Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I have borrowed many cookbooks from the library, in search for a good "burger sauce" recipe.  In the process, I decided on one recipe to make homemade aioli for the very first time ever. I used yolks from our ladies (fresh of course), and used garlic that we grew in the garden. The recipe called for "vegetable oil" but I only had organic canola, olive oil, and a few others.  I decided on canola. Not calorie free obviously, but homemade and fresh.  Boy it was delicious on burgers we grilled with mushrooms, onions and swiss cheese.  So good! I'm still on the hunt for a different burger recipe.  We once visited a restaurant (many years ago), that had a sauce they called Mama Mia sauce (house made).  We are still looking for a sauce similar to that taste, but glad I gave the library some business and was motivated to make the garlic aioli. The cookbook the recipe is from (photo above).  There are many different aioli recipes by the way.  It's b...

  I have strained the elderberry/hibiscus honey.  It wasn't hard to do, but sort of a messy process.  The color is the same as the one we purchased to try, and the taste is pretty good.  The benefits even better. I may or may not be infusing other honey flavors.  We love to use lemon infused honey in any salad dressing that calls for honey and fresh lemon juice.   Infused honey is very giftable too.   Infused Honey ©  May 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart  

  It's 45°F out this morning.  The rain may have quit for a while, but the cold nights remain.  May is that way most years.  It could rain, snow, be 90°F, or a drought.  You just never know. I could not believe I picked this yesterday.  My goodness.  What a grand year for our asparagus. It's been a very good month, although we still have a few days to go.  We would have liked to have more done, but sometimes we just have to look for the good in what we think is not good.  I often times, have to remind myself. The good?  Cleavers are still growing, as well as more asparagus coming up.  The herb garden is looking grand, although I do need warmer days to drop parsley seeds, basil and more.  Two cilantro plants, that self-seeded, are still doing pretty well. Cool May Nights ©  May 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart  

  My 20 year old garden sign gave me a chuckle.  It is sort of how we felt after all that rain here.  The sign is broken, and it will be replaced.   Flower beds are weeded, rose bushes trimmed and flowers planted.  Whew!    The vegetable garden?  Not planted.  It is still, even with this heat here, way too wet.  I managed to weed out the rhubarb plants, but I think I carried about a pound of wet mud on my muck boots out of the garden.   We are still getting a few straggler asparagus.  The rain God's gave us a lot more chive blossoms, so I started another chive vinegar, and this one is with organic red wine vinegar.  It'll be great for summer salads and more.  I think we use red wine vinegar more often, but we now have both infused with chives (white wine and red wine vinegar). There really is no excuse to be so far behind, but I finally (yes, finally) got all the last 11 granny squares sewn on to my crochet ...

  A blind date book gift, that I received from someone last December.  I'm finally opening it, and I have already used the pampering eye mask.  In fact, I've already been using the post-it page markers too.  I have no information about the book or author, but I did see it has a 3.88 rating from Goodreads.  I have yet to even open the book to read, but it fun opening it and all the goodies that came with it.  I'll be enjoying the tea soon too. No rain yesterday, nor today (so far), and no rain in sight, so we may be drying out.  The evenings are running about 49 degrees, so it's still cooler out some evenings. We enjoyed, what may have been the last of our asparagus harvest this season.  It's been a wonderful year for asparagus too.  There wasn't a large amount of the asparagus, so we grilled it with other vegetables. Other than the green onion, the herb garden is springing back to life with the recent rain.  Everything is growing in the ...

  The notorious wren is back.  She's not making a nest in the flower pot pictured above, but she picked the same location of a hanging flower basket for her nest again. The hummingbirds are back too.  I did not have a camera on hand, but they are enjoying the early blooms already. We just may get to dry out for a day, but after this morning's rain.  At least for a day or maybe even two, before it returns (again). There is always something good in everything.  Including frustrating times, or moments, like days and days of rainfall. I finished another book, tried another new treat recipe (more to try), and actually relaxed for once.  My husband grilled us the most delicious burgers too.  We had chopped up mushrooms and such, for camping, and they made the best swiss mushroom burgers I have ever had.  Speaking of which, it reminded me I still have homemade garlic scape butter in the freezer to use up too. I harvested more cleavers in between downpour...

Whelp.  It rained and rained and rained here.  We are getting a slight break this morning, but we are saturated.  Rain returns in a very short bit, and then off and on all day (again).  If we are lucky, the rain will stop come Monday.  Maybe.  Many area festivals are canceling, or have already canceled.  On the bright side, it's watering the new trees we planted, and flower bushes, but I do have one red raspberry plant to plant too. The Bad:  Our weekend camping trip was canceled.     It's not camping if we cannot have a campfire, go hiking or biking and/or campfire cook, or even go fishing.  Stuck in the camper would be zero fun (in our current camper anyway).   Yes, we we have an awning, but the rain was just too much, and our camper is small.  It's not a comfortable place to be when it's raining out.  In fact, we had more seating room in our 7 person pop-up camper than we do in our current hard sided camp...

  For some reason, the two humans walking around here, named me Alvin.  I love to torment the woman!  I sort of crawl up the downspout drain, and when she's weeding in her flower beds, I like to zip on down the spout and give her a fright. He he!   I also love to eat that delicious bits of morsels he sets out in a bowl.  How did she know I'm hungry?  Ha, I eat it up before that cat comes up to eat, he he he he!  Even though I know it's not good for me.  She'll only leave it out during the day, as those rotten raccoons will devour it all first.  I don't care that she moved the bowl way up by the door either.  I just sneak on up and stuff my cheeks full and carry on. Ha!  Hope you enjoyed that "tidbit" for today.  He really is a pain in my rump.  The cat hasn't even caught him/her yet.  I'm surprised.  Our last barn cats eradicated all chipmunks, but this one continues to try and take over the place.  It ...

  A new "first time" for us was to make a cold infusion with cleavers.  It is a bonus weed that we get this time of year when we weed the flower beds and the vegetable garden.  Heck, I see it growing in the asparagus, so I'll be pulling more of it this weekend (in between rainfalls).  If you harvest wild medicinal weeds/plants, I would love your feedback on this.  I believe I dehydrated it many years ago, but it's best when harvested fresh.  I have only one friend who also harvests this, but sadly, she does not live very close to me. Side note: I made a face wash back in 2018 with cleavers, but never kept up with making it and using it over the years. Rain returns starting tonight, and on and off all weekend.  Woke up to 49°F, and again we have not planted the vegetable garden yet. Still on time, but slightly late if we can get it done soon.  However, we were unable to obtain organic sweet potato starts, so no sweet potatoes will be planted (as of...

  The photo is my husband's breakfast packed up the day prior.  I have to say, it would be absolutely fantastic with eggs over easy made fresh, but I do have to send breakfast on-the-go for him during the work week days. Oh my goodness, it was delicious!  Time consuming to make, but healthy and very good.  It's a keeper recipe, with some tips to make it easier. First, remember I ground up some of our dehydrated sage a while back?  I put it in a spice jar for easy use for making homemade chicken or turkey sausage?  Well, I'm not doing that anymore. I discovered that the delicious sage flavor goes stale after weeks of sitting in a spice jar.  It's just not the same as crushing the full leaves dehydrated.  I'll just have to take the time to crush them for really good flavor.   Tips:  Most butternut squash is about 3 pounds or so.  Unless I grow it myself, and have a dry year, I have never seen a "small" or 1 1/2 pound butternut sq...

  Last year, we planted borage and rosemary in with the zucchini, yellow squash and other squash plants.  It was an attempt to deter the nasty squash bugs.  It for one, did not work to deter those bugs (did not even grow well enough to harvest anything from the plants either).   Two, it re-seeds itself very well, so don't plant it in your big vegetable garden like I did.  It's not spreading too badly this year, but I'm yanking it as I see it, and you know I hate to waste anything.... By the way, I'm actually seeing borage plants for sale this year. Borage tea?   Has anyone dehydrated or dried the borage flowers and leaves for a medicinal tea?  I'm not finding a lot of information in the resource books I have.  So far anyway.  I'm reading online that the tea from the plant, is good for reducing a fever and for reducing a bad cough.  Does anyone have any information, or experience, with borage used in this way? Borage for dinner?...

