Blog – Mary's Musings

Making Cinnamon Apple Cake

I seem to be on the lookout for Apple Cake recipes. I’m interested in recipes that use apples without having to roll out pie crust for apple pie or cut butter into tiny pieces like apple crisp topping. So far I’ve written about French Apple Cake (https://marykisner.com/making-french-apple-cake/) and German Apple Cake (https://marykisner.com/making-german-apple-cake/).

This recipe for Cinnamon Apple Cake looked easy but the recipe was not in my preferred format. The ingredients were not even listed in order of use so I ended up having to search the list of ingredients at every step to confirm amounts. When I was done mixing and put the pan in the oven…I realized I didn’t measure out the brown sugar correctly! No problem. The cake was delicious with less brown sugar so I corrected my recipe.

Here is my version of this recipe:

Here are the steps to make this delicious cake.

In a medium bowl, whisk 2 eggs and 1 cup of oil.

2. Measure out the cinnamon, white and brown sugars and vanilla extract. Add them to the bowl. (Original recipe called for 1 cup of brown sugar. I used 1/2 cup.)

3. Measure out the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and add to the bowl.

4. Chop 1 large apple (I had two small ones) and 1/2 cup of walnuts. Fold into the batter. This made a VERY stiff batter. Using a spatula, press the mixture into a round 9″ pan (sprayed with PAM).

5. After baking for 45 minutes, here is the cake! It obviously didn’t rise very much but it sure smelled up the house with cinnamon!

The directions said, wait 15 minutes to cut…but I will tell you…wait a little longer! The first piece sort of fell into crumbs when cut while warm:

When the cake was cool, it was much easier to cut!

This is when I knew I didn’t need that extra half-cup of brown sugar…it was sweet enough! I think this recipe for Cinnamon Apple Cake is a winner! Enjoy!

Born in the Middle of the Story-Repost

This is a repost of a story I wrote at the very beginning of my blogging days (2021). I’ve had requests from some family members who would like to see these photos again. Quite a journey for all of us!

One of the things I treasure from my parent’s generation was their foresight to save many written stories of their lives. Sometimes it was an envelope of letters from a loved one overseas; or stories they wrote for historical societies documenting life “back in the day” like my grandfather did.

Sometimes, they specifically wrote “autobiographies” with photographs, assembled in their later years. My mother had even saved a handwritten autobiography she wrote in high school (around 1925) that shared her life up to age 12 or so. (You can read about her life in another set of 3 posts: https://marykisner.com/ruth-lowry-bixby-biography-part-1/); https://marykisner.com/ruth-lowry-bixby-biography-part-2/); and https://marykisner.com/ruth-lowry-bixby-biography-part-3/).

As I get older, I feel like I’ve let the next generation down. Somehow, I was never able to document my life adventures as it happened with daily journals. I did discover I had saved about 12 years of Christmas letters I had written over the years. What a treasure! And this week, while sorting through photographs and computer files, I found my first attempt at my own autobiography. In 2013 I had written several letters to my grandchildren which summarized my early life. I needed the focus of who was going to read the letters and since my grandchildren were just learning to read, I thought about them as I wrote.

I started with an assortment of photographs, hoping to show how as the youngest, I was joining a “family” that already had had many experiences. For a long time that was confusing to me. My sister would say, “Don’t you remember when…?” and it turned out it was before I was born!

I’d like to share that first letter I wrote to my grandchildren.

________________________

April 17, 2013

Dear Aislinn, Annika, Ben and Anna,

My life story started when I was born in 1946 in New Jersey. Since I don’t remember those early years, thank goodness I have a few pictures of me when I was very small. I was born into a family that had been around for quite a few years already. My parents had been married for 11 years and already had two children. They had already lived in Minnesota and New Jersey and apparently had a cat!

Before I was a year old, we moved to State College, Pennsylvania. I don’t remember anything my family did before I was born. I had seen pictures of my sister and brother with grandparents and uncles and aunts that I had never met.

Here is a picture of my sister and brother with our Grandma Cora Bixby. She was my Father’s Mother. This Grandmother died before I was born.

All this is to remind you that your family (your parents, their parents, and their brothers and sisters) had adventures long before you were born. Have them tell you stories about some of those adventures! It took me a long time to realize that I had joined the family somewhere in the middle of the story. I have some pictures of me as a baby but I don’t remember much of anything before I was 3 years old. I think I remember the tricycle I got for my third birthday.

Here are some other pictures that show my sister feeding me and my brother playing with me on my new tricycle. Even today…both of us over 70 years old…my sister sometimes calls me her “baby sister.” That used to make me so mad because I’m all grown up now. She remembers me as a tiny baby and thought I was cute. So, I guess that’s OK.

Mark, Jean and baby Mary

Mary, about 1 year old

Mary, at 3 years old

Mark and Mary

Paul Bixby family around 1950

So…do you remember any early events in your life? Sometimes you can remember a feeling but sometimes you only remember seeing the picture. Don’t feel bad if you don’t remember things like your parents do. Ask them what they remember from being a baby. And then ask your Grandma or Grandpa to tell you a story from when your parents were a baby and see if your Mom or Dad remembers that story. Sometimes all they remember is seeing the picture and hearing the story! Your parents were born in the middle of a story too!

Here is a picture of Ted and Kathy playing with a laundry basket. Kathy was 1 year old and Ted was 2 ½. Ask them if they remember doing this, or if they just remember seeing the picture.

Never forget your life story started when you were born. You might not remember the first few years, but pictures can reassure you that you were part of the family from the beginning!

Love,

Grandma K.

_________________

So, don’t worry if you haven’t kept a daily journal. You can begin documenting your life story. Start with some pictures and create a story around them. Your children and grandchildren will treasure them forever.

How to Make Gravy Like My Mother

My mother was the queen of depression-era cooking. Her meals weren’t fancy but they were frugal. She was married in 1935 and raised two kids during lean times while my dad was in college and finances were very tight. By the time I was born in 1946 our family was preparing to leave dad’s teaching job in New Jersey and move to State College and Penn State.

The lean times were finally in the past but my mother never let go of her efficient recipes and could make a meal out of a few leftovers. To this day, my favorite dish was her casserole that had some meat chunks, leftover vegetables and gravy topped with biscuits.

The Paul Bixby family around 1950

Somehow, I never watched how she made the gravy and I spent many years of my married life trying to duplicate those casseroles. I usually ended up with vegetable soup but could never seem to figure out how to make the broth into gravy. I often gave up and opened a jar of pre-made gravy or used a dry packet to make a cup of gravy.

A few years ago, I finally looked up on the internet how to make gravy and I’ve enjoyed being able to produce a nice gravy with juice left from cooking a roast in the crock pot or roasting chicken in the oven. Last week, I made a delicious chicken vegetable soup and wanted to convert it to my mother’s familiar casserole. I’d like to share the simple recipe with you.

How to Make Gravy

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter (or coconut oil, vegetable oil, olive oil, margarine or bacon fat)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour (or 2 tablespoons cornstarch)

2 cups chicken, beef, turkey or vegetable broth (or pan drippings…strained to remove gristle or fat)

Instructions:

In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter (or other fat) over medium high heat.
Whisk in flour (or cornstarch) until well combined and no white specks remain. Cook 2 minutes.
Slowly pour in broth and whisk well.
Bring to a simmer and heat until thickened to desired consistency, about 2 minutes, whisking constantly.

Making Gravy Out of Soup Broth

I started with a big bowl of my homemade chicken vegetable soup.

I pulled out my strainer and dumped the soup in to strain out the vegetables.

The recipe above is based on 2 cups of broth. You can see I had 3 cups of soup broth. So, I just increased the measurements of the fat and flour to make sure it would thicken properly.

I like to use coconut oil and all-purpose flour to make this gravy.

I measured out 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and melted it in the pan.

Then I added about 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour and stirred them together until all the flour was absorbed by the coconut oil.

Then, I added the soup broth to the oil/flour mixture and whisked until it was all combined. On medium heat, I stirred until it came to a boil, turned the heat down and stirred until it thickened…about a minute or two.

Finally, I added the gravy back to the vegetable soup and had the base for a chicken vegetable casserole!

Now for the biscuits! Of course, I had to try Bisquick like my mother used. She reminded me back then that in her high school Home Economics class she had memorized the ingredients to make biscuits from scratch and had usually done so. By the time I was born, she was thrilled to use Bisquick…such a time saver!

Luckily, I could use coconut milk (or almond milk) to make the biscuits. Of course, with the arthritis in my right hand, I had Bert mix up the biscuits. I just formed them into biscuit shapes and put them on a cookie sheet.

My mother would have spooned the raw biscuits on top of the gravy and vegetables and baked the casserole in the oven. I broke up a biscuit and spooned the hot gravy and vegetables on top of the biscuit. Worked for me!

Save this recipe and make your own gravy anytime! Enjoy!

Blog Milestone

Hello all my Blog friends! Just wanted to take a minute to thank you for reading my blog these last 4 years! I have just reached 402 blog entries and have enjoyed sharing quite a variety of projects with all of you!

