Generally, I try not to post a lot of personal photos on my blog. Just seems prudent. However, I will concede that my ability to take selfies is not a very satisfying way to document important events. Sometimes it’s the only way to get pictures of my family…one selfie at a time. I can’t seem to get everyone to sit or stand together at the same time, in the same space!
It appears I have the most luck documenting my grandpuppy, Daisy!
This past weekend, Kathy hosted a “family reunion” for the Kisner tribe. Ted and family was visiting from California. Friday night, Kathy arranged to have a photographer friend capture all our lovely smiles in an outdoor setting.
The next day, Bert’s brother and sister joined us for a lovely picnic. We were able to snag a few photos of the siblings.
And of course, this week is our 56th wedding anniversary so it was nice to have a current picture of us! Geez…time flies!
You might never need to deal with 30 pounds of blueberries all at one time…unless you can get them like I did, through the local Kiwanas. Every year they have a fund-raising sale and bring in 10-pound boxes of blueberries, fresh-picked from New Jersey. the berries are beautiful! After washing all 30 pounds, I think I had to discard less than a cup because of blemishes. This year’s crop was delicious!
If you check back on my blog to one year ago exactly, I processed 20 pounds of blueberries. I don’t need to repeat the description but you can read about it here: https://marykisner.com/blueberries-galore/
So, the first 20 pounds of berries I washed and packed into zip bags, 2 cups in a bag:
So, what do I do with all these frozen blueberries?
First, they are great on cereal or oatmeal. the frozen berries roll out of the bag like marbles and within a minute or two they are thawed enough to eat!
Second, I can toss about 1/2 cup of berries into my breakfast smoothie along with frozen banana slices and two scoops of my vegan protein powder. The frozen berries act like little bits of ice and thicken up the smoothie.
I make these especially for me because they are vegan and they have bananas and walnuts in them.
I’m now working on another muffin recipe that has only blueberries…no bananas or walnuts. After I give the recipe a try, I’ll post it for you.
The last 10-pound box of blueberries will be kept fresh just to eat. Ted’s family will be visiting next week and the berries will be good to munch on! Enjoy!
After struggling over a month with no rain, finally we are seeing abundant rainfall! The grass is slowly greening up and the garden doesn’t seem so parched. More cloudy days and rain really help. Time to show you some pictures!
In the patio planters, I’ve harvested radishes three times so far. The newest crop is pretty tiny but I have several bags in the refrigerator.
Another section has radishes a little smaller, but the lettuce in front has been donated to some bunny friends (or should I say…a friend with bunnies)!
The lettuce we have the most success with is Black Seeded Simpson, so I’ll fill in empty spaces with more of that.
Remember that single sweet potato that was growing on my kitchen counter? It is going to make a great plant. Not sure if we’ll actually get any sweet potatoes out of it!
The small potatoes that were sprouting in the kitchen are also doing well in the ground!
The beets are lush enough so the weeds don’t have a chance. I’ll thin them when they get bigger.
The last section of the raised beds was going to be several herbs…however, the seeds must have been too old…nothing came up! So, we put in the last few Delicata squash plants we had. A good choice since it’s quite handy to the bird feeder and the visiting deer won’t eat them. We’ll see!
Up in the garden on the hill, the lavender is doing well. I’ve cut the first flowers to encourage the plant to send up more.
The tomato plants have lots of blossoms so I’m encouraged that we’ll have lots of tomatoes this year!
Boo hoo! The poor carrots are having a hard time. I think the very dry hot weather was tough on them. You can hardly see them!
You can see how dry and cracked the ground is even though Bert watered every day!
The beans seemed to respond to watering over the last month so they look pretty healthy.
The Delicata squash plants finally look good. Bert had to replant them several times. Not sure why they didn’t sprout. They are a vining plant, so we’re not sure if we’ll have to add a climbing trellis.
And finally…the Echinacea!! I’m anticipating some beautiful flowers pretty soon!
This is about the time I’m glad that lots of people around here have gardens and sell produce at the Farmer’s Markets. We certainly couldn’t grow everything we need in our small garden, but it sure is rewarding when we eat our first home-grown tomato!
The recipe I made yesterday made two large loaves of bread that were light and delicious. The recipe did call for butter and one egg, so if you are vegan, use plant-based butter and eliminate the egg. Here is the recipe:
I was very interested that this recipe uses half whole wheat flour. It was still very light and held together after baking. It was also an easy recipe that could be made in just one bowl (I used my stand mixer bowl).
The recipe called for whole wheat flour. I usually grind my own whole wheat flour, using white whole wheat berries, so I was glad to find King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour at the grocery store. That saved me a step.
Mixing everything in one bowl reduced the clean up time!
This did make a very nice soft dough.
I did not do a very accurate job of dividing the dough into two loaves. I had to cut the biggest one in half to fit in the bag for the freezer. Next time I might make three loaves instead!
Look how beautiful the bread is! Delicious too.
Keep this recipe in mind when you cook sweet potatoes…cook an extra, mash it and freeze it. Makes a special loaf of bread! Enjoy!
Hot and dry! That’s been our weather the last few weeks. We have had no measurable rain since May 2. It’s tough to see the brown spots in the grass and the cracks in the dirt in the garden. Thought I’d share some pictures. So far, Bert has been able to keep up with watering the garden plants directly but not the shrubs. I guess he won’t have to cut the grass for a while…it’s so brittle it breaks when you walk on it.
The only place the grass looks good is right under the bird feeders, since every day Bert dumps out and refills the birdbath right by the trees.
Targeted watering keeps the radishes and lettuce going.
My sweet potato plant is doing well. I’m hoping I get some pretty flowers from it.
The lavender is doing well.
Some of the tomato plants have blossoms already.
The carrots haven’t been able to push through the dry earth…even with watering every day.
Green beans have popped.
Bert had trouble getting the Delicata squash to even sprout this year. Hopefully the vines will take over this space.
The Echinacea is trying to make flowers already.
Another worry with no rain is how dry the woods are around here. Campers and hikers have to be careful. Maybe it’s time for a rain dance! I’ll get right on that!
I’ve been hearing through the grapevine that the recipe I posted for vegan sweet potato buns is a hit! Thanks C.N. and T.N. for the feedback! You can see the recipe at https://marykisner.com/making-vegan-sweet-potato-buns/
It got me in the mood to bake some myself but of course I didn’t have any sweet potatoes on hand. Cooking one sweet potato to get 1 cup of mashed is very inefficient…so I stopped at the store today and picked up 4 large sweet potatoes. I cut them into rounds and then peeled and chopped each round. I guess I could have bought a can of Yams…but that feels like cheating!
It took about 20 minutes to boil the chunks until soft.
I could have hauled out the food processor, but my handy (low tech) potato masher worked just fine. Then I scooped the mashed potatoes into containers and put them in the freezer. Now I’m set to add sweet potatoes to the bun recipe above.
I now have five 1-cup servings and one 2-cup serving (good for a double batch!) in the freezer.
My plan is to make a batch of buns like these:
Then I’d like to try putting some into my Oatmeal Bread recipe…either in addition to or instead of the oatmeal. I sense an experiment coming! Enjoy!
During the Memorial Day weekend activities, the Ladies Auxiliary to the Boalsburg Fire Company has a bake sale in the fire hall. The small carnival is held in the parking lot behind the fire hall and the firemen sell barbequed chicken. The fire hall room is available with tables and restrooms during those activities. What a perfect time for an assortment of baked goods to be available for sale in that room!
Over the last few days, my goal was to crank out some cookies for the sale. Of course, I don’t bake cookies very often…that seems to be Bert’s specialty at Christmas…but certainly I could produce something! Cookies for this bake sale needed to be sturdy enough to last in a zip bag that will get shuffled around for 5 days. I chose two recipes…oatmeal raisin cookies and snickerdoodles. You can use any favorite recipe you like!
It was quite obvious I don’t bake cookies very often. They were too big (who knew they would spread out so much!). I can see if I did this more often, I’d figure it out. I’m sure Bert would recommend more flour, chilled dough and smaller scoops of dough. I may try again today, but for now let me share how it went.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Here is the recipe:
Wet ingredients, dry ingredients and raisins ready to assemble. The mixer did all the work!
Of course, I don’t have a 2-Tablespoon scoop so my cookies look a little ragged! It’s on order so next time…
Of course, only two cookies fit in a sandwich bag. At least they look homemade!
Snickerdoodles
Here is the recipe I used:
Once again, the mixer did the work but when it came time to roll the dough into balls, I misjudged and they got too big! When was the last time I had a whole walnut sitting around to help me visualize the right size!
Oh well, I rolled the dough in cinnamon and sugar and put them on the cookie sheet.
Once again…too big! Oh well, they sure did taste good!
What Did I Learn?
Consider adding more flour to the oatmeal raisin cookies.
Chill the dough before baking.
Use a dough scoop to get better shaped cookies. (mine is on order!)
For bake sale cookies, make smaller, more consistent-sized cookies that will fit better in a zip sandwich bag.
If you are asked to make cookies for a bake sale, any contribution will be appreciated! Choose your favorite recipe and make a dozen or two.
It seems like gardening season, 2023, got underway almost a month ago. In the last week with the rain barrels getting set up and tomato plants in the ground it’s like we finally got serious! I was able to get my raised planters going early this year thanks to the nice weather. I’ve enjoyed the first picking of radishes and lettuce.
I was able to plant the bag of small red potatoes that were sprouting on the kitchen counter and they have begun to pop.
Potatoes
I had a sweet potato that was determined to grow before I could eat it. We put it in a big pot just for fun.
Sweet Potato
Yesterday, it actually felt like gardening season had begun because Bert transferred the small amount of rain water in the rain barrels into the larger tank in the garden on the hill. He then used the hose to fill the tank the rest of the way. We’ve had very little rain and not much is predicted, but now that we have plants in the garden, we’ll need to be able to water the new plants without having to haul water up the hill.
I’m determined to take the time to learn how to grow sprouts in my kitchen and use them in various…on sandwiches, in salads and in stir fry. They are one thing that I should be able to grow and not have to buy at the grocery store. While I’m waiting for my lettuce and spinach to produce decent-size plants, growing sprouts could give me the variety I want with the freshness I like.
I started by getting my jars and lids organized. I already had 4 1-quart wide mouth canning jars. I ordered new lids that had metal mesh in the ring and “feet” so I could stand the jars on end or lean them at 45 degrees. I ordered these from Amazon.
I started with alfalfa seeds and mung bean seeds because they were familiar. Unfortunately, both packets of seeds were several years old so about half of the seeds did not sprout. Save yourself the frustration and buy fresh seeds! They can be purchased at Amazon.
I used 1 Tablespoon of alfalfa seed in the first jar and 1 Tablespoon of mung bean seeds in the second jar. I filled the jar with water, swirled the seeds around and set them on the counter overnight.
In the morning I drained the water, added more water, swished them around and drained the water off. I stood the jars inside a small glass cake pan to let them continue draining.
During the next 2 days, I rinsed the seeds every few hours, drained them and laid the jars down in the glass pan…like the picture below.
(I missed taking a picture of the alfalfa and mung bean sprouts…this is the second batch with the bean mix and chickpeas.)
After two days, I dumped the sprouts into cool water in a bowl and used my hands to swish them around. This was to loosen the green shells on each seed. They floated to the top so I could skim them off.
I first tried my Salad Spinner, but ended up using a plain stainless-steel bowl. The mung bean sprouts got stuck in the holes and the alfalfa sprouts went right through the holes!
Once I had most of the shells removed from the seeds, I spread the sprouts out in a larger glass cake pan and covered them with plastic wrap. I set them on the counter in the sun for a few hours and let them “green up.”
They kept well in the refrigerator in this neat little container:
Then, I started the second round of sprouts that I can use in stir fry…bean mix and chickpeas.
The alfalfa and mung bean sprouts are great in my sandwiches and salads. I hope the bean mix and chickpea sprouts work well in stir fry…my next experiment! Stay tuned!
Garden Update May 11, 2023. The raised planters on the patio are working well this year! They seem to have protected the lettuce and radishes from a few cold nights. I was able to pull a handful of radishes today…yum!
We had two kinds of radishes…the longer ones were milder.
Bert rototilled the two small raised beds near the patio.
I planted potatoes that had sprouted in the bag in the kitchen.
Potatoes ready to be covered up!
The second planter will have beets and herbs. Hopefully, the deer won’t find them too delicious and handy!
Up in the garden on the hill, we replaced our lavender plants…trying to find the right kind that will give me fragrant flower buds through the summer.
Lavender
Echinacea
We’re keeping the tomato plants under grow lights for another week or two…we’ve made the mistake of planting them out too early in the past and a late frost killed them!
Super Sauce tomato plants still safe under grow lights!
We’ll fill in the garden on the hill with the tomatoes, green and yellow beans, carrots and Delicata squash. Spring gardening is so filled with hope! Enjoy!