  I've been brewing us a morning iced tea in a quart canning jar, and adding 1 Tbsp. of infused honey to it.  It was just enough to sweeten the tea and we loved it.  I bought the infused honey at a honey festival last year, and it is now all gone.  I am sure it was not inexpensive either.  It was organic.   Speaking of organic honey, both of us are wondering how they can assure it's "organic" when bees travel.  We are wondering if they have qualifications or specifics to classify honey as organic?  Anyway, we bought it.  We loved it. I do have the phone number for the seller, but decided to infuse my own honey. The above jar is started with an elderberry and hibiscus infused honey.  I'm sure it could be done faster on the stove top, but it's very hot here, and I have patience.  We are excited to see if it will taste the same.  It is a delicious one for teas. On the home front, we had a very hot day yesterday.  My read...

  It's a happy month for me.   Don't get me wrong, as things can go haywire on any given moment, but good things are happening. Back in 2015, I posted about some writing adventures.   At that time, it was 11 years ago. You can read about them (it's a short post) HERE .  It feels like I put writing to the pasture long before that year, but.... I used to freelance many years prior to that, but put it all aside to raise the kids, and run the household (one was in about 4-5 school sports and activities  - softball, basketball, you name it!).  They were all active in something - school plays, band, sports, etc.  In other words, we were a very active family, so I put my writing on hold.  It wasn't on purpose.  It just happened. Well, back when I had surgery last December, I decided to enter a poetry contest that was local.  I did not win the top prize, but my poem is printed in a book (have yet to pick it up).  Not long after th...

I'm finally getting so organized that it makes my mornings start much, much smoother, with evenings ending even more smoothly.  Clean kitchen counters.  Everything has a "place."  I actually know where things are now. It may take many more months, but it's been a fun and very productive. We are not done purging, re-organizing, cleaning out things we do not use anymore, etc.  I have one major room to complete, but I am slowly chipping away at it when time allows.   Mornings are now in the 60-70's, and we may even hit 80-90°. Don't panic or anything, but yes, I finally got the recipe typed out for those who wanted it.  You can find my recipe trial post HERE (photos included).  The recipe was written in cursive, so my kids did not want the recipe.  The younger two cannot read cursive hand writing (pretty sad). Fruit Cake Recipe comes from my Grandma's friend on my Mother's side of the family. See notes on my trial baking this recipe.  The r...

  Whoops.  I guess donating two books, instead of one, is a good thing too, ha ha!  I have been able to harvest chive blossoms, and it is rather early for that to happen.  You can read about how I did it HERE from last year.  We are only early on doing this by a few weeks, and all due to the rain this  year. While the chives are dehydrating, I picked more asparagus.  I will have to now replace my asparagus patch fence, and I will need to dig out a few wild raspberry plants the birds planted. What's new?  Well, I found a new houseplant to add to our home, and love it.  We have also planted a new apple tree, a new plum tree to replace the one that died, a new lilac bush, and one new hydrangea (also died over winter).  New landscaping edging was upgraded on one flower bed, and another is being worked on during dry days.   One volunteer cilantro plant, in the herb garden, survived the last frost.  One died.  One sage plan...

  I believe last year (how we did it) was the first year to do this with the woody ends from our spring asparagus.  I think I will try adding them to vegetable dips this year, or to meat and/or vegetable sauces.  It all depends on the amount of dehydrated ends we have this spring. We are still getting asparagus thankfully.  We got more rain, and it looks like we may get a few days break from it now. A lot is happening around here, and some work is still on hold, such as preparing the actual vegetable garden (much too wet). Dehydrated (and ground) Asparagus Ends ©  May 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart