Around the Kisner Homestead – Page 21

Camel Ride in Eqypt in 1956

One of the things I treasure from my parent’s generation was their foresight to save many written stories of their lives. Sometimes it was an envelope of letters from a loved one overseas, or stories they wrote for historical societies documenting life “back in the day” like my Grandfather did.

Sometimes, they specifically wrote “Autobiographies” with photographs, assembled in their later years. My mother had even saved a handwritten autobiography she wrote in high school (around 1926) that shared her life up to age 12 or so.

As I get older, I feel like I’ve let the next generation down. Somehow, I was never able to document my life adventures as it happened with daily journals. In 2013, I had written several letters to my grandchildren which summarized my early life. The first story, which I posted here on April 14, 2021, titled “Born in the middle of the story,” shared some of my earliest memories. This account of my visit to the pyramids in 1956, when I was just 9 years old, was the second story I wrote for them. After this, I’ll try to continue with more memories from years ago and build my “Book of memories from Grandma Mary.”

***

In 1956, when I was 9 years old, my family was visiting Cairo, Eqypt for a few days as we traveled from the Philippines to London. We had spent a year in the Philippines while my Dad worked at the University of the Philippines.

One of the places we visited was the pyramids and the Sphinx on the edge of the city of Cairo. I thought we were going to make a long drive out into the desert because in all the pictures I saw, the pyramids were way out in the desert. But the city had grown and was quite close by.

It was hot, noisy and unfamiliar. There were camels everywhere with colorful tassels, bells and blankets on them. When they walked the bells would jingle. The men leading the camels around offered to take us for a ride…for a price, I’m sure! My brother, Mark, wanted to take a camel ride. My sister, Jean, said she would sit on a camel. I wasn’t sure about it at all.

We went to some camels that were lying down on the ground. They didn’t look so big. First my brother got on the back of the camel. He didn’t seem scared at all. Then my sister tucked her skirt to look like pants (remember, in 1956 girls and women wore dresses not shorts in public) and got on another camel. Then I was lifted up to sit right in front of her. Much higher than I expected!

THEN the men had the camels STAND UP!

We were VERY high off the ground! The men holding the camels led us around a little. I held on tight but it felt like I was going to slide down the camel’s neck.

Finally, it was time to get off the camels. First, the men had to make the camels kneel down. The men took their canes and hit the camels in the back of their front knees to make them bend down. Of course, the camels didn’t like that! They made a terrible noise! It sounded like they had been hurt but the men didn’t seem to be worried.

Once their front legs were bent, they lowered their back legs to rest on the ground. Finally, I was lifted off the camel. What a ride!

Twenty years later I was teaching 5th grade in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. That year we had a unit on Eqypt where we learned about the people who lived there long ago and built the pyramids. Most of the students had never seen a camel. In 1974 there was no zoo nearby. The students researched how big camels were and we built an almost-life-sized camel in our classroom. Bert helped by building a wooden frame. It was so big he had to build it in the classroom! Then we padded it with newspaper and covered it with paper mache’.

The students painted it brown and it was part of our class while we studied Eqypt. (I couldn’t find a picture of the finished camel.) We didn’t want to tear down our camel friend at the end of our studies of Eqypt so the floor under his belly became a cozy place to read. He kept us company the rest of the year!

***

Watch for more adventures from my past…posted under Around the Kisner Homestead: Memories from Grandma Mary.

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

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Setting up the rain barrels

Today was a beautiful day to set up the rain barrels. Each rain barrel holds about 60 gallons of water. They collect most of the runoff from both sides of the shop roof so we put one on each far corner.

Bert stores the barrels in the shop in the winter. If water froze in the barrels they would crack so we don’t use them during the winter months.

Below you can see Bert has removed the bottom section of the spouting that runs out into the yard. The concrete slab is the base for the barrel. The post just behind it will be used to tie the barrel down…if the barrel is empty the wind can just blow it away!

The he adds a shorter extension up high that will funnel the water into the barrel. He said he had to add a little piece on the end to slow down the runoff so it goes into the barrel. Otherwise, it zooms straight past the lid of the barrel!

Here’s a close up of the extension. The small piece on the bottom edge is a flap that seems to do the job of slowing down the water.

Then there is a piece of screen that came with the barrel that is held down by the lid. This filters out big stuff like pine needles and bugs.

Then the lid (with holes in it) is screwed on to the barrel.

Finally, Bert ties a rope around the barrel and to the stake so it doesn’t blow away when empty.

He stores the spouting until fall.

This barrel is ready for rain!

On the other corner of the shop the steps are the same. Here’s the logo printed on the barrels.

Finally, when the barrels are full, he will attach a hose and use this little pump to get the water up the hill to the larger storage barrel. It holds about 360 gallons of water. Then we use that to water the garden.

Seems complicated, but we’re not hauling water to the garden and the plants seem to like the natural rainwater!

I’ll share more about the process of pumping the water when we do that. First…it has to RAIN!

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

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Beautiful April day at the Kisner homestead

Today was a beautiful day…gives us hope for more days like this in the near future! I wanted to share a few pictures.

The garden plants that Bert started several weeks ago are coming along. The tomato plants will soon need to be repotted into larger pots. We still have a month to go before we risk planting them in the garden. Soon he’ll set them outside when it isn’t too windy.

The echinacea plants are struggling. We planted four different varieties and many did not even sprout. We’ll see what we get a month from now.

I wandered the yard and wanted to share that the redbud trees are finally in flower. They are especially pretty with the yellow goldfinches for contrast…but of course they fly away when I get too close.

Across the street the wild redbud trees are one of the first to blossom in the spring. They really show up when everything else is still brown.

The dogwood trees…in the foreground…are still waiting. That’s a good thing. We’ve had two nights of freezing temperatures, so for now their pretty white blossoms are safe.

Our son-in-law has provided us with a nifty planter to try. He’s experimenting with making them to sell to a local nursery. They are great for older folks that don’t (or can’t) get down to garden down low. I’ll use this right by the patio door for lettuce and radishes. They are not in the ground for very long and don’t have deep root systems.

We enjoy having our wind sock in the back yard. It’s pretty and Bert likes to know which way the wind is blowing before he burns wood in the shop.

Unfortunately, the weather is pretty hard on it and we’ve had to replace it more than once a year. This year he finally decided to go with a REAL wind sock like they use at the airport. Hopefully it will survive better this year. The neighbors must wonder if we anticipate low flying planes!

Bert has also recorded daily rainfall for 20 years! Imagine that! He reads the gauge every morning from March 1 to November 30. It has been helpful to know when to water plants because even though the weather folks might say we’ve had substantial rain, sometimes our specific location has had more or less.

It was time today to empty the compost pail. I notice when I buy a lot of vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli, I have a lot of vegetable scraps. I think we avoid an extra bag of garbage each week by composting.

The composter is made by the YIMBY Company (Yes In My Back Yard…cute name, right!). We have two of them. When one is full, we let it sit and start on the other one. Bert will rotate them both every week or two.

You can tell by the color of the grass in these pictures we have a beautiful lawn this year. Bert is cutting it today for the second time this spring.

We got a postcard in the mail yesterday advertising a plant sale at the Centre Furnace Mansion, sponsored by the Centre County Historical Society. Just the right time to see what’s available for the garden!

I hope all of you are having a great April day too. We may not have the earliest spring around here, but we certainly appreciate it when it gets here!

Please leave a comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net! Enjoy the day!

Have Projects, Will Travel

I spent the weekend with my daughter and family. When I visit, I try to bring along appropriate crafts for them to try. This time I loaded up my air dry clay and all the supplies to make air fresheners. I also wanted to try painting flat rocks like a Mandala. I assumed (never assume!) that they wouldn’t have any problem with those projects. Of course, my grandkids are almost 14 and almost 9 so I wasn’t sure if they would be interested either. I did discover that they loved working with clay and painting rocks, but didn’t necessarily make what I had in mind! Such fun!

Air Dry Clay

We started with the air dry clay. I provided the clay and brought all my items to make impressions in the clay, round cookie cutters, and straws to make the holes for ribbon. I showed my granddaughter how to roll out the clay, make an impression and use the cookie cutter to make the finished circle cut out. Then I got out of the way. The hardest part for her was rolling the clay too thin. If the finished piece is too thin it will curl as it dries. So, I encouraged her to roll it thicker. She made some really cute items!

My grandson joined our project a little later and had his own ideas. He made two small pieces with impressions (one his own thumbprint) and then began working on his own idea…a skull, or head, with quite detailed facial features and hair. Quite the budding artist!

My daughter joined the party and enjoyed making some pieces also! She chose to leave two items without holes for hanging, suggesting she might put essential oil on them and slip them into a drawer.

Several things I learned, which will be added to my future instructions for the air dry clay…

…thicker pieces work better. The ones that were cut 3/8 inches to 1/2 inch thick dried fine and stayed pretty flat.

…as an alternative to hanging an essential oil freshener, you could slip a small disc with essential oil into a drawer.

…air dry clay can be fun for all ages no matter what they make!

Mandala Rock Art

The second project was to try to paint designs on some flat rocks. I purchased two kits at Barnes & Noble that had some rocks, some paint and an instruction booklet.

I thought the Mandala’s would be a good project for any age group. The rocks in the kits were not especially flat or smooth so I stopped at Michael’s and found a container of flat rocks for sale. I can’t believe I bought them…about 10 rocks ro $4.00! However, they were perfect!

I also picked up two sets of acrylic paint pens. This is what the pens looked like:

Before we started, I painted the rocks with some outdoor acrylic paint, thinking their designs would show up better on a white or dark background. I also wanted them painted ahead of time…waiting for paint to dry is tough!

Except for the three rocks painted with dots that my daughter and I tried, painting ahead of time was unnecessary. They ended up making animals or bugs, which involved painting the whole rock another color anyway.

So, what did I learn about painting on rocks?

…finding flat rocks that make good bases for paintings is tougher than I thought. Maybe I should find a better source if I’m going to do very much of this!

…the pens with acrylic paint worked very well but sometimes painting an all-over base coat works well. When the paint dried it was shiny.

…it works better to show lots of pictures of possibilities and let each person make their own design.

…I still think Mandala designs are fun. I’ll need to make more myself!

My weekend with the grandkids was fun. I wonder what I’ll try the next time?

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

Born in the middle of the story

As I get older, I feel like I’ve let the next generation down. Somehow, I was never able to document my life adventures as it happened with daily journals. I did discover I had saved about 12 years of Christmas letters I had written over the years. What a treasure! And this week, while sorting through photographs and computer files, I found my first attempt at my own autobiography. In 2013, I had written several letters to my grandchildren which summarized my early life. I needed the focus of who was going to read the letters and since my grandchildren were just learning to read, I thought about them as I wrote.

I started with an assortment of photographs, hoping to show how as the youngest, I was joining a “family” that already had had many experiences. For a long time that was confusing to me. My sister would say, “Don’t you remember when…?” and it turned out it was before I was born!

I’d like to share that first letter I wrote to my grandchildren. It might encourage you to write your own letters!

April 17, 2013

Dear Aislinn, Annika, Ben and Anna,

My life story started when I was born in 1946 in New Jersey. Since I don’t remember those early years, thank goodness I have a few pictures of me when I was very small. I was born into a family that had been around for quite a few years already. My parents had been married for 11 years and had two children. They had already lived in Minnesota and New Jersey and apparently (from the picture) had a cat!

Before I was a year old, we moved to State College, Pennsylvania. I don’t remember anything my family did before I was born. I had seen pictures of my sister and brother with grandparents, uncles and aunts that I had never met.

Here is a picture of my sister and brother with our Grandma Cora Bixby. She was my Father’s Mother. This Grandmother died before I was born.

All this is to remind you that your family had adventures long before you born. Have them tell you stories about some of those adventures! It took me a long time to realize that I had joined the family somewhere in the middle of the story.

Here are some other pictures that show my sister feeding me and my brother playing with me on my new tricycle. Even today…both of us over 65 years old…my sister sometimes calls me her “baby sister.” That used to make me so mad because I’m all grown up now. She remembers me as a tiny baby and thought I was cute. So, I guess that’s OK.

So…do you remember any early events in your life? Sometimes you can remember a feeling but sometimes you only remember seeing the picture. Don’t feel bad if you don’t remember things like your parents do. As them what they remember from being a baby. And then ask your Grandma or Grandpa to tell you a story about that time and see if your Mom or Dad remembers that story.

Sometimes all they remember is seeing the picture and hearing the story! Your parents were born in the middle of a story too!

Here is a picture of Ted and Kathy playing with a laundry basket. Kathy was 1 year old and Ted was 2 1/2. Ask them if they remember doing this, or if they just remember seeing the picture.

Never forget, your life story started when you were born. You might not remember the first few years, but pictures can reassure you that you were part of the family from the beginning!

Love, Grandma K.

So, don’t worry if you haven’t kept a daily journal! You can begin documenting your life story now. Start with some pictures and create a story around them. Your children and grandchildren will treasure them forever!

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

I’d love to hear about your “story.”

Early Spring Activities

Nothing like a few sunny days in March to get us in the mood to do SOMETHING in the yard. Bert was compelled to dig in the dirt, so it was time to take care of the sad lilac bushes. They have been there for over 40 years and hardly flowered anymore. In the tour of the grounds I posted on March 1, I had a photo of those poor bushes.

After digging and chopping some of the roots, Bert pulled out the bushes one at a time with the help of the truck and some chains. This gave us quite a view of the John Deere business up the road! The rototiller dug up more roots until Bert thought he could dig the holes for six Arborvitae bushes. It looks so much nicer! Of course, we may be long gone by the time they actually block the view up the road!

Check out the John Deere business up the road!

I think Bert got these bushes at Lowe’s for about $40 each.

I like to check on the buds of the Dogwood trees along the front of the property. They still look pretty dormant, but the buds give me hope!

Dogwood buds are thinking about Spring…I hope!

Rain is expected today and temperatures are still too cool to do much more outside for a few weeks. Bert couldn’t help himself and found the seeds for the garden. He tries to start some of them around this time so by mid-May things are ready to go in the garden. In the past we have pushed the start date to early March, and that’s just too early. The risk of a late spring frost is pretty high until the third week of May around here. Last year we put our tomatoes in the ground around mid-May and of course, we had one final frost that killed them all in one night! Very frustrating! So hopefully the extra week delay will help.

Bert started our Super Sauce Tomatoes and the four different Echinacea seeds. We’re hoping that section of the garden will just reseed itself each year and we’ll have nice flowers for the bees!

We start the seeds in the shop under grow lights and that works well. The cucumber seeds will not get started for another month and the beans, carrots and beets will be planted directly in the garden about mid-May. I’ll add some herb plants from a local greenhouse as we get closer to May.

New seeds under grow lights in the shop.

More later as Mother Nature wakes up. After the last year we’ve had, Spring is such a hopeful time!

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

Sometimes my experiments fail!

I was craving some fresh greens in a salad over the weekend and decided to start some sprouts. While I like sprouts, I really wanted microgreens, which are just the tops of small plants without the roots. I was trying to avoid setting up the grow light and the proper trays…which forces me to rearrange my shelving by the patio windows. Soooo, I thought I’d start with the seeds I use to sprout to get them started.

Then I found my quart jar with the strainer lid that I use to start the seeds.

First, I measured out 1 1/2 tablespoons of seeds and put them in the jar. I added filtered water and let them soak overnight.

By morning the seeds were about twice their dried size.

I rolled the jar up in a tea towel and left it by the kitchen sink.

Each evening and morning I filled the jar with water about half way and swished the seeds around. Then I drained out the water, wrapping it up again with the tea towel. By the second morning the seeds had started to sprout.

By Day 3 the seeds were doing well. More swishing and draining.

By Day 4 it was time to green up the sprouts. I could have just set the jar in the light and by the Day 5 I would have green sprouts to eat. Since I wanted microgreens, I gently spooned the sprouts into a flat sprouting box. I thought the roots would attach to the mesh and the plants would grow up toward the light. I was planning to spritz the sprouts with water as they grew. It sounded like a great idea!

However, by Day 5 the sprouts were struggling to do what I had in mind. The plants did not anchor well and because of the holes in the sprouting box, they also did not maintain the right moisture.

