You may wonder why I’m interested in making dog treats! I don’t have a dog…but I do have access to a changing group of greyhounds that love treats! Of course, my grandpuppy Daisy is always available to try new treats when I visit.
In fact, I’m motivated to make dog treats for two reasons. First, making these treats satisfies my need to create something new and useful. I could always make cookies for us, but then we’ll eat them! Second, I’m inspired by my daughter and granddaughter who made and sold bags of homemade treats as part of a fundraiser at their local elementary school last month. Anna worked hard to help make, package and sell dog treats over several weeks and raised $700 for a local charity! Very inspiring!
Anna and Daisy!
My first attempt to make treats started with a simple recipe I copied from online:
I had paw print molds. I mixed up the batch above and filled the molds…
…and baked them at 325 degrees F. They looked interesting and were scarfed up by the greyhounds. They disappeared so fast, I forgot to take a picture of them!
My next step was to get some sturdy bone cookie cutters. They came in the mail yesterday so I found another recipe for treats that could be rolled out. Here’s the recipe:
Mixing up the treats:
Adding the whole wheat flour made a nice dough:
I filled four cookie sheets with “bones.”
I baked them for 25 minutes. When cool they were still a little soft inside. Next time I think I’ll turn the oven down at the end to 325 degrees and give them an extra 10-15 minutes. The batch made about 40 treats. I’m sure they’ll be a hit!
Kathy and Anna found several recipes for dog treats online, from tiny waffles (woofles) and tiny pumpkin pies! I’ll check out those recipes!
Just too adorable!!
So, thanks to my daughter and granddaughter, I have a whole new way to use my baking skills!
Hugs! Hugs and laughter! Hugs, laughter, cake and ice cream! By this age, these are the things that matter for my birthday celebration. Luckily, Kathy and family came for a visit Saturday and Sunday so we had all the most important elements…hugs, laughter, cake and ice cream! I was even blessed with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and cards that made me laugh. One work of warning to folks with visiting teenage grandchildren…don’t leave your phone unattended…you might be blessed with some unusual photos of silly faces!
Decided to skip 77 candles…probably drip all over the cake!
We played cards using snack sticks as our money.
My unattended phone picked up some sassy behavior…this was just one of many!
On Sunday, we went to Walmart to check out PSU t-shirts. We will be attending a Lady Lions basketball game in December. We have to be ready to look like fans!
We also cruised around Rural King…a store located where Sears used to be at the Nittany Mall. Of course, the baby chicks and ducks were adorable. If you needed a flannel shirt or boots, this was the place to go! Also a great place to pick up canning supplies.
They even had a cabinet with jewelry!
Of course, my favorite were these earrings (I wonder if they’d be considered concealed carry??)
So, another birthday is in the books! Whew! Time to clean up the leftovers and laundry!
The last few weeks I have been baking more than I usually do…cookies, breads, muffins, etc. My enthusiasm for baking seems to come and go. I’ll bake several days in a row and then I put things away and move on to other projects. The last several months I seem to have focused on my sewing projects.
When I started pulling out ingredients to begin some baking projects a few weeks ago I discovered that the bag of commercial whole wheat flour that I had kept in the refrigerator was rancid! Then I tried using some toasted wheat germ that is in a tight jar, but was last used a year ago when Bert made his chocolate chip cookies….yuk, it didn’t smell right! Several other ingredients that I use infrequently had also gone rancid! So, while I wanted to bake up a storm, I first had to replace many of the ingredients. What a waste!
I really like to see what I have on hand in my kitchen. Many years ago, Bert added two lovely shelves in the kitchen so I could store various pastas, rice, flour and sugar in glass jars. I’ve learned over time that the dry pasta, white rice, flour and sugar do well on the shelf. However, I’ve had to store whole wheat flour, corn meal, almond flour and even yeast in the refrigerator or freezer.
I’ll really have to organize the freezer better to store ingredients, not just finished products, like loaves of bread. I finally did a search online to see which baking ingredients can be frozen. you can see the list here:
Here are some of the ingredients I use and how I store them.
Home Ground Whole Wheat Flour
When I’m ready to bake with whole wheat flour, I pull out my electric wheat grinder and find the wheat berries in the refrigerator:
Then I grind about 5-6 pounds of flour.
After I use what I need right away, I’ll bag the rest in zip bags, about 8 cups (2 lbs.) each and store it in the freezer.
Toasted Wheat Germ
Toasted Wheat Germ comes in a glass jar (about 8 oz.) and is found in the cereal aisle, right near rolled oats. I used 1/3 cup in a cookie recipe and then dumped the rest into a zip bag and stored it in the freezer. I don’t want to ruin another whole batch of cookies with rancid wheat germ!
Vital Wheat Gluten Flour
This is an important additive to whole wheat baked goods. It helps make a slice of bread stay together! I seldom use more than 1/4 cup in a recipe, so the rest has to stay frozen so it won’t go rancid.
Corn Meal
I don’t use a lot of corn meal, so it’s important to keep it frozen until I need it.
Almond Flour
So far, I’ve kept this in the refrigerator, but I think I’ll move it to the freezer.
Active Dry Yeast
I keep unopened yeast in the freezer. When I open a package, I put about half of the package in a jar in the refrigerator. The rest of the package I fold up tight, tape it shut and put it back in the freezer.
Butter
We always have several pounds of butter in zip bags in the freezer. It stores well.
Chocolate Chips
We seem to always have a partial bag of chocolate chips in the freezer!
Nuts
I use a lot of walnuts in various recipes. Depending on what I’m making, I may just store them in the refrigerator.
Baking Soda and Baking Powder
I store Baking Soda and Baking Powder in their original packaging in the cupboard. I have found baking soda in a different kind of package instead of the cardboard box. I was not happy with how hard it was to close the container…it just seemed open all the time. This hard plastic container is much easier to scoop out of and closes easily.
Storing ingredients in my freezer sounds easy, but I’ve had to rearrange the freezer some. Bags of things don’t stack very well. I need to invest in some kind of organizers (maybe plastic shoe box-size containers) so slippery lumpy bags of stuff don’t slide off the shelf!
I was reminded about this post from a year ago by Facebook, of all things. It was a nice memory as I’m thinking about our family tree. It might give you some ideas leading up to the Christmas season.
From October, 2022:
I noticed the other day as I walked through Cracker Barrel many reminders that Holiday Season is almost upon us! While the ornaments and decorations are always lovely, this year I noticed a large book being offered as a place to have our older relatives jot down memories and stories about their lives. The pages in the book offered writing prompts to help folks focus their stories like…What was it like for you as a child in such a big family? Or What were your favorite school subjects?
Here are some sample books from Amazon:
Trying to capture the events of a long life are difficult, but with writing prompts like these, many stories can be captured for posterity. If relatives are nearby, younger relatives could offer to do the writing by listening or recording and transcribing the stories.
Books like this are a great idea for relatives who live farther away, but sometimes all we have are little snippets of memories that come up when we’re eating Thanksgiving dinner together.
These memories and stories can really enhance a simple Family Tree diagram.
I demonstrated how to make a simple Family Tree for young children in a previous post last year (see https://marykisner.com/building-a-simple-family-tree/). I’m now suggesting that adding some of these stories will help younger family members understand interesting details of their lives.
I feel fortunate that both my father (Paul Bixby) and my grandfather (John Bixby) were prolific writers and left behind a pretty complete accounting of their growing up years. I’d like to share two stories that could certainly tell my grandchildren a lot about their great grandfathers that they will never meet or met when they were very young and don’t remember them.
Story of the Early Years from John L. Bixby
John Bixby…tall boy in the back row
“I was born on a farm in Aurora Township, Steele County, Minnesota, December 26, 1882. Eventually I had 3 brothers and 2 sisters: Jacob, Lottie, Abraham, Isaac and Gertrude. The winter of 1882-1883 was a severe one with deep snow and blocked roads. That is the reason I arrived one day late for Christmas!
The first 6 years of my life are pretty much a blank as I remember them now, but I must have grown at a tremendous rate for before I was eight years old, I was raking hay with old Nellie (our work horse) and the new self-dump rake. That fall I was plowing with four big horses and the 2-wheel sulky plow.
The years from 1888 to 1893 were spent in school and helping where I could on my father’s 240-acre farm. The school year back then was a 5 or 6-month term mostly during the winter. My father taught two of those winter terms, the first when I was six. During that winter we learned how to read a bit, count, add and subtract and write our names. When father taught, he would rise at 4:30, do a lot of farm chores, eat a hurried breakfast, pile us kids into the wagon or sleigh, pick up several more kids on the way, put his team in a nearby farmer’s barn and be ready to ring the bell at nine.”
A Memory of Tough Love from Grandpa Paul
Paul W. Bixby (1913-2012)
“When I was about eight-years-old I had a calf named Daisy. I had begged Dad to let the new-born Guernsey be mine, and promised to take care of it through the summer until a fall sale would bring dollars to buy my new shoes for school. She was too small to drink from the cattle tank so she was staked out in lush grass near the house. She depended on me for water. Mother had made it very clear that if I were to claim ownership, responsibility for chores also would be mine. Dad had agreed. All was good fun for a while but as the summer weeks passed, other interests lured me. More that once Mother had reminded me to carry water to Daisy.
One morning Mother, Dad and my baby sister Ruth were headed to town and I wanted to go too. It was always fun to go to town with its big grocery store and the Post Office. But going to town meant the chores had to be finished. Daisy couldn’t be left without fresh water.
That morning there had been a note of annoyance in Mom’s call about water. I dallied a bit with the new ‘invention’ I was working on in the shop and in what I thought was plenty of time I dropped my tools and started for the pump with my pail. However, that was when I realized I was too late to finish the chore and still go to town. They left without me!
I was crushed and cried like a baby. I filled the tub properly and sat under a tree to mope and slowly began wondering what Dad might say or do when he returned. When they finally returned, two-year-old Ruthie ran to meet me; Mom said Aunt Clara wondered where I was; Dad glanced at the water in Daisy’s tub and said nothing. Lesson learned…chores before fun!”
Capture Those Shared Stories and Memories
I think one of the most common things to happen when extended families gather over the holidays are the shared stories and memories. Take advantage by encouraging older folks to share these stories with the younger ones. They will never forget those special times.
I have begun the planning for a Christmas gift for my kids and grandkids. I hope to pull together about 25 of my favorite recipes to make each family a notebook (kind of like the recipe box my mother handed down to me!).
It seems my recipes are always a work in progress!
Unfortunately, I can’t just use copies of many of my recipes, because my stand mixer is larger than the ones my kids have and the quantities of things I make…like my oatmeal bread…won’t fit in their mixers. I’m not sure anyone has tried to make Bert’s chocolate chip cookies either…the volume of his single batch is huge!
So, today I pulled out my Oatmeal Bread recipe, an adapted Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Bread recipe and my basic Whole Wheat Bread recipe to see which ingredients needed to be adjusted.
My original Oatmeal Bread recipe made 3 (sometimes 4) loaves; I have an additional recipe that makes 6+ loaves of bread if I use our huge industrial mixer that Bert uses for his yearly cookie marathon.
I reduced the ingredients from the original Oatmeal Bread recipe to about 2/3 so my kids can make it with their smaller mixers. I took notes as I measured out the flour. I also had a handwritten recipe to make Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread using similar procedures, so I tried to show the additional ingredients if whole wheat flour is used.
Then I wanted to compare the Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread to the basic Whole Wheat Bread to see if using the oatmeal made a better loaf.
Here is the basic Whole Wheat Bread recipe. It also needed to be reduced, so you can see my notes. Instead of starting with the rolled oats, this basic recipe started by making a sponge with some flour and the yeast mixture.
