Pioneer Woman at Heart

  A chilly 36°F outside this morning, so it will be touch and go, if I am able to dehydrate more herbs or not.   Speaking of herbs, I just learned that Thyme is an herb that promotes sleep.  I had no idea.  I know it's great as a medicinal tea for coughs and other ailments, but this was interesting information. The cold weather has me doing much winter prep work, but there is much more to get done. New recipe tried - Homemade Cherry Pie Energy Bars.  Recipe is free online by Mommypotamus.   I had to add a few extra medjool dates to get the mixture into a mixture that would press into bars.  Note:  I lined an 8 x 8 pan and pressed it in, then flipped it out and cut into 8 bars.  These were very good, easy to make and I may even cut them smaller next time.  Simply 4 ingredients to make them.  They contain organic dried cherries, organic medjool dates, organic almonds, and organic cinnamon. Chilly ~ New Healthy Recipe Tried ~...

  I enjoyed yet another spectacular sunrise, and this particular day the temperture got up to 80°F.  I don't remember November ever getting that warm before. I'm am enjoying the "down" time here lately too.  I spent more time searching the local library catalog, and have ordered a few books via their interloan borrowing system. I even have had some "me" time, and finished another lap afghan.  It is the right width at the bottom.  It looks weird due to the angle I was holding the camera.  Anyway, another one done. I cook from scratch, so most days here involve some sort of  kitchen duty, so I relish leftover days.  I tried a new recipe for pumpkin oat pancakes.  The chickens are still on hiatus, so I switch to oatmeal bakes, steel cut oats, pancakes, waffles, or anything using less eggs.  Bacon is very expensive now, so we have been swapping it with Canadian bacon. (one of the recipes - Tahini Date cookies, recipe from Thrive Market) I ha...

We finally got one evening of rain here.  I'm not sure how much more we'll get from the cucumbers, but they are almost all dead plants at this point. The jalapenos are rolling in, so I have plans to bake us a jalapeno cheddar frittata for breakfast soon.  I also have plans to try a new hummus recipe (Jalapeno-Avocado). I've been trying new tea infusions, and have included some new ones and excluded some we didn't like.  I found that yerba mate iced in the early part of the day is delicous with nothing else in it. Once again, there are locals stealing, cars getting broke into, and in one small town, a person walked through the woods to break into a house.    I have discovered something new!  I can substitute pie pumpkin puree for mashed bananas in a zucchini muffin recipe.  I have only made the recipe a few times, as we lacked the zucchini (squash bugs). I did not know I could swap the pumpkin for the bananas, and I am blown away how good it tastes in t...

The recent days here have been cloudy, cold and dreary.  By cold, I mean cold enough for a winter coat again (and too cold to paint doors).  Brr!  The chickens and I are not exactly happy about it.  I guess I will be taking my vitamin D for a little while longer. It was confirmed that a tornado touched down in a town within an hour of us, when we had those last thunderstorms. I was actually finishing a book out on the porch when the thunder and lightning arrived.  I finished the book, but high tailed it back inside. The tornado did damage to the community area there.  It is said, that there was no warning, nor a watch issued, so the people there had no time to prepare.  Very scary.  It happened between two cities where both my Mom and my Dad grew up, and are now buried. I'll be visiting that area soon, as I gather flowers together to take to the cemeteries this spring.  Spring is a difficult time to go there too, as the weather is so iff...