Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Winter is on the way.  These very short beautiful snippets of a sunrise are coming to an end.  We enjoyed one, mostly likely the last, grill out on the porch.   Stormy, rainy days moved in here and there, and the camper was finally cleaned out for the season.  Leaves are starting to change color around the area now. I use my melon baller to remove the seeds/stringy innards.  I use it for all of my squash.  It works great. We got 9 pie pumpkins this season.  One rotted before I could bring them inside, and we gave one to the chickens for a treat. I line my baking pans/sheets with parchment paper and roast at 350° for 60 minutes.  I typically check them, and continue roasting if necessary.  The above pie pumpkin (Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkins from Baker Creek), weighed in at a little over 5#!  Not all of them are that large, but wow!  Save those delicious seeds to roast.  Here is our favorite recipe:  Whiskey-Bacon ...

  I took a walk out to the bell peppers, and brought in the last 28 of them.  Even the smaller ones are very thick and smell wonderful. As for the hot peppers? There are a few baby jalapenos on some plants, but that is it.  Oddly, the 3 Anaheim plants have tons of flowers.  It's pretty cold here now, so I'll be pulling the plants in a day or so. We harvested the pie pumpkins, spaghetti squash, and there was only one very small acorn squash. I follow King Arthur's Blog, and they shared a tip for when you bake with your pie pumpkin puree:  Blog Post Here .

(2018 photo, the last time we grew them on the homestead) There was a point when organic butter at the grocery store became horribly high priced.  It's still high, but I try to stock up when they have coupons or a sale. However, I learned something new!  I have not tried it yet, but I have pie pumpkins planted this year.   There are concerns all over this country dealing with certain foods, shortages, price hikes and the like.   Most people are aware you can substitute unsweetened applesauce for oil when baking, but this next tidbit is new to me. You can substitute pumpkin puree for oil or butter when baking, using 1 to 1 ratio.  Meaning if your recipe calls for 1 cup oil, use 1 cup pumpkin puree. At harvest time, I roast the pumpkins (cut in half as shown in the photo), and let them cool down.  I scrape out the pumpkin, puree it in the food processor and freeze it in freezer containers. Of course there are many other uses for pumpkin puree, and w...

The previous rain left things very wet outside, so the inside got the attention it needed all day Friday. I roasted 1 larger pie pumpkin for making a batch of pumpkin butter. I put 2 cups in the fridge, and the rest went into the freezer. I roasted 6 more pumpkins for pumpkin puree, and have one very tiny one went to the porch for fall decor.  The puree will be used for pumpkin pancakes/waffles, pumpkin muffins and bread, pumpkin hummus, pumpkin steel cut oats, pumpkin-sage macaroni, pumpkin pie . . .just anything. I roasted more whiskey-bacon pumpkin seeds as well.  They are so good.  I updated over on the recipe post.  I doubled the amount of pumpkin seeds. (Saturday sunrise, just before we enjoyed our breakfast on the porch) Saturday the weather warmed back up, so I high-tailed it to the tomato patch and starting yanking those pesky stakes and tomato plants (which surprisingly, some were still green and alive).  What we started...

I have never made pumpkin soup of any sort, so this year I did. I roasted one entire pumpkin for this soup.  The recipe in my "pile" or "stash" called for potatoes.  I did some searching, and found there are so many ways to make this soup. I didn't follow the pumpkin and red lentil soup recipe I found online, but adjusted it to what I had.  I seasoned it with home canned hot sauce and garlic both fresh (heated with the onion) and some garlic powder to add more flavor.   I served it with a dollop of sour cream, and freshly chopped parsley.  Some of it is going in the freezer.  The hens are happy gals too.  They are getting the pumpkin "guts" for a treat. The taste test with the soup? Delicious!   I used 2 carrots and 2 potatoes in my soup, as well as the pumpkin. Guess what arrived at the library?

For the first time in a long, long, long time, I woke up to a day where I had nothing on the list that could be done (for one reason or another).  Rain arrived, and there was heavy cloud cover, making me feel even lazier than ever.  Oh, I could have attacked some deep cleaning with gusto, but I didn't.  I got a few recipes written on cards, but boy I felt lazy dazy.  Maybe I deserved a day off and it just arrived? Well, I eventually found something I could do.   I mean they are taking up half of a kitchen table right now. About the bread. . . .

I had a bit of a delayed start in my day at home yesterday.  I had another follow up at the new doctor.   Grad daughter drove me, so my leg wouldn't be stressed.  I took along a book I'm trying to finish (that I found tucked away in my night stand).  I'm still reading my fiction book too. The news? Spider bite is healing, leg swelling is going down - doctor is very happy.  I don't have to go back for 2 more weeks, but I will be taking up stock with the company who manufacturers gauze and roll gauze (ha ha ha!).  I can exercise too, but have to start slow.  Woo hoo!  On the road to recovery!! I ended up home after lunch time, and well, it left me with the question what to tackle next.  Oh, I have a funny to share (not so funny to me, but to a kid of mine) I have more tomatoes, but I cannot can sauce related items late in the day, or I'll be up all night long. I decided to roast all 6 pie pumpkins I recentl...

I woke up Monday to a warm 63°F and later a high of 87°.  And guess what?   We started the "resurrection" of the flower beds/rose bed/herb garden on Sunday (no chance in convincing Hubby to break out the chainsaw for wood chores in the heat either), and now we are to get 4 days of possible rain.  I guess the Good Lord thought I needed softer soil to rip those weeds out, ha ha!   Clean up before the end of the day.  But oh, so much more to weed (like about 60-70 feet of flower/herb beds). Monday, we labored (again).  Hubby mowed some more, we weeded, and prepped the garlic bed.  Oh that was a joy - windy as heck, and try putting plastic down in the wind.  It took us about 1 1/2 hours or more to pull up old plastic, till, and put the new plastic down.  Now it will sit for a week or so to kill off more weeds/grass before I fall plant. Laundry was put out.  Dried in seconds with the wind, heat and sun we had....

My go-to produce stand had a few more pie pumpkins, so I stopped in and picked them up. He's getting to c lose it up I think. Those are roasted and in the freezer now too. I have 6 more cups now. Guess what else I'm doing?

I purchased 8 pie pumpkins so far, and roasted them all for puree.  The first 6  weighed in about 1 5 . 71 lbs.  I typically cut them and clean them all, and roast them all in one day.  This time I roasted two a day, until I was done.  I have a dog that likes to steal food , so I made sure I didn't have a lot going on.  Funny how all the dog s don't touch the tomatoes.  An yway... I used parchment paper this year.  I usually add water and cover, but not this year.  It works pretty well too.  Parchment paper isn't cheap, so I buy it at our dollar store for $1 a box.  It gets me th rough the ho liday baking sea son on a dime as well.