Around the Kisner Homestead

Random Updates

This post covers the last two weeks of craziness in my life. Writing it down has helped me let go of all the stress. Enjoy!

Garden Update

The garden is winding down. As we finish harvesting tomatoes, pumpkins and carrots, Bert will clean up the plants. I think the last thing before winter is to cut off the dried stalks of the echinacea and lavender.

Mary’s Health Update

I’m pretty recovered from my lumpectomy and radiation. Apparently, the cancer was sensitive to estrogen so I’m on an estrogen-blocking pill for the next five years! I recently had a bone scan and of course, I’m at high risk for fractures, so now I’ll start Prolia shots every six months and take extra calcium. Geez! It never ends.

And then there’s my blood sugar! The Dr. increased my meds and I’m back to testing one or more times a day. Joy. Combined with low-carb meals, I’m hoping things get back to normal. So, I’ll not mention my health issues again, but just know that the low-carb recipes I post will be part of my learning process.

Bake Sale Update

I recently wrote about the yard sale/bake sale by the Ladies Auxiliary to the Boalsburg Fire Company. You can read about it here: https://marykisner.com/trying-to-increase-bake-sale-participation/

My goal was to encourage our members to donate baked goods to the sale. We are a very small group and we’re all getting older. Many in our group don’t bake anymore. By providing an assortment of cake mixes and a recipe to make cookies using the mixes, along with disposable foil pans for breads, etc. our group came through with a nice collection of baked goods at the sale. I was so proud of our members! We’ll be writing a nice check to the Fire Company with our profit!

Oven Update

I was really organized the week of the sale…I was baking 2+ box mixes of scones every day for several days. I was having trouble getting the scones to bake thoroughly…the oven was just unreliable! And then…it wouldn’t heat right at all! On Tuesday of the week of the Bake Sale, I stopped baking and gave up! What a disappointment! Bert immediately ordered a new stove, but of course it would not come for over a week…after the bake sale! Thank goodness the other members of the Auxiliary came through with more items to sell. Of course, I now have a shelf of mixes available for the next sale in the spring…or even Christmas! The only problem is that I won’t be able to eat them! Way too many carbs. Oh well!

My new oven is beautiful! Even the inside is shiny! It’s been 23 years since I saw such a shiny oven! So, I’m back in baking business…but now I’ll have to change what I bake!

Ted’s Visit

During the week when I had no oven, Ted came to visit! So wonderful to see him after a year of emails, texts and phone calls. Luckily, he wasn’t craving home baked goodies…no oven, no baking!

He managed to connect with Ben, our grandson, who started at Penn State this fall. They hiked up to a nearby fire tower and then stopped to visit with us on the way back. Hugs all around!

Recipes to Come

(Remember, all the recipes I’ve written over the last 4 years can be found in the PDF on the Welcome page. When you find one you like, you can click on the hot link and go directly to the article.)

I’m already researching how I can eat low-carb and be satisfied with little to no bread or desserts. If you’re not interested in the recipes, go back to the PDF list of articles. I’m aware not everyone will care about low-carb recipes, so I’ll make sure I share other projects I’m working on that have nothing to do with food!

Bracelet Catalog

I seem to be getting deeper into making specialty and custom bracelets. I don’t need a huge inventory of bracelets until next summer so I’m focused on researching, designing and making bracelets that might help specific issues. When I make a bracelet for a specific request, I add it to my catalog…in case someone else could benefit. The catalog is a work in progress and not ready for distribution, but I will post the cover and the Table of Contents here. If you look through the list and don’t see a specific issue that you are interested in, please let me know. That might be the exact thing I should add to the catalog!

I’ve added this disclaimer to my business cards and to each bracelet description:

Each of the beads in your bracelet have meaning and together support each other for your well-being. You can wear the bracelet or carry it in your pocket. Each time you wear it or handle it remember its intention. Reminder: This bracelet is not medical device. Its purpose is to help you focus and send positive energy to your mind and body. Mary Kisner

Here’s an example of a custom bracelet I just finished:

*The person requesting this bracelet wanted the Good Luck bracelet focused on finding romance (not winning at the Casino). I started with my GOOD LUCK bracelet, with White Agate, Malachite and Green Aventurine. I added Rose Quartz to the bracelet to give the intention a nudge in that direction.

