I’ve enjoyed watching our forsythia plants that follow our property line from last spring with lovely yellow flowers, through the summer with lots of green growth to now, with the leaves turning yellow. I just didn’t realize we’d have such a display of color this fall.
In the spring, we had our first display of yellow flowers, even though the plants were pretty small:
After a summer of growth, the plants are huge and filled out nicely…but I didn’t expect to see another flash of color this fall! What a fun surprise! The forsythia seems to be the plant that keeps on giving!
I’m looking forward to next spring already! Enjoy!
Lately, for me, the lids on bottles and jars have gotten harder and harder to open. My hands just don’t have the grip strength to turn the lids. I often have to hand the bottle or jar to Bert to open things for me. I find that VERY frustrating. Of course, it’s handy to have him open jars, but sometimes he’s not around to help. Or…I’m in the car and have a new bottle of water. By the time I use my shirt tail to help me grab the lid, I’ve soaked my shirt! I’ve even bought a bottle of Vitamin Water at Sheetz on my way to Kathy’s near Pittsburgh and had to ask the clerk to open the bottle before I headed out to my car! That’s just terribly annoying!
When I’m at home in my kitchen, I do have a rubber disk to help open things. I’ve had it for many years and most of the time it works just fine.
However, it’s thick and not very flexible, so opening the seal on my coconut milk box is difficult. The disk doesn’t bend around the small cap on the box.
I think I’ve found a solution! A few weeks ago, I bought a new rug for the bathroom. It was very slippery so I picked up a rubberized mesh mat to go under the rug. I could cut it to size and it worked well.
After trimming the rubberized mat to size, I was left with several pieces left over. They sat in a pile near my sewing machine for several weeks until I decided I should put them away someplace.
While I was checking to see how much I had, the smallest piece seemed just the right size to help me grip the top of a new water bottle I had by my sewing machine. The new bottle lids are not only very tight, but they are now about half the size as they used to be. They are hard to get my fingers around. The small piece easily molded around the top and worked great!
The water bottle lids are about half the size of a soda bottle lid.
The small piece of rubberized mat was enough to open the water, the soda bottle and even the larger Gatorade bottle. Yea!
I was so impressed that I cut a few pieces (about 5″ x 7″) and put one in my car, one in my purse and one in the kitchen. I may cut more and give them as Christmas gifts! A small roll of rubberized mat is very inexpensive at WalMart…sold near the small rugs in Housewares. Give it a try! Enjoy!
Gluten and gluten-free are words that are familiar to many of us that bake. Gluten is a protein found in wheat (and barley or rye) that is the main ingredient that holds together all that lovely bread. Unfortunately, some folks have an immune reaction to eating gluten and over time this reaction damages the small intestine’s lining. This prevents them from absorbing nutrients from their food. This immune reaction is called celiac disease.
The intestinal damage from eating foods that contain gluten often causes symptoms such as diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, bloating or anemia. It also can lead to serious complications if it is not managed or treated. Because there’s no definite cure for celiac disease, most people find following a strict gluten-free diet can help manage symptoms and help the intestines heal.
Years ago, when I was trying out recipes to bake with whole grain flour, I encountered a few people who had difficulty digesting wheat products. I found it very difficult to find recipes made with gluten-free flour that actually tasted good. Recently, I found a few friends who were avoiding gluten and even discovered folks at the Auxiliary (to the Boalsburg Fire Company) bake sale asking if any of our products were gluten-free. If I could find some good recipes, that might be something we could offer at the next bake sale.
With a little research online for the best tasting gluten-free recipes, I discovered a basic all-purpose gluten-free flour that could be used almost cup-for-cup as regular all-purpose flour. They also offered a bread mix. I found their packaged flour and bread mixes available on Amazon and ordered some bread mixes to try. The company is https://gfjules.com started by Jules Shepard. See her profile below. Check them out! Besides an all-purpose flour, they offer bread mixes, pancake mixes, etc.
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About Jules Shepard:
Jules Shepard didn’t set out to lead, inspire and advocate for the gluten-free community. But to anyone who knows her, it’s no surprise she does.
As a celiac diagnosed in 1999, and as an indomitable perfectionist with a penchant for equality and fairness, this former domestic violence attorney was simply unwilling to accept the dry, gritty, vacuous foods that were the norm then. Two years in her kitchen later, Jules had perfected an all-purpose gluten free flour blend that enabled her to continue her passion for baking.
All of her products are certified gluten free and kosher, and are made in a dedicated gluten free facility. They are also certified Free From the Top 9 Food Allergens (NO: wheat, soy, dairy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, or crustaceans), non-GMO and proudly made in the USA.
