This and That ~ Roasted Spaghetti Squash Seeds

 

I enjoyed yet another spectacular sunrise, and this particular day the temperture got up to 80°F.  I don't remember November ever getting that warm before.

I'm am enjoying the "down" time here lately too.  I spent more time searching the local library catalog, and have ordered a few books via their interloan borrowing system.

I even have had some "me" time, and finished another lap afghan.  It is the right width at the bottom.  It looks weird due to the angle I was holding the camera.  Anyway, another one done.

I cook from scratch, so most days here involve some sort of  kitchen duty, so I relish leftover days.  I tried a new recipe for pumpkin oat pancakes.  The chickens are still on hiatus, so I switch to oatmeal bakes, steel cut oats, pancakes, waffles, or anything using less eggs.  Bacon is very expensive now, so we have been swapping it with Canadian bacon.

(one of the recipes - Tahini Date cookies, recipe from Thrive Market)

I had a day with dates, and made us two recipes to enjoy for the week.  These medjool dates are also getting expensive, but are so healthy.

I also did something new this year - roasted spaghetti squash seeds (waste nothing).  The chickens got their fair share, but we are enjoying these for the first time.  We typically only roast the pumpkin seeds.

We woke up to rain this morning.  Humidity is 86%.  I'm also taking care of my over stressed husband, who woke up abruptly sick today (people at his work place are sick).  His temperature was 104.2° so he's being cared for, and sipping some feverfew tea.  I'm hoping he can keep it down.  

The up and down weather can play a part in fall sicknesses unfortunately.  It's another warm day here, but there may be some homemade chicken and rice soup, or chicken and noodle soup getting made.

I thought I shared a recipe for a soup starter in a jar gift type recipe, but cannot find it.  I think it was for a chicken and rice soup starter.  I'll be looking around for that, as it sounds like it may be useful.

This and That ~ Roasted Spaghetti Squash Seeds © November 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Reset ~ Recharge

It wasn't really planned, but the first day of November was dedicated to resetting my home and health, and recharging for the fall/winter chores.

The travel coffee maker (single, but cheap brand) was cleaned up and put away.  The cooler we traveled often with, was also put away.  Counters completely cleaned off and sanitized (I like my homemade 4 Thieves cleaner), extra purchased dry goods were canned and vacuumed sealed, travel totes with paper plates etc. were put back in storage, and the suitcase put back in storage.

I have two absorbant coffee pot/grinder mats.  While one is being washed the other is put out.  It really helps keep the coffee pot area tidy.  We like coffee.

I double checked canning supplies, expiration dates on pectin, and so forth.  Checked the winter tea supply, and even dehydrated more sage.

I had a half bag of sugar sitting on the counter for a few weeks, and finally put it canning jars, and vacuum sealed them.  I did not can a lot of my regular condiments this year, due to lack of garden harvest, and it needed to be stored for future use.

I did the same with some extra oats I purchased as well.  I am, however, running out of wide-mouth canning jars.

There is nothing better, than to wake up to a spic n' span cleaned up kitchen.  It was then, that I could light a candle, relax, re-write my to-do lists, and really recharge physically and mentally.

 Kitchen Tip:  Did you know that if you are out of baking soda, you can substitute 3 teaspoons of baking powder for 1 teaspoon of baking soda?  

I just learned this, but typically we have more baking soda on hand than powder.  I thought I would share this tip, but I have not needed to try it.

The first Sunday morning (time change for us), despite it being 36°F out, I took my coffee to the porch to watch the sunrise.  There were 4 deer that came out for viewing.  There were 3 bucks and a doe grazing in a harvested corn field. You can see the bigger buck the very right.  We saw two more later in the mid-morning (doe and a buck).

We finally did a garage clean out.  Whew!  I could not believe how much we were able to donate, give away and toss out.  It really was a big mess in there.  I even moved all of my empty plastic drawers (used to store yarn) out there to organize things.  

No menu plan yet this week, but I came up with the most delicous breakfast burrito with leftovers.  You could eat this as a scramble too.

(husband added hot sauce to his, but you could also add jalapeno if you froze any, or even fire powder)

I used leftover scrambled eggs from my husband's to-go breakfast, diced up leftover brisket, cooked half of a butternut squash that was already cubed, added bell pepper, onion, garlic, rosemary and sage.  We added just a bit of shredded cheddar cheese.  It turned out so good, and we wasted zero leftovers

The to-do list is pretty much the typical list for November, although much of it was done in October last year.  We are finally getting rain this morning, and we are expecting a warmer month.  I'm still waiting on cooler days to roast and preserve pumpkins, spaghetti squash, acron squash, etc.  I have tinctures in the making, and oils infusing for salve making, so the month will not be idle (but yet a much slower pace).

Until next time.  Toodles.

Reset ~ Recharge © November 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Last Day of October - New Recipes Tried and End of Garden Tidbits

Grab a cup of java.  I apologize, this post ended up too long.

 October was a busy month for us.  We had so many plans, our plans had plans.  Whew!   Three weddings - one in another state up on a hill (they drove us up with a tractor and wagon) over looking a river, the other on a hill at a castle, and the third we didn't make it to.

There were car shows, trunk or treats for the littles, a long distance trip to re-stock baking/cooking supplies (it's hard to find organic non-gmo in our area), garden work,  yard work and more.  

One thing that did not happen, was our last camping trip, and it's probably a good thing considering.  The state put a burn ban on the campground, and the nights were down to the 40's.  The whole point to go camping (for us anyway) is to go off grid, enjoy nature, campfire cook, and enjoy an evening campire.  No being allowed to have a campfire, was the ticker that crossed the last camping trip off the calendar.

Our days are finally approaching a slowdown (yippee!) for us here on homestead.  My kitchen table overflows with squash and pumpkin to roast and freeze, but if you check our weather pattern below, it's been too hot to heat up the kitchen this week.

Weather

October 14th - 55°F High, 40°F Low, Rain, Cloudy

October 16th - Woke up to 37°F (windchill 32°F, Freeze Warning) with a high of 55°F

October 17th - Woke up to 33°F (Freeze Warning), High of 61°F, Sunny 

October 21st - 81°F High, 49°F Low

October 24th - Woke up to 37°F, with a high of 62°F

October 25th - Woke up to 41°F and rain for the first time this month, high of 68°F.

October 28th - 32°F in the morning, High of 66°F, Sunny

October 29th - 81°F high, 63°F low, very windy

October 30th - 80°F High, 67°F Low, Cloudy, Warning day for unharvested crop fires due to drought

October 31st - woke up to 66°F (feels like 76°F due to 75% humidity), forecasted high of 77°F with possible rain (I will believe the rain when we see it - still in a drought here)

I tested our first round of frozen breakfast burritos, that I made late September.  I wanted to make sure we had a breakfast for Monday mornings, after busy weekends and such.  Oddly, I have never frozen breakfast burritos.  I thought it would be better than sandwiches.  Anyway, they tasted great and came in handy all month.  I'd like to try freezing an egg combo muffin of some sort next.

Something else I did during our crazy month. . .

I used a pill keeper to store my daily vitamins in, so when we were on the "run" going places I had them in this handy container to simply grab and go.

The next plan was to get some quick dinners in the freezer, other than stuffed bell peppers.  Typically, I freeze chili or other hearty soups that re-heat nicely.  We ended our bell pepper harvest (harvest was 203 this year) with stuffed bell pepper soup (using up an assortment of odd size peppers).  

Pie pumpkin harvest was pretty sad.  Two rotted, and only one grew to size.  It was a bad drought year for us.

We also planted a new pumpkin, and we got one from that harvest.  Crazy year for sure.  It is a Jarrahdale blue pumpkin.  It weighed in at 13 pounds 14.8 ounces.

The mashed potato squash harvest was a bit better than I thought.  Some of the squash were small, but overall, we are happy with our harvest.  

You can see one small spaghetti squash in that basket.  We actually had 3 out there, but 2 rotted.  Our drought year was a bit difficult this year.  Last year we harvested 9 and it lasted us all winter in the freezer (you can read about my post where I froze them all HERE).

Two types of sage.

It was a race against mother nature, but herbs were put up for winter.  Our freeze/frost came very early this year.  There are so many medicinal properties in so many herbs and wild growing "weeds" for our health.

The month of October brought us a bunch of pesky Minute Pirate Bugs.  They are tiny, but they are a pain in the rump.  They swarm and bite, and will leave you a nasty welt.  I tried to enjoy the porch on the warmer days, but the bugs were horrible.  I found that if I sprayed myself down with homemade bug spray, and then also burned a citronella candle, it helped keep them away.

