Pioneer Woman at Heart

Whelp.  It rained and rained and rained here.  We are getting a slight break this morning, but we are saturated.  Rain returns in a very short bit, and then off and on all day (again).  If we are lucky, the rain will stop come Monday.  Maybe.  Many area festivals are canceling, or have already canceled.  On the bright side, it's watering the new trees we planted, and flower bushes, but I do have one red raspberry plant to plant too. The Bad:  Our weekend camping trip was canceled.     It's not camping if we cannot have a campfire, go hiking or biking and/or campfire cook, or even go fishing.  Stuck in the camper would be zero fun (in our current camper anyway).   Yes, we we have an awning, but the rain was just too much, and our camper is small.  It's not a comfortable place to be when it's raining out.  In fact, we had more seating room in our 7 person pop-up camper than we do in our current hard sided camp...

  I've been brewing us a morning iced tea in a quart canning jar, and adding 1 Tbsp. of infused honey to it.  It was just enough to sweeten the tea and we loved it.  I bought the infused honey at a honey festival last year, and it is now all gone.  I am sure it was not inexpensive either.  It was organic.   Speaking of organic honey, both of us are wondering how they can assure it's "organic" when bees travel.  We are wondering if they have qualifications or specifics to classify honey as organic?  Anyway, we bought it.  We loved it. I do have the phone number for the seller, but decided to infuse my own honey. The above jar is started with an elderberry and hibiscus infused honey.  I'm sure it could be done faster on the stove top, but it's very hot here, and I have patience.  We are excited to see if it will taste the same.  It is a delicious one for teas. On the home front, we had a very hot day yesterday.  My read...

  It's a happy month for me.   Don't get me wrong, as things can go haywire on any given moment, but good things are happening. Back in 2015, I posted about some writing adventures.   At that time, it was 11 years ago. You can read about them (it's a short post) HERE .  It feels like I put writing to the pasture long before that year, but.... I used to freelance many years prior to that, but put it all aside to raise the kids, and run the household (one was in about 4-5 school sports and activities  - softball, basketball, you name it!).  They were all active in something - school plays, band, sports, etc.  In other words, we were a very active family, so I put my writing on hold.  It wasn't on purpose.  It just happened. Well, back when I had surgery last December, I decided to enter a poetry contest that was local.  I did not win the top prize, but my poem is printed in a book (have yet to pick it up).  Not long after th...

I'm finally getting so organized that it makes my mornings start much, much smoother, with evenings ending even more smoothly.  Clean kitchen counters.  Everything has a "place."  I actually know where things are now. It may take many more months, but it's been a fun and very productive. We are not done purging, re-organizing, cleaning out things we do not use anymore, etc.  I have one major room to complete, but I am slowly chipping away at it when time allows.   Mornings are now in the 60-70's, and we may even hit 80-90°. Don't panic or anything, but yes, I finally got the recipe typed out for those who wanted it.  You can find my recipe trial post HERE (photos included).  The recipe was written in cursive, so my kids did not want the recipe.  The younger two cannot read cursive hand writing (pretty sad). Fruit Cake Recipe comes from my Grandma's friend on my Mother's side of the family. See notes on my trial baking this recipe.  The r...

  Woke up to mornings in the upper 30's.  Brr.  Rain flooded our asparagus patch.  I am hoping I will have some more asparagus to harvest today.  The continuation of cold nights, has my green onions looking drab. Food is the topic today, as I have very little to share.   I've been thinking how much fun it was last year to try new Christmas holiday recipes.  We loved the sunflower seed brittle recipe we tried last year.  You may get a "Christmas" post out of me this year.  New recipe we tried and absolutely love it.  I have made many, many breakfast casseroles/quiches and frittatas, and this one is a keeper.  I do believe it is a "first" mushroom type quiche to make as well.  I'm officially saying it's a "first time" event this year.   I takes an entire box of frozen spinach, but once you squeeze all that water out, you don't have much left. I used organic baby bella mushrooms, but otherwise did not change any of...

  Whelp.  The rain and cold is still with us.  Early morning temperature was 33°F.  My rosemary looks fine however.  We may actually see a day with zero rain today.  Crossing fingers. Not sure if you can really see the below recipe, which came from the cookbook I shared in my last post (scroll back to see). I guess, because I have never made garlic aioli, I did not realize it is basically fresh mayonnaise with a bit of spice to it. I'm still looking through several cookbooks, but we remain on the hunt for a good burger sauce for grilling season.  I have obtained one from a restaurant, but I need to figure out how to downsize the recipe for two people.  There is a funny story regarding looking for this recipe, and one of these days will share it. I'm also looking for my copy of the fruit cake recipe that was asked for so many months ago.   Update on finding San Marzano tomato plants this spring.  We found them, and the flats range fr...

