Pioneer Woman at Heart

  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...

  I finally got around to make a full batch of meatballs.  I like to get this done before the freezer fills up. One year I barely had room to flash freeze, and made a mess with meatballs stuck to the wire shelf above, ha ha!   While the meatballs were flash freezing, I shredded up the very last of the picked zucchini.  I made us a batch of the most delicious chocolate zucchini muffins I have ever had.  I found the recipe this year online, and it is a keeper.  Yum!  I uses Einkorn all-purpose flour. I had two pounds of pork, so I prepped it for homemade sausage with home grown sage.  I let it sit in the fridge overnight before cooking it, so the ingredients can produce good flavor.  I apparently have two different recipes for this, and I added extra seasonings, so this will be interesting. I saved a few boiled eggs for snacking, and topped some chicken salad with them.  I may add boiled eggs to my chicken salad next time.  ...

There was so much I needed to get done before the weekend.  I did some calculations and made a small batch of tomato sauce.  I'm so happy about that. Next?  A batch of meatballs .  I would rather buy fresh meat to do this than frozen, and didn't realize all I had to get done.  It's a lot easier to get these frozen before more goes into the freezer.  One year I smashed them, trying to get them in the freezer on baking sheets. I froze more bell peppers,   boiled eggs for egg salad.  I wanted to get egg salad made to take to Mom to increase her iron. Has anyone cooked with black garlic?  I finally got mine, but now I'm wondering can I use it as is or do I need to put it through a process with oil to use?   I read where you place the bulbs in a crock pot on warm, but not sure.  It is soft already, so I'm wondering if I just refrigerate it and use.  Would love advice on this.

Green Pepper Pesto 2 green bell peppers, seeded, coarsely chopped 1. Steam blanch the peppers over boiling water for 3 minutes.  Place in food processor. 1 cup fresh basil 1/2 cup grated organic Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup organic olive oil 4 cloves garlic, minced or chopped 2/3 cup salted/roasted pumpkin seeds, organic Add the above ingredients to the food processor with the bell peppers, and process until smooth. Freeze in portions or use some and freeze some.  Lasts up to 3 months in the freezer. Homemade meatballs.  Here is the link for the recipe I use (uses oats vs. bread crumbs) - Homemade meatballs. The other meatball recipe I make is with ground turkey and zucchini - Turkey Zucchini Meatballs . The sauce in the above picture is a bit different.  It uses hot banana peppers, onion and garlic and other ingredients.  Here is the recipe for that sauce: Hot Banana Pepper Tomato Sauce In a skillet with a Tbsp. of olive oil, heat the f...

I've had a few morning visitors lately.  We've been watching them every morning and evening.  Almost every other day we see a group of them on the move, looking for food and water. Morning visitors another day.  There was about a dozen of them, just hanging out at one of the barns.