Category: Food&Recipes

Hydrate With Sweet Drops in Your Water

Water, water everywhere! One pass through the “water” or “soda” aisle in the grocery store can be enlightening. We can buy plain water...bottled from local tap water or spring water from someplace else; carbonated water…with added fizz; flavored water…with added sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners from sucralose to aspartame, to natural sweeteners from fruit to stevia; and water that’s been incorporated into soda drinks, with sweeteners and caffeine. So many choices and so expensive!

Apparently, many of us are still dehydrated! Hard to believe, I know! I guess our bodies know when we aren’t getting enough water. Sugar water with fizz makes us think we are drinking enough, but our bodies still have to filter out the sugar and other chemicals to make use of the water. So, the advice out there is to drink more plain water!

I’m still working on drinking more water (see https://marykisner.com/from-the-bookshelf-infused-water/). While the water infused with fruit and herbs was interesting and tasty, it was just not easy to work into my day. I prefer bottled water or water in a thermos when I’m driving, or ice water in a restaurant, and I found I was still reaching for diet soda at home. I’m now going to try harder to drink more water and get the diet soda out of my life!

I remembered I had these Sweet Drops in my cupboard and pulled them out.

It says on the bottle: “each tiny 2 oz. bottle will flavor over 200 8 oz. glasses of water!” (Each bottle costs about $6.00). The Drops are made with Stevia, a natural sweetener. Some folks say they don’t like the after-taste of Stevia, but I think they are using too much. Five drops are enough to counteract the chlorine taste in the water and ice cubes and generally make the water “taste” better. The goal is not to make a sweet soda-like drink out of these drops, but to make the water itself more appealing. Some of the flavors come in drops like this:

I think the drops must be “bigger” since this has only 32 servings!

You can find these drops on Amazon and possibly your Health Food Store. Another idea is to add a splash of ReaLemon concentrate to a glass of ice water. It feels like I’ve added a slice of lemon…just like in a restaurant.

So, find your favorite glass, mug or thermos…add cold water and maybe ice…and a few Sweet Drops and hydrate! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Remembering Patty and her Italian Bread

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 wonderful 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 sheep sounds. 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 starts with all the flour in the bowl and then adds 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 an oiled 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.

After 40 minutes the dough was almost over the side of the pan so it went into a hot oven (400 degrees). 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!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

From Carrots to Vegan Carrot Cake

It’s been a while since I made carrot cake but a new pile of carrots from the garden was irresistible. A neighbor who was generous with her potatoes, which we didn’t grow this year, inspired me to make carrot cake, with an extra to share.

Since I knew the carrot cake recipe has many steps, including shredding the carrots, chopping the nuts and measuring out all the other ingredients, I figured it would be easier to just do both cakes at the same time.

Here’s the recipe:

Note: A little change to the recipe…this needs to bake longer than 45 minutes…probably 50-55 minutes. I usually make cupcakes and they cook through fine, but the center of these cakes was still too moist. The toothpick came out clean, but when cool the center was not cooked enough. I kept the cake in the refrigerator and that helped, but in the future, I’ll go back to making cupcakes.

To make two cakes I needed a lot of carrots. Luckily, we had just dug some up from the garden. I still needed a few extra, but the little ones from the store didn’t shred very easily. I finally had to chunk them up before feeding them through the food processor shredding blade. (Note to self: start with more big carrots!)

(Sorry…I forgot to take a picture of the food processor working).

I measured out all the ingredients in matching bowls so I wouldn’t miss anything.

Before I mixed everything all together, I preheated the oven and sprayed the pans…

…and scooped the batter into the pans.

While the cakes were baking, I washed up all the dishes. I was amazed how many dishes I used to make this double batch. Whew!

The cakes turned out just fine…but not quite cooked in the middle. I noticed that didn’t stop us from eating it!

A little sprinkle of powdered sugar dressed it up. My neighbor seemed pleased to give it a try! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

Time to Make Pizza Sauce!

Tomatoes galore! I now had about 3 dozen tomatoes sitting on the kitchen table and a decision needed to be made…what should I make with them? While we don’t frequently have homemade pizza, I thought it was time for me to figure out how to make a good vegan (or at least cheese-free) pizza. I have not yet found a good vegan cheese that melts like mozzarella and actually tastes good. I’ll have to do without cheese, so that means the sauce had better taste good!