The key ingredient when making all whole wheat bread is the addition of Vital Wheat Gluten flour. All-purpose flour has more gluten available because of processing. Whole wheat flour is not as processed so adding this extra powdered gluten makes it possible for the slice of bread to stick together and not crumble like a slice of cornbread.
Here is the package of Vital Wheat Gluten flour:
I ended up making two batches of bread…first the Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread and then the basic Whole Wheat Bread.
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread:
Basic Whole Wheat Bread:
The Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread slice is on the left. The basic Whole Wheat Bread slice is on the right.
They tasted pretty much the same…EXCEPT…the Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread on the left had a much lighter, more spongy texture. I think as long as I had rolled oats available, I would choose to make that one.
The next step is to formalize the recipes and instructions so they are ready for the Christmas notebooks! Next, I’ll move on to some of the cookie recipes…including Bert’s Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. The quantities of the ingredients when Bert uses our industrial mixer are huge…I don’t think anyone has tried to make a smaller batch. I’ll see what I can do!
Any time I start “downsizing” my space (my house, my sewing supplies, outgrown children’s toys, etc.) I realize the problem isn’t letting go of the item, it’s feeling that the story that goes with the item will be lost. That’s one reason sorting through someone else’s stuff is easier than doing our own…we don’t get bogged down in the “story.”
While I was collecting items for the Auxiliary yard sale two weeks ago, my daughter’s mother-in-law (MIL) wanted to donate a small table and two chairs that were made around 1978 by my son-in-law’s grandfather. It had been used by children and grandchildren and was taking up space in her home.
A special note written on the underside of the table held the memory:
This says, “To STEVE & CHRIS WITH LOVE–PAP PAP”
When I brought the table and chairs home to include them in the yard sale, I remembered how special the table was to her. So, while Steve and Chris had a few memories of the table, their mother had special memories that included memories of her father.
I decided to take some pictures of the table, chairs and message before they were sold at the yard sale.
Setting up a Tea Party
Several years ago, I had made some stuffed dogs honoring my daughter’s dog, Otis, and her mother-in-law’s dog, Max. Luckily, I had made a set for myself. The two dogs were best friends and spent time together.
Here is Otis:
and here is Max:
Here are their stuffed dogs:
Setting up the table, chairs and stuffed dogs worked pretty well:
After I took the picture, I added the inscription from the underside of the table and took another picture:
It certainly wasn’t professional-grade but this picture captured the basics. I sent the .jpg photo to Shutterfly and ordered an 8 x 10 and a few 5 x 7’s. Now, the MIL and Steve and Chris have photos that save the memory, without having to save the actual table. I think the photo accomplished what I was hoping would happen…the memory was saved for them. Consider using photographs to capture memories so downsizing is easier!
While I was sorting books for the yard sale last week, I took the time to look through my cookbooks. I realized I had cookbooks with recipes focused on plants, whole-grains, beans and meat. I’ve found good recipes buried in diet cookbooks for vegans, vegetarians and followers of a Keto diet. When I looked across the covers, I tried to figure out why these particular books appealed to me…no matter what foods I’m focused on.
The most recent book I picked up, Keto Power Bowls by Faith Gorsky, finally struck a chord! It seems most of the books on my shelf showcase a recipe in a bowl!
I’m sure the plain white bowls are necessary to display salad or soup in pictures, but I think I’m attracted to the concept of a meal in a bowl. So, whole grain recipes start with rice in the bowl with steamed vegetables on top, while the Keto Bowl starts with lettuce or cauliflower rice with cooked meat, onion and cheese on top.
What always sucks me in is the bowl concept! I love beautiful bowls! Curious, since my dishes are plain white. I’m always checking out handmade earthenware or ceramic bowls at antique stores or thrift shops. Frequently, they are not dishwasher safe. I’ve tried to restrain myself so I’m not stuck with dishes I have to wash by hand.
I finally went online and found some ceramic bowls for salad or pasta that could be fun. This set, from Amazon, made me smile:
These are a little bigger and deeper than the ones that come with my dishes:
Then I was looking at other choices…for soup…and ordered these (also dishwasher safe):
So, no matter what I feel like putting in the bowls, I can guarantee I will smile each time I use them!
We have a lovely row of Japanese Dogwood trees across our front yard. Most of the year they are like other deciduous trees with leaves in the spring that grow, turn colors and fall off in the fall.
Along about June, these trees have beautiful white flowers that look gorgeous when they all blossom at the same time.
The blossoms last several weeks and the center of each blossom is the seed pod. They continue to grow all summer and by October they turn a bright orange! Looks like little pumpkins all over the tree!
Just to show you the size of the seed pods, I picked a few.
I first thought I could collect a few and use them as decorations around the house…NOPE! Within a day or two they turned an ugly brown.
Bert also discovered when they fall to the ground and he runs the mower around the trees…they become splattering projectiles. What a mess!
Fall is definitely the time I see many recipes for apple desserts. I often get inspired to try, one more time, an apple pie, an apple crisp or even an apple cobbler. Unfortunately, I have yet to be successful with any of the standard recipes! I have no trouble cutting up the apples, but for some reason my finished products are runny and the toppings are flavor-less. Bert will eat any of my attempts, but it takes the fun out of it when I am unsuccessful…time after time!
Have I got a great apple recipe for you! I found this on www.allrecipes.com called French Apple Cake. This “cake” was easy to put together and made a nice flavorful dessert. Of course, it called for dark rum, so what do you expect!
Most every recipe I download I usually retype and reformat the instructions to be more like the ones in my Joy of Cooking cookbook. When instructions are given in sentence form, I end up either missing an ingredient or combining things in the wrong order. Here is the way I revised the recipe:
The first time I made this cake, I used a round cake pan. It worked, but once the cake was turned out on to a plate it was hard to cover it to put it in the refrigerator. this time I used a Corning-ware casserole dish that had a snap on plastic lid. Worked much better!
If you follow the recipe above, here are some pictures of the process:
Cut up 3 large apples into very small pieces. Keep covered with water until ready to add to the cake.
Melt a stick of butter and mix into the sugars.
When butter and sugars are mixed, add the 2 eggs and flour mixture. Beat until smooth.
Add 3 Tbsp of rum (optional) and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
Drain and fold in the apples until evenly mixed and transfer the batter to a buttered pan or casserole. Dust the top with sugar.
Bake for 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Remove cake from oven and let cool in the pan about 30 minutes.
If you used the cake pan, flip it out onto a pan, remove the parchment paper and flip again.
Top with cinnamon and sugar (or powdered sugar).
Check it out! Apples were perfect, cake made it not runny! Success! Next time I’ll leave out the rum, but Bert liked it!
One surprising and delightful result from our 2023 garden season was our success with growing a sweet potato plant in a big pot. It all started with one lonely sweet potato that was forgotten and had started to sprout on the kitchen table last spring.
Bert planted it in a huge pot by the patio and it wasn’t long before the plant made an appearance.
It survived munching by the wandering bunnies and finally made blossoms.
A few days ago, Bert dumped the whole pot into the wheel barrow. What a surprise! The whole pot was packed with roots and small sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, I was so excited to check it out I forgot to take a picture of it! Impressive!
We worked at ripping the mass of roots apart…and it was a solid mass! Here is what I saved from the roots. There were another two-dozen small sweet potatoes hanging from the roots…they were cute not worth the trouble to save.
Basically, I had one large, ordinary-looking sweet potato (on the right) and about a dozen weird shaped potatoes that I think I can clean up, cut into chunks and boil or roast.
When sliced into rounds they roasted quickly. The skins were thin and helped to make them crunchy!
So, that was a fun addition to the garden this year. Maybe next year we should plant a sweet potato in the fenced garden by the patio so it could spread out! We’ll see!