I have updated the PDF of all my entries on the Welcome page to include all 402 entries. There really is no handy way to search the list (because I didn’t set up an index at the beginning) so if you download the PDF to your computer you’ll have to scan down the list to see what would be interesting.

You can download it here:

Blog Entries 1_402 marykisner Download

I’ve tried to make the titles pretty clear. If you want to check one entry out, just click on the hotlink on the right of each entry and you should go directly to the post. (If it does not go to the post, let me know…it’s probably just a missing letter or dash!) The search bar on the Welcome page is a little cumbersome…I’m sorry about that…but if I touch on a topic I’ve written about before, I try to put the links to the older posts in the new one.

I’ve wondered if anyone really tries to make anything I write instructions for and occasionally I get feedback from readers. However, I have discovered I use my own posts if I want to make something…all the instructions are right there! Not all the recipes I try are delicious; not all the projects are lovely…but I’m reminded what worked and what didn’t. Feel free to save and share any instructions that are helpful to you. Thanks for reading!

Mary

Making a Playing Card Holder

Playing card games can be fun for young and old. We probably started our kids with Go Fish and progressed to Rummy. Part of learning the rules of the game was learning how to hold the cards in their hands. Of course, it got easier as they grew up…their hands got bigger! Now, for us older folks, various arthritis issues sometimes makes it difficult to hold a handful of cards. I was asked if I could try to make some card holders with greyhound fabric for an upcoming conference, but I started with some animal fabric scraps I had…I didn’t want to waste the expensive fabric! Here’s a picture of a finished card holder in the greyhound fabric (of course with a winning hand!):

I had never seen or used a card holder so I started with Pinterest. I found quite a few places that had them for sale but I explored the DIY sites that would show me how they were made.

Handmade card holders seemed to be based on recycling a CD. Luckily, guess what I had in my office closet! I haven’t used a CD since small jump drives became available. What a great resource to recycle!

Making a Pattern

I needed a pattern to cut out the fabric circles. It needed to be the size of the CD with an additional 1″ of fabric all around. I found a piece of heavy paper and traced around the CD. Then, I added 1″ all around by marking 1″ about every inch and connected the dots with a pencil. Good enough!

Cutting the Fabric and Batting

My instructions are using scraps of fabric appropriate for my grandkids. For each card holder, you will need two circles of fabric, two circles of batting, two CDs, two buttons (about 3/4″) and a sewing needle with sturdy thread (I used about 48″ of hand quilting thread, doubled in half and knotted. You don’t want to gather the fabric as you sew.)

Assembling the Card Holder

Place a circle of batting to the wrong side of the fabric circle.

2. Hand stitch with a long running stitch around the circle, about 1/4″ from the edge…DO NOT finish with a knot or cut the thread off.

3. Place the CD in the center of the circle on a hard surface. Press down on the CD with your left hand and with your right hand pull on the needle and thread to gather the edges around the CD all at once. A firm hard pull will gather most of the circle around the CD. With your fingers, help distribute the gathers and tie off the thread.

4. Repeat with the second circle, batting and CD.

5. Place the two finished circles together, gathered edges touching.

6. Sew a button through each side, sewing the two circles together snugly.

Your card holder should easily hold 5-10 cards. Great for young and old alike! Enjoy!

Making the Most of 4 Yards of Fabric

My latest sewing project involved making another adult bib for a friend. My pattern makes an especially LONG bib with a pocket at the bottom to collect crumbs while a person is sitting. Usually, I don’t try to make two of the same fabric, but this time I decided to see if I could squeeze two side-by-side on the fabric.

I bought two yards of fireworks fabric and two yards of plain red with tiny dots for the lining. After washing the fabric, I ironed it so I had a crease down the middle. Then I opened it up and folded the selvage edges to the middle, giving me two long folded edges. I ended up having enough fabric left over to make four bowl cozies and 8 refrigerator magnets. This was a fun day!

Here’s a sketch of how I laid out the pattern pieces:

I was pleased to be able to make two bibs that used up 1 1/2 yards of fabric and lining.

I wrote an overview about making adult bibs at https://marykisner.com/adult-bibs-are-not-just-for-nursing-homes/

It appears I have not written a step-by-step set of instructions to make this long adult bib yet. If you’d like me to do that, please send me an email (maryjkisner@gmail.com) and I’ll put that together next.

With the 1/2 yard (18 inches) of fabric I had left after cutting out the bibs, I decided to cut out four 10 x 10″ squares out of both fabrics to make bowl cozies. You can read about making these bowl cozies at https://marykisner.com/making-three-sizes-of-hot-pad-cozies/

Finally, with the few inches of fabric I had left, I pulled out my supplies to make refrigerator magnets. You can read more about making these covered button magnets at https://marykisner.com/more-than-just-a-refrigerator-magnet/

I had not made these in quite a while, so I was glad I had saved all the assorted tools and supplies. The fireworks fabric made nice magnets.

I was so pleased to be able to share all these additional goodies with my friend…2 bibs, 4 bowl cozies and 8 magnets! Such fun!

Discovering Air Plants

It was time! Time to repot some plants, rearrange some other plants and put away the grow lights. It’s also too soon to even think about outside planting. First, I had to dismantle the grow lights that I used for the microgreens. They will be stored until I need them again.

Bert started by repotting the aloe vera. It was in a tiny 4″ pot and had two baby plants trying to hang on in the crowded space. That gave the mother plant room to grow and the babies their own pot.

The spider plant is determined to send out long shoots that will make new plants. Bert keeps cutting them off (he really doesn’t like the spider plant…too unorganized…it’s the engineer in him!) We did let one baby grow and it’s now in its own pot. I’m sure the main plant feels stymied but we’ll keep it a while longer.

I saw an article in a magazine about “air plants” and wondered if they would give us the feel of the small spider plant but grow differently. The article confirmed that they grow slowly and have interesting blooms. Air plants, otherwise known as Tillandsia, are native plants to the southern United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and have the ability to thrive in the warm temperatures, despite neglect. (That last statement is very important!)

With over 650 types of Tillandsia, these unique-looking plants survive without soil or water. Air plants use their specialized leaves to obtain from the air the water and nutrients they need to survive. The roots of the air plant are simply used for attaching themselves to rocks, trees, shrubs and the ground. They are easy to maintain but need a humid environment. So, I can either soak them in water once a week and/or mist them daily. (Not sure that can be called neglect…)

Bert thought they sounded interesting so he went on Amazon and ordered three plants. We saw pictures of pink ones and blue ones and learned that the color is applied and slowly fades away. They really didn’t look REAL.

This is what we ordered:

He also ordered a spray bottle of fertilizer and tiny hanging holders for the plants.

I followed the instructions that came with the plants that said to soak the plants first in room temperature for 20 minutes.

I laid them out on a paper towel while I got the holders ready.

I can see I might need to rearrange the plants on the shelves at some point, but at least now I can mist the air plants. We’ll see if I can remember to mist them every day!

Carrots for 9 Months

Those of you that follow this blog may remember last fall when we had harvested most of the produce in the garden. We had a few tomatoes left to pick (in the last section) and the carrots were still in the ground (middle section). We had begun trimming the lavender in the first section.

By September, the only plants left were the carrots. We planned to leave them in the ground as long as possible.

In late October, we dug up all the carrots. They were beautiful!

The extra little carrots with tops were rinsed off and given to a friend’s pet rabbits.

When the carrots were dry, we put them into gallon zip bags without closing them and put them in a large insulated bag. This sat in the garage for months and when we wanted carrots, I could just grab a few for dinner or salads.

During the cold freeze a few weeks ago, the garage got below freezing for several days so I set the bag of carrots in the kitchen. When it warmed up, I moved the bag back to the garage…sort of a traveling “root cellar.”

Yesterday, we wanted cooked carrots for dinner. I grabbed a bag of carrots out of the insulated bag. Too funny…they were starting to grow!!

So, I’ll begin by trimming up all the carrots. They should keep another month or so in the refrigerator. They’ll be ready for salads and dinners.

After 4 months in the garage, they are still tasty, crunchy and very orange!

It’s very nice to be reminded how much we enjoy the garden produce all year long! Our canned 4-bean salad, pizza sauce and pickle relish are frequent treats all winter!

Rescuing Batting Scraps

Sometimes my inspiration for new projects is triggered when I clean up from a previous one! When I finished making multiple sizes of the hot pad cozies in my last post, I had a pile of batting scraps left over. Usually, I stuff them into a clear tote I have on the shelf. These scraps are handy when I need just a small piece of batting for a small project. However, I was still thinking about the hot pad cozies and I knew I’d need 10″ to 12″ squares of batting to make more.

Luckily, that same day I was brainstorming with Toni…my friend with Nittany Greyhounds…about items that could be sold at the next conference. Why not hot pad cozies with greyhound fabric! This special-order fabric is adorable, with prints of greyhounds…but it is VERY expensive. I wondered if I had any scraps left from various projects to try my experiment. I found a pile in my stash I could play with!

