A Night of Baking Pumpkin Goodness

By special request, I made a pumpkin pie for my niece, Ashley:

There's the pumpkin wonderful in the oven -

(she loved it)

Once the pumpkin pie was done,

I started on the pumpkin ginger caramel

pecan cheesecake.

This is where Stella sits to oversee

all kitchen activities.

Usually, in a puddle of her own drool.

This is her classic look-away when I catch

her zeroing in on me, drooling

"What, me, expecting something from your bake-athon? Never!"

Cheesecake in the stand mixer.

Pecan and gingersnap crust.

Stella's focusing on the baking tools for good reason...

The clean up crew:

Just a quick once-over before the dishwasher.

The cheesecake before it goes into the oven.

And, after it's baked. Cracks and all.

And some bonus caramel sauce on top:

Yum!

Grandma's Apple Pie

Early this morning, I made Grandma's Apple Pie for a friend's birthday.

It looks wonderful! I'm sure the birthday girl will love it.

Grandma preferred a crumb-top, but I did not have brown sugar,

so I went with a lattice-topped pie.