Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Happy first day of May!  May is a very fun-packed month for us. If you were wondering, yes another day of rain here.  There is more coming, and our day started at 37°F this morning.  Brr. Our area grocery store gave me a coupon for a free 16 oz. container of cottage cheese, so I whipped a cup of it in my small food processor.  I had pesto on hand, so I mixed in some of that, and more garlic.  Instant dip for veggies.  Yum. I'm, ever so slowly, getting some book blanket granny squares crocheted.  I'm still behind, and this one needs ends sewn in. I figured out why I am getting behind, as I'm getting way more books finished than I thought I would.  One, I am only crocheting while watching TV, and that time is limited lately.   I've oddly become a book critic with all these books too.  In one book, the author failed to do proper research for, like boiling freshly laid eggs from chickens.  Anyone with chickens knows, you hav...

  I tried another new crockpot recipe, and we loved it.   The only thing I discovered, is my crockpot "low" setting is pretty hot, and I can lower the cook time on this, and it lacks "color" due to the homemade basil pesto.  We think adding some red bell pepper next time would be nice.   Also, it did not make a lot.  It's about a 3-4 serving dish, but it ended up a 3 serving for us, ha ha.  I would double this for leftovers. What is it? Chicken with Zucchini Noodles and Basil Pesto Where is the recipe from?                           I prefer to cook my raw chicken separately, and not with other vegetables, when it comes to crockpot cooking.  It's just me.  I cooked the chicken the day before (in the crockpot), shredded it and cooled it (recipe called for chicken breast sliced). I simply added the chicken at the end of cooking, as well as grated parmesan cheese, because I fr...

I'm getting some odd jobs crossed off the to-do list lately.  One was to wash the bed cover and bottom sheet from the spare mattress upstairs, and to wash a quilt we took out of storage for a few overnight guests.  They were all dried on the clothesline and put back into storage until we get cracking on the upstairs repairs and updates. I'm sort of rotating from room to room, trying to get things cleaned up, organized, and back to normal, but some rooms like the utility room and the upstairs will take a lot of work yet. I'm working on a few lighting options for two other rooms.  We've already began the search, but it's not on the important list, so it's whenever we are out, sort of fun searching. I'm ordering items I need for the vegetable garden, but I do need a trip to the garden store soon.  I'm ready to tackle the flower beds as soon as the rain leaves this week. I started a small batch of rosehip oil, but I had to re-order my organic jojoba oil.  Sh...

  I thought we were going to have a very dreary, dark day yesterday, but the sun came out, and I got some fresh air.  It was a bit cooler and breezy, but we are to warm back up thankfully.  Getting outside this time of year is good for the soul. Later, I went into my office for something, and found that I buried my crochet hooks in there.   I quickly got those back in their proper home, but I realized that I have more "stuff" in there to put away.  By "stuff" I mean stuff shoved in there from ripping up the entire flooring in the living.  I unpacked two more boxes I found from the bedroom project. I am also filling another box for donations. Just pack up an entire room in a hurry, and then unpack it all.  You'd be surprised on what you really need or use vs. what you have.   I found a cookbook I didn't even know I had.  I may try a few, but it is old and falling apart. I have used my "hidden" screwdriver several times already, and h...

No that we lack recipes, but I am starting to lack some ingredients.  I do not want to go to the store, so I am thankful I have recipe books like this.... I also placed an order for a few more books, and one is on making your own medicine (I do have books on this, but wanted more). My son purchased this for our daughter.  It is to hold his ashes.  I was doing pretty well about this lately, until it showed up.  I just about cried.  However, I do love the photo she picked, because that's what I remember about my "tater tot" and boy do I miss him a lot. Since we are under shut-in, I texted her photos of it.  She called him "Pooh Bear" and he even had a Pooh Bear Halloween costume at one time. Well, as far as homesteading around here, the weather got cooler.   I made egg salad, some breakfast veggie muffins with dandelion greens, and a new recipe of dill pickle dip, using home canned pickles.  As for the recipe for the ...

I think anyone living in our neck of the woods, has lost their marbles by this point in the season.  I think most of us, look out the window and just start laughing hysterically.  This tells it exactly as it is.... Hubby got a laugh out of this too.   What a "wacky" winter we are having. So what's going on here lately?

