Ditch the Doubt ~ Toss it Out! New Recipe Tried and Misc. Tidbits

I have finally sorted the odd assortment of Christmas items from last month's purge, and yes some went into the trash.   If you need permission, ditch the doubt and toss it out!  The rest donated.  Job complete. ✔  

What else can one do when it's -15°F (again), and there isn't even "wind" outside.  It's cold here.  More snow is in the forecast.  

One new recipe that also went into the trash - a millet bar recipe.  I thought it would be "fun" to buy some organic puffed millet and make a really easy recipe, but it tasted horrible.  The small amount of puffed millet cost me $1.33. 

A recipe I will keep!  Oh my goodness it was so good.  By the way, it was a recipe I had, and wanted to try to the last two years.  Literally.  I don't think I have ever roasted acorn squash, because it was always one squash that never grew to size here (have no idea why as we can grow all other squash).

My husband kept telling me how his Mom baked acorn acorn squash, and insinuated that I make it the same way.  I did not.  I tried this recipe, and I prepared the inner mixings the day before (minus the squash), so it can be done that way too.

The recipe is online with Farmhouse on the Boone, called "Stuffed Acorn Squash with Sausage and Apples" but be aware that the website is heavily loaded with ads (recipe states "apples" but you use one apple).  Very annoying ads.  I used my cell phone to obtain the recipe, and even that way can be annoying, but the recipe is worth trying.  Especially if you have apples in your cellar or basement from your fall producing apple trees and/or garden grown garlic.

Who knew?  Sometime last year, a hotel we stayed at gave guests a free newspaper.  We found a free full page puzzle page for our entertainment, but I brought it home for "on the road" reading too.  Who knew it would come in handy for re-potting plants indoors during winter?  We don't get a newspaper here, so I was thankful we still had it "messy" jobs around here.

I can now take homemade hand lotion, and other toiletries that require refilling, on the road (travel or for home).  I have used amber glass jars for a long time, but when it comes to taking something on-the-go, glass is tricky.  These tubes came in two sizes, and the refill hole is a nice enough size to refill as often as needed.

I have a homemade hand lotion recipe that I make, but it leaves my hands "oily" for too long of a time.  I'm now on the hunt for a recipe that is much closer to one that I purchased last year (also homemade with organic ingredients).  It was thick, and it absorbed much better.   Thank goodness for the library and their inter-loan program, in order to access many books for this hunt.

One more fun item to share:

I honestly forgot about, until I came across them again to wash up.  I did not find these in your everyday box store either.  I found them at a store operated by the Amish last year.  They are salt and pepper shakers, with spring top lids to keep them closed off.  I thought they'd be great for outdoor grilling and/or camping.  They were just a few dollars too.

I don't have anymore "new" recipes to try, but I'm sure a few will sneak into the meal plan here and there. Oh, we do have one more recipe to try that uses home canned pickled jalapenos.

Ditch the Doubt ~ Toss it Out~  New Recipe Tried and Misc. Tidbits  ©  February 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

How I Make Garlic Powder from Dehydrated Home Grown Garlic

 Our weather is all over the map. One day it was sunny and 65°F, the next dreary and rain all day, and then the next?  Cold and snow.  Yep.  That's how it's been.  Now we roll into a a cold snap.

I have had some later than usual work.  I filled the dehydrator with parchment lined paper, and got busy with about 10 heads (or bulbs) of home grown garlic.  I apologize to those who have already read posts about making garlic powder. 

Back in 2020 I hosted an online Pampered Chef party to help out a friend.  Never in my life did I think so many people would order, and I ended up with lots of free items.  Two items were the garlic peeler and slicer.  The above is the "peeler" for the garlic cloves.  You do separate the head of garlic, then place a few cloves inside the tube, and roll it back and forth in with the palm of your hand.  The dried peeling will crack and very easily come off the clove of garlic.

I use disposable latex gloves for this job.  Garlic will make your hands smell for days if you do not.  

The slicer unit top comes off, and you insert the peeled cloves into both sides of the inner compartment.  Place the top back on, and using both hands, twist the top, and the slices come out the bottom onto your pre-lined trays for the dehydrator.

Dehydrate according to the dehydrator instructions.  

I use a coffee grinder, used solely for grinding dehydrated foods, and grind the pieces into powder.  I store it in my pantry and use for all things delicious, and homemade dry mixes.

I have heard that some newer ovens, and some air fryers have options for "dehydrating" foods, if you do now own a dehydrator. 

How I Make Garlic Powder from Dehydrated Home Grown Garlic  ©  January 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Lima Bean Hummus

 

I found it very difficult to find a selection of any lima bean recipes.  I asked around, and only one person I know ate them as a kid, and not ever as an adult.  

I purchased canned lima beans in the Amish area we visit this year.  They are very hard to find around our area for some reason.  I have had them sitting around waiting to try.  

I used them to make hummus.   Delicious!!

(source:  Google images)

I did not cook the lima beans, as I do not when I use chickpeas, but I may try cooking them next time (to see if it would be creamier, and/or cook from dried beans).  I do not mind the texture regardless, and it tastes just like chickpeas in my own hummus recipe.  Of course, I used home grown garlic, and it makes it the absolute best flavor.

I just swapped out the chickpeas for the canned lima beans (rinsed and drained), and it was fantastic.

My traditional hummus RECIPE.

Red Lentil Hummus

In the past we have tried beet hummus, black bean hummus, pumpkin hummus, green bell pepper hummus, white bean hummus and others.  I think the only one yet we have not tried is sweet potato hummus.  

Lima Bean Hummus  ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

May Gardens ~ Bringing Up to Date

 

I trimmed our lilac bush.  Last year a pine tree fell on it, and took half of the bush.  I did not cut any flowers this year, and the dead flowers have been trimmed, along with a few dead branches.  May is the best time to trim it, so it has all year to produce new growth.

Lavender mid-May.  I was too late with a spring trim.

Transplanted a few bunching onions that grew in areas they were not planted.  Same with chives.

Planted more perennials in the flower bed - more blue delphiniums, and a few tall dianthus (Rockin Red), and a few Astra Blue Balloon Flower.  I also added two new lily's - one yellow and one pink.

Note on perennials:  We had a conversation with a shopper about these plants, and she much preferred annuals. She said they bloom all season long, but perennials bloom once and are done.  It made sense with what she was saying, but I explained to my husband, that we have a variety, so we have different blooms all season long.

The start of our garden season has been brutal with unusual hot weather, but we planted two Eastern Redbud trees.  One was planted were there was an invasive honeysuckle growing.  It took longer to get that tree planted, as the ground was rock hard dry.  I had to water the area for 3 days, and then dig out the invasive plant, and then plant the tree.  

Also, the rain continuted to shift, and not arrive as forecasted most days, so we opted to plant herb plants this year vs. drop seeds.  I, of course, planted new rosemary plants, but I'm still determined to win in keeping them alive over winter.  I got a few tips from a friend, but it is a battle (as they do not survive winter).

I took this photo on 2-29-2024.  Also, my husband said he saw "several" sprouts when he was mowing.   We had several garlic starting to sprout above the soil.  We put them in waist high raised beds this year, and covered them with framed, half inch by half inch wire.  We had planned to remove the screens once they were all tall enough, but we went out last week, and these sprouts were literally gone!!  Zero.  I dug through the dirt, and found no rotting bulbs.  NO bulbs at all.  All of the garlic was gone!!  

Okay, so obviously, a large rodent can't be the eating it with the screens on the beds.  The soil was new, so we find this completely odd that a grub or bug ate them.   Scratching our heads, but we will not be buying garlic to plant, for at least two more years to find out the cause.   We've never had a problem growing it, but the last three years we have.  We may go back to planting it directly in the ground.

We had purchased the garlic from Territorial Seeds (music garlic).  Bad garlic?  We'll be buying ours from a farmer's market or produce stand this year (not for planting, but for eating and making homemade garlic powder).

What I planted - new spearmint, 2 basil plants, 2 cilantro plants, 2 rosemary plants,  2 parsley plants, and an extra peppermint plant because I accidently thought I was buying spearmint.

I have once again dug out all of the lemon balm and moved a bit of it to my "weed" garden.  I am forever reminded of making that rookie mistake at planting it in the herb garden.

I use spearmint primarily for infusing in our iced tea.  I learned to make it from my Grandmother on my Mom's side of the family.  Spearmint, along with all other herbs and spices, have medicinal benefits, and we absolutely love the taste of spearmint in our iced tea.

Sharing a few snippets from the flower beds.  It's not all of them, and there may be a few stragler weeds in there yet.  The second day after hanging new flower pots around the front porch, we were delighted to see our first hummingbird visit them.  We don't put out hummingbird food, we put out flowers and they love them.

We visited a tree nusery and looked at one more new tree possibility, and possibly fruit trees, but for fall or next year.  We also found out they also sell a ton of perennials.  There were green houses we didn't even go in.   We found creeping phlox, after searching in 3-4 places.  You can see that my husband picked out another flower to add to our flower beds.

Although May is not over just yet, we most likely will be planting the vegetable gardens into the first week of June.  Our mid-week rain never arrived, which gives us more days to plant, but then it also requires us to water.  I have purchased new hose sprayers this year, and a new sprinkler.

I apologize for the long post.  I'll try to keep them shorter in the future.

By the way, how did May go by so quickly???

May Gardens ~ Bringing Up to Date © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Homemade Garlic Powder

 

The tool on the left is used for removing the garlic skins.  you place the garlic inside the tube and roll it with your hand.  The tool on the right is used to slice the garlic.

You put the top piece of the slicer back on top and twist the bottom as you press down the top. I have learned to not over fill this, making it much easier.

I know this is a repeat post, and I do make it yearly most garden seasons.  If you have never made garlic powder you can click on my post below on how I make it, after the garlic is dehydrated.  

My very first years making garlic powder, I would hand peel, and hand slice.  

How to Dehydrate Garlic and Make Garlic Powder

Tips:

-Use latex gloves.

-Rinse all the tools/knife if you are not going to do dishes right away.  Garlic dries rock hard, making washing things difficult.

-I only have 4 mats for my dehydrator, so I use parchment paper some times, so that I don't lose the very small bits of the garlic.  I do recommend parchment paper over simply using your trays.  It is much easier to un-stick the garlic from the paper, push it to the center, and fold the paper in half to slide it into your grinder.  It makes way less mess, and clean up much easier.

-Save your garlic skins to make broth or flavor other dishes.  Store the skins in a freezer bag.

Homemade Garlic Powder © Nov 2023 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Need Help Finding Organic Music Garlic!

 I normally fall plant our garlic, but once again it was eaten over winter (all 80 cloves!!!), and we believe it's the work of voles.

I need to spring plant garlic now, and I cannot, for the life of me find anyone selling organic music garlic seed for spring planting.  I can only find "fall" planting garlic.

I like music, but I would try any organic garlic at this point.  I'm so frustrated right now.  

(Source: Territorial Seeds)

Anyone?  I even looked on Etsy, and all that I see are pre-orders for fall.  Sigh.,....urgh...

By the way, we have moved the garlic grow bags closer to the house now.

Labor Day Events ~ Rain

 We had a very busy Labor Day weekend.  We had invitations for 3 birthday parties and a cook out.  Golly, all we wanted to do on Monday was get our kitchen and front porch in order.  I have to admit, it was nice getting up this morning to a tidy kitchen.  Although I still have tomatoes on the table.

I had to start bringing in the tomatoes to ripen on the table.  They were splitting outside on the vines.  Crazy weather this year.

I'm not the only one cleaning house.  Daughter E dropped off two boxes of yarn.  Her best friend's mother was also cleaning house, and had 5 people move back in, so she sent her yarn my way.  I will need to sort it, but it's out of the kitchen now.

However, there are tomatoes in my living room too. No kidding.  Like I said, the rain/soil situation this year was causing them to split if we left them ripen on the vine.

Before the rain arrived, I was able to fall plant 80 cloves of music garlic.  It's been raining here ever since, and woke up to more rain.

I'm frantically working on the tomatoes, pulling the garden for the year, and now clearing the living room to at least get that floor fixed before winter.  The only problem is that money doesn't stretch very far anymore.  Supplies are an issue, but I will be packing up the living room to prepare.  It is a must-do repair.

Granny J, I think I wrote your email down wrong.  Well first, I got confused and emailed another person (crazy busy weekend), and then my computer said I had the email incorrect.  If you are reading this ....I apologize, I wrote it down wrong.