With microgreens, they should be watered from the bottom, not sprayed on the top. Now, I had a pretty sickly (and slimy) batch of sprouts/microgreens. YUK!

So, I guess I’ll do it the right way. First, I need to find my books about microgreens and unpack the grow light.

Discovering Vegan Mayonnaise

You will find, after seeing a few of my recipes, that there are no eggs or dairy products in them. I have food allergies to both and have been egg- and dairy-free for several years. As annoying as it is to have to do without them, I feel so much better that it’s worth it!

This is the latest product I’ve fallen in love with!

Luckily, the Food Allergen Labeling Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) requires that foods are labeled to identify the eight major food allergens. These are: milk, egg, fish, crustacean shell fish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts and soybeans. These 8 major food allergens identified by FALCPA account for over 90 percent of all documented food allergies in the U.S. If you look carefully on most packaged food, right after the list of ingredients you’ll see the list of allergens. When it says, “milk” that could mean they seasoned the food with Parmesan cheese or cooked it with butter. It may also say, “Made in a facility that uses those products.” Cross-contamination matters if you are deathly allergic to any airborne components, like wheat flour or particles of nuts.

I do not need to avoid wheat, soy, fish, shell fish, peanuts or tree nuts. And my allergy does not lead to a life-threatening result. However, I may experience a sudden bout of diarrhea if I ignore my allergy, so if I’m eating away from home, I’m pretty careful. I also can eat meat so if I ask how things are cooked, I can usually find something to eat. I’m certainly not starving to death!

One of the first things I missed the most was mayonnaise (and of course butter, ice cream and cheese!). I have found Smart Balance a good substitute for butter on toast and in cooking. There is coconut ice cream if I must have ice cream. I have not found a good substitute for cheese, so my days of a good toasted cheese sandwich and pizza are behind me. I have tried to order a pizza without cheese…just not the same!

According to the Federal Government, to be called mayonnaise the product must include EGGS. Therefore, the item I’m talking about today has to be called “Vegan Dressing and Spread.” However, it is found on the shelf right next to Hellmann’s Mayonnaise.

Here are some details on the jar of regular mayonnaise:

Notice Hellmann’s Mayonnaise has whole eggs and egg yolks. It can legitimately be called Mayonnaise.

My salad dressing of choice was always Thousand Island dressing and I had been making my own for several years using regular mayonnaise. Once I found I could not have mayonnaise, I found Vegenaise.

This does not say it is Mayonnaise…it is “Better than Mayo.”

This was in the Organic refrigerated aisle at the grocery store. It worked, tasted fine but tended to separate. I would make chicken salad and the next day I had to drain off some watery liquid and mix it up again.

By surprise when I was buying regular mayonnaise for Bert, right there next to the Hellmann’s Mayonnaise was Hellmann’s Vegan Dressing & Spread!

This turned out to be just what I’d been looking for. It tasted great, was creamy, mixed well with salads and DID NOT SEPARATE! Yea! It did not need to be refrigerated until being opened.

Hellmann’s Vegan Dressing & Spread had fewer calories than regular mayonnaise and was even lower in Total Fat. It tasted just fine!

Here are more details about this product:

Hellmann’s Vegan Dressing & Spread has no eggs!

Now, to make my version of Thousand Island dressing, I use a cup or so of this Vegan Dressing and add a tablespoon of my home canned sweet pickle relish, a squirt of mustard and a squirt of ketchup (real exact measurements! HaHa!)

Sweet pickle relish, mustard and ketchup adds flavor and color.

Homemade Thousand Island dressing that is safe for my egg- and dairy-free diet!

These small disposable cups hold about 1/2 cup of dressing…just right to take to a restaurant.

Finding this substitute for mayonnaise makes me not feel too bad when I have to restrict my other choices so much!

Please leave a comment or send me an email at marykisner@comcast.net. Enjoy!

Is It Spring Yet?

Today I’d like to give you a brief tour of the Kisner Homestead. We have had a lot of snow in Central Pennsylvania this winter…at least more than in past years. Now we’ve had over an inch of rain over two days that is determined to melt all the snow still on the ground. Today high winds are predicted. Our wind sock seems to still be working properly and is not too shredded from winter weather. It seems we have to replace it every year.

