This Thanksgiving in reading up for the big day – and in the execution – I found some real handy-dandy ideas and thought I’d share.

Freeze stock a whole new way

Does everyone make stock from the bones after the turkey is all eaten? If you don’t, you should. Besides the leftover turkey sandwiches, I always look forward to making homemade soup of the turkey stock. It’s healthy, delicious and cheap. My problem with stock though was always in how to store it. Our chest freezer is huge so that’s the natural choice, but what sort of container do you think is best. Peanut butter jars were usually the way to go, but when making a soup on yon frosty morning, I had the sticky problem of the neck being smaller than the jar stopping my frozen goodness from getting into the pot. Nevermore. Last week in a really old Rodale cookbook, I found the revolutionary idea of freezing stock in bread pans! Pop them out once frozen and store multiple bricks in large plastic bags of any sort. No need to defrost and no more jabbing bits out of jars with a big knife, narrowly missing my vulnerable fingers. They will be forever thankful.

Make fluffy – not flat – cookies

My girlfriend’s chocolate chip cookies just blew me out of the water last weekend. She had used the tiniest chocolate chips so that was different, but what made them really unique was that they were exceptionally NOT flat. Flat chocolate chip cookies or Nojos have been a problem of mine lately, so I immediately wanted to know her secret. Easy, she says, add flour. For one batch of her cookies – probably somewhere around 4 dozen – she increased the flour by 1/4 cup. She had made a double batch, so that was about 1/2 cup. I always thought that cookies recipes were something not to be messed with, but now I see differently and isn’t it a wonderful world?! Thanks love.

And pie with golden brown crust

Last but not least, the quintessential pumpkin pie. I make them from scratch every year because they are Mecandes’ favorite, using the Flaky Pastry crust and Pumpkin Pie recipes from The Joy of Cooking. They never go wrong, but in previous years I have been disappointed with how dark the crust turned out after baking. Being honest, they were very nearly burnt. But this year, as a fluke in the cooking schedule, my shells sat in the pans, fluted and ready to filled overnight. When they came out of the fridge the next day, I noticed a substantial difference in them. The fat – in this case, lard – had congealed again and the fluting was stiffer and so held itself better. The effect looked pretty, but I didn’t think it would make any other difference. Wrong. Those pies baked superbly. Golden brown crust to perfection. “Yum!” can’t even describe it. From now on, I’ll always make time to refrigerate my crusts for at least a few hours, if not overnight, to achieve this result.

Anywho I’ve been toying with the idea of trying again, especially since both the little ones will be in school in the fall three days a week. And I got a tip that’s a little bit of an inspiration this week. A friend of mine was doing a HUGE batch – eight loaves, two times over. She must have a huge freezer and a lot of energy, but what caught my attention was that after the dough’s first rising – as she was separating one very large pile of dough into individual loaves – she weighed each piece on a kitchen scale, lined with a small piece of wax paper.

I asked her why, and she says that it’s to ensure that every loaf bakes evenly. For her particular recipe that was all whole-wheat, she says that each loaf weighs two pounds. Eight loaves of equal weight helps her to be sure that nothing is wasted by being undercooked or burnt and helps manage such a large batch. Seems pure genius because anyone can do this with their own favorite bread recipe – as each might weigh slightly different. It’s also insurance for the times when little helpers are in the kitchen. Something I’ll always remember and hope is helpful for you.