Pioneer Woman at Heart

  The photo is my husband's breakfast packed up the day prior.  I have to say, it would be absolutely fantastic with eggs over easy made fresh, but I do have to send breakfast on-the-go for him during the work week days. Oh my goodness, it was delicious!  Time consuming to make, but healthy and very good.  It's a keeper recipe, with some tips to make it easier. First, remember I ground up some of our dehydrated sage a while back?  I put it in a spice jar for easy use for making homemade chicken or turkey sausage?  Well, I'm not doing that anymore. I discovered that the delicious sage flavor goes stale after weeks of sitting in a spice jar.  It's just not the same as crushing the full leaves dehydrated.  I'll just have to take the time to crush them for really good flavor.   Tips:  Most butternut squash is about 3 pounds or so.  Unless I grow it myself, and have a dry year, I have never seen a "small" or 1 1/2 pound butternut sq...

  I believe last year (how we did it) was the first year to do this with the woody ends from our spring asparagus.  I think I will try adding them to vegetable dips this year, or to meat and/or vegetable sauces.  It all depends on the amount of dehydrated ends we have this spring. We are still getting asparagus thankfully.  We got more rain, and it looks like we may get a few days break from it now. A lot is happening around here, and some work is still on hold, such as preparing the actual vegetable garden (much too wet). Dehydrated (and ground) Asparagus Ends ©  May 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Happy first day of May!  May is a very fun-packed month for us. If you were wondering, yes another day of rain here.  There is more coming, and our day started at 37°F this morning.  Brr. Our area grocery store gave me a coupon for a free 16 oz. container of cottage cheese, so I whipped a cup of it in my small food processor.  I had pesto on hand, so I mixed in some of that, and more garlic.  Instant dip for veggies.  Yum. I'm, ever so slowly, getting some book blanket granny squares crocheted.  I'm still behind, and this one needs ends sewn in. I figured out why I am getting behind, as I'm getting way more books finished than I thought I would.  One, I am only crocheting while watching TV, and that time is limited lately.   I've oddly become a book critic with all these books too.  In one book, the author failed to do proper research for, like boiling freshly laid eggs from chickens.  Anyone with chickens knows, you hav...

  As promised, I am back with an update on the seasoning. We tried the seasoning on a sheet pan dinner, with chicken sausages, potatoes and carrots.  I normally use a blend of "Italian" seasonings for this dinner, but we tried the homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning recently.  It is good, but has a much more "pepper" flavor than with using the Italian for this dish. Next up? We grilled sirloin burgers, as that is what my husband loves to use the original seasoning on.  The results?  Delicious!  He prefers only to use the seasoning on ground beef burgers, but it was very good on the sirloin burgers.   Homemade for the win!  Healthier and less expensive.  I hope you enjoyed this update.  Original post on the homemade seasoning is HERE . Taste Testing the Homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning © June 2024 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer Woman at Heart

We had a frost warning for last night, and woke up to a wind chill of 35°F.  It's still April.  We typically can't plant anything until after the last frost, which in our area, is about or after Mother's Day in May (mid May or later).  One year, however, we had a frost in late May, after we planted the entire garden and lost everything that year.  Every year it's different, so we just wait it out. Not only is it cold right now, but the rain is moving back in.  A lot of it.  I'm not looking forward to a flooded chicken run again.   My new laundry basket.  It is the least expensive one we could find ($16.99  Big Lots) to at least make my life easier during then next 2-3 weeks (or longer).  My husband had to drive about 22 miles to get it, but I have never been this excited about a laundry basket.  I know this one won't last very long, as it's all completely plastic, including the wheels, but like I said, laundry will keep getting done...

The rain has not left us yet.  It's been on and off for days here lately.  The chicken run has been flooded more than once, and is now a muddy swamp mess.  I tossed some straw down, to keep from bringing in a muddy mess, but it's still a squishy, sludgy, chicken run. The weather-man keeps promising sunny dry days ahead, but who knows when they'll arrive again.  I just keep telling myself, that the spring herbs and garlic are loving the rain. However, it has been cold here as well.  The wind chill this morning was 29°F.  We had a freeze warning.  The sky has been showing some strange coloring as well. The sun was not out when I snapped this photo, but.... The ornamental apple trees are producing blossoms already.  The trees are very pretty, but the birds plant way too many of them. Are there any Yerba Mate tea drinkers here?  I tried loose leaf for the first time.  It is so fine, it was coming out of the sides of my larger tea-ball, so I ...

  I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend.  We had some excitement going on here so to speak.  First the power went out for several hours, along with an internet outage.  They could not locate the cause, or at the point of powering back on, did not disclose why they both went out of service.  It was a good spectrum of an area to lose both services. Secondly, we had to cancel our weekend plans. My husband was on the forced overtime list at work.  He worked the entire Easter weekend.  Hence the unfinished home repairs.   Thirdly, two very suspicious looking people landed on our front porch.  No vehicle, no cell phone (according to them), and their story was that they were "left by the side of the road"  and wanted to use my cell phone or call for a ride etc.  They also said they were from another state, and not from around here.  I was not about to do that, so I shut and locked the door, and called the Sheriff.   ...

  Happy New Year!  I do not write out resolutions for the upcoming year.  I started working myself  (physically, and there may be an update this new year, we'll see).  I'm just glad the holidays are done with this year. On to other news . . . A little homemaking tip:  I fill a small spray bottle with vodka (sanitizer) and add a few drops of lavender essential oil.  I spray our mattress when the bedding is being washed.  It cleans the mattress and leaves a lovely scent. Self Care:  my self care this week was to buy myself a new set of casual dress boots (tossing out a very old, and very worn pair too).  I never find anything in the size I wear, so this is a pamper me moment.  A big bonus, was that the price tag said $55.00 and they were on sale for $14.99!  What did you do for yourself last week?  Or do you plan some self care next week? Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.  The weather . . . It ra...

Something I've learned baking with coconut flour - it requires a lot more eggs than Einkorn or organic all purpose flour.  Eggs of which are not getting laid by the chickens right now.  Hmpf.  I guess they are all on strike again. I printed this helpful chart and pinned it on the cork that I glued inside a kitchen cupboard.  Sharing in case it could help others. Do you follow MRH (Mountain Rose Herbs) blog?  They have a syrup recipe for the "blues" and it can be put on pancakes/waffles.  Hubby can't have honey, but we can.  If I can find hawthorn berries, I'll try it. No, we didn't get wood cut last night.  I was dressed and ready to go out as Hubby walked in the door.  He said, "it's raining out."  Yeah, no wood was cut. One of my simple pleasures. . . Holding and reading a book.  I forgot how pleasant this feels.  I just put if off due to other "busyness."  I'll continue to work harder and keeping up with cl...

A bit late in sharing, but remember the "philly" stuffed peppers I made?  Well, we had some leftover steak, and green pepper/onion mix.  Guess what I used it for?  Although omelets sounded good, I baked up a "philly" frittata. I added some extra red bell pepper diced.  Mushrooms would have been nice too, but I was fresh out.   I topped it with fresh parsley.  I should have added more garlic, but it was very good.  I did not add cheese to this either. It seems like 99% of my day rotates around the kitchen with baking/cooking and doing the dishes.  Literally.  Saturday my husband took overtime, so while we got more rain, he went to work.  Youngest daughter went to visit her boyfriend, so I took advantage of an empty house, on a rotten weather day and crocheted.  I should have been cleaning again, but I have one more order to fill.

Did you know you can freeze buttermilk?  I did not know this.  According to Food Network you can.  Pour it into ice cube trays, freeze, and store in freezer containers.  Organic buttermilk is hard to find, so I'll be keeping this on the to-do list.  It keeps up to 3 months. I put a few hand crocheted "heart" bookmarks up on my "shop" blog.   The grain free fruit and nut bars went quickly here.  I will be making more this week.  Very healthy too.  Gotta get those nuts and seeds in our diet one way or another. Our weekend was pretty much a "stay in pajamas" kind of weekend.  I got a lot of crochet time in.  In fact, so much, my eyes need a break today.   I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom today.   The weather outside is. . . . 14°F (feels like 5°F) On the breakfast plate . . . I have no idea yet, but this is what my husband made me yesterday.  Mmmm!  So good. ...