Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I had a recipe (put on the internet in 2021) I made once last year, and could not find it.  I ended up finding it, but the recipe called for Weber's store brand Garlic Jalapeno Seasoning.   You know me right?  I went on a mission.  First, I am not really a person to store a "mixed spice" in my pantry, other than my homemade "fire powder" for spicing up dishes when I want to. However, they do come in handy for traveling, and especially when camping.  Mixed spices also come in handy for grilling out, grilling at a picnic etc. To see the actual ingredients in the store brand, you can simply read the label next time shopping, or find it on the internet.  I have no idea what stores sell it, or if they even make it anymore, but sharing what my mission was pretaining to this seasoning. The original seasoning contains sugar (more than the jalapeno), "spices" (no specifics on what this is), citric acid, gum arabic, rice concentrate, and "natural flavors...

  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 d...

  I finally got around to dehydrating garlic.  I typically do this when I can open my windows, but saved this job for this winter. You put your cloves into the rubber tube, roll gently pressing to remove garlic skins.  My tools are from Pampered Chef, but I am sure Amazon sells something similar.  I got mine free, and love them!  It is so much faster than hand peeling/slicing. Put the cloves in the slicer compartments, and press and turn to slice garlic.  Not real easy to clean, but works great. I first started doing this all by hand - hand peeling, hand slicing then grinding.  I sliced my cloves onto parchment paper this time.  It just makes it easier to get it all into my coffee grinder to grind up. I am dehydrating the garlic on 125°F in my Excalibur for 8 - 12 hours.  I store garlic powder in an air tight jar in my pantry.  Unlike onion powder, it will not collect moisture (best way to store  my onion powder is in an airtight ja...

We've hit the 20's here lately, and dipping into the teens at night.  The cold can really get to you, but I'm taking advantage of it with indoor jobs etc. Now that the house is getting back to normal, I can get back to the kitchen. Garlic powder and granulated garlic was made.  Just one more way to preserve my garlic without a root cellar (basement or proper storage area).  I then use these to make homemade spice/herb mixes, including homemade seasoned salt. Strained another tincture.   Found a quick fix for the coop door that leads out to the outside ramp.  It'll go on the inside, so both sides are secured.  I'm without "wheels" again (Big Red just needs replaced in my opinion), so it was work with what I had.  There has been no animal sightings whatsoever.  Hubby feels that the idiots in the woods (most likely illegal hunters) were the cause, but we still don't know. I still had one daughter's dog (Mia)...

We woke up to all the white stuff melted.  All of it.  I am so glad to see that.  It was an ice rink walking to the barn, to fetch wood and to get the mail.  It'll be sloshy out there, but I'll take warmer weather and mud over ice and freezing temps at this point. There are so many nutritional and medicinal benefits of herbs and spices, so I won't go into detail of each one.  However, I mixed the following together for their benefits, and tried it on eggs, on sandwiches, meats etc. Although I called it "Fire it Up" we like to think of (or call it) "Full Throttle" because it fires up our "engines." A body boosting, immune boosting, sickness fighter, overall health boosting mix. First I picked dehydrated garden parsley, and my home ground garlic. 

We worked on barn wood all day Sunday.  We are very tired and sore.  I took photos, but will load them later to share.  As soon as we finished removing boards so we could load up a trailer, a stranger pulled in wanting the metal hay rail.  We now know why the other guy wanted it - money.  Each little metal piece (photo to come later) is worth $10.00.  Not including the rail.  So this stranger, after we did all the work, just drives on in and asks for it for free.  I'm going to put signs up for those types of people. Oh, and the stranger immediately asked for the pulleys.  Hm.  The nerve of people.  So, without photos of the barn clean up, I'll share my garlic.  A frost is possible in a week or so, and I wanted this job done. Last year I planted about 175 cloves of garlic. This year?  I planted 70 cloves of Moroccan Creole, 56 cloves of Russian Giant, and 100 cloves of our regular variety (so far - we have n...

I threw in "Fascinating" for extra thrill today, ha ha!  It's not really that interesting. Gladys were all pulled for winter.  The bulbs have grown bigger over the years, and have outgrown their box.  They won't survive the winter here outside.

It's that time of year again, when I dehydrate my home grown garlic.

Hubby found someone at work who was willing to share some garlic.  We bartered, and gave him a jar of homemade Cinnamon-Blueberry Jam.

I have two flags out, and every day I look at them, I think of my son at Parris Island, and my daughter who is leaving very soon.

Last night, we hit an all time record low.  When Hubby called me from work about 7pm, it was already -17°F (actual temperature), with a wind chill of lower than -35°F.  The dogs are not taking the cold well at all.  My son said their legs start shaking after a few minutes outside to do their business.  Some times they won't even go, and he'll have to go out again.   It's too early to tell how the barn animals handled it.  As soon as the sun is up, we plan to do a quick check on them all.

Dehydrating garlic was next on my list of "to-do's," and to make garlic powder from my home grown garlic.  Some of my followers have probably already made homemade garlic powder, so forgive me if it's a boring post.  This is a first time for me. We were gifted garlic two years ago, and planted all of them in the garden in the fall.  I dug them up the next season, and repeated that for one more year, expanding our harvest this year.