This is the time of year we get antsy to start garden seeds under grow lights (although we probably won’t do that for a few more weeks). I’d like to take pictures like this every few weeks to document the changes in the garden. Today, however, here is a general overview to see how the yard and garden have survived over the winter.

The front of the house shows much of the snow is gone. My Spring door quilt shows up pretty well through the screen door, at least as well as any wreathe I might put up.

Moving to the right of the house, Bert’s shop looks like it survived the winter also. The new paint job he did last summer looks good.

To the right of the shop are the wood piles. Luckily, we have plenty of wood to finish out the winter. Our wood stove keeps the house cozy warm and Bert does enjoy working with wood. It also cuts down on the use of the electric heat!

The tall plants to the right of the silver-covered wood pile are lilacs. They will be removed this spring. They haven’t had flowers for several years due to early frosts and just are not doing well.

Walking around the back of the house is our patio and there is the pot of lavender that was never moved before the cold weather came last fall. We’ll probably have to pitch it. We’ll see if it survives.

Close to the patio are my two herb garden beds. This is where I grow lettuce, radishes, herbs and cucumbers…plants that I want to keep an eye on every day.

Looks like the garlic chives are holding on tight to their seeds!

The chamomile is hanging in there…it truly is like a weed. I’m sure enough chamomile seeds have planted themselves to get this next year going strong.

This is the view from up the hill by the garden toward the house and shop. One rain barrel (60 gallons) will be situated under the down spout on the left of the shop. The second will be on the front corner of the shop. Less than 1/2″ of rain on the roof of the shop will fill the barrels. When they are full, Bert will use a small electric pump and pump the water up the hill to the bigger holding tank (36o gallons) by the garden. We will use that to water the garden all summer. More pictures later of that process as we get those set up this spring.

We use the compost barrels at the back of the shop all year round. Sometimes the cold freezes the lids shut, but a little sun and they open up just fine. Bert will rotate them frequently and by the end of the year there’s hardly anything left. Then it gets rototilled into the garden.

Here’s a picture of the larger holding tank for rain water.

The garden looks so lonely! See that green wooden fence! We are visited every evening by a group of 5-7 deer. For now, they visit the bird feeders. I’m sure that in one leap they could have quite a feast. By putting spacers between the garden and the fence at least they can’t just lean over and have a snack. However, we will be watching to make sure they aren’t wandering around inside the garden after dark!

The deer like the bird seed that spills on the ground, but they love the bird bath water that has a heater in it to keep it from freezing. Bert has to fill it every few days!

So, that’s the tour! At least we can see most of the grass and every day stays light a little longer. There is something about Spring that gives us all hope for the rest of the year!

If you have any question or comments about this post, leave a comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net. Enjoy!

Homemade Oatmeal Bread

Another round of snow today…about 3″ this time…and I decided it was time to bake bread! Since we hope to go see the Grandkids near Pittsburgh this weekend, why not make some of the bread into sticky buns! Since I wanted to make both that meant a BIG batch. Therefore…time for the BIG mixer!

Now, many of you know that each Christmas Bert bakes hundreds of chocolate chip cookies for gifts. If you stop by as they are coming out of the oven you might even get to try a few. Bert has been doing this marathon baking since before we got married, so over 50 years! For many of those years he did it all by hand with a giant wooden spoon and lots of muscle!

Comparing the BIG wooden spoon to regular ones!

Bert with a few of the 120 dozen cookies he baked last Christmas.

Several years ago, he finally decided to invest in a huge commercial mixer that he moves into the kitchen when it’s time to bake. Luckily, I get to use the mixer when I’m making a big batch of bread. Most of the time I mix bread in my KitchenAid mixer (I think it’s a 7 quart bowl). The big mixer has a 12 quart bowl. It is so slick to mix up a big batch of bread dough.

Comparing the 12 quart mixer with the 7 quart mixer.

The first thing I need to do is check that I have enough ingredients. I usually use my Oatmeal Bread recipe. We like it and it feels more nutritious with the oatmeal in it. Since I cannot have eggs or dairy, by baking my own bread I have control over the ingredients. You can use any bread recipe you like to make sticky buns…probably even frozen commercial dough!

Here is my recipe. You can make a 3-loaf batch or a 6-loaf batch. Not a lot of detailed instructions about mixing up the bread, but it’s what I use. If you don’t know how to bake bread at all, there are many cookbooks (like Joy of Cooking) and YouTube videos that will walk you through the process.

Just a Note: If you want to know approximately how many loaves of bread a recipe will make, add up the amount of liquid and estimate that each 1 cup of liquid will make 1 loaf of bread. To reduce the volume of the dough for a smaller batch, first reduce the amount of water (in the 3-loaf recipe, for example): Use 1 cup of boiling water on the rolled oats, 1/2 cup water on the yeast, and just 1/2 cup of water with the oil and honey. If you do that you will not need as much flour and yeast. You will have to experiment to see what works with your mixer. You can also skip the mixer completely for a small batch and just mix and knead it by hand. I did that all the time when I first started making bread (way back in the 1970’s!)

Here are the basic ingredients:

I use a loose dry yeast and measure it out with a measuring spoon. If you want to use packaged yeast, each package is a little less than a Tablespoon of yeast. I keep my yeast in the refrigerator in a glass canning jar, while the extra is kept in the freezer. Here are two example packages of the yeast I buy:

You can buy packages of yeast like this on Amazon or at a local health food store.

Instructions to mix up the dough:

Step 1: First, I put the rolled oats, sugar and salt into the mixer bowl. Then I pour the boiling water on it, stir it around and let it sit for about 10 minutes so it isn’t so hot (don’t want to kill the yeast!)

Step 2: After 10 minutes or so, I use a small bowl to start the yeast…yeast plus 1 cup of warm water and a tablespoon of sugar. Let it sit until dissolved and bubbly (about 5 minutes).

Step 3: Add cool or room temperature water to the mixer bowl. (That helps to cool down the rolled oats is it’s still too hot).

Add oil to the mixer bowl. Using the same measuring cup (now greased with oil) to measure out the honey…no sticking!

Add the yeast mixture to the mixer bowl.

Step 4: Begin adding flour about 1-2 cups at a time until most of the flour is added. Let the mixer run for 8-10 minutes to knead the dough. Add a little flour at a time if the dough is still sticky.

Step 5: Dump the dough on to a floured table/board and work into a nice smooth ball.

Step 6: Place the ball of dough into a large oiled bowl to rise. Cover with a cloth.

Step 7: When the dough has doubled in size (about an hour), leave the dough in the bowl and put your fist into the middle of the dough to deflate the big bubbles, fold in the sides and turn the ball of dough over so the smooth side is up. Cover the bowl and let rise another hour.

Step 8: Shape the dough…into loaves of bread or rolls or sticky buns.

Shaping Sticky Buns

Here’s how I shape sticky buns:

First, I prepare the pans by greasing them generously with butter-flavored Crisco. You can use butter or margarine.

Then I sprinkle about 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the bottom of the pan. I sprinkle that with ground cinnamon.

Then I take a chunk of dough and pat it out to a rectangle.

This gets sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon also.

Next, roll up the rectangle of dough into a log.

Slice the log into 1″ rounds and place cut side down into the prepared pan.

If you have a little roll leftover, just pinch the end shut and put it in a greased pan like a little loaf of cinnamon bread. Bake along with the buns at the same time.

Let the pans rest for about 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake about 25-30 minutes.

To Remove Sticky Buns From the Pans:

Flip the pans of buns directly onto a foil covered board or table top. Use a table knife to lift the pan off the buns. (Advice…fill each pan with soapy water immediately and let them soak while you clean up…the “sticky” topping is a real pain to clean up if you let it harden and cool in the pan!)

Loaves of bread will bake about 40 minutes in a 350-degree oven.

Not exactly pretty crusts…but tastes great!

So that’s what I do on a snowy day! Wow, the whole house smells good today! Wish I could share it with you!

If you’d like to comment on this post leave a comment or send me an email at marykisner@comcast.net.