Category: Food&Recipes

I just came across another recipe for an Apple Cake…this time called German Apple Cake. Several years ago, I shared a recipe for a French Apple Cake, so of course I had to try the German one! I’m always interested in ways to use apples without having to roll out pie crust for apple pie or cut butter into tiny pieces to make an apple crisp. The French Apple Cake appealed to Bert because it had rum in it, but I don’t care for the taste of rum so I don’t make it very often. The German Apple Cake recipe I’m sharing here does not have rum, so I was hopeful I would like it.

Here is a picture and a link to the French Apple Cake recipe: https://marykisner.com/making-french-apple-cake/

The German Apple Cake recipe has similar ingredients and the instructions are pretty much the same. Here’s the recipe:

I started the recipe by cutting up the apples. I wasn’t sure how many I would need, so I bought 3 very large “Honeycrisp” apples.

I put the diced apples into a bowl of water to keep them from turning brown.

When I finished cutting up the three apples, I drained them and put them into my 4-cup measuring cup. Oops! I had more like 6 cups of diced apples!

So, I spooned off the extra into a zip bag and put them in the freezer. They will be great added to my morning smoothies.

Continuing with the recipe…I mixed up the wet ingredients and added the dry ingredients. Then I folded in the cut apples.

Finally, I dumped the mixture into the prepared baking pan.

Of course, before I could take a finished picture, we had to have a taste! Delicious!

It looked dark, almost like it had chocolate in it (it did not!). I think the cinnamon made it look dark. Yum! I will cut it up and freeze it in portions…we can’t possibly eat that much in a day or two.

I guess I’m on the lookout for other “apple cake” recipes. I wonder what other countries make with apples? Enjoy!

In the last few weeks, I’ve tried a few recipes that suggested I use parchment paper on a baking sheet or to line a bread pan. Frankly, it’s a pain in the neck! I have a roll of parchment paper, but it requires me to cut to fit my specific pans every time, and then it’s so slippery that the whole sheet slides off when I try to take a cookie off the tray!

I have four small baking sheets (8″ x 11 1/2″) that just fit in my oven side by side on two racks. I use them for everything but I haven’t found a silicone tray liner that just fits. And then, I have my bread pans! I recently made a zucchini blueberry bread that really needed parchment paper on the bottom because the mix was so wet. I just didn’t stop to cut paper to fit. I learned the hard way that it was really needed!

The bread tasted great, but the bottom came out in pieces! See the recipe at https://marykisner.com/making-zucchini-blueberry-bread/

While I was searching on Amazon for silicone mats in various sizes, I discovered this one that I could cut to size myself! Great idea!

Silicone Baking Mat Roll 16IN*5FT Free Cutting, Non-Slip Pastry Mat, Non-Stick Reusable Air Fryer Liner, Oven Liners, Counter Mat, Freeze Dryer Mat, Easily Cut to Size Fit All Ovens Pans Tins Dishes $18.99

I got the mat in the mail yesterday and got to work.

It just fit! I cut three more and I now have one for each of my baking sheets!

How about my bread pans? I measured the bottom of the pan…3″ x 7″.

I cut six so all my bread pans would have one. I also have a set of very small bread pans I use occasionally. The bottom is 2″ x 5″. I cut four of the very small size.

Finally, how about my square and round baking pans? The square pan was 7″ x 7″ on the bottom but the corners were rounded, so I cut two 7″ squares and cut off the corners! Perfect!

The round pans were a little tricky and I could probably do better, but I made two 8″ squares and tried to round the edges. Not pretty, but functional!

This is how much mat I had left over. (I’ll toss the corner pieces.)

I’ll put the extra pieces in a zip bag and will store them with my cookbooks…just in case I need a little piece to put under a flower pot or vase.

I can hardly wait to bake something to try these mats out. I’m sure they will lower my frustration level! Give it a try if you assorted pans like I do. Enjoy!

This is a repost of an article I wrote exactly 3 years ago today. I would not have remembered it but Facebook reminded me about it! The pictures were just too cute to not share again!