Making the Batting Squares

I was determined to try these hot pad cozies without buying anything new. That meant I needed to start with my pile of batting scraps. I started by laying out the pieces and pulling together those that could be stitched together to make 10″ squares.

All my batting pieces are natural cotton and they are all similar weight. They seem to be more “natural” on one side and whiter on the other.

First, I trim the edges that I’ll sew together so they’ll lay flat.

Next, using a zigzag seam, I sew the two sides together. If that doesn’t make 10″ I’ll add another strip to the width. If the total square doesn’t make the 10″ I’ll add another strip along the bottom.

When I’ve pieced a large enough square, I put the pattern on and cut out the 10″ square.

Here are two finished blocks of batting:

Making the Hot Pad Cozies

You can read the details about how to make these cozies at my previous post:

https://marykisner.com/making-three-sizes-of-hot-pad-cozies/

With enough batting squares made, I started cutting 10″ squares of greyhound fabric. I found scraps of coordinating fabric to make the reverse sides.

I started with one of each print, just to see which print worked best. The first one was a very large print of a greyhound. I barely had enough fabric to make just one square. I think the large print doesn’t work…too many extraneous body parts on the edges!

The second cozy I made used a border repeat pattern:

The pattern was wider than the print so it didn’t make good use of the fabric. I did not want to cut off too many heads.

The third cozy I made used an all-over pattern of small greyhounds. I had enough fabric to use the same fabric for the lining; otherwise I’ll use white.

I think if we choose the greyhound fabric wisely, with a small overall print, we could make the best use of the expensive fabric.

For all the sewers out there…save your batting scraps! You never know when you’ll need them! Enjoy!

Making Three Sizes of Hot Pad Cozies

This week I’ve been working on a request from a friend…based on the hot pad cozies I had given her several years ago. She needed a wedding gift for her soon-to-be-married granddaughter. I wrote about these hot pads right at the beginning of my blogging adventure (https://marykisner.com/make-a-bowl-cozy-for-soup-or-ice-cream/)

For this project, I needed to make three sizes of cozies. I’ll start with a picture of my finished products:

These shaped potholders can be used in the microwave (not the oven) and are great when I want to reheat a bowl of soup or hold a serving bowl of vegetables so it can be passed around the table. The tallest one holds a cold drink with ice or a pint of ice cream!

What a thoughtful gift for a young person setting up a new kitchen!

The difference between the three sizes of cozies involves the size of the squares you start with and size of the darts that make the bowl shapes.

Supplies

To make these shaped hot pads, here are a few things you’ll need to have:

A ruler, fine point marker and basic sewing supplies.

2. Fabric, batting and thread must be all cotton. Check labels for any sign of polyester, nylon or synthetic components…they will melt in the microwave. I look for all cotton quilting fabric, all cotton batting (sometimes labeled as “natural”) and all cotton thread. I’ve ordered thread online like this:

Of course, the cone-shaped spools have to sit behind my sewing machine but they are heavy enough to stay put.

All three sizes of hot pad cozies are made the same way. The LARGE hot pad, made for a serving bowl, begins with two 12″ squares of fabric and two 12″ squares of batting. The MEDIUM and TALL sizes begin with two 10″ squares of fabric and batting.

Instructions for Making the Hot Pad Cozies

Cut two squares of fabric in coordinating colors (the cozies are reversible):

2. Place a square of batting on the wrong side of each fabric square:

3. Working on the batting side, use a ruler to draw a stitching line from corner to corner. Stitch on the lines.

4. Next, measure the midpoint of each side and draw lines through the center. These are your FOLD lines.

MEDIUM Size shown below (10″ square)

LARGE Size (12″ square) shown below:

TALL Size (10″ square) shown below:

The size of the darts depends on the size hot pad you are making. Here’s a table to determine those measurements. Draw the stitching lines right on the batting.

The rest of these illustrations are for the TALL hot pad cozy.

5. Fold the square in half along the FOLD line. Stitch the corner darts (see the picture above):

6. Open the square and fold the other way. Stitch on those corner dart lines:

Trim the darts to 1/4″ to decrease bulk.

7. When you open the squares, they will sit like a bowl.

8. Repeat with the other 10″ square. This will make the lining piece.

9. Nest the two finished “bowls” right sides together. Pin the two halves together lining up the darts.

10. Sew around the edges with a 1/4″ seam, turning your needle at the corners and the darts. Leave about 3″ open for turning right side out. Trim the corners.