Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Hot mess express checking in for a quick minute.  October has been, and still is a crammed month of commitments, projects and whatnot.  More so on the commitments (preventing other work to be done). I feel like the days are so out of control, but I dug out my new jars and recipes.  I realized I had not dehydrated comfrey or plantain, and needed it for one recipe.  Of course, we just mowed too. The kitchen is full of baskets of herbs and medicinal weeds, which are all waiting their moment in the dehydrator. Our weather changed rapidly, so I am working quickly.   Sticky notes to the rescue!  Without them, I would be a double hot mess express.  I finally made a phone call for a quote, that should have been done a year ago.  I was to complete that job today, but someone took the wrong vehicle to work this morning. Purging continues, but not as productive as it should be.  Garage clean out remains on the to-do list (did I mention too m...

  Tuesday was our "Monday" this week.  We both took Monday "off" and spent the day enjoying it.  Tuesday was the day for thunderstorms to roll in late afternoon, so laundry went out on the line early. I am working my way through my garden freezer goodies, and made us some flourless pumpkin bread with frozen garden pumpkin puree.  It is a very dense, thicker bread, and with less sweetness and flavor, but by adding some extra cinnamon and nutmeg it's pretty good. The bread is also about half the height of other baked pumpkin breads.  I test the bread about 30 minutes into the cooking time, and let it cool almost completely in the pan.  I finish the cooling on a wire rack before slicing. Flourless Pumpkin Bread In a blender mix all of the ingredients: 2 cups organic old-fashioned oats 15 oz. of frozen, thawed garden pumpkin puree (I measure it, as it will weigh differently depending on the thickness of your pumpkin puree).  You can use 1 can of pure pumpk...

It cooled down quickly (woke up to the 40's) here, so home grown sweet potatoes, green bell peppers and garlic went into good use - sweet potato chili.   After running into the basket in the kitchen too many times, my extent of "fall" decor was placing those hard-as-a-rock pie pumpkins on the porch ledge.   The dead bolt on one of the doors broke.  I had to gently lay that news on Hubby.  It was stuck locked, and the latch to turn it broke.  Good thing I have another door to use.  Avoiding the garden for the most part of the day, I baked some flourless brownies... Whipped up some more whiskey butterscotch sauce .... Made a jar of homemade pumpkin pie spice. Homemade pumpkin pie spice 3 Tbsp. organic ground cinnamon 2 tsp. organic ground ginger 2 tsp. organic ground nutmeg 1 1/2 tsp. organic ground all-spice 1 1/2 tsp. organic ground cloves Mix and store in an airtight container.  I used a recycled bab...

The other day my younger three girls were raving about muffins I made last year.   I had been discussing making pumpkin pancakes or waffles, so the topic of pumpkin was wafting through their busy brains. "They were HUGE!" "They were so good!" "They were really moist and big!"