I didn't write this ditty yesterday, as my blog was so very long already for the day.  I've been free ranging the ladies and stud muffin Sparta all day after about noon lately.  One, they get their grit and dirt baths, two they help me reduce the bug numbers, and three it cuts the organic feed cost down. Oh, and four, they help "till" up the garden too. I went to put them all in, and I had left the coop door open.  The barn was shut, but once I opened the barn door, the hens followed me in.  I had a container of goodies in one hand, and a bucket of water in the other hand.  I started to fill the water when all h-e-double hockey sticks  broke loose.   At first I thought a raccoon was in the coop with me.  It was that dang stray gray tabby that's been hanging around.  It took forever to find the door out, and was literally climbing the chicken wire at high rates of speed.  Once I realized it was just a cat, I stepped back unti...

After trying to convince our youngest daughter to go back to bed, she was on the bus to school, only to text and asked to be picked up.  She slept the entire day yesterday, and I whipped up a batch of homemade ginger-ale for her.   And speaking of whipping up a recipe.  I made the homemade make up remover wipes - water, jojoba oil, vitamin E oil, and virgin coconut oil.  The recipe is in this book: I will be back with an update, after the girls give them a whirl.   I sure hope they work.  Buying "organic" ones from the store is robbing my wallet. Update:  11/7/2017 - these wipes starting growing mold on them yesterday.  So saddened, as these really worked, and I had hoped to cut down my costs for the girls.  I can't add an essential oil, as they are used over your eyes, and I can't put them in the fridge either.  They were tossed out.   The kale is growing like wild fire.  I am super happy too.  ...

.....from the library This one is interesting.   Who has eaten a peanut butter and pickle sandwich? 

I had one of those days when being in the kitchen just didn't "click" for me.  By the way, our garlic is officially gone now.  We used every last clove.   Not that I have a lack of outdoor work. But.... I started to make spaghetti, but the unit to cut them was jamming it up. My dough was fine.

I found this book through our library's inter-loan system.  I borrowed the book thinking it was all about just milling your own flour, but it was way more than that. It's a cookbook with recipes for grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. It contains a recipe for einkorn flour hamburger buns too. The author has a blog, but the recipe is not on there.  The blog is Naturally Ella in case you are interested.  I found some goodies on there too.  I made my first hamburger buns!   I didn't use the egg wash and sesame seeds, but may do that the next time for additional nutrition.   I was just focused on getting them to turn out nicely.  I thawed an organic pork tenderloin, and made Rhubarb pulled pork in the crock pot.   Mmm.  And on homemade buns this time.  Recipe is in the book, "The New Slow Cooker Cookbook."  Those are oven rosemary roasted "fries" with home canned ketchup.  I would have made homemade Rhub...

Asparagus is up, and I have wanted to try pickling some for several years.  We are getting more each year, so this year the new canning recipe is..... ...Pickled Asparagus. I'll be tasting i t in a week .  I used the recipe found in the above borrowed cookbook titles "Pickled ." I have a ton of sticky notes marking many more to try.   Ho wever, there is a n error in the recipe .

He he, ha ha, ho ho.....looney bin do not suck me in.... Monday, Hubby pulled a double-whammy on me.  Just after he got to work, he called and said he had barn roofing and was on the way home.  I had planned to take it easy (ha ha ha!) To gear up for the work, I had infused a nettle/mullein/oat straw tea and added juice of a lemon. My throat needed all the help it could get. He arrived. We hooked the lift to the borrowed truck, ripped out some of the chicken run fencing, and ever so gently backed the lift in by the animal barn.  We cut the roofing to fit (or so we thought we did), got it in the lift, and sent Hubby up. Only the battery wasn't charged.  We forgot to charge it overnight, in all our excitement.

I made another trip to the library.  I really need to stop bringing home cookbooks, but I'm always looking for a new food to try, or something new to can, or something new that would make a  nice gift.  I have yet to even open this one , or the food in jars book either. I'm not sure why I even brought this one home, other than we love to grill out.  However, do you see what it says under "Burgers?"