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The best thing about this mix is the variety of ingredients. I used to have to stock up on individual ingredients and mix up my own gluten-free flour mix. Someone (Jules Shepard, actually) who must have been very motivated to find a mixture that tastes good, did the work for me!
Making a Loaf of Gluten-free Bread
First, I mixed together the liquid ingredients:
Next, I mixed up the dry ingredients:
I added the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixer bowl. It was very sticky and didn’t take long. Next time I’ll just mix it with a wooden spoon! The mixer just made too many dirty dishes.
I dumped the wet dough into the prepared pan, covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit for about an hour.
When baked, it was a little bigger, a little browner and smelled great!
It did not rise very much (remember, without gluten it had nothing to “stretch.”) The texture of the bread is more like cake or cornbread, but it tasted great. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the finished loaf! Since I would be the only one eating it, I sliced it up and froze the slices.
I ended up ordering a 4.5 pound bag of the gluten-free all-purpose flour so I could try a few more recipes. I printed out just a few recipes to try. More about those over the next few weeks!
Here are the details about the all-purpose flour.
Here are the ingredients for the gluten-free all-purpose flour from https://gfjules.com.
Over the next few posts, I’ll share some other recipes using some mixes I found at Trader Joe’s and Wegman’s. There seems to be a lot of interest in gluten-free products. I’m hoping by the next bake sale I’ll have some great recipes to share!
Well…it happened! We finally had a heavy frost/freeze. When the sun hit the flowers yesterday, they gave up. This happens every year in Pennsylvania, we just never know exactly when that first killing frost will occur. Bert will be busy today pulling out all the plants that need to go, or cutting them off at ground level. The only things left in the garden will be the lavender and the carrots. The lavender will be fine over the winter as they are. We will continue to pull the carrots as we need them. I suspect they’ll all be out of the ground by Thanksgiving. Here are the last pictures of our 2024 garden.
The leaves continue to drop but the redbud leaves seem to hang on for a while. The butternut tree behind and to the right is not very healthy, so it’s been dropping leaves for a month.
The marigolds and zinnias were spectacular this year but the frost finally got them. Bert is pulling them out today.
The geranium baskets finally gave up. Time to go!
The lavender will be fine all winter. The carrots might make it until Thanksgiving.
Carrots
One of the biggest jobs is to empty the big water tank. It can’t have any water in it over the winter. Bert put the rain barrels away in the shop last week.
And finally, the echinacea has been dropping seeds and all we have left are the sharp seed pods. Bert will wear heavy gloves and cut them off at the ground with his big clippers.
It always feels kind of sad to clean up the garden beds but right after Christmas the seed catalogs start arriving so we can start thinking about next year! Enjoy!
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.
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!
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!
I was all ready to describe my next project…crocheting some dishcloths for Christmas gifts…but instead I thought I’d focus this post on how ALL my do-it-yourself (DIY) projects get going.
There are five major steps that seem to be common to every project I start. These five steps include:
I’m intrigued with a new project. I may need something but think I could make it myself; or someone else asks if I could make something for them. I find ideas everywhere…at craft shows, bake sales, advertisements, or in gifts from others. Even the fiction books I’m reading will often have a “craft” focus like quilting, baking or holiday activities. (I’m easily bored, so I’m always looking for something new to try!)
2. I start researching how something is made, how it is used, what kind of tools are necessary to make it, etc. This is where websites like Pinterest and YouTube help…if anyone has made it, surely someone has posted about how to do it. I have found classes that will teach me how to make something, from baking to crafting. Of course, books and illustrations will often show the most elaborate finished product that could eventually be made (like a beautiful sweater crocheted with a complex design) when all I wanted to learn was how to make a simple product (like a crocheted dishcloth)!
3. Next, I begin collecting the tools I’ll need. For my soap projects, I needed soap molds, blocks of melt-and-pour soap and 4-cup heat-proof glass measuring cups to melt the soap. For my beading projects I found the best elastic to string the beads and the design board to hold the beads as I worked.
4. Practicing making the product takes the longest and is the most fun for me! When I’m baking, the family and neighbors have been my taste-testers while I figure out the recipe. I’ve learned that my baking mistakes will sometimes make good croutons…or will feed the birds…or at least will compost well!
When I made batches of soap, I started making small sample size bars and my high school friends graciously took them off my hands. I learned the sample size soap bars made good gifts…or could be melted down and poured again!
