... That crazy flurry of activity that is preparations for a large group of people converging on your house, expecting food. Right now, the pumpkin and chess pies are in the oven and the kitchen is clean. It's been a long time since I've made pies and really, they're not difficult at all, particularly if you cheat like I did and use Pillsbury's really cool roll-out pie crust. I do know this is cheating and I'm not going to apologize for it for two reasons:
1) I have very little experience making pie crust on account of my mother always makes the pies for our family gatherings and hers are fantastic, so why mess with a good thing?
2) Even if I wanted to, I don't have the proper tools for making pie crust right now. I'm almost positive I sold or gave away all my baking supplies when I left Boston.

The only issue here is that, at heart, I am a purist and a bit of a pie-crust snob, and I usually feel that the crust makes the pie. But right now, I can only do what I can do, so we'll see. (And if Pillsbury comes through, I may never learn to make pie crust....)

Here's a shot of the carnage in the kitchen, after the pies went into the oven:

Shot of the pies, mid-way through:

For context: I'd put the foil on the crust before putting the pies in the oven and opened the door to check on them and see if I could take the foil off. I ended up leaving it on throughout the entire baking process because the crust was browning just fine. Here's how the pies turned out:

Pumpkin

Chess. Even with the foil on the edges for the entire baking time, the chess pie still turned out a bit too brown. Guess dad's oven cooks a bit hot, eh?

This afternoon, I'll drag the turkey out of the fridge and assess the situation. The turkey's been defrosting since Sunday so it should be ready to go. There is turkey stock and stuffing to make, plus the dog desperately needs a bath and the house needs to be cleaned. Laundry is already in the wash. So it looks like we're on our way!