Tuesday Tidbits

 

Weather has been in the 20's here, with lots of snow, some rain, icy roads, and just your typical winter weather.

The latest crocheted granny square for my book blanket.  Book was about a 3/4 out of 10, if you ask me.  Just too much family drama for me.

In the midst of the Thanksgiving holiday, we made up a batch of homemade meatballs and got them into the freezer for winter meals.

Update on the crock pot macaroni and cheese... 

It reheated great!  Just do it slowly, and it reheats very creamy as it was when it's cooked.  My husband took some to work and heated his in the work room microwave, but heated it too long and the oil separated.  So, just heat it slowly, and not high microwave heat, and it's great the next day.

Here is how I made it.

In a crock pot pour in dry noodles.  I used a 14.5 oz. box, and that was non-gmo (can't remember the brand), but it was enough noodles.

My Mom never made stove top mac'n cheese with whole milk, but she did add it later if needed.  She always started with canned milk.

I had one can of evaporated milk, so I used that first, by measuring, then make up the difference, with whole milk, up to 3 cups, and poured that over the noodles. Add 1/2 cup heavy cream (I used organic).

Next time I will use more evaporated canned milk or all canned milk.

I think I will also butter the crockpot first next time.  The noodles cooked, but stuck when I stirred half way of cooking these two ingredients, mixed with 4 oz (half a block) of organic cream cheese and 4 Tbsp. of butter. Add 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. white pepper. I cooked this about 2 hours, then added the following cheeses:

-2-6oz. blocks of organic sharp white cheddar cheese, grated

-about a inch thick stack (to 1 1/2 inch) of local Amish made American white cheddar cheese slices, cut up (what we had on hand)

and about 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

Additional whole milk if needed, after the cheese is melted. 

The mac'n cheese was the first crock pot mixture, that did not come out "gritty" or reheat terrible, or even taste too cheesy.  It was just perfect in flavor, texture, and over all a winner for us.  I do believe the type of cheese, and brand will change this, but using the better cheeses will make a winner dinner.  One recipe we tried in the past called for mozzarella, and we have both decided the only local mozzarella is the worst cheese made (will look for some locally for our other dishes now).

Tuesday Tidbits  ©  December 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

4 Weeks Until Christmas

 

Tree was made from a cinnamon stick, fake evergreen cut, and buttons.  The candy apple ornament was a mini muffin wrapper, a small apple ornament dipped in glue and bird seed.

Drum was made from half a toilet paper tube, craft foam for the top and bottom, felt and ribbon, and the drum sticks were painted tooth picks with tiny pom poms glued on.  Yes, they took forever to make, and back then, I didn't blink an eye on how much time they took to make.

A small bit of all of my duplicate handmade Christmas ornaments.  I could not believe how many duplicates worked their way to the Christmas storage totes (Three more totes to go through yet).  Good grief.  Anyway, the story behind them all. . .

When the kids were in elementary school, I would race to the school and sign up for room parent for their Christmas party first.  My second choice was always Valentine's Day when the lists were full.  

Anyway, for some crazy reason, I fell in love with making ornaments, and when I was a Christmas party room Mom, I came up with a handmade ornament.  I made one for every single kid in the class, and I hand wrapped each one, so every kid had one to open.  Yes, I did that.  Some years there could be almost 30 students too.

In the process of the ornament making, my family got one every Christmas too.  Ha!  Probably way too many, but they got one too.

I would go to our large area library, and check out every single handmade ornament books they had, and then some.  I would get ideas, or in some cases, even patterns (I made a LOT over the years).

The duplicate pile was loaded into a box, and the kids got to pick out any they wanted.  The rest will be donated to a nursing home or if I hear of a family in need. 

~~~~~~~~~~

As for what's happening for this up coming Christmas?

First, I realized when I bought dye free, non-gmo cookie sprinkles for the advent gifts, I did not buy us any.  I had to find them again (not easy to find in the area here).

I have started yet another crochet project related to Christmas, but it's on the slowdown time, for an idea for next year (too late for this year).  More on that later I think.  I saw the idea on facebook one day (ha ha!  Social media at it's best to influence us).

Two advent gift bags delivered.  One more to deliver yet.

I have yet to get a Christmas grave blanket/or saddle for Mom and Dad's headstones.  I will not be able to make them myself, and may not even be able to deliver them this coming month.  In the past, I did a barter with an acquaintance, and she made us two.

I have my 2026 planner now, and there is a section for "projects" in it, so that is where "Christmas 2026" will be kept noted and organized.

We have talked to someone we know, who is not working and could use the extra money over the next month.  We may have found someone to help with a few home repairs before or after Christmas.  We are not done painting, and took a long break from it.

Tried a new macaroni and cheese crockpot recipe.  I added additional cheese.  It's a white cheese dish, and it tasted fantastic.  I will try and get the recipe up soon, but it may be the best we have tried so far, and perfect for potlucks or gatherings.

4 Weeks Until Christmas  ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Easy Crockpot Recipes

 

What is was supposed to be?  A new recipe - flank steak tacos (recipe is in the first cookbook below).  what it ended up as?  Round steak fajitas.  First, I've only cooked a flank steak once in my lifetime (no kidding there), and two, we couldn't find flank steak, so we used a round steak.  

The seasonings were exactly as the recipe called for however, and it shredded up very nicely.  Although, I would cut back on the seasoning, it was very good, and mostly very, very easy to prepare for the crockpot.

We got 4 servings (2 meals for 2 people), plus we had more leftover after that. Super easy, many possibilities, and a good bang for the buck.

The above cookbook was probably my favorite of all the cookbooks I have borrowed this month.  You don't have to be diabetic to enjoy any of these either.  They are very healthy recipes.  I have many more to try yet.

I found this one to have a lot of recipes with very little ingredients, but most of the recipes ask for a can of this or than, a package of this or that - processed food ingredients.  If you are like me, many of the recipes can be adapted to your homemade ingredients, home canned, or if it's summer your your home grown ingredients.

A soup recipe I converted from a stove top recipe to crockpot.  We have made it twice, and each time with different broth (based on what needed used up first), and we have never had to freeze any of it.  We like it that much.  Odd for a meatless soup too, but we really do like the parsnips in place of potatoes in this recipe (no pasta, no corn, no rice etc).

It's free online with CleanFoodCrush.  Recipe is called Hearty 3 Bean Soup.

My slight changes:

-I don't sauté any of the veggies, so no oil

-I don't use sun dried tomatoes, I use one can of diced tomatoes (or home canned or fire roasted diced)

I toss everything in the crock pot and add additional broth if needed, and cook all day long.  I try to add my seasonings at  the end of cooking, but if I'm going to have a busy day, it all goes in first time in the morning.

Easy Crockpot Recipes  ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Chicken Vegetable Soup ~ Baby it's Cold

 

The chicken vegetable soup is from Clean Food Crush online.  It is literally a completely self-sufficient recipe.  You can grow every single thing in the soup (and the herbs for the homemade Italian seasoning), make the broth, and raise meat birds.  My husband is not on board with raising meat birds again just yet.  Anyway, I utilized our frozen garden green beans, and diced bell peppers for this soup.  I also had previously cooked the chicken, shredded it, and had it in the freezer as well (worked great for the soup).  I used home canned tomato sauce (I used an entire pint).

There are no potatoes or corn in this soup recipe.  I mean, you could, but I followed the recipe, other than I am not a fan of cooking my raw chicken in the soup ingredients.  We loved it!

Definitely a slight variation of a vegetable soup, but also with chicken vs. beef or simply vegetable.

Perfect leftovers for a cold brisk day.  Woke up to 7°F windchill, icy roads, and only a slight dusting of snow.  It's more of a black ice on the road situation here.  The high winds took out some power for some folks, but thankfully ours is on.

Chicken Vegetable Soup ~ Baby it's Cold  © December 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Four Beans and Sausage and Tidbits

Four Beans and Sausage to the rescue yesterday.  You still need to dice an onion (and I use bell pepper frozen from the summer garden, and home canned ketchup), but it's a one crock pot dish meal.  It was perfect for my Monday Madness in getting back into the groove of homesteading/adulting life again. 

While the crock pot did it's work for dinner, I took some time to make a sausage and potato breakfast casserole (real potatoes), bell pepper from the freezer, and added onion, garlic, jalapenos and dandelion greens (jalapenos from the freezer as well as the dandelion greens).  I only used 6 eggs and 1/3 cup milk for this 9 x 13 breakfast.  It is a bit spicy with the jalapenos, but we like it.

Thankful for leftovers today, so I can continue to catch up with bill paying, laundry, and my weekly to-do list.

I'm hearing that black kitchen utensils can leach poison into our foods when heated (or hot?).  Any truth to this?  If so, what are you replacing all of your mixing spoons and spatulas with?  I do have wooden utensils, but I still need spatulas and mixing spoons, soup ladles etc.

Library Loot Update . . .

I went on a library book binge, in hopes to find the recipe for the chicken noodle soup/chicken and rice soup starter in a jar. 

Gifts in Jars by Natalie Wise

The library books are rolling in, and the book above contains recipes for Chicken Noodle Soup in a Jar, and two other soup recipes.  If you are looking for homemade Christmas gift ideas, there are a few good ideas. 

                                  Layered Soup Mixes in Jars, by Jackie Gannaway

Some recipes in this book, that I thought would make great gifts (or for yourself) were:

-Rainbow Bean Soup Mix in a Quart Jar

-Cajun Cornbread Seasoning Mix - baby food jar or small  canning jar (I'm going to try this one myself soon)

-Navy Bean and Ham Soup Mix in a Pint Jar

-Chicken Noodle Soup Mix in a Pint Jar

Four Beans and Sausage and Tidbits  © December 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart