"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.
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Wow! October is here already
Thursday, July 17, 2025
Rainy Day
We had another rainy day, so I was able to have a much slower indoor day (sort of). It was also so humid outside after the rain stopped, so it was not even enjoyable. There was also a smoke haze in the air, compromising the air quality. I did not get any Swiss chard cut as it heavily downpoured most of the day yesterday.
Our garden is about 2-3 weeks behind, compared to last year. I think it was due to a very cold May, and we planted much later. I am getting kale, Swiss chard, and radishes. The zucchini is on, but only about 1 inch long right now.
I do need to dig the fall planted garlic up soon. I dug one up already, and we are very happy with the size of it this year.
I used some of the Red Russian Kale in our dinner the other night. I was worried we would have needed another side vegetable, but this was perfectly enough. I cooked the turkey cutlets in the crockpot with barbeque sauce, and later in the evening made the "One Pot Beans, Greens, and Grains" recipe that I found in the New York Times newspaper. By the way, I found the recipe online, and I linked it. It is the first recipe I have found where it does not require you to have a membership of some sort.
It is very similar to how I make my quinoa, but I used leftover broth instead of water. I used great northern beans, but you can use any beans of your choice. I will double the amount of kale in it the next time.
Rainy Day © July 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
This and That
. . .finished this ebook from the library. It was a random pick. I liked it. It's hard to see the yarn colors, due to having to make a collage photo with the ebook photo and my granny square, but I think it matches very well. There were recipes at the end of this book, and no, I will not be trying any of them.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Crocheted Baby Blanket ~ Greens ~ Frozen Stuffed Bell Peppers and Home Canned Sauce
The weather has been bringing us some of the most enjoyable Spring weather days lately. The weather is also bringing coyotes thru the area (we heard them the other morning).
Today it's starting at 39°F with possible snow (yes, I said snow, ha ha!), but tomorrow it is to start out as low as 26°F. It's hard to believe I sat on the porch and read a book for a bit in almost 70 degree weather yesterday.
It's typical Spring weather here, and even with the up's and down's. We had rain showers last night, with thunderstorms. It will be fun to see what Mother Nature brings the rest of the day today. If it's cold enough, I may be seasoning my new pan.
I'm finally putting the edge on the the current baby blanket. The mother is due about May, so I'm happy to be finishing it up. I feel like this blanket took a long time to work on. However, as the weather is changing, it's hard to find time to read or to crochet. We are taking advantage of any/and all nice days lately.
It also feels like there is always housework that needs done. How does that always happen, ha ha! Cleaning toilets, sweeping and mopping, dusting, dishes, baking and cooking (when you are a from scratch cook/baker it uses a lot of time), porch sweeping, chicken tending, laundry, errands, cleaning windows, etc.
I think we notice all the things that take up our time, as the hunkering-in months start to disappear. It's why I try so hard to get indoor jobs/repairs done before Spring (and a few of those are lingering here).
On a side note, that red crocheted XL hot pad was the very first extra large one I crocheted almost 17+ years ago. It still washes up nicely, and still looks very good after all these years.
It was a trial making to create my own pattern. I have been using it since, but have changed the way I make them, as per my Mother's request (before she passed). She preferred them to be the size and shape of a 9 x 13 pan. I had requests for more of this (it's more square in the photo) size, so it could be used for anything like pizza pans. The one above also has different stitching than what I currently make them with. Anyway, just a tidbit story to share. It brings back good memories when we used to set up for craft shows.
Crocheted Baby Blanket ~ Greens ~ Frozen Stuffed Bell Peppers and Home Canned Sauce © March 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Last Day of October - New Recipes Tried and End of Garden Tidbits
Grab a cup of java. I apologize, this post ended up too long.
October was a busy month for us. We had so many plans, our plans had plans. Whew! Three weddings - one in another state up on a hill (they drove us up with a tractor and wagon) over looking a river, the other on a hill at a castle, and the third we didn't make it to.
There were car shows, trunk or treats for the littles, a long distance trip to re-stock baking/cooking supplies (it's hard to find organic non-gmo in our area), garden work, yard work and more.
One thing that did not happen, was our last camping trip, and it's probably a good thing considering. The state put a burn ban on the campground, and the nights were down to the 40's. The whole point to go camping (for us anyway) is to go off grid, enjoy nature, campfire cook, and enjoy an evening campire. No being allowed to have a campfire, was the ticker that crossed the last camping trip off the calendar.
Our days are finally approaching a slowdown (yippee!) for us here on homestead. My kitchen table overflows with squash and pumpkin to roast and freeze, but if you check our weather pattern below, it's been too hot to heat up the kitchen this week.
October 31st - woke up to 66°F (feels like 76°F due to 75% humidity), forecasted high of 77°F with possible rain (I will believe the rain when we see it - still in a drought here)
I tested our first round of frozen breakfast burritos, that I made late September. I wanted to make sure we had a breakfast for Monday mornings, after busy weekends and such. Oddly, I have never frozen breakfast burritos. I thought it would be better than sandwiches. Anyway, they tasted great and came in handy all month. I'd like to try freezing an egg combo muffin of some sort next.