September 18, 2021

I pulled out my recipes today to make some Italian bread. It’s been a while so when I found the recipe I was reminded of my sister-in-law, Patty…my big brother’s first wife. She was a real sweetheart and my mentor when I started my own family. Here’s an early picture with two of their kids, Eric and Pam. Paul, Todd and Teresa rounded out their family by the early 1980’s. We were sorry to lose her in 1984, but my memories keep her in my heart to this day.

In 1980, Ted, Kathy and I spent a few days with my brother’s family on the farm in northern Pennsylvania. We borrowed my sister’s motor home while she was out of town and had an adventure going to Uncle Mark’s farm.

Ted was four and a half and Kathy was three. Such sincere smiles!

We parked the motor home in the backyard of the farm house and enjoyed visits with the barn cats and the cousins. Early on the first morning, we were awakened by the neighbor’s sheep. What a surprise to look out the window and see we had been surrounded by a whole flock of sheep! That was the beginning of our adventure!

Of course, this post is about making Italian bread so let me just say every time I make this recipe, I’m reminded of those days visiting the farm. Patty was always baking something and I was inspired by her ability to whip out this Italian bread or homemade Pizza crust in a flash. We had many conversations about baking with whole wheat flour and making our own yogurt. Great memories!

So, here is the recipe for her Italian bread:

When I make bread, I often start with the liquid ingredients and then add flour. This recipe started with all the flour in the bowl and then added the liquid ingredients. I had forgotten this, but it worked out just fine.

At this point, I dumped the dough out onto the floured table, gave it a few “kneads” and put it in a bowl to rise.

An hour later, the dough had raised to the top of the bowl.

I shaped it into two long loaves and let it raise on the pan.

In 20 minutes the whole kitchen smelled great!

Of course, before I could get a picture of the loaves, SOMEONE had to have a chunk!

So that’s the story of Patty’s Italian bread recipe, memories and all! Enjoy!

This has been a very busy week with our son visiting from California, my yearly eye doctor’s appointment, a luncheon with my high school friends, a pot luck dinner with the Ladies Auxiliary to the Fire Company, and the two-day yard sale at the Fire Hall. In the middle of all that, I tried a new recipe for apple hand-pies in the air fryer! At the same time, our son was pulling a bunch of tubs out of the attic that had his mementoes from preschool through college graduation. His goal was to sort, purge and organize his memories. He flew here from California with plans to rent a car/van to drive back home…with all of his stuff that had been in our attic for many years!

It was such a joy to watch him discover his past memories! A great “life review.” I imagine we will have a similar process to go through when we finally downsize our house. Of course, to sort through papers and mementoes…the living room became the best place to set up!

It started with the first few bins…

As he emptied bins and started sorting into piles, he could see he had his work cut out for him. Such a process!

It wasn’t long until I could see the organization begin to make sense.

His stuff is now organized into bins with labels so when he unloads his car in California he’ll know where to store them. Whew! I’m so proud of him in getting it done…and our attic has an empty space. Hopefully it will not get filled with more junk!

Good time for a selfie! (I think I always look like I stuck my finger in a light socket!)

Now, about those Air Fryer Apple Pies!

I started by cutting up apples into tiny pieces. I sprinkled lemon juice on them, added the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and stirred them together.

I filled a small bowl with water to use as “glue” to close the egg roll wrappers.

I had a little trouble finding the wrappers at the grocery store…they were on a high shelf in the vegetable cooler. Luckily, a very tall employee found them!

A tablespoon of apples just fit on one wrapper:

Then I folded the sides in:

…and the bottom up…

…and finally folded the top over, using a dab of water along the edge to help it stick.

My air fryer has two shelves, so I could cook all 12 at once, turning them over halfway and rotating the trays.

Of course, I forgot to get a picture of them coming out of the air fryer! Sorry!

If you look at the recipe above, once fried they were to be dusted with extra sugar. I did not do that but within half an hour of coming out of the fryer, the pies were gone! They tasted great, but egg roll wrapper got pretty crunchy. Seemed like a lot of work for a few bites!

So today, Saturday afternoon, I’m finally home from the yard sale at the Fire Hall. It was successful, but I’m exhausted! Tomorrow our son will begin loading his rental car with all his memories. His visit has been fun for us and successful for him. On Tuesday he’ll begin driving home to Santa Barbara.

I’m looking forward to getting back on track…with my own projects. I’m finding my Morse Code bracelets are a hit with some friends ordering them for Christmas gifts. Other bracelets feature favorite colors, birthstones and meaningful beads.

It’s probably time for me to start thinking about what to do for Christmas too. Any gifts that involve crafts or sewing take time. Let me know if you think of any craft projects that would make interesting gifts! Enjoy!

While I was rearranging the jars on my shelf in the kitchen, I pulled forward the jar that was filled with dried chickpeas. I had forgotten they were there. It’s always so easy to just open a can all ready to eat! I knew I would be in the kitchen that day so I thought I’d make a batch and try a recipe to make a chickpea snack!

I measured out 2 cups into a sauce pan and covered them with water to soak. An hour or two later…when I remembered they were there, I turned on the burner, brought the chickpeas to a boil and turned down the heat to simmer for a while. I tried covering the pan, but even a low simmer bubbled up and almost overflowed with “bean suds.” You know what I mean!

When they were cooked, I drained them and let them cool in cold water. Of course, the skins started to separate so I gently rubbed them together with my hands to loosen them. So easy…NOT! I probably had at least 2 cans worth of chickpeas so I spent a good half an hour getting the skins off. Quite a mess!

Finally, I had two containers of nice clean chickpeas! I started by using a handful in my salad for lunch!

Then I spread them out on a paper towel covered tray and let them dry.

My first snack recipe used about 1 1/2 cups of chickpeas. I put them in a gallon bag, added olive oil and salt and shook them up until coated.

Then, I spread them out on a baking tray and put them in the oven…425 degrees for about 20 minutes. They weren’t crunchy yet so I gave them another 10-15 minutes. Now I had a snack I could eat!

This is the recipe I found on the internet:

The second recipe was supposed to make a sweet snack:

This was a little more complicated, with a mixture of coconut oil, cinnamon, vanilla and maple syrup. I ended up baking the chickpeas for 10 minutes, then dumping them into a gallon bag, pouring in the oil/cinnamon mixture and shaking it up. I poured the chickpeas back on the baking pan and put it back in the oven. There has to be a better way!

This might have made a sweet snack, but frankly it didn’t taste very good. I think I’d have to tweak the seasonings the next time.

So, that was my adventure into making a chickpea snack from dried chickpeas! Next time I’ll start with a can of chickpeas and save myself half a day! If you have a better way, or a better tasting recipe, I’d love to hear about it!

One of my major concerns when we planted zucchini in the garden in the spring was the potential for too many zucchini. Luckily, thanks to dry, hot weather the zucchini plants have produced an underwhelming number of zucchini to deal with! We’ve picked them when they were just 6″ to 8″ long so we’ve been able to keep up.

Here’s another recipe we tried a few days ago: Zucchini and Potato Fritters. It turned out to be delicious! If you can eat eggs, this would make a great “hash brown” addition to breakfast! (Note: if you can’t eat eggs, make “flax eggs” by combining 2 Tablespoons of ground flaxseed with 6 Tablespoons of water, let the mixture sit for 10 minutes.)

Here is the recipe:

I started by shredding the vegetables and putting them in a large bowl. Sometimes, zucchini recipes suggest squeezing out the water from shredded zucchini. Instead, we decided to try dehydrated minced onion…thinking they would help soak up the extra water.

My hand crank shredder did well with all the vegetables.

We added the minced onion, seasoned bread crumbs and eggs to the pile of shredded vegetables. We decided to not add the cheese…I’m not able to eat cheese at this time. Bert compared it to making meatloaf!

Next, I took handfuls of the mixture and tried to make patties. I squished each handful together and carefully laid them on a foil covered tray.

(While I was making patties, I was thinking this mixture might be good as an egg roll stuffing. Hmmm. May have to try that!)

When I had the first 6 patties made, Bert transferred them to the frying pan with a spatula.

Amazingly, as they cooked, they stuck together just fine. We ended up with 15 “hash brown” patties. They were delicious hot out of the pan. Great addition to our supper! Sweet & Sour Sauce worked great but I imagine creamy salad dressing, maple syrup or honey could work too!

I was able to put the patties in quart bags (2 to a bag) and put them in the freezer…ready for a quick 2 minutes in the microwave (1 minute per side)!

Another zucchini recipe to add to my cookbook! Enjoy!