 
and place the piecrust down into your piepan, centering the fold line with the middle of the pan. 
Peel of the rest of the waxed paper 
and unfold. 
IMPORTANT: Don't try to make the pie crust look pretty yet, I repeat do not try to make the pie crust look pretty yet. 
This is where most people make their mistake, and I'm speaking from experience because I did it for years. It's shaggy and uneven, I know, but we're going to fix it. Right now we're just going to build up a ridge. Fold up the extra pie crust over itself to create an even ridge around the top of the pie dish. 
If you have too much crust in one area, pull it off and add it where you need it. 
This still needs a little bit of work. 
When you have it as even as you like, then you can make it look nice. 
Force your knuckle into sections of dough, pinching it into place with your fingers on the other side. 
Go all the way around the pie. 
Now, take a look at the OUTSIDE of your pie dish. Oh, dear.
If there's anything hanging over the edge too far, fix it now so it doesn't break off during the baking process. Much better.
It's ready to fill if you're making pumpkin, apple or berry pie, or ready to pre bake, if you are making quiche, cream pies, or pecan. It's just waiting for you, so get cracking.
