Pioneer Woman at Heart

Canning took up most of my morning yesterday. We've been out of Candy Apple Jelly for over a year, so some of this is going in the pantry. I had to whip up a batch of homemade ginger-ale syrup.  Youngest texted me that she was feeling pretty sickly.  Thankfully, I have club soda on hand, but now I'm out of honey. Made my first batch of organic cashew brittle .  I hope to make one or two batches more yet. Dinner was easy yesterday.  I used leftover mushroom gravy, combined with homemade condensed mushroom soup, and cooked pork chops it in the crock pot.

There was a request for the other brittle recipe, so here it is: Macadamia Peanut Brittle (you need a candy thermometer to make this) 1 cup sugar, organic 1/2 cup light corn syrup, organic 1/4 tsp. salt  1/4 cup water 1/2 cup peanuts, organic 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, organic 2 Tbsp. butter organic, softenend 1 tsp. baking soda  Prepare a baking sheet by greasing it with organic shortening.  Set aside on a hot pad.  Measure butter and soda and keep nearby. In a medium saucepan mix sugar, corn syrup, water and salt.  Place candy thermometer in pan.  Bring to a boil.   Toss in nuts and continue to boil. Stir consistently, but slowly so you do not slow down the temperature, but keep it from sticking to the pan. When it reaches 300°F remove from heat and remove thermometer, add butter stirring.  Once the butter is melted, stir in the baking soda and pour onto prepared pan.  It will foam up.   Spread the mixture ...

I find myself hanging around at the computer a little longer in the mornings, as winter rolls along.  That's okay too.  Winter is my time to relax a bit more, but I have neglected some housework too. I delivered the last scarf order to the big city, but need to go back to collect the cash.  Now, I am working on another order that my youngest daughter got me. Photos to follow soon. Hubby, as he walked in the house: "Hun!  The library wants to know if you are sick?" Me: "Huh?" Hubby: "Yeah, there is only one book in for you and it's normal." Ha ha ha ha ha!  True! Not sure if I'll get to read it before it's due back.  Like all the other books I've borrowed, ha ha!  Photo to follow soon. I finished up a few more Christmas goodies, including a new recipe: Macadamia Peanut Brittle.  It tastes like caramel corn, but very good.  This recipe is a stove top recipe, and the mixture is then poured onto the pan to cool.

Good morning y'all!  It's a frigid 17°F here this morning.  It looks like we got about 3-4 inches of snow last night, and taking the dogs out this morning was not exactly peachy.  First, they were so excited to play it in, they kept forgetting what they were out there to do.  Second, traffic is traveling at about the speed of a turtle.  Roads look terrible from what I can see, and those slow vehicles kept distracting the dogs.  Once that task was completed, I had hungry barn cats and indoor cats to feed, a fire to stoke and coffee to brew.  School is delayed two hours for now.  I wouldn't be surprised if they canceled it. I took this through the door from the inside last night.  What in the world makes long, wide drag marks?  About two hours prior to this photo, there were two very long ones to the right of it coming up to the cat food and then leaving. I wish I took a photo then, as the marks were better to see.  What do yo...

Sorghum molasses candy is one of our family favorite Christmas candies to make.  Once I started making it, I stopped making toffee for several years.  Although much of my family loves them both.  I just may make some toffee yet.  The sorghum cooks into a honeycomb type candy, is broken up, and then coated in dark chocolate.

Hubby and I had a long Monday.  Who puts events on a Monday evening anyway?!  Well, the public vocational high school, that our youngest daughter will attend next year, held their "career" night Monday night.   She is the one kiddo who will go to school to learn to be a full service cosmetologist.     More vehicle troubles - Hubby's brake line broke while driving home on the highway.  We went to fetch daughter's old car (still need to transfer title), but she let the tags expire.  So....back to square one. "Grad" Daughter got herself a second job.  She was hired during the first interview for Christmas help in a retail clothing store.  She is super happy.  She will need the money to pay for her car insurance. Not much to update in the sense of homesteading lately.  I miss our goats right now (for some odd reason, maybe due to lack of outdoor garden work?).  The hens are continuing to supply me, so I am stashing ...