Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I have an update on the taste testing of the trial size jar of Christmas Jam.  It's delicious !  However, when I spread it out on the sourdough toast, it appeared more like jelly than jam.  I do plan to look for a recipe to can this myself, and reduced sugar if I can find one.   Sharing the label in case anyone has a recipe to can jam similar to these ingredients. Note:  After drafting this post, I read most recipes state that you puree the fruit, hence the jelly-like spread.   Does anyone have a tried and true recipe with such ingredients?  I do not see a "Ball" recipe in my books at home.  It seems as if every new store we visit on any getaway trips, or day trips is selling Christmas decorations.  Maybe I am just noticing it this year?  Maybe. However, even though it's now March, I am finding that the stores are not reducing the prices on the Christmas related items. I bought myself a new pair of Christmas earrings - h...

  The process to make homemade vanilla requires vodka.   Here is how I make ours. 1 cup vodka (I use a good quality brand, organic) 5 organic vanilla beans, cut in half and sliced open Place the ingredients into a glass jar, and shake.  Keep in a dark, cool location, and shake often, letting the jars infuse for several weeks.  Strain and store in amber bottles to use for baking. I buy my vanilla beans online, but they have gone up in price like everything else.  Some stores offer organic vodka, while others do not. I use good quality vodka for the making of our vanilla extract. Homemade vanilla extract makes a nice homemade gift. You can buy amber bottles online, or at some health stores, and add a homemade label. Homemade Vanilla Extract  ©  March 2025 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

  I have resurrected a blog post draft from 2018!  Crazy how some of these drafts slipped through my days. I have been using nettle as a nutritional tea, allergy tea, and medicinal tea for years.  According to my research, stinging nettle is a powerhouse of goodness.  You can read about it in many free books from the library (or trusted/reliable sources online). I have started a nettle (stinging nettle) infused oil to eventually use.  We will be using it to make salad dressings and drizzling on vegetables. It can also be used for sore muscles/sore joints, and it can be used to make a nettle cream.  Lots of possibilities with nettle oil.  I made ours with organic olive oil, as we use that for our summer salads. Nettle Infused Oil   ©  March 2025 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

  The weather is 19°F this morning, as I post this blog post today.  Brr.  I sure hope it warms up, but if not, it's a good day to bake something. I used my larger cookie scoop, and used the back of it to spread the cookie out a bit. One of the kids wanted a healthy banana cookie recipe, and I have a few.  I had to dig this one out and make to see if it was one of my keeper recipes (I have a habit of not taking notes). It's a soft cookie - no flour, no sugar. 3 ripe bananas, organic, mashed 2 cups of organic old fashioned oats 1 cup of finely diced apple or dates (I used half of both for this batch, using organic apples/dates) 1/3 cup organic canola oil * 1 tsp. homemade vanilla extract 1 1/2 tsp. organic cinnamon A few dashes or so of organic nutmeg Mix, drop on parchment paper line baking sheets, and bake for 20 minutes.  Cool on a rack.  I let these sit on the baking sheets a bit after taking out of the oven. I had larger bananas, so they needed a bit mo...

  I found a few printed recipes in the back of my binder, when I changed them out to new binders recently.  I found a recipe I had printed back in July of 2021, and gave it a try (without reading any reviews).  Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole. It's delicious.  However, the next time I make this, I will finely dice the sweet potatoes, roast them, and then layer it all to bake.  I found the shredded sweet potatoes gave it a "mushy" bottom texture.  It is very light, and not a "heavy" breakfast.   The only thing I did different, was that I used real meat instead of the "vegetarian" meat the recipe called for.  Oh, I also added 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground garlic (homemade) for added flavor and some salt and pepper. I found it strange that the recipe did not call for any seasoning at all.  The recipe is still online at allrecipes. Tidbits. . . We woke up to 21°F this morning.  The cold has returned, but thankfully no snow this March (like...