The next plan was to get some quick dinners in the freezer, other than stuffed bell peppers. Typically, I freeze chili or other hearty soups that re-heat nicely. We ended our bell pepper harvest (harvest was 203 this year) with stuffed bell pepper soup (using up an assortment of odd size peppers).
The mashed potato squash harvest was a bit better than I thought. Some of the squash were small, but overall, we are happy with our harvest.
You can see one small spaghetti squash in that basket. We actually had 3 out there, but 2 rotted. Our drought year was a bit difficult this year. Last year we harvested 9 and it lasted us all winter in the freezer (you can read about my post where I froze them all HERE).
It was a race against mother nature, but herbs were put up for winter. Our freeze/frost came very early this year. There are so many medicinal properties in so many herbs and wild growing "weeds" for our health.
The month of October brought us a bunch of pesky Minute Pirate Bugs. They are tiny, but they are a pain in the rump. They swarm and bite, and will leave you a nasty welt. I tried to enjoy the porch on the warmer days, but the bugs were horrible. I found that if I sprayed myself down with homemade bug spray, and then also burned a citronella candle, it helped keep them away.
We also tried a new 3 bean salad. The dressing is similar to other dressings, but overall we loved this one. I used garden jalapenos for it. The recipe is online from CleanFoodCrush. It's called Marinated 3 Bean Salad. There were two things I did not do as instructed by the recipe. One, I used the juice of one entire lemon (it was maybe 1 Tbsp more juice), and two, I chopped up about 1/2 cup of olives vs. one entire cup.
Other days have been busy in the kitchen, or in the garden. I have yet to replace my blender, so I made our basil pesto using my food processor instead. I am just not happy with what I am seeing in stores. I will keep looking.
The garden was completely cleaned out and tomato stakes put away. Our cheap fencing we put up for the green beans was finally taken down and rolled up for next year. We have tilled it, and fall garlic was planted.
Did we get any fun in our month of October? Well, sort of. In fact, I have a funny story about visiting an antique store.
We went into the store to look for a small table, and to simply look at kitchen chairs. We walked by a shelf of used books and my husband randomly pulled a book about a donkey. He said I should buy it and read it. To humor him, I agreed. As we walked to the cashier to pay for the $4 book, I hear him say I could have a donkey too. The excited me, turned around, only to see him laughing and holding a glass donkey! Oh, he thinks he's is so funny some days. We both got a laugh. I still want a donkey, ha ha!
I finished the baby blanket with the new pattern (thanks to so much traveling this month). The pattern is from the Crochet Crowd online, and the pattern is free. I'll have to look up the actual name of it for you all. I love it, but now I want to make one in blue, and I have zero baby yarn in blue ha ha! Oh, boy. I may have to sneak some yarn into the house.
Last Day of October - New Recipes Tried and End of Garden Tidbits © October 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
It's Finished! Next Project?
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
A Day of Sunshine
Making things easier, I decided on a steel cut oats breakfast (crock pot) recipe. I had apples and raisins and all the other ingredients needed. I also made a pan of kamut flake bars for snacking (recipe is online with the Kamut brand). Once that was checked off the list, housework resumed.
I'm trying to decide what color of baby blanket to gift our grand-niece. I have a baby green one done, and a light purple one. I'll check on what color booties I already have, but I think I depleted the supply (lots of babies this year).
We ran out of leftovers, so it's back to the kitchen in regards to a dinner. We are also needing to split wood tonight. I better get my husband's breakfast, lunch and coffee packed. He needs to leave for work soon.
Friday, January 3, 2020
This and That ~ Finishes!
I also emailed a nursing home in the "Big City" requesting a list of what they take for donations. If you are purging be sure to ask nursing homes. They will even take flower vases. One time we brought flowers but forgot the vase when "P" was in there. They had vases that had been donated for residents. I may have mentioned this before.
I spent over an hour in the garage. Filled the trunk for the thrift store, filled the trash, and brought in two old bed covers to wash and dry and re-use for Romeo's bedding.
Finished the baby blanket. Older photo, but it's completely done.
Finished the spool Christmas tree ornaments! Another UFO checked off the list. I'm already onto the next UFO. I used the ice cube tray to hold them upright while the glue dried.
I'm also working on purging a freezer currently. Our menu will be designed based on what needs used in there. I found a package of organic chicken pieces that were purchased to feed Jesse, so it's already out of the freezer and cooked up for Romeo. He's loving it too.
Hubby gave me the green light to write him a list of things that need done. He is either so busy, or so tired, or we have commitments, that he hasn't tackled jobs around here. I've already got him set up now. He told me his "mental" list is not working out for him.
I'm finding a lot of very small balls of yarn in my closet, so I plan to email the school and see if the art teacher can use them in her classes. If not, I'm not sure what to do with them. Other than the centers of misc. granny squares for a future "scrap" blanket. And I do not need another "new" project right now.
I have emailed the elementary school office, but didn't see an "Art" teacher listed for the school. I wonder if nursing homes do art projects with residents? I guess I find out from both and decide where to donate the balls of yarn.
Woke up today with warmer temps and rain. No fire in the wood stove oddly. It's a strange January already.
This and That ~ Finishes © Jan 2020 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart