Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I have had homemade granola bars on my to-do list for months, and have not gotten around to making a batch.  A daughter had requested the recipe, but I have made a few different ones over the years. My Mom gave me a recipe for peanut butter granola bars.  They require a cereal, but when I made them, I found an organic non-gmo cereal variety that worked with with them.  I have no idea if the cereal even exists anymore, but the recipe for those can be found HERE .  I do roast the nuts and oats in the oven, but it's not necessary. I use one of my measuring cup bottoms to press the mixture down into the pan, and fold the parchment over a bit to press down the edges.  Otherwise, it will stick your spatula or hands. Another variety of homemade granola bars, uses a bit of butter, and we do love this one too (more of a fruit/nut bar).  The recipe is posted HERE on my blog, but it does contain sugar (brown sugar).  I have not tried making them with monkf...

I hope you are enjoying the recipes lately.  I am sorry I am posting them after the holidays, but maybe it will spark motivation for next Christmas season.  Or for that matter, any time of the year. No, I am not turning my blog into a cooking blog ha ha!  It's winter, and there is not much going on that is "news" worthy, so you get to see some new or older recipe posts. (Before a weeding day, and they grew almost 6 feet tall!!) ...... and yes I do miss my garden shenanigans.  Oh man, this last season was a good one, and I will not forget how I would start my day with a good laugh.  Every time I went out to work in the garden, I would just laugh and laugh about the enormous squash plants we had.  Not to mention the enormous bounty we got from them. Something ate the tops off of a few of my bunching onions, that are in my herb garden.  Hm?  I will have to put a deer camera on it if it continues to come back.  The herb garden is very close to th...

  Angel Christmas Cookies.  Recipe is online , but I found this recipe in a book I read years ago - Aunt Dimity's Christmas, by Nancy Atherton.  We use the recipe for our traditional cut-out cookies at Christmas, but Christmas has passed, so I made them "winter" themed this year - snowflake cookies. I'm glad I went searching for the book on my blog, because the link does not work anymore, and the recipe has been changed over the years.   In the book, the recipe is called "Angel Cookies" because she makes them all angels.  I make all sorts of cut out shapes with the dough.  Very easy to make and you can make it the day before to chill the dough. The recipe states that if the dough is sticky to chill it, but every year we've made these cookies, we chill the dough.  I take half the dough out, cut the cookies, and take out more chilled dough as we bake them.  You can also chill this dough overnight. Did you know that if your dough is cold when yo...

  Sharing one of our favorite Christmas morning breakfast dishes (again).  However, I have made it for other occasions. The recipe is on my blog HERE .  I have made this with homemade bread, and it still turned out delicious.  Homemade sage sausage is good with this too. The best part of this breakfast recipe, is it is made the night before, covered and baked the next morning.  You could also use leftover ham, or bacon, but we've always made it with sausage. The recipe was given to me by a co-worker, many, many years ago. The weather here is still rain. It's also causing a muddy mess outside.  It's definitely been a warmer December this year. Egg Souffle © Dec 2023 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer Woman at Heart

  A winner in the "tried new" recipe category.  So good!  The only ingredient I did not add, was the red bell pepper, because I didn't have any in the freezer at the time.  I will be adding it and making this again.  A keeper recipe. The recipe is online at The Southern Lady Cooks - Slow Cooker Creamed Corn. If you freeze your corn off the cob with butter, you can use that and add less butter too.  I save bacon grease, so I used that, and already had some bacon cooked that was leftover from another meal.  The sugar could be left out too.  I mean, it's only 2 Tbsp, but we freeze our corn with butter and sugar so I can leave it out. A win-win recipe if you freeze your corn off the cob, and freeze your garden bell peppers.  Saving your bacon grease is always a frugal tip I share often. Sharing for those looking for a new side dish for your own meals, or for potluck meals.  I've tried other variations in the past, and we really like this on...

  The problem with winter gatherings with lots of people, are the germs that spread.  I had good intentions of cleaning the house, after the gathering we had here, and I failed.  I love my family, but with them come germs. By "clean" I mean to disinfect bathrooms, door knobs, and the like.   Not all hands get washed (e specially little hands when no one is watching) , and I had not gone anywhere other than the library.  My husband said to me, "I don't get it. You haven't been anywhere but the library."  Yep.  Also, he can bring germs home from work (as we have found out back in October). I caught a bug of some sort, which started with a runny nose, then sore throat and watery eyes etc.  I instinctively took Four Thieves Vinegar, but later remembered I made garlic fermented honey. I have been sipping hot teas with the garlic honey, and will report back as to if it helped shorten the length of this said bug or not.  I'm still finding reaso...

  I thought for sure, that I had posted the recipe for these cookies, but so far I have not located it on my blog.  So... Here is the recipe for Sour Cream Softies, a traditional Christmas cookie, that was passed down from my Mom. I had no idea where the recipe came from prior to my Mom, but she loved to sit and listen to a radio station, where recipes were shared (definitely a thing in the past that is not done today on the radio). It is possible she obtained it from the radio station, but I am not for certain. Sour Cream Softies 3 cups sifted all purpose flour (we use organic) 1 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 c. butter softened (we use organic) 1 1/2 c. sugar 2 eggs (we use farm fresh) 1 tsp. vanilla (I made this homemade) 1 cup (8 oz) sour cream (organic) Measure flour, salt baking powder, and soda into a sifter.  Cream butter with sugar until well blended.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Sift in flour mixture, alternating with sour cre...

  The aftermath of the Christmas gathering has all been cleaned up.  Dishes are washed and put away, the Christmas tablecloth removed and washed, living room debris picked up, floors swept and mopped.....the worst part of hosting is the clean up.  One thing I have learned, when someone says they are coming early to help, don't count on the help.  Two, don't count on people bringing what food they say they will bring.  Hence the dip I made at the last minute.   I also learned that the day after a gathering is the best morning to have a make-ahead breakfast ready to simply pop in the oven.  We did not, and I did regret not having one ready.  I will definitely remember next time. Finished!  Off the list now.  My husband's scarf is done. I mentioned we tried a new dip recipe - Sausage Artichoke Dip (The Southern Lady Cooks, link goes to the recipe online).  It is very good, although we think we may use "hot" breakfast sausage (or ...

Grab a cup of java this morning!  I didn't mean for the post to be so long today.  Ha ha!  Sorry folks.  Hope you enjoy it anyway.   No one had any advice on cleaning the tomato stains from the freezer containers.  I have now just accepted they will be future containers to freeze anything tomato.  I can't afford to throw them out and buy new ones (as one of my friends suggested). Do any of you have a gift in a jar idea for pint jars?  A recipe perhaps that most people in general will like?  I was thinking Mocha Coffee, but I'm still having trouble locating sugar free (non-gmo) peppermint syrup.  I can locate mini bottles of peppermint schnapps however (he he!).  Any ideas would be great, as it is late in the "game" this year.  Random thought:  I was looking for my stocking shelf hooks, and found one of the kids stockings.  I embroidered each kids name and glued them to the stocking with some trim.  It reminded me...

I had a rather long day yesterday, and I was outside later than usual.  I had to snap photos of the sunset.  I'm glad I did.  Right after I took these, the beautiful colors disappeared. I  opened the kitchen blinds early this morning, and before I had the time to post this, I got the chance to view the most beautiful sunrise this morning.  I was tempted to get my thick robe, put my coffee in my yeti cup and go out and sit to enjoy the entire sunrise.  I may be doing that in the future.  It was rather nice to be out there, with complete silence.  Not even a rooster from afar, nor a bird chirping.  It was rather nice. I do have to clean up my porch yet, so there is that reason to be out there.   We've had some rather warmer days lately too.  In the 50's which is rare for December.  It's definitely not sending any Christmas vibes, but I'll take the warmer weather.  We have more work to do on the chicken coop and other ar...