The Year of New Beginnings ~ Welcome 2026

 The new year brings new beginnings.  It's a year of ending a few things as well.  

Many of the gatherings this year were small.  Either sickness hit most, some didn't want to be around people, and some did not get together over the holidays.  Either way, I did not cook/bake for the gatherings, and that was actually nice for once.

January brings winter weather.  The weather is doing what it does - wintering.  Wintering in a weird way too.  If I was traveling, it would be a very good month for travel.  The temperatures are warming between 50-60 degrees, and rain.

(shallots and butter)

(homemade condensed mushroom soup, prepared as equal to one can of soup, to freeze)

We are seeing more stores closing as the new year rolls in, and we have also found out that our nearest grocery store will no longer sell shallots.  I use shallots and butter as my starting base when making homemade condensed mushroom soup (which I freeze, one container equals a "can" of mushroom soup).  I am very sad about this, and have to travel to buy any over winter.  I will be looking into growing shallots this garden season. We use them in other recipes as well.

My rosemary plant I brought in last year, is hanging on by a thread.  I have plans to put it outside this week, as we will hit the 60's and get rain.  It may revive it or it may not.  I will take that chance.  No loss trying it either, as the plant has about two green leaves on it.

The chives I brought in are doing pretty good, but not enough to actually harvest yet.  I think the next plant to bring in next year will be green onions.  I really miss the fresh homegrown green onions.  The current ones at the grocery store are bland and look terrible.

The lemon balm seeds are very slow growing.  It's all a trial for learning better ways to bring some herbs indoors over winter.

I inquired on a class to learn a new craft, but it's on delay for now.  

We located a puzzle swap not far from us, but limited to when you can go pick up.  Pretty excited about this.  It's not like we have a ton of them each year, but it keeps the home stash to a manageable amount.

Although our local library does not hold a puzzle swap, I will be attempting to utilize their inter-loan book borrow program more than purchasing new books this year.  I have noticed that the higher rated books (non-fiction) on Amazon are not available to borrow at all through the library program so it may affect my goal of putting borrowing first.

The current crochet project that is going to another family.  It's taking forever, but the colder winter days (when we do have them) are perfect for such a larger project.  I still have a blanket on-going for ourselves, but it's on hold until this is finished.  It will be the last winter project, as I will need a much needed break.

Updated photo of the "on-the-go" crochet project (lap afghan).

It's getting larger, so I may switch to another smaller to-go project or take books to read for now.  The photo looks black and white, but it was a very dreary day.  Color is actually Aran from Red Heart yarn. 

The cotton yarn I ordered way back in November has been delayed once again.  They are telling me to expect it late January or early February now.

Home repairs/renovations are on hold for now. 

I totally forgot about the request for a recipe, and other requests.  I'll try and do my best to get a post for those.

I have not gotten the video yet of the opening of all of the 24 advent gifts, but one kiddo said her favorite item was the green and white knitted dishcloth I made, and her husband's favorite was a multi-use hand held light (it had a hook for hanging, a magnet and many light options).

Thank you for all your prayers, good mojo, good thoughts over the course of surgery and afterwards.  I have yet to get my "green light" from the doctor this month.  My brain cells are returning ha ha! I had thought I bought a new herbal book, and after looking into it, I had not.  I thought I had ordered new herb seeds for the herb garden this spring, and had not as well.  Good gravy.  

...until next time, I hope you enjoyed my first post of the new year.

The Year of New Beginnings ~ Welcome 2026  ©  January 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Homemade Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

Per a request for the recipe. . .

I've been making this homemade version of "canned" cream of mushroom soup since February of 2014.  The link in my post below.

Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

Another post with a few photos

....contains the link to the actual recipe online.  She has added fresh thyme to the recipe since I started making it, and have not added it to mine (yet).

She also has the recipes for condensed cream of celery soup and condensed cream of chicken soup.  I have made all three of the recipes and they are keeper recipes for me.

I adapt the recipes with organic/non-gmo ingredients for the healthiest soup recipes.

I can say that the original recipe she had up, stated two cremini mushrooms.  Same with shallots, but she has listed amounts now.  Our stores stopped selling bulk cremini mushrooms all together, so I now buy organic baby bella mushrooms for ours. 

I love it.  The shallots bring the party to the soup mix for sure.  So good.  I mix it one "can" at a time, and freeze it in glass freezer containers or sometimes the BPA free plastic containers (as shown in my photo).

Someone once asked me how much it makes, and it is basically equal to one can of the store brand.  One batch of this to every can the recipe calls for.  It's divine on pork chops in the crockpot too.

Homemade Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup © January 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Homemade Condensed Mushroom Soup ~ Freezer Friendly

Shallots, Organic Baby Bella Mushrooms

 I have been making homemade condensed mushroom soup, for the freezer.  The link still works on my older blog post, but I do not add the thyme to mine.  I never know what I am going to use it for, so I leave that out, but the link for the recipe is on this:  Blogpost.

The original recipe calls for cremini mushrooms.  I used to find them in the stores, prior to covid, but all I can locate here, are organic white or baby bella (so I buy the baby bella).  I did some research and baby bellas are basically the same as cremini mushrooms.

Mushrooms are very healthy for us, and I love this recipe, as it uses butter.  Organic store bought condensed soup contains soy oil and other soy products.  The recipe does contain a bit of flour, but I adapt the entire recipe using all organic/non-gmo ingredients.  There is no corn starch in this recipe.

It smells so good when it's being made.  The link goes to a recipe site, and she had recipes for cream of chicken and cream of celery too.  If I want a comfort meal, it typically involves homemade mushroom soup.

Another repeat for most readers, and oddly, I seem to have re-stocked the same time last year.

Randomness

These are hard to find this time of year, but I was thankful to get 3 bunches during my last shopping trip.  I blanched and got them in the freezer for the next few weeks.  My stash was very low (dandelion greens).

I made a few "cans" of condensed mushroom soup.  One package of mushrooms goes a long way and they boost your immune system.  I tossed in some fresh thyme for medicinal purposes.

I found out my car was never trailered to our handyman's house, and he has not been working on it.  Double grr.  Guess when this is all over, we will go get it somehow and just work on it ourselves when we can.....not that we can go anywhere right now.

Our state has now closed spas, salon's, barbers, tattoo parlors, and all Jeep and other vehicle manufacturers, but my husband still has to work with 300 plus people.  They are told to get those touch-less temperature reading gadgets and use them constantly.  I am told by Hubby that they do no lack hand sanitizer there though.  First of all, the government should be supplying the thermometers considering they have not shut them down too yet. They should also supply facemasks for large places that are still required to work.

I have not heard back from the two older daughters, but one is a trainer at a gym so I know she lost that job, but they all still are working during this.

Traffic is still pretty good going by our house, but moreso semi-trailer trucks (working their bum off right now).

Also, in our state, you cannot get tested for the virus unless you are hospitalized and have serious symptoms.  I am reading about locals taking their kids to the emergency room with all the symptoms (not being tested), and sent home with medications and told to "ride it out."  We lack testing kits.  A good friend of mine, has a daughter that got sick and was told to leave her work and not return until she had a negative test.  You can't get the test, unless you doctor orders it or you are hospitalized.  It's madness I tell you.

We are huddling around to watch the news more often.  They continue to require more shut downs, and I heard that liquor stores may be shut down next.  I guess we'll see.

I wish I taught my Mom how to skype.  I can call her, but can't see her.  I have no idea how my Dad is right now.  He does not use his computer for email, and doesn't answer his phone.  They only check in's I have done are in person, and I can't do those either. My younger brother checks in on him, so I can get updates that way.

I hope you are all safe, and I am continuing to pray for this country.

Oh this weather.....randomness

Wednesday it heated up to 90°F, and of course it brought rain. Now they are saying lots of rain coming our way, so weeding went to a halt.  Just when I was getting things caught up.  The rain however, will be the fate of my garlic getting planted.  Sounds just like our spring we had - so much rain you can't plant.  The struggles have been real this year.  We must get the fruit tree baffles in or at least made for spring.  That's on the "do it when the snow flies" list.  I have a lot of lists right now.

Thursday it started out raining and muggy, but the temps went down to the 60's.  Layers went back on.  

I got caught up on my library book stash however.  I even got some reading time with my current book too.  More patterns were collected for my crochet and knit stash.


I didn't run out of things to preserve though.  Tomatoes were put into the dehydrator for tomato soups, pastas, stews, and even tomato powder.  It's not going to be a lot, but some is better than none.  I put some herbs up too for winter - medicinal and culinary.

I drained my calendula oil and 4 thieves vinegar.  I have a list of things to get made now.  Some need made soon, others can wait a bit longer.

I got a few "cans" of homemade condensed cream of mushroom soup made and into the freezer.  The smell of shallots cooking in butter had me hankering for salmon romanoff.  It's on the menu now.

The ladies have been slacking in the egg production lately.  I surely hope they speed up again.  We use eggs daily.

Rain ~ Substitute for homemade cream of mushroom soup

The rain that was predicted at 11am, was pushed back to noon.  Then it was pushed to 1pm, and again to 3pm.  I was starting to wonder if we'd even get any (again).  Later I checked it again, and it was once again pushed back to 4pm.   

Our oldest daughter stopped out for a visit, and it sprinkled long enough for her to run from the porch to her car to roll up her windows.  

Mother Nature is really making me work my bum off this season.  Hi-ho-Hi-ho, it's off to water I go.....

While putting my roast in the crocky yesterday morning, I realized I has zero mushroom soup in the freezer.  I tend to have a few cans of organic store bought soup, but there was none to be had.  In desperation (or you could call it creativity), I had one can of organic crimini mushrooms and onions (no shallots either).  I whipped up a batch and it was just as fantastic on our roast as the original mushroom soup recipe I use.

Wacky Weather

I woke up to checking the weather yesterday, and saw rain was 60% at 10am and 90% at 1pm.  So, I adjusted my day.  I started by making 3 "cans" of homemade condensed mushroom soup.  Smelled so good too.  I love the smell of shallots cooking in butter.  Mmm.  The "cans" went into the freezer.  By the way, this soup on top of turkey breast, in the crock pot, tastes amazing.

At 11am the rain had not arrived.

At noon, no rain.  At 1:30pm?  No rain.  I chopped up a head of cauliflower to prep for dinner early.  Put that in the fridge and checked the weather again. 

Herbed Butter ~ A Day in the Kitchen

I have been searching the organic section of our grocer for fresh thyme (sadly I did not put a pot of it in my kitchen last fall).  They seem to be out of it often.

I decided to use my dried thyme and use less of it  (dried is more potent).  Most recipes that use 1 stick of organic butter, require about 3 Tablespoons of fresh herbs, plus garlic.

I did not want garlic in my herbed butter for breakfast toast.  I wanted simply thyme.  Thyme has so many healthy qualities and I love the taste of it on toast with a few eggs.

Random Tidbits ~ Sausage and Kale Millet Skillet

I was up, and sipping through my first cup of coffee Tuesday morning, when my phone rang about 7:00am.  

Discombobulated

Have you ever felt discombobulated when your routine is abruptly changed?  I do.  It throws off my thinking, activities or chores, for the entire day.  It forces me to be a different "me" for the day.  It forces me to be more creative.

Hamburger-Potato Crock Pot Dinner

First, the night before. . .
 

make a batch (best, or make ahead and freeze), of homemade condensed cream of mushroom soup.

Homemade Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

On a whim, I decided to find a recipe for making my own condensed cream of mushroom soup.  There are many recipes I do not make anymore, simply because I don't want to feed my family those canned foods.