Pioneer Woman at Heart

Hubby's birthday is coming up soon, and has put in a request for flourless brownies, topped with organic vanilla ice cream, and of course whiskey butterscotch sauce.   I whipped up a batch of sauce before the weekend, so I could have that ready.  Not sure what the birthday dinner will entail just yet, but I'll be guessing he'll ask for tacos.  Maybe. 

We have three barn cats.  One is been getting on my nerves lately.  I keep finding her sitting in my thyme, flattening it, and preventing new spring growth.  Grr. I have since "skewered" the thyme, and after this rain I can finally weed it.  It looks terrible.

I spent yesterday afternoon driving the 30 mile round trip to the "big city."  I delivered meals, to not only Dad, but Mom too.  I had s pent a few days in the kitchen with all four burn ers going and one crock pot.  I always deliver a "breakfast" meal to Dad too.  Meals included a new recipe ~ Creamy Sweet Potato Salad.  Have you ever made a potato salad with sweet potatoes?  This was a first for me.  Easy and delicious.  I t went very fast too. I know everyone but the one "vege t arian" daughter (who won't eat sweet pota toes) loved it.  I'm still p ushing her to at lea st tast e it.  If there is any left over today. I can't say I followed it exactly, bu t pretty close. You bake the diced sweet potatoes f irst.

Just before the rain arrived, I managed to set the last two rain barrels in place, get laundry off the line and dinner on the table.  I finally got around to washing a few aprons and my pastry clo th.

Hubby and I had a very pro sperous weekend.  We started back to cutting wood.   Boy it felt good to get a start on it early spring this year.  I 've been pushing for that for several year s n ow. I think even Hubby was happy to get an early start.

I started the day yesterday by mixing up and baking a carrot cake for Son .  It calls for baby food carrots.  We love it because it's dense.  I am able to locate organic, non-gmo baby food at our local store I made a batch of homemade tortillas with lard.   My puppies are now officially way over board spoiled.

Our asparagus is coming in now.  We are excited and can't wait to have a grill out and enjoy it.  I do have to share something though.  Remember how Hubby ran over my heirloom bean plants with the lawn mower one year?  Chasing chickens?  Remember the year he picked all of my pinto beans when he thought they were string beans?  He picked every single one of them.

Spring is finally here, so the new door mat is now out.  I have another on for the camper too. Thi s is our first year to have so many b l oss oms on the peach tre e.  I am hopeful this year.  The snow did not cause any harm.

Although posting late today (due to work load today), I'm joining Happy Homemaker Monday.  

Sunday my morning started in muck books, then my afternoon in biker boots, then to the evening with my apron, then back to biker boots, and las tly in muck boots .  We never made it to the garden, ha ha!  It's still too wet.  I checked it early, while Hubby and Son made a trip to recycling, just to be sure we stayed on track for the day. My morning started with this. Hubby was teaching Son how to use the riding mower, and I went running frantically to ask them to stop, and to wait. Hubby helped.  Although reluctantly, as he was eager to take me on my first motorcycle ride.

Organic gum?  We gave this brand a taste test.  It's good at first, but doesn't last long. It gets hard to chew too quickly.  It's gmo free, made in the USA, all natura l f lavors etc.  It is a bit over $2.00 and I counted 29 pieces inside.  It's t asty, but expensive for how long it lasts. I've been working in my herb garden , w eeding and getting it ready for planting.  I uncovered my cilantro, and parsley, so no replanting needed for those.  It will take me a few more days (or more ) to get it spiffed up again.

Note:  Blogger must be having some issues right now. I keep having trou ble just si gning in .  T hey are also post ing a no tice that may be show ing up a t the top of m y blog, regarding cookies .   The sun is shining and the squishy ground is drying up, so out to the barn I went for a good coop cleaning.  I had to laugh.  Both goats came running into the barn and decided to have long conversations with me while I worked.  I love those little boogers. This is a blurry photo, but since I had a lot of English walnuts, I toasted 2 cups (350°F for about 8 minutes).

Tuesday I spent less time in the kitchen.  Kin d of.  The sun was out and the temperature was nice, so out went the laundry. Meanwhile, inside, I boiled eggs and bake d a few loaves of white bread.  I figured I needed a break at dinner so it was egg s alad, homemade bread, salad on the side and whatever fruit we had.  I love the s mell of bread baking. 

I had one more butternut squash to use, and decided to make a recipe that is in one of my Root Cellar books. Warning:  lo ng blog post again (sorry) Hubby and I took a road trip Sunday, and I took along my Root Cellar book.  He is motivated more now that ever to get things done around here. Why?

The weekend was pretty prosperous.  Hubby needs a motorcycle helmet, so he offered to tote the younger two around for their needs (one is attending prom next month), while I stayed home. Although two kiddos were out, two were also in.  That gave me more dog walkers, so I stocked up on homemade condensed cheddar soup.  Two more "c a ns" made it to the freezer.

I had a nice blog post ready to post, with this photo, but the stor y quickly changed.  Zuri had been sleeping on the new rug, and kind of took it over from the other dogs.  It made me smile that she liked the warmth and comfort of it.  And th e fact she would stay out from under my feet. However......

As I crocheted and watched the news,  was hoping that the weather forecast was wrong (as it is most times).  They were right.  Well, right on one thing - snow.  The weather man kept stating to watch for "thunder snow."  I didn't see rain or hear thunder, but the white stuff returned.  It's already melting, so I'm not worried.  Or should I be?  It will be a low 20°F tonight.  And more rain.  And more snow.   It is nice to see it so bright out today, but by Wednesday it should be gone.  It rained for 3-4 days straight before this arrived, so it's a swamp out there (soon to be an ice rink).  Good thing I have spikes for my boots too. 

We've been having weird weather again.   It's cold, cloudy, raining and a few spurts of hail.  We do not need more rain, but my garlic loves it.   I was a bit flabbergasted yesterday morning, when I realized I had nothing to blog about (other than the weather).  One daughter joked she would do something funny, but sadly got on the school bus and left. There I was, staring into cyberspace, sucking down strong coffee, attempting to will myself into a long walk on the treadmill, when it hit me - bagels.

Our daughter named the one on the left "Dallas."  Both Dallas and Jackson are enjoying the grass already.  Although this week has been cold, they love it here.  Dallas is v ery f riendly, but Ja c k son i s a bit tim id yet. I can tell already they know who "Mom" is as well.  As soon as Daughter walks near the barn (where they can see her approaching), they run inside to her.  Of course she is the food supplier, so they know.  So funny to see them so attached to her already.

Zuri is not getting much larger in the way of height, but getting muscular.  She's very curious of everything around here outside and inside.  She has a very particular "stranger danger" bark as well as King.  You can't sneak past them without them hearing you.  She gets along with the cats, but hasn't quite understood the goats yet.  King wants to lick the goats and give them kisses.

I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom, for Happy Homemaker Monday.  Enjoy! Breakfast time....what is on the plate this morning. . . ~ organic toast with organic peanut butter, coffee (I got a late start, and a sluggish one)

My husband is a very hard working man.  We often sacrifice your life for the needs of our kids.  What parent doesn't? We spend our hard earned money on cars, repairs, school,clothing, school trips to D.C., bicycles, skate boards, pets, swimming lessons, horse riding lessons, musical instruments and lessons, voice lessons, college, and so many other wants and needs.  Life goes by too fast, and before we realize we haven't done anything for ourselves (but hard work). We have gotten the puppies for us, but they are family dogs too.  We also take more time for our marriage, now that the kids are older.  So what's next?

We are still messing around with baked macaroni and cheese recipes.   This one was required canned condensed cheddar soup, so I made some from scratch. Th e recipe I u sed was pretty simple.  It does not contain chopped onion, o r breaded topping (wh ich I prefer), and it was very creamy.  Hubby is stuck on a very old recipe that my Mom gave me using (gulp ) Velve eta.  I keep trying to tell him it's not food, so this recipe m ay be the one to con vince him to ditch the bad so-called cheese.  We'll do the reheat test today an d see if it reheats creamy.  It taste d much, much better than the cro ck pot recipe I make using ricotta.  You could play around with other cheeses with this rec i pe too.  I ma y be typing it up to sh are.

I've been doing some more deep cleaning. Dumping drawers, sor ting, purging, tossing, re-organizing.  I'm purging like a mad woman this year. I saved t hose days for rainy days. And look at this.  I don't think I need any new bandan as for outdoor work and camping this year.  Ha!  They are all was hed and ready for the sea son.

I have been searching for a replacement bulb for this battery operated camping lantern for two years.