  The weather has been bringing us some of the most enjoyable Spring weather days lately.  The weather is also bringing coyotes thru the area (we heard them the other morning).  Today it's starting at 39°F with possible snow (yes, I said snow, ha ha!), but tomorrow it is to start out as low as 26°F.  It's hard to believe I sat on the porch and read a book for a bit in almost 70 degree weather yesterday.    It's typical Spring weather here, and even with the up's and down's.  We had rain showers last night, with thunderstorms.  It will be fun to see what Mother Nature brings the rest of the day today.  If it's cold enough, I may be seasoning my new pan. I'm finally putting the edge on the the current baby blanket.  The mother is due about May, so I'm happy to be finishing it up. I feel like this blanket took a long time to work on.  However, as the weather is changing, it's hard to find time to read or to crochet.  We are taking...

  It's a "this and that" sort of post today.  It seems to be that in-between season of slowly emerging from winter resting to spring activities.  The weather continues go all over the map. We purchased this popcorn seasoning last year sometime, and the bottle is about empty.  I just now realized it has fennel in it.  Anyway, we cannot locate it in any stores, and apparently it's made in Indiana.  I'm sure it's for sale on Amazon, but I'd like to find a recipe to make this myself.  We love popcorn as a snack, and often times after a hot day in the garden, alongside a cold iced tea. We love this seasoning, as it is not super salty, and offers the herbs for healthy flavorings (added health benefits).  I've sent an email off to inquire within a store.  I may be experimenting with my own homegrown herbs, if we cannot locate it again.   Current puzzle.  Nothing news-worthy going on, other than we are getting outside more often as the...

  We enjoyed our 78°F days, but then the weekend brought us rain. The wind was terrible, but we still had breaks in the day to do some outdoor adventuring.  We have a tree down, and a few large tree limbs down due to the high winds.  Monday morning it was 21°F!  A big swing in temperature for us. If you saw my post about the "blind date" with a puzzle, I have some news about that.  My husband said to toss it in the garbage and chalk it up as we were duped in the purchase. I however, took photos, and contacted the store we purchased  it at.  Mind you, we bought it January 31st, and we just finished it.  I was nice and polite, but to the point about our disappointment on the expense and product.  The store responded back to me.  I'm told they purchase them from a vendor from California, and were as disappointed as we were.  She said they were supposed to all be "new" puzzles.  I explained to her that that the box was even falling...

  New Recipe Tried?  I had a recipe in the lineup to try, but after reading the "notes" I decided not to try it.  It was a Puppy Chow recipe, but used freshly made popcorn vs. store bought cereal.  It said to store it in the freezer and consume straight from the freezer.  Not really a winter go-to Christmas treat if you ask me.  The recipe stated the popcorn goes soft after you coat it, so hence we ditched the idea. However, I purchased a trial size of Christmas Jam to try.  I know it won't taste like a home canned jam, but if we like the taste, I may look into any good recipes similar to it. We do can a jelly at Christmas that everyone absolutely loves - it's a cinnamon/candy apple flavored jelly.  It's definitely not made with healthy ingredients (ha ha!), but I do not know one person who does not like it at Christmas. The jelly is called Cinnamon Cider Jelly - Recipe on my blog. I finally convinced my husband that we needed to visit the largest...

Spring air is such an intoxicating aroma.  The best part of March is being able to open the windows and let in fresh air.  However, this weekend is bringing in stormy weather.   First sign of spring daffodils popping up.  They are coming in much later this spring. Green onions in the herb garden are starting to spring back into delicious-ness. Spring is in the Air  ©  March 2025 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

  We have been having some beautiful weather here lately.  I however, have not put laundry out on the line, as we call this "bird" season.  Flocks of them are in the area, so as soon as they move on out, I will be able to enjoy the clothesline once again. We purchased a "blind date" with a puzzle back on January 31st, from an area local store, while out on a getaway.  However, we paid $18.00 for this puzzle, and when we got it home, it was a used puzzle (box was falling apart).  I never saw any signage that stated the puzzles were used, so my husband insisted we purchase a 1,000 piece one.   Well, we finished the puzzle finally.  (puzzle is a portrait by a famous artist) There were two puzzle pieces in the box that did not even go to the puzzle. As we predicted, there were pieces missing from the puzzle.  We plan to donate the puzzle pieces to a place that recycles them with art/crafts.  Very disappointed.  We won't make this mistak...