We're glad to hear you're feeling inspired to bake a fancy pie, Martie! You're welcome to use buttermilk in place of the regular milk in the recipe; use full-fat buttermilk for best results. You might consider holding back on the vinegar slightly since buttermilk is acidic. (Use 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar instead of 2 teaspoons.)As for your question about the order of adding the fats, you're welcome to use whichever approach you prefer keeping in mind the size of your butter chunks. If you cut the butter in first, chop the butter into slightly larger pieces since you'll be working it a second time when the shortening is added. If you work in the shortening first, you can cut the butter a bit smaller. Regardless of the order, you're coating the flour with fat to prevent the gluten strands from sticking to each other quite as strongly. This results in a tender pie crust, which is what we're looking for here. Happy baking! Kye@KAF

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