New recipe tried!  We baked butternut squash fries for the first time, and oh my gosh they were delicious!  We didn't even want to make the dip for them.  The final coating is grated Parmasan Cheese.  I did learn from this, that I need to oil my parchment paper.  These will stick to the paper, and make it difficult to turn, but overall tasted wonderful.

The other new recipe we tried, is called Sweet Potato Chicken Patties, but I used ground turkey.  I'll be back to share the recipe if I can locate it again.  I love an "all real food" recipe.  These froze great too.  I accidently made the patties/burgers too thin, but I re-shaped them after they thawed.  Recipe said 3/4 of an inch thick, and I used our grill burger smasher tool. either way, these were delicious.

We also tried a new 3 bean salad.  The dressing is similar to other dressings, but overall we loved this one.  I used garden jalapenos for it.  The recipe is online from CleanFoodCrush.  It's called Marinated 3 Bean Salad.  There were two things I did not do as instructed by the recipe.  One, I used the juice of one entire lemon (it was maybe 1 Tbsp more juice), and two, I chopped up about 1/2 cup of olives vs. one entire cup.

Other days have been busy in the kitchen, or in the garden.  I have yet to replace my blender, so I made our basil pesto using my food processor instead.  I am just not happy with what I am seeing in stores.  I will keep looking.  

The garden was completely cleaned out and tomato stakes put away.  Our cheap fencing we put up for the green beans was finally taken down and rolled up for next year.  We have tilled it, and fall garlic was planted.

Flower beds are being weeded, as the leaves continued to drop. As of today, the geraniums in our hanging pots are still blooming.  It's crazy!  We've typically taken down dead plants by the end of Septemeber, and put up outside Christmas lights by now.  

Did we get any fun in our month of October?  Well, sort of.  In fact, I have a funny story about visiting an antique store.

We went into the store to look for a small table, and to simply look at kitchen chairs.  We walked by a shelf of used books and my husband randomly pulled a book about a donkey.  He said I should buy it and read it.  To humor him, I agreed.  As we walked to the cashier to pay for the $4 book,  I hear him say I could have a donkey too.  The excited me, turned around, only to see him laughing and holding a glass donkey!  Oh, he thinks he's is so funny some days.  We both got a laugh.  I still want a donkey, ha ha!

I have yet to read the book, as my husband (oddly) has already started reading it and said it is very good so far.  

 I am so happy that we can finally slow down, or rather get things done that need done.   Winter is approaching, where we spend more time inside, so I may be moving some furniture around, changing bed covers, washing curtains, and doing a deep cleaning here and there.

I finished the baby blanket with the new pattern (thanks to so much traveling this month).   The pattern is from the Crochet Crowd online, and the pattern is free.  I'll have to look up the actual name of it for you all.   I love it, but now I want to make one in blue, and I have zero baby yarn in blue ha ha!  Oh, boy.  I may have to sneak some yarn into the house.  

Lastly, I have questions for those who can and preserve. . 

I think someone here mentioned this to me before, but I cannot find it on my blog, but is there a stainless steel water bath canner that is better to buy?  Brand name or location to buy would be helpful in deciding on what to upgrade to.

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe, for making and freezing cold/flu bombs?  I have two recipes, but the comments for both say to change a lot of the recipe.  Anyone?  These are mixed up (lemon, garlic, honey etc.), strained, and frozen in ice cube trays, to drop into hot tea for relief during a cold or flu.

Best cookbooks for sourdough bread baking?  Believe or not, it's the one bread I have yet to even tackle, and I really want to do this.  Tips?  Suggestions?  What not to do?  Starter suggestions?

Last Day of October - New Recipes Tried and End of Garden Tidbits © October 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Homemade Facial Toner and Tidbits

 I have been making this homemade toner all year, and it is ridiculously easy to make.  It's great to use after a hot day of work outside, but overall I love it.  

You simply add 2-3 dried flowers to your witch hazel (double distilled, organic), and let it sit overnight, then add the last ingredient.  I store mine in amber bottles, but it is very pretty in clear glass jar.

The recipe is online, and it uses 3 ingredients -Butterfly Pea Flower and Witch hazel toner. 

Thank goodness it is that easy to make, because the days here are ridiculously commited to one thing or another. 

We had a few hours of one day to get supplies for the new coop.  I kid you not about this....