Looking Ahead

So that’s what’s been happening over the last two weeks. I’m exhausted just writing about it all! I’m looking forward to having all my medical issues settle down. I hope I can find good recipes for low-carb cooking/eating. Finally, my bracelet research is giving new meaning to my life. I’m not sure which bracelets I’ll be taking to the festival next July, but I’ll have fun figuring it out! Enjoy!

I would love to hear from you if you have comments, suggestions or questions. (Remember, I had to disable the comments feature in this blog because of all the spam “comments” that I’m sure are not from actual people.)

Contact me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Making Oyster Crackers

Yesterday, I used the last of our tomatoes to cook with onions to make a big batch of tomato soup base. You can read about the process at https://marykisner.com/making-cream-of-tomato-soup-from-scratch/

It really is a thick tomato sauce flavored with onion. From that, we each season the soup to our liking. I add salt, pepper and some coconut milk. Bert adds salt, more pepper and regular milk. When we have soup, we often comment about the big crackers we remember having with soup…oyster crackers. I have not looked for them lately in the store, but I have seen the “common crackers” sold through Vermont Country Store. I think they are pretty big.

Recently, I found a recipe in Bert’s muzzleloading magazine, “MuzzleBlasts” to make oyster crackers. I gave it a try and ended up with some really nice crackers for soup.

The ingredients are pretty simple:

Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, water, melted butter.

Warm water

Melted butter

Mix all ingredients together to make a soft dough.

Scoop out spoonfuls, roll into small balls of dough and put them on a cookie sheet. They rise a little but the next time I might make them a little bigger.

Bake in preheated oven 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the crackers in the oven until just warm. They make crunchy little globs that work great in soup! Enjoy!

If you have questions or comments, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Garden Update September 17, 2025

This year the garden seems to be winding down earlier…probably because of the lack of rain! Bert waters the plants that are left every day, but a good dose from Mother Nature would sure help! I just wanted to show you how the garden looks in mid-September.

On the patio, the onion planters were finally emptied. Bert took the onions that were left and spread them out on the picnic table to dry. I’ll have enough to cook with for a month or two!

The radishes and lettuce just gave up and those planters are now empty, ready for spring!

The Raindrop tomatoes, amazingly, continue to ripen, even though the plants look pretty sad.

I haven’t talked much about the asparagus. We planted the roots in the spring and just left them alone. They’ve been growing fine, so hopefully next spring we can enjoy a meal or two from them.

The pumpkins are turning orange and I’m surprised how many there are in the patch. Of course, we won’t know until we actually pull them out of the patch if roaming critters have taken bites out of them.

Moving up to the garden on the hill…the lavender continues to entice the bees but I didn’t try to cut any to dry. They didn’t make nice flowers.

The tomatoes are ripening slowly. We pick them as they look ready. I still have trays of tomatoes on the dining room table, so we’re eating at least one a day!

The carrots have struggled all summer. Many were just too small or deformed. Bert sorted out the good ones in the first batch and shared the rejects with a friend’s rabbits! They loved them!

Here’s the first batch. We’ll dig up more as we need them!

The zucchini is finally DONE! I think I’ve tried enough recipes so I can say we missed only one zucchini that got too big. The rest were baked into cookies, casseroles and bread OR they were shredded and are now in the freezer! Success! These beds are ready for next spring!

And finally, the Echinacea looks pretty ugly. Bert will cut it off at ground level after the first frost and the patch will be ready for next spring!

One last indication that fall is here…the Japanese maple trees in the front yard now have their orange seed pods all over! I call them my pumpkin trees for a month or two…just in time for Halloween! Enjoy! Remember, if you have comments or questions, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Trying to Increase Bake Sale Participation

Very soon, the Ladies Auxiliary to the Boalsburg Fire Company will hold their fall “flea market/bake sale” at the fire hall. It will be held next weekend, September 19 and 20, 2025.

In the past, I have posted pictures about the flea market-style sale, with almost 30 tables rented by local folks to sell their own stuff. It’s also a major fund raiser for the Auxiliary, with most of the proceeds going to the needs of the fire company. You can see more pictures of one of the last sales we had at: https://marykisner.com/spring-flea-market-will-be-held-april-26-&-27/

In the past year or so, we’ve tried to better organize the bake sale. Honestly, we are not experts at baking, packaging or labeling food products…but we’re getting there. We are a small group of mostly older retired ladies and many of us have stopped doing a lot of baking in the first place. Some of us have moved to apartments or assisted living and don’t have a lot of pots and pans around anymore.

For now, we manage to sell bowls of chicken corn soup, hot dogs and sloppy joe…mostly to the 30+ folks that are taking care of their flea market tables. The baked goods are a draw to go with the lunch fare. However, our offerings have been very limited. This fall, I wanted to try to entice my fellow auxiliary members to expand our offerings at the bake sale table.

My contributions seem to be the chicken corn soup and scones. The soup was easy, but I tackled the scones last year without knowing much about making them. I simplified the process by buying boxed mixes for scones from King Arthur Flour Company…online. You can read about the learning curve I went through to make a ton of scones at https://marykisner.com/making-scones/. At that time, I didn’t realize my oven was not very accurate with preheating so the whole process was quite an accomplishment. I also finally discovered silicone scone baking pans and what a difference they made! I can cool the scones right in the pan and pop them out after they cool and firm up.

Even with the steep learning curve, the scones were a big HIT! That was great, but this fall we needed other items to make it an interesting bake sale. I wanted to encourage my auxiliary friends to each make something to contribute to the sale. I started at the grocery store. I stocked up on a few cake mixes that could be made into cookies.

I found a recipe online to make cookies from a cake mix:

I found some muffin mixes that could be packaged with 2 muffins in a ziplock bag for sale.

I picked up a few disposable cake and bread pans.

I hauled all this stuff to our meeting yesterday and offered the mixes, pans and recipe to the group. I think it worked! At least everybody took at least one thing to try and the pans were helpful for those who no longer had baking pans around. I’m encouraged that we may have more items to sell next weekend! I hope I’ll be able to report that we had a nice variety of baked goods to offer next weekend!

If you have comments or questions, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Freezing Zucchini Shreds

One last blast about zucchini! Last week I had a full tray of zucchini and I was done experimenting with recipes. Time to pull out the food processor to shred and freeze the last big batch. My little hand-held shredder was fine for one or two zucchinis to make one recipe. Now I had a pile and the food processor could handle it quickly…it probably took longer to clean up the machine when I was done than it took to shred all the zucchinis!

I had more to choose from, but the two biggest zucchinis ended up being composted…the seeds were too big!

I first cut all the zucchini into smaller pieces.

The chunks had to fit into the hole at the top:

The food processor has a nice shredding blade.

It took only a few minutes to shred all the zucchini!

All done!

I scooped 2 cups of the shreds into each quart bag and flattened them out so they would stack in the freezer.

I now have 5 bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer ready for all those recipes I tried over the last month! Yay!

If you have comments or questions, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Making Mary’s Zucchini Bread

I just realized I had not shared my Zucchini Bread recipe yet! We’ve had enough zucchini so I’ve been able to experiment with cookies and a casserole along with how I dehydrate the zucchini shreds. You can find those articles at the following links:

https://marykisner.com/marys-zucchini-chocolate-chip-cookies/; https://marykisner.com/making-a-zucchini-cornbread-casserole/; and https://marykisner.com/dehydrating-zucchini-shreds/.

Now that the zucchini plants are not producing so much, it was time to use up all the zucchini sitting around my kitchen. I put several of the small, misshapen ones in the compost bin. I saved two smaller ones and shredded the rest.

I ended up with about 5 cups of shredded zucchini. I decided to make two batches of zucchini bread…which would use up 4 cups…and froze the last cup.

Making a double batch of zucchini bread made sense and it was a lot easier if I measured everything out in pairs. I wouldn’t start mixing until I had everything ready.

Here is the recipe!

First, I measured out the Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt.

Then, I shredded and measured out the zucchini.

I chopped the walnuts:

Here are all the prepped ingredients:

Then, I was ready to follow the instructions.

In a large mixing bowl whisk the eggs, oil, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg (I did not use) and vanilla. Whisk well to break up the eggs and get everything well incorporated.
Blend in the baking powder, soda and salt, so they are mixed in thoroughly, then stir in the flour.

3. When the flour is almost all incorporated, fold in the zucchini and nuts. Stop mixing as soon as there is no dry flour left and the zucchini and nuts are evenly dispersed. Do not over-mix this batter.

4. I poured the batter into 3 pans, instead of 2. I’m always concerned my oven isn’t the right temperature, so I thought these loaves could be a little smaller and get cooked through.

I let them cool in the pan about half an hour (mostly because I forgot about them!) and turned them out to continue cooling.

Result…I had three loaves of zucchini bread…delicious!

If you have questions or comments, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Making ANZAC Biscuits

What in the world is an ANZAC biscuit? These cookies (or “biscuits” as they are called in the UK and Australia/New Zealand) are considered a traditional cookie to honor ANZAC day in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga.

“Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders ‘who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations’ and ‘the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.’ Observed on 25 April each year, Anzac Day was originally devised to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the Gallipoli campaign, their first engagement in the First World War (1914-1918).” (See more at https://anzacspirit.com.au/blog/the-traditions-of-anzac-day/)

Several sources online suggested wives and mothers would mail these cookies to their soldiers in ANZAC, because without eggs and being quite sturdy, they traveled and kept well. Other sources said, “contrary to legend, Anzac biscuits weren’t sent to our troops serving overseas in WWI. However, they were commonly sold at church fetes and galas to raise funds for the war effort. They didn’t get their name until peacetime, with the first Anzac recipe appearing in about 1919.”

You can see, the history of the Anzac biscuits has been around for over 100 years! Whether they were popular because they traveled well, or they made a good baked item to raise funds, I might have to bake some to sell at our Boalsburg Fire Company Auxiliary Yard Sale in a few weeks (September 19-20, 2025). If I include the recipe and a little history, they might generate some interest and sales!

Because they were popular in Australia, they are called biscuits…like cookies are called in the UK. However, they are basically a simple Oatmeal Coconut Cookie. They are sturdy, travel well and taste good!

Here’s the recipe I followed. I added vanilla and cinnamon to my recipe just because!!

The ingredient list is pretty simple. After making 2-3 batches and reading several variations of the recipe at various sources, I think you could add other ingredients of your choosing…walnuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Making the ANZAC Biscuits

Assemble the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

2. Melt one stick of butter and add 2 Tbsp of honey and mix well. (This is when I added the vanilla.)

3. Put the baking soda in a small cup and add 2 Tbsp boiling water. This was a real pain in the neck…next time I’ll add the baking soda and water to the melted butter and just mix it up.

4. Combine the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients to make a moist batter. Scoop about a tablespoon or two into your hand and form a ball. Place on cookie sheet and flatten gently with your fingers. They will spread and flatten as they cook.

5. Bake at 325 degrees for 12-14 minutes (to make a firm chewy cookie) or about 15-18 minutes to make them a little crunchy. Rotate trays as needed halfway.

This batch made 14-16 cookies…each 3-4 inches across! They can be made smaller and the recipe can be doubled. Might be the perfect cookie to sell at our bake sale! Enjoy!

If you have questions or comments, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com. Thanks.

Garden Update August 15, 2025

What a difference two weeks makes in our garden! Two weeks without any measurable rain, hot temperatures and produce ripening every day keeps us busy! Bert waters everything every day, but it’s hard to keep all the plants happy without a good soaking rain. When it’s dry like this, plants must think fall is coming and everything ripens faster. Of course, that means my focus is on the produce that needs to be processed.

We’ve cooked and canned the first round of tomatoes…about 42 tomatoes made 13 pints of cooked tomatoes:

The zucchini plants are still producing so I’m trying to catch them when they are still small (obviously I missed one!). I’ve made a batch or two of my zucchini chocolate chip cookies (see the recipe at https://marykisner.com/marys-zucchini-chocolate-chip-cookies/) and I’ve found a good zucchini bread recipe. I’ll post about that soon.

Now, for a tour of the garden. The onions are definitely ready to harvest. So far, we’re digging them up as we use them. They’ll probably keep better for a few weeks right there in the dirt!

The next batch of lettuce is ready to eat and the radishes are doing fine!

The “Raindrop” tomatoes have done very well, but the plants are not looking very healthy. We’re not sure if they are just stressed from the hot, dry weather or if they have a fungus. Either way, the tomatoes are still ripening just fine!

The pumpkins are doing well…EXCEPT they were being eaten by something!

Check out this pumpkin…almost half-munched away!

The one pumpkin Bert put up on a stand seemed to be safe!

Bert set up a trap with a small pumpkin as bait and within a day he caught a HUGE groundhog! The groundhog must have thought we planted those pumpkins just for his own salad bar! After that groundhog was dispatched, Bert set the trap again. So far, no other groundhogs have been caught!

Up in the garden, the lavender still looks pretty stressed.

The tomatoes are doing well. I can see I’ll have my work cut out for me when they all ripen!

The carrots are quietly doing their thing. We’re always surprised when we finally dig them up in the fall!

The zucchini keeps producing…we’ll see how long that will continue!

Finally, the echinacea has given up and gone to seed. Oh well, hopefully next year they’ll last a little longer!

That’s what’s happening around here. While Bert is watering and keeping up with the garden outside, I seem to be doing a lot of dishes! That’s OK. Harvest season doesn’t last very long and if I need something we don’t grow, someone at the Farmer’s Market probably has it! Enjoy!

If you have comments or questions, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Making a Cover for My Dehydrator

My Excalibur Dehydrator has been an important and useful tool for me over the last 10-15 years. It is basically a low-tech appliance with few moving parts, but it is safe to dehydrate foods without having to monitor the oven at low temperatures or the food over many hours. It is a large box-sized appliance (about 20″ x 18″ x 12″ high). I do not use it often, but when I do I want it near the kitchen where I prep the food to be dehydrated. Here is a picture from the instruction manual. It does have 9 trays, but the food shown in the picture is not realistic. They do not recommend dehydrating so many different kinds of food at the same time!

A few weeks ago, I showed pictures of dehydrating shredded zucchini…the shreds needed to be spread out so they would dry properly. The trays shown above are much too crowded.

Anyway, the dehydrator is stored in our garage, right outside the kitchen door. When not in use, it is covered with a cloth cover I made many years ago, then covered with a custom board Bert made that has a hole for the temperature dial so it doesn’t get squished. The board keeps the whole dehydrator safe from being bumped and we find we store stuff on top. Packages from UPS often appear there when delivered!

This original cover was made from plain cotton and must have gotten snagged or just worn through with holes! Yikes! Time for a new cover!

To make a new cover, I needed to measure the dehydrator. Pretty funny…trying to get my tape measure to stay put so I could take a picture of it just right!

So I ended up measuring the old cover instead. The new cover didn’t need to be snug. I wanted to be able to just slip it on to keep the dust out.

The measurements became this pattern:

Once I found a piece of fabric big enough to make the cover, I cut the pieces out as measured above:

I stitched the 4 side pieces to the top and tested it on the dehydrator inside out before I sewed up the side seams. (I obviously didn’t go to a whole lot of trouble to iron the pieces before I started sewing!)

Once the side seams were sewed (and zigzagged for strength) I tested the fit again before I hemmed the bottom edge.

And right side out, it works great. Guess I could break out the ironing board if necessary!

Remember, I said we store the dehydrator under a board with a hole to accommodate the dial on the top. Believe it or not, that board has prevented damage to the dial for 15 years!

Now, this space is ready for UPS to drop off packages, etc. I feel better that the dehydrator is now covered! Enjoy! If you have questions or comments, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.

Garden Update August 2, 2025

Garden produce is now beginning to take over the kitchen table and it looks like more is to come! Every day involves watering, picking what’s ready and processing when the pile gets big enough! I’ve added a fourth activity…giving away what I can’t use to any neighbor that walks by! (smile)

Now that I’ve tried out quite a few recipes with shredded zucchini, I think the rest will be shredded or cut into cubes and frozen or dehydrated. They will be great additions to soup and baked goods all winter! Very soon, the large tomatoes will be cooked and canned into something I can use all winter. I should not have to buy cans of diced/cooked tomatoes for many months!

Here’s what the garden looks like today!

The latest planting of radishes is popping up. The lettuce is ready to harvest.