When I made my gemstone bracelets, if the elastic knot came apart or made an ugly lump, I could cut the string and try again! Right now, I have about 60 bracelets left over that I made for the Craft show in July. If I decide to change the design of the bracelets, I can always cut the elastic and use the beads in another design.
5. Finally, I begin collecting the supplies to continue making the products. Usually, I buy just enough to make/finish the one project I’m working on. However, I am optimistic and end up with enough supplies to make more than one! The trick is to buy enough to keep me going…until I lose interest in making the item. This might mean I’ve baked enough that I need to move on…having all those yummy things around every day is too much for my diet! It might mean I’ve given away enough soaps that no one wants more. Mostly…I’m the one that is ready to move on…to learn something new!!
When you explore the posts in this blog you might wonder how I do it all! Haha! Remember…I’m 78 years old! I’ve been “crafting” as long as I can remember. I got bored easily as a kid so my mom always had pencil and paper ready for times when I had needed to sit quietly…like church or a long car ride.
Mom always had bits and pieces of her projects (like yarn, fabric, buttons) that I could work with. Every Christmas Eve I would open a gift that was a project I could make that night that would keep me busy. I remember making ornaments with felt and glue and buttons.
As I grew up, mom included me in her projects. She let me choose the fabric for the dresses she made for me. By the time I was 14 I was making myself a straight skirt and jacket in Home Economics class. Not sure I ever wore it…but I tried! You can see I had to learn to read instructions on patterns early and I’m still learning and even making my own patterns for little things.
The majority of this website has been inspired by my DIY projects. While my academic career focused on teaching elementary school, I ended up teaching Vocational teachers at Penn State who were coming back to school for additional degrees. These folks were my kindred spirits…they made stuff every day! I tried to help them focus on all the reading, writing and math skills they found naturally in their subject areas. All the DIY projects I’ve done and written about have incorporated reading, following instructions and essential math skills.
So, in accordance with the goals of this blog…think about what you do every day. How do you go about learning new things? Is it fun? Do you share these new things with your family and friends? No matter how old you are, every day is an opportunity to learn something new! Share your new knowledge or projects with others. 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!
The 2024 gardens at the Kisner homestead are winding down. It always feels a little sad to see the plants turning brown. However, we are still harvesting a few things so it’s not over yet!
My patio planters did a great job with lettuce and radishes this summer. By mid-August I had had enough radishes for a while and the lettuce was attracting hungry aphids. I pulled everything and Bert put fresh soil in the bins. I planted spinach in all of the bins thinking I could harvest it all at once, dehydrate the leaves and spin them to powder in the blender. Then I could add a spoonful of powder to soups and smoothies. Great idea…not! August was really too hot for spinach and then we had tons of rain that just overwhelmed the tiny seeds. This week I cut off most of the spinach that had tried to grow and gave it to a friend who had bunnies…it would not go to waste! I have two bins of spinach that seemed to do well, so I’ll let them go until the first frost and see if it works!
These sections might actually produce some spinach!
These sections had a few green shoots that I cut for the bunnies. We’ll compost the leftover roots.
The fenced sections off the patio had mixed success.
The front section had sugar snap peas in the spring. When we cleaned them up, we found a few volunteer potatoes that came up from last year. We haven’t dug down to see what actually grew yet. The section behind that has zinnias and giant marigolds. They are beautiful right now. They have been a delightful treat as everything else is dying down.
To the left of the empty potato patch, we planted just 2 yellow pear tomato plants. They went nuts! They have leaned into each other and the fence is holding them up. The tomatoes are delicious and make a great snack!
Behind the tomato section we had 2 hills of zucchini. I think we harvested about 10 small zucchini and that’s it! Who knows if it was the weather, the soil or the seed! We’ll consider it next year.
The fenced garden up on the hill still has some green plants!
I’ve begun trimming the lavender so it will be good over the winter. Bert discovered one lone poison ivy plant right in the middle of the lavender. Luckily he put some gloves on and removed it before I started trimming!
We tried a late planting of green beans in early August. I think the birds pecked up some of the seeds but the ones that grew are making blossoms so we may actually get a few more beans!
Our carrots have done very well this year. We’ve pulled a few and will continue to dig them up as needed.
And then we still have tomatoes ripening! Many of the plants got chomped and stripped by giant horn worms…UGLY…but the tomatoes just kept on growing.
I’m most disappointed with the echinacea. They look great around the 4th of July, but very quickly they started dropping their seeds and now look pretty sad.
So, that’s the status of our garden today. All I have to do is look in the refrigerator and on the kitchen table to see that we’re not done with the garden yet!
Keep checking the Farmer’s Markets near you. They should have fresh produce through October and November around here. Enjoy!