At Menards you walk to the way back to place your order for lumber, then take the paper all the way back up front and pay.  you then drive thru a gate and get your order yourself, and drive out as they check your order.

We literally got to the register, and my husband could not find our order paper.  That store is huge, and to re-trace our steps to get the paper?  Yeah, it didn't happen, and we left with just the half by half inch wire, screws, and other supplies.  No run building started yet.  Story of my life.

I have yet to replace my blender that quit working, and we are still looking for a new washer and dryer (or trying to when we can).  Say a prayer they both hold out until we find a reasonably priced set.  As for the blender, I spent some time reading reviews on them, and I still cannot find one to replace my old one with.   I have asked for suggestions, but with no answers.  The homesteading family online shared the blender they have (on Amazon it is over $300!!).

Our "to-do" list keeps growing, and continues to be pushed ahead.  However, I finally got the new keyfob programmed for one vehicle and a new key cut and chip programmed.  It was a lot less expensive too. In fact, had I not pushed this job so far back, I would not have located a more reasonable priced business to do this.  They even came to the house and it was done in about 30 minutes.

What's your favorite way to roast/cook delicata squash?  It's on the menu for next week (but plans can change ha ha!).

Not that I have time for it right now, but tell me about book clubs.  If you are attending one, share how you pick the books, where you decide to meet, and do you have food and beverages?  Do you really talk about the book, or do you end up talking about other things?  What time of day and day of the week do you pick?  Do you buy our books or borrow them from the library?  I have a lot of questions for a person who hasn't read a book since last May ha ha!  

I really need a "do nothing day" to get a break.  

What's the best way to store peeled boiled eggs?  I love to have boiled eggs on hand for a snack or quick breakfast/lunch.  The last time I peeled them, before putting in the refrigerator, I layered the bottom of a glass dish with paper towels and put a lid on it.  They seem to toughen up if I peel them, and store them that way.  Any suggestions?

Homemade Facial Toner and Tidbits  © October 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Comments in Spam

A quick apology to those who commented on my blog (as far as back as 2010!).  I just read Leigh's post about blogger randomly putting good comments in "SPAM" in comments automatically.  I have checked all of the comments, and was shocked that even my own comments were in the spam folder.  Be sure to check yours.  Read about it on 5 Acres and a Dream Blogspot. 

Comments in Spam  © October 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Hot Mess Express

 

Hot mess express checking in for a quick minute.  October has been, and still is a crammed month of commitments, projects and whatnot.  More so on the commitments (preventing other work to be done).

I feel like the days are so out of control, but I dug out my new jars and recipes.  I realized I had not dehydrated comfrey or plantain, and needed it for one recipe.  Of course, we just mowed too.

The kitchen is full of baskets of herbs and medicinal weeds, which are all waiting their moment in the dehydrator.

Our weather changed rapidly, so I am working quickly.  

Sticky notes to the rescue!  Without them, I would be a double hot mess express.  I finally made a phone call for a quote, that should have been done a year ago.  I was to complete that job today, but someone took the wrong vehicle to work this morning.

Purging continues, but not as productive as it should be.  Garage clean out remains on the to-do list (did I mention too many commitments this month?).

Of course, in the midst of trying to stay sane, and cooking/baking from scratch, it appears that many of my homemade baking items need refilled at once - pumpkin pie spice, taco seasoning, and vanilla extract etc.

Saw this deer as we returned home from the farm/feed store.  It was literally walking to us.  We have seen quite a bit of deer this year.

I would say, that I still have about 80% of the garden to pull yet.  I need to hire help possibly.

I have a few new recipes to hopefully share soon.  Like I said, it's been a wild and crazy month here.

Hot Mess Express  © October 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Chicken Feeder Cover Tip

 

Years ago, someone suggested to put an old funnel over the top of the chicken feeder, to keep the chickens from sitting on the top and poo'ing into the feeder.

Well, we finally found a metal funnel that fits over the feeder.  Considering we have not yet finished the new coop (story of my life, ha ha!) we had to come up with a solution.  

We did find some very old feeders at an antique store, but they were all rusted.  However, they had a metal piece in the center top, with a hook to hang them.  I will be searching more places to find them in decent shape.  Or we may build our own.  

Anyway, for now, the funnel is a perfect way to keep them from roosting at the top of the feeder.

Chicken Feeder Cover Tip © October 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart