Hi Reddit! I am a James Bryant Conant Award recipient in Teaching Chemistry and a nationally recognized leader in STEM education. I am certified to teach chemistry, biology, physics, general science, mathematics, college level forensics and general chemistry, but have a passion for food chemistry. I recently presented at the national conference of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on the Chemistry of Cooking: A look at Solution Chemistry. I am usually in Syracuse, New York—I have a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry and chemical education from Syracuse University. Right now, I am in Washington, D.C. at the Department of Energy’s Office of Science on a year-long Albert Einstein Fellowship. I love food chemistry and cooking, so I’m excited to be here on the week of Thanksgiving. Ask me anything about kitchen and cooking chemistry tricks for Thanksgiving – especially for desserts, my favorite. Some stuff I love talking about: how to temper an egg for home-made chocolate crème pie, how to prevent your gravy from being too oily or too clumpy, when to use baking soda versus when to baking powder (it expires!), what can you use to substitute for ingredients you realize you’re missing on Thanksgiving morning, how to speed up that turkey defrosting, how to tweak the recipe for a boxed cake mix to make a much better homemade cake just by using some kitchen hacks, the timing of making mashed potatoes, and more. But of course, I’m here for your questions, so ask away. I’ll be back at Noon Tuesday ET (9 am PT, 5 pm UTC) to answer your questions! EDIT: I worked on many questions tonight but there are so many more coming in as I type. I will continue answering questions tomorrow and hopefully you will get responses from me or other redditors.