I’m sad that I forgot to take photos, but here’s what I baked for Thanksgiving:

• I made really terrible sourdough rolls. We ate them, and they didn’t taste terrible, but they really were a colossal failure. The primary issue was that I didn’t leave myself enough time, combined with my inexperience and ignorance about turning my usual Tartine sourdough recipe into rolls. The result was that the rolls looked OK, but inside were horribly dense and heavy. I mean, they had the density of bowling balls. I’d like to give this another go and see if I can make this work. This was definitely an example of my being unjustifiably cocky about what I can do with sourdough. I’m really still just a noob, and was robustly reminded of that with these rolls.

• I made my classic apple pie, but this time I pre-cooked the apples on the stovetop. I think this helped with my usual problem of ending up with a gap between the apples and the top crust, but I changed another variable that also helped: I made a lattice crust rather than a solid crust. So, not enough data, but at least I didn’t have the gap.

• I made the Joanne Chang Rich Chocolate Cream Pie, and it was great. Following the instruction to chill before blind baking the crust seemed to really forestall any “slumping”. I did fill the thing up with foil and pie beads, and will continue to, but the dough seemed quite sturdy this time.

Happy Thanksgiving!