Pioneer Woman at Heart

First, thank you all for your good thoughts and prayers.  We are both feeling better, but boy the fatigue is dragging on and on. My day starts pretty good, by by afternoon I am feeling exhausted.   The weather here sort of helps me be able to curl up with a book or yarn too.  It's been dreary days the last few days. Rest was/is on the top of the list, but one food item I totally forgot about (when sick) is applesauce.  Home canned applesauce, from our apples.  The raccoons got our apples this year, as it was a drought year.  Any other year, they leave them alone.   When it's a very dry season, we seem to have more of a wild animal/rodent problem.  Thankfully, we can buy apples nearby, but still not the same. I had it on the canning radar, but it totally slipped my mind with our overly busy October.  It's back on the list.  It truly is the best tasting, but if we are too late for our area's apple season, I can atleast stock up a few ...

I've been on a mission to restock a specific crochet thread color and size.  Every store is out.  I even checked the Hobby Lobby where one daughter was working the other day - sold out.  Supply and demand is definitely a problem with not only food/essentials, but with yarn.  I placed my order, despite the cost of shipping. Don't try to buy a car either. The prices are jacked so high right now.  We decided to fix both cars and sell one to our 21 year-old at an affordable rate, so she has a car to get to work.  I just hope repairs are not too expensive, but glad they are finally getting done (of course the second car was a surprise).  In the end we'll each have a fully working vehicle. We got word yesterday that the first car we took in needs a new intake (which we knew).  We asked if he would put a new window regulator in one door and check a few other things.  I am praying it's not expensive and it's done tonight so my husband doesn't ha...

I've been getting up about 5-5:30am to stoke the fire.   We woke up to 19°F.   We will need to cut more wood this weekend.  The repairs on the coop have been delayed due to the dark days, and how dark it is when Hubby gets off work.  Repairs resume on the weekend as well. I finally got around to canning some applesauce.  It pretty much took most of my morning and afternoon.  I bought 20# this year (I haven't canned applesauce in a few years now).  Remaining apples will be in the cooler garage.  I may can another half-batch of applesauce too. ...and since I had apples, I put steel cut oats in the crocky for our next breakfast (cutting the brown sugar down this time).  The apples and raisins add enough sweetness. Guess what's on the menu this weekend?  Crockpot "fried" apples with breakfast. Hubby and I watched a good movie on Netflix the other night.  It was pretty good too.  It's call Falling INN love...

...and it's only Tuesday. Hubby and I made it to the g ym at 5 am this morning .  Slowly, but surely, we'll have a regular routine in place.  I myself, had been up sin ce 2am.   The usual stuff needs done, and I'm still trying to get some foods stocked up and processed etc.  It's a fight this week. I canned 8 more pints of applesauce.   My swiss chard is not looking too good.  I plan on visiting it today and getting the last of it in the f ree zer.

The snow is arriving slowly.  I am so glad there is no wind as well.  It will be interesting, at nightfall, to see how much we actually get.  You know how word spreads, right?  The news said 2-5 inches.  I heard up to 8 inches via word of mouth. Guess who visited us last night?

(Applesauce chicken cooking in the crockpot) Hubby and I are officially back to the gym.  The means frugal and easy meals , that are also healthy.  Although pio neers didn't have c rockpots, th is meal is very se lf-suffi cient .  It could easily be cooked over a fire using cast iron pans too. First , I w ent sea rch ing for cookbooks on meals using apple s auce, but I didn't find any (just baking cookbooks).  I found a crockpot dinner recipe on- line, using chi ck en and applesauce. Anyway, back to the frugal dinner.  I f I don't rai se it, I do buy organically grown chicken.  It's not frugal, but worth our healthy lifestyle. And of course I buy when it's on sale or clearance, and freez e it too. Then I needed a side dish.  Red Quinoa? Yep, but after checking the cupboard, I was out.  Sweet potato frie s?  Yep, but not conducive to working out at the gym, and expecting kids to turn the fries every 15 minutes.  H m m?...

If you are wondering what I'm go ing to use my home canned applesauce for, here is one recipe I ma ke wit h it.

There are so many versions of using walnuts for dye, including making a dye for stamping fabric.  I decided to soak some walnuts in water for 3 days  (slightly browned).  I ran the liquid through a strainer, lined to catch all the small stuff.