I decided to make a hearty sauce with the tomatoes plus green peppers, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, sugar and canned tomato paste.

All my tomato recipes start with dipping the tomatoes into boiling water for about a minute and then shocking them in ice water. This loosens the skins so they are easy to peel. (If you want to see that process in detail, see the post at https://marykisner.com/garden-update-august-9-2021).

Tomatoes ready for their boiling water bath!
Chopped tomatoes, onions and green peppers.

When the tomatoes were soft and bubbling, a lot of water had floated to the top. Without stirring the mixture, I was able to scoop off about 3 cups of watery juice so the whole mixture would be thicker.

When completely soft but still lumpy I put the mixture through the food processor to make it smooth. Then I added the tomato paste. This made a nice thick sauce. I added the dried basil, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper and about 1/3 cup of sugar.

This is a 12-quart pot and it was about half full.

We took this whole pot of sauce and put it in the refrigerator overnight. This morning I ran the dishwasher with 19 half-pint jars. (Turns out the canner holds 19 pints, but 24 half-pint jars! Next year…). I froze a few containers that were left over.

Sterilized lids and rings.

Bert started loading the canner with filled jars. (Sorry, no pictures of that exciting process!) However, after a few jars were lowered into the hot water, one broke spilling out sauce all over the other jars. Bert had to start over…taking out the unbroken jars, dumping the hot water, carefully removing the broken jar, rinsing the canner, and adding water and vinegar back (we have hard water and vinegar keeps the sediment off the jars). Luckily, I had an extra jar ready to go so 19 jars went back into the canner.

The jar broke right along the bottom…looked like a clean break. I’ve never had a jar break…ever!

The bottom broke right out!

Now the pressure canning process: Bert has rigged up a burner with propane that we use in the garage. The canner is too big to fit on our glass stove top.

Tomato sauce with additional stuff like peppers, onions and garlic is processed at 10 lbs. of pressure for 30 minutes. It always takes longer than that because the canner has to be vented first, then brought up to pressure, held for 30 minutes and then cooled down until pressure is back down.

So…we sit in comfortable chairs in the garage and visit or read while we wait. Occasionally, neighbors will drop by to see what we’re doing since the garage doors are open and we look open for a visit!

Finally, the jars are ready to come out of the canner. They will sit on my kitchen table for a few hours to cool down. I’ll write on the lids what they contain and the year. After that, they go to the basement shelves…ready for Pizza! I’ll let you know when I give that a try…maybe I’ll find some vegan cheese to try too. Enjoy!

Please leave a comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Trying my air fryer…again!

Two years ago, we invested in an air fryer. We thought it might keep the house cooler in the summer instead of turning on the oven. Who doesn’t love crispy foods without all the oil? Most of the folks we talked with said they were great to prepare frozen French fries so they turned out crispy. Very few people we knew actually prepared recipes from scratch. Our daughter also uses hers as a toaster!

We have a great toaster/oven we use all the time, so we didn’t think we would replace that appliance. We really don’t buy or eat frozen French fries. Most of the recipes I found started with a breading of some sort made with eggs and seasoned bread crumbs. Since I avoid coatings like that because of my allergy to eggs, I first tried making chicken “nuggets” by cutting up boneless chicken breasts, coating the pieces with oil and seasoning and cooking them in the air fryer. That worked well, but certainly made a mess inside the fryer. Too much oil! Broiling them in the oven on foil was much easier to clean up! Needless to say, storing the air fryer was a real pain! It was finally relegated to a cupboard in the garage.

Fast forward to today. We recently enjoyed veggies that were skewered and cooked outside on the grill (thanks Todd!). We love grilled vegetables! How could we get them more often? There are just two of us and we usually don’t bother firing up the grill for a quick meal. We wondered if the air fryer could be useful?

First, I had to locate the air fryer in the garage cupboard and figure out where to set it up. I have a small kitchen without a lot of counter space. Before the Pandemic I had just a table for a work surface in the kitchen. During the Pandemic, Bert stayed busy by building me an enclosed table/cupboard that was just the right height to knead bread…my main request.

This table/cupboard has a shelf that slides out so I can store three large appliances. I rearranged appliances and made room for the air fryer. I can move it to the table when I want to use it. (see the pictures below)

Our air fryer is called the Instant Vortex Plus. I think it’s made by the folks that made the original Instant Pot popular.

Our air fryer comes with two shelves and a rotisserie basket. It rotates as it cooks so I don’t need to flip foods halfway through the cooking time. I guess I could also use the long skewer and do a whole chicken or roast, but I’ve not tried that…yet.

I found the instruction manual and picked up a new cookbook that looked like it might have smaller portion sizes. Turns out, much hasn’t changed about air frying…most all the foods needed a batter of some sort, which won’t work for me. I did find two recipes online that sounded like what I had in mind: one was for air frying vegetables, another was for baking a potato with a crispy skin.

I could see the basket would be helpful for the veggies…I wouldn’t have to flip anything halfway through the cooking time.

Air Frying Vegetables

The first thing I noticed in the recipes was foods were sprayed with spray oil, like PAM. I think that would cut down on the drippy mess of too much oil. I didn’t need a lot of seasoning, so we started with salt, pepper and a simple Garlic & Herb Salt Free seasoning (from McCormick).

The first batch had green beans, asparagus tips and onion. The second batch had red sweet peppers, broccoli and zucchini.

We preheated the air fryer to 360 degrees (took about 4 minutes) and put the vegetables into the basket, one batch at a time. When the air fryer beeped to tell us it was preheated, we put the basket in and set the timer for 7 minutes. I tried to take a picture of the basket rotating…but obviously it’s a still picture. Haha.

The basket was a little awkward to open when hot, but it worked great!! Just perfect with our pork chops for dinner.

Now that I have a place to store the air fryer in the kitchen, and have figured out the details, I think we’ll do this more often. It’s great for just one or two servings without heating up the oven or the grill. I consider my experiment with the air fryer a success! Enjoy!

Notes:

–An air fryer with a non-rotating basket or drawer should work just as well. You will have to take the basket out about halfway and give it a shake.

–Next time I think we’ll increase the temperature to 370 degrees and give it about 8-9 minutes to crisp up the edges.

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

The Best Vegan Muffin

I finally found a recipe for a Vegan Banana Blueberry Walnut Muffin that actually rises and tastes good! I’ve tried adapting regular recipes by removing the eggs and substituting the milk with almond milk, but for some reason that just doesn’t work.

When I find a recipe online, I’ll print it out, put it in a plastic sleeve in a notebook. As I experiment with the recipe I’ll write directly on the printout and even write comments like I did on this one (Tasty).

Once I’ve made the recipe several times and like how it turns out, I’ll retype the recipe into the format I’m most comfortable with (see below). This format seems to be common with the Joy of Cooking cookbook that I’ve been using for years. I can glance down the bold-typed list and easily see the ingredients I will use.

This morning, after I retyped the recipe I decided to make a batch.

First, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. Because I could see (down the list of ingredients) that I needed bananas and blueberries, I got them out of the freezer first to let them thaw. Then I chopped the walnuts so they were ready to go.

Step 1: I put all the dry ingredients into a big bowl:

Step 2: In the small bowl with the smashed banana I put the oil and the almond milk and mixed them up.

Step 3: Then I added them to the dry ingredients and stirred them up.

Step 4: I folded in the walnuts and the blueberries.

Step 5: I divided the batter into the muffin cups.

Step 6: I put them in the preheated oven for 23 minutes. They needed that extra minute because the bananas and blueberries were still pretty cold when I mixed them in.

They are a perfect mid-morning treat! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Freezing Bananas

Just a quick post about freezing bananas. Why would you even want to do this? I use half a banana and a handful of frozen blueberries in a breakfast smoothie. Since it’s a real pain to keep ahead of bananas to use them before they spoil, I’ve found that if I slice and freeze them, they make the smoothie even better!

I try to buy bananas that are about the same ripeness so I can cut them up all at once. Folks must think I run a restaurant or have a big family!

I get the small snack-size Ziplock bags and start slicing.

I have a bowl ready for all the peels and an extra paper towel to put all the stickers on. Since I will add these peels to the compost bin, the stickers need to be removed. One year I did not remove them and after we had put the compost into the garden, I was finding the stickers intact years later!

I slice the bananas into 3/4″ slices and lay them flat in the bag; one banana will fill two bags (approximately).

When finished, the stickers go in the trash, the peels go into the compost bin and the bags of slices go into the freezer!

These slices are great for my smoothies and they also can be used in other recipes that call for mashed bananas. They thaw quickly and are easily incorporated into baked goods…and no over-ripe bananas sitting around my kitchen! Give it a try! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

No-bake Coconut and Cashew Butter Energy Balls

Trying to find an energy bar that is safe to eat (for me that means no egg and no dairy) and actually tastes good is no small task! I have bought multiple assortments of bars that just try too hard to do everything…low carb, vegan, no sugar, high protein, etc. I’ve decided to just skip trying to find a commercial one that actually tastes good. I don’t need a bar for protein since I can eat meat and fish just fine. Actually, I’d like something that is not full of extra ingredients but will satisfy like a cookie. I just tried a recipe I found at this site, https://thepaleodiet.com. I think it will work!

Ingredients:

1 cup Cashew Butter (could substitute Almond Butter)

1 cup Medjool dates, pitted (I just got pitted dates at the health food store)

1/4 cup cashews, chopped

1 1/2 cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut

(Optional: Chopped walnuts, almonds or pecans; a dash of cinnamon).

Instructions:

  1. Add the cashew butter, dates, cashews and 1 cup of the coconut to a food processor. (I also added 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.) Blend just until a workable dough is formed.

I just couldn’t believe that the sticky dates would chop up, so I put the 1 cup of coconut in a bowl, added the chopped dates and stirred them up. Then, I put them in the food processor.

Dates cut into 2 or 3 smaller chunks.
Sticky chunks of dates, coated with coconut.
Amazingly, it worked just fine!

2. Use a tablespoon to scoop the mixture out evenly. Roll into 10 balls. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

This stuff was so sticky I quickly coated them with coconut just to get them off my hands! I ended up with 16 energy balls.

3. Roll the balls in the remaining shredded coconut.

Since they were already coated with coconut I didn’t have to do it again.

This recipe made 16 energy balls. The smaller ones chilled faster and were easier to eat.

My assessment of these Coconut/Cashew Butter Energy Balls:

These tasted great and were a very satisfying snack. They took only a few minutes to mix up. It probably took longer to wash the cashew butter mixture from the food processor container than to mix them up!

If you need a handy snack this summer, I would highly recommend whipping up a batch of these no-bake energy balls! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

From the Bookshelf: Infused Water

Everyone says we should drink more water…from weight loss gurus to medical professionals. I know that! But how many of you really reach for a glass of water instead of a soda, iced tea or coffee? I really don’t mind having a bottle of spring water nearby most of the time, but it really isn’t the same as a cold, fizzy diet soda! However, I’m trying to make better choices.

I’ve had this book on my shelf for several years, Infused Water by Dalila Tarhuni (2017). It was a pretty book…lots of great pictures! However, given the choice, I always seemed to choose a diet soda over making (and drinking) infused water.

This book has a few short statements about why we should drink infused water, the benefits we might get from drinking infused water and how to make it…followed by 75 recipes! The pictures were so inviting. Certainly, I could find something that would appeal to me.

So, I found my special pitcher that I bought about the same time I got the book. It has an insert to hold cut fruit. When I checked on Amazon to see how much it cost I discovered almost 50 different models of infused water pitchers! Of course, this one was not listed any more. However, they all do pretty much the same thing…separate the fruit from the water so it can be removed easily after infusing.

Then I went to the grocery store to get some fruit. I found strawberries, kiwi and pineapple. I already had a few blueberries and apples, but I thought I’d start with just the first three.

I cut enough to fill the insert and filled the pitcher with filtered water from the tap. Then I set it in the refrigerator overnight.

