"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

This and That


Most of our days here have been snow covered, and no sunshine.  We are tickled pink, when we do get some sunshine.

Raise your hand if you put on 14 layers of outerwear, then trudged thru mountains and hill-slides of snow and ice to tend your hens, came back inside and removed the layers to realize you forgot to get the mail from the mailbox?  Yep.  My hand is up, ha ha!  I'll chalk it in as exercise.

I know you are probably reading this and thinking, "this blog can't get any more entertaining" ha ha!  Well, it can.

The hubster strikes again.  He wanted to know if we still had some mini tubes of krazy glue to fix something.  I dug around his "catch all" drawer in the kitchen to take a look-see.  

First, the drawer is "his" because he puts anything in there after completing a home repair/job when he is too lazy tired to put it away where it belongs.

Second, my hands came back out of a corner of the drawer, all purple and goopy.  He put a small canister of purple primer in the said drawer, and the lid was not tight.  Hmpf!  It spilled all over, and is not meant for bare hands.  Nor for a kitchen drawer.   What a mess.  I am pretty sure, after a good scolding, he won't do that again (but most likely will).


I've also have more days than I'd like, where it's been super busy "kitchen" days, followed by a mountain of dirty dishes.  Anyone who cooks/bakes from scratch is going to have dirty dishes in a mass form.



The feed store peas are sprouting nicely for the ladies (chickens).

New recipes tried. . .
Lima Bean and Ham Soup.

I used dried beans as the recipe stated.  I went by the recipe online, shared by Just a Pinch Recipes.  Don't skip the bacon in this soup.  We loved it!  Seasoning of course is thyme and oregano from the herb garden.  

The lima beans have left the cupboard I am "baking/cooking" my way out of now.  I do believe this is the very first time to even use dried lima beans.  It's not a regular go-to bean, so it was fun to try this soup.

I adjusted the soup to a crockpot soup.  Tip:  Plan this soup the day after you make bacon for breakfast, and save 4 strips for the soup.  Save your ham bones from the holidays for winter soups like this.

Jalapeno cornbread.  I think this is the second new version to try.  My husband said, "this is the best cornbread ever!" when he devoured it.  It contains honey, and a small bit of brown sugar, but it is all real ingredients.  I'll have an update on this, as we compare it to one more new recipe in the near future.


I used our home canned pickled jalapenos for this recipe.  I love a recipe that not only utilizes something I canned, but also the brine in which it's canned in.





Current larger crochet afghan.  It's about 36 inches by 36 inches right now.   I am going to research a new lap afghan pattern for the next donation blanket, but I may have enough scrap yarns (again) to whip up a scrap yarn lapghan first.

I called about my back ordered yarn, that was due to ship back in December, then gain in late January.  They are saying it's due to ship in March now.  It's cotton yarn, so I hope this is not how it will be locating yarn for a project.

This and That  ©  February 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart









 

19 comments:

Faith said...

I’ve been ordering yarn from Mary Maxim good turn around time. I buy from Hobby Lobby too. I’m over the snow. Buckeye Chuck says we’ll have an early spring🙄

Jeanna said...

Your '14 layers....' made me laugh. Sounds like something I would do. We had sunshine yesterday and it was so pretty shining on all the snow. Alas, today is cloudy again. I've never made ham and bean soup with lima beans. I always use navy beans but good to know the limas are good as well. Jalapeno cornbread is delish but we do not have it often. I love the colors in your afghan. Are those popcorn stitches? I made daughter's baby afghan with those stitches. Sorry to hear about the delayed shipping of your yarn. So frustrating!

❤️ Debby said...

Oh I really like that afghan. The cornbread sounds good too. Lately it seems my kitchen just is always doing some cooking, baking, simmering - I long for the days of bare kitchen counters! Wow I wonder how long that would last?

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Faith, that is good to know. I will look at that and their shipping costs. An early spring would be grand.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Jeanna, yes there are popcorn stitches in the pattern. It's on Ravelry I think. We do not have cornbread often, but I wanted to try the recipes that used the home canned pickled jalapenos. I had some canned. The soup was pretty good.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Debby, you gave me a chuckle on the counters being bare. I'm betting mine will be bare only if I'm eating at someone else's house or on a trip ha ha!

Betsy said...

I like your colors chosen for the blanket. So pretty. That pattern is at it's best when made with different colors rather than solids. take care
Blessings,
Betsy

Far Side of Fifty said...

what a pretty afghan!

HIBISCUS HOUSE said...

It has been an experience here in SC going to take care of the chickens, dog and cat with snow here. We did have a fun dry flaky snow which made it so much fun and no power outages! You are so busy and I laughed when you said you put your hands into hubster's drawer. Gosh you're brave, I'd be afraid to stick a 10 ft pole in Chuck's lol...Heck yeah I do understand the mountain of dishes since most of my cooking is also all homemade and at times I've been know to wash 10 sink loads in a day...whew...Love you girl stay warm! Dolly

HIBISCUS HOUSE said...

I forgot and didn't want to not let you know your crochet afghan is gorgeous!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Betsy, I agree, and thank you for sharing the resource for the pattern. It is probably the most intriguing, and textured pattern I have done.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Far Side of Fifty, thank you.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Dolly, I sure hope you all are done with power outages. I'm sure that's no fun along with the weather itself. Yeah, I am pretty sure we are out of krazy glue too, ha ha! That drawer is a mess, but I'm sure he can find things (ha ha!).

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Dolly, thank you!

Faith said...

Re: Mennonite Girls can cook, I thought I might do that to before I buy. However my library and we 5 within 2 miles, really don't carry books anymore, the shelves are getting leaner and leaner, and you have to wait IF they have it all. I hope you can find one. It was 12.36 at Amazon.

Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage said...

Such a pretty afghan! I didn't do any canning last year. My stove was on the blink for most of the year. I made due with crockpots, electric skillets and such. I got a new stove top for Thanksgiving. Thank you Jesus!

Linda's Relaxing Lair said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Faith, that is not a bad price at all for that cookbook.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage, so glad you got a new stove. Thanks. The afghan is perfect project for this cold weather we are having.