Thanksgiving is in two days, and I’m ready for it. (I think.)

About ten days ago, I made the menu, pulling from Thanksgivings of years past. We nearly completed the shopping last weekend, and I drafted my menu prep timeline. The turkeys are thawing in the fridge right now, and the pie crusts have been made. Today, if I make the cornbread and biscuits for the dressing, and if I make stock for the gravy, I’ll be on right on schedule.

(My type A personality really shines at Thanksgiving.)

We’ll be having smoked turkey – two of them – prepared by my husband on his Big Green Egg. I’ll make my husband’s grandmother’s cornbread dressing and sweet potato casserole. I’m ready for a change from the Waldorf salad, but I’m keeping it on the menu this year. My mother will bring her green jello salad and a squash soufflé. She’s contemplating bringing macaroni and cheese, her staple potluck dish.  My mother-in-law will bring a cherry cream cheese pie and a congealed cranberry salad. There will be plenty of pies for dessert: the cherry cream cheese pie, my two pumpkin pies, and pecan pie. I’m planning on making the rolls from scratch this year: cloverleaf rolls from an America’s Test Kitchen recipe.

These individual apple crisps are not on the menu, but I wanted you to have the recipe, so I’ll share with you in a bit.

I spent an hour with my father at the nursing home last night. I arrived just before his dinner was served, and I knew he would need help with his meal when it arrived. He can’t use a knife anymore, and he doesn’t seem to recall how best to use a fork. He scoops his food with the fork, when he should be stabbing it. He rarely uses the spoon, even when a spoon would be best. It’s a messy ordeal, but I can make it easier for him if I’m there to cut up his food into bite-sized pieces.

Using his fork and a butter knife, I sawed through the Hawaiian chicken – tough, overcooked chicken breast adorned with a pineapple ring and maraschino cherry – while he waited in silence. He doesn’t make conversation any more. He barely speaks to me. In the last three or four weeks, he’s stopped asking about his grandchildren or about my husband. (He used to always ask about Sam.) He used to ask me about any trips I might be taking or about our favorite college football team, the Gators, or about my mother. Lately, he only asks me to bring him water. And one evening last week, he asked me for help.

I received a complimentary review copy of the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book last month. I knew the book was headed my way, and when I found it delivered to my doorstep, I could hardly wait to start baking from it. I’ve worked with it for a few weeks now, and I can already tell that the book is going to be my go-to book for baking recipes.

I’ve been a fan of the America’s Test Kitchen’s publications for several years. I subscribe to both Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country. I routinely look through The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook or The New Best Recipe for inspiration. And, now that the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book is in my hands, I’m completely set. The baker in me is happy – very, very happy.

The recipes in this book – and in all of the America’s Test Kitchen publications – have been tested and retested until each recipe is a guaranteed success. The headnotes, usually just a paragraph introducing a recipe, are far lengthier than those found in most other cookbooks. Often several paragraphs long, the headnotes are filled with explanations on why the recipe works, some tips and tricks, and a bit of the chemistry behind the process.