The recipes in this book often include several fruits and an herb for additional flavor, like mint leaves, a sprig of rosemary or chamomile flowers. Sometimes a sweetener is suggested. My taste buds are probably out of touch with reality after years of artificial sweeteners, so I’ll have to re-sensitize my palate. Maybe then a sprig of stevia might be noticeable. Of course, none of those additives include caffeine! Yikes…how to find a natural substitute for that! I don’t care for coffee or tea so I may never wake up!

Why make it yourself?

Have you noticed how many brands and flavors of “water” are on the shelf at the store? Every brand advertises a different benefit, like detoxing your system or balancing the pH of your body; and for only $1.00 (or more)!

I’ve tried many of these brands and frankly I’d rather just drink our filtered tap water. However, I would still reach for my diet soda! Frustrating!

Are there health benefits to drinking infused water?

Bert had a few questions about why I thought this would make the water better or healthier, so I decided to do a little more research about infused water so at least I was informed about its REAL benefits, if there were any!

Diet soda on ice is very cold, which I like. When I put our filtered tap water on ice it’s good, but basically the ice doesn’t taste great, so the filtered water doesn’t either.

I’m hoping having really cold, better tasting water available will give me a healthier option to choose. We’ll see!

According to webmd and healthline,

“The main benefits of drinking infused water come from the simple fact that it’s water! Adequate hydration is absolutely key to being healthy. By infusing tasty flavors, many people tend to drink more water. Infusion can thus be a way to make water more appealing.”

Great! Every glass of cold infused water I choose is one less glass of diet soda I drink. I guess that’s a good thing.

After I took the fruit out of the pitcher and tried a glass of infused water, I could taste the faint hint of the pineapple and strawberry. It isn’t sweet but it’s cold and wet. I’ll keep you posted!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net. Enjoy!

Making Chicken Stock

Yesterday was HOT! Not the best time to have the oven on all morning, but I had put a frozen chicken in the refrigerator to thaw on Sunday and decided today and tomorrow would be even hotter, so into the oven it went! My plan was to cook the chicken and take the bones, etc. and make a big pot of soup stock. Why not keep the kitchen hot all day!

While the chicken cooked, I pulled out my biggest stock pot (12 qt.) and started pulling assorted vegetables out of the refrigerator that could be used in the stock. I had celery ends, onions that were too strong to eat raw, and I even had a handful of dried apples that had been shoved to the back of the shelf. If I had planned ahead, I could have saved other vegetable trimmings over the last few weeks and put them in the freezer instead of the compost bin! Next time! Then, I added the giblets from the chicken (neck, heart, etc.). They will add to the flavor. I set this pot aside until the chicken was done.

Next, I picked off all the meat for other meals and put everything else (bones, skin, juices) into the stock pot. I added about 1/2 cup of vinegar to help get the nutrients out of the bones. Then I added water until everything was covered and put the lid on. I brought it to a boil and reduced the temperature until it was just simmering.

For the first several hours the vegetables all float to the top, while the bones sit on the bottom. I stirred the pot about every half hour. About 3 hours into simmering I added about a quart more water to keep things covered.

After about 6-7 hours most of the vegetables had lost their color and the bones were separated and soft.

Doesn’t look very appetizing, but the broth will be delicious!

Next, I started scooping out the juice a cup at a time and straining it through a colander. I tried to avoid scooping up the soggy vegetables. Any bits of chicken that made it through the colander will stay in the stock. If I wanted clearer chicken broth, I would line the colander with cheesecloth and strain it again.

When I finished scooping out as much juice as I could, the leftover vegetables and bones are pretty soggy looking!

On a cold day/night I would usually put the lids on the pans of stock and set them in the cool garage before packaging them up. I like to skim the fat off the cool stock before freezing. Last night was too warm so I just packaged it up as is. When I use a container of the stock I might have to remove a layer of fat, or not. It was more important that I get the stock into the freezer before I went to bed. Warm chicken stock sitting around for hours is asking for bacteria to move in!

However, I ended up with 12 pints of stock to put in the freezer with another quart left over to make chicken vegetable soup today! Yea!

I’m sure it’s easier to pick up a container of chicken stock at the store, but I just can’t waste the opportunity to make my own. I’m set for a while! Give it a try!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions. marykisner@comcast.net. Enjoy!