  New recipe tried - Kidney bean salad with Lemon (recipe is free online at A Virtual Vegan).  I did make slight changes to the recipe. What I did. . . Instead of cane sugar, I used a Tbsp. of lemon infused honey. I used a full organic English cucumber. I used both fresh parsley and cilantro (had some that needed used up, as it's not garden season and I have to buy it). I used red onion. I chilled the salad for a few hours before serving. We added crumbled feta to the salad when I served it.  Yum! Rain is here again.  It's due to come down off and on later and even tomorrow morning.  Our evenings will start dipping into the 30's (hopefully no hard freeze). Thankfully, my three cilantro plants, that came up by themselves, from last year's seeds, are still thriving in the herb garden. Kidney Bean Salad ©  April 2026 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman  at Heart

  I haven't had time to porch sit, so I have not smelled the lilacs wafting through the country air.  I noticed a bit late this season, but they also bloomed early.   A few years ago, a pine tree died and fell down, breaking off half of our lilac bush.  It's still blooming, but barely.  Lilacs smell so wonderful.  I remember, as a young teen, my Grandma bringing cuttings from her lilac bush.  You can make a lot of things with lilacs, but I have yet to try any recipes.  You can make syrups, infused sugars, jelly, teas, tinctures, and even body care.  Do you make anything with lilac blooms? There is a possibility to plant another lilac this spring, but the rain is still an issue. I had "plans" to do some weeding, but we are saturated here still.  Rain is not ending today again either.  I think we may even see rain a bit Thursday, but hopefully not.  The rain is giving us chickweed, and we are enjoying pesto.  I mixed ot...

  Do you ever notice how it's hard to be around people who are negative about "Monday" and the start of the week?   Monday gets a bad name all around.  I used to tackle so much around the house, but I have since then created a cleaning/housework schedule, and it's been working out fantastically.  Monday's are not bombarded with overwhelming to-do lists any longer. My husband had a recent conversation about how his co-workers complain on and on about "Monday" and how terrible it is.  Is it?   Every year I look forward to learn something new.  A new trail to walk, new herbal remedy to make, new handiwork to learn, or just about anything.  It's not only rewarding in most cases, but fun. My "firsts" this month: - dehydrating wild violets, and leaves -dehydrating dandelion flowers  -read a new author, picked up another at the library (yet to read - gulp!) -reading a new devotional -learned the words to a song, and inadvertently learned w...

  I purchased a travel tumbler with tea infuser.  I randomly chose one based on reviews.  It can become frustrating, when you cannot find one person who drinks herbal teas/medicinal herbal teas.  If we like it, I'll post an update on it. By the way, there are several options to buy one, with several sizes too. Something new I learned from a book: -I can brew my herbal tea, cool it, and freeze it in freezer safe vessels.  Pack them for a picnic or travel and it will keep food cold, then thaw for enjoying.  Another perfect idea to travel with your brewed herbal iced tea. -I once watched an "expert" on a video (maybe youtube, not sure) say brewed teas were only good for 48 hours.  I'm reading in a book that brewed teas, cooled for iced tea, are good for up to 4 days.  Anyone know the actual truth to either of these findings? I've been busy dehydrating dandelion flowers.  I, apparently, need to dehydrate more.  They shrink up to about nothin...

  I freeze fresh ginger often, so that I have it on hand for all sorts of recipes, and it has worked out very nicely.  Many people do not know you can do this with fresh ginger root (we purchase organic). How I Freeze Ginger Root I wash the organic ginger root, dry it, wrap it a few times in plastic wrap, and store it inside a freezer bag.  I date each bag and the door of the freezer works best, or it may get lost in your freezer storage. Back to the dehydrated organic ginger root. We love herbal/herbal medicinal teas.  I dehydrated a small-ish bit of organic ginger root in May of 2025.  I have been using small bits of it for tea infusing and tea brewing.  It's worked out great, and continues to maintain it's flavor.  I will definitely keep dehydrated, organic ginger root a staple in my pantry. I will be using it to experiment with other recipes.  Considering the amount of power outages this year, I've decided a few more dehydrated (food, herbs, e...

  Not much to talk about with winter lingering.  Other than the weather, which is back and forth and all over the map lately.  We may actually leave the cold weather this week, and venture into the lower 70's.  However, the spring rains and thunderstorms come with it.  We have had a lot of foggy days lately too. I have been doing the boring refreshing spring cleaning.  We took a large load to donate (mostly clothing).  We are not even close to being done, but chipping away at getting it done before garden planting season. In the mix of this cleaning/purging and re-organizing, I now have two photo type projects to complete (but frees up space it was taking, and will put it all to a good use). On the zero purchasing this year list: -books (unless it's non-fiction, and absolutely needed), concentration will be on reading what we have (both of us).  I love, love love browsing used book sales, and stores, but no more this year until we have read throu...