Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I decided to dehydrate some of the last of the green bell peppers.  Sorry for the bad photo.  I am using my cell camera for now.  My download cord to my actual camera died, so I need a new one (it's on the way). I made green bell pepper powder.  I will try this in scrambled eggs, sauces and dips for now.  It smells so good!  Have you made/used green bell pepper powder? Green Bell Pepper Powder ~ Dehydrating   © Oct 2023 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I found this battery operated light for the bathroom re-do.  I just love it.  I'm trying to find another one the same color for the other bathroom.  They will come in handy during power outages vs. lighting a candle.  It was the only they had, and not sold online.  I am having my daughter check stores, as I am so dang super busy in the garden. Snagged these for $.50/each I love this one!  I could only find one, but for $1.00!  And of course the last one they had as well.  I like this one the best. I found this post in my drafts from last year, ha ha!  Well, it's getting posted.  Oh, and the battery operated lights have come in handy.

  We are not going to get a lot of carrots this year.  Sadly, the derecho we had washed out the seeds. I picked up some organic carrots and decided to try something new - pickled carrots. We'll toss these in salads, on sandwiches and even on tacos.  I'll let you know how they taste when we do taste them. I spent about 3 hours cleaning the upstairs.  Some items went to the roadside for free, some were donated and I filled the trash, cleaned one closet out completely, and shampooed most of the carpet.

  I got a small amount of garden swiss chard blanched and froze. Blanched 2 heads of cauliflower and froze them. Blanched 2# of carrots and froze those too. Tried to catch up with laundry and washed kitchen towels. Did final touches on the ornaments, earrings and one necklace.

  I sliced up 6# of apples and cooked them down, while I multitasked.... ...and sliced and diced 6# of onions and filled my large dehydrator. Part of them will be ground into onion powder and part will be saved as they are. I'll probably make applesauce again.  I didn't write down any notes on my recipe (basically instructions with number of pounds), and may have doubled it last time.  Thankfully I thought ahead for the busy day.  I put an all-in-one dinner in the crock pot.  Four beans and sausage , with home grown green bell pepper and home canned ketchup. I cut up yellow netting, and it took almost 3 hours to cut enough strips for 11 scrubbies.  It's sort of back breaking work, as it is a lot of netting and I cannot just simply fold it over several times (10 yards) and cut it quickly.  I'm not sure how many more years I'll be selling them. By the way, two tips with homemade scrubbies.  I've had someone buy them for her husband and said he uses ...

  I was watching a foraging video on making dandelion pesto, and the person mentioned using "soaked and dried" nuts (unroasted) or seeds for the recipe. I had to google it, and yes there are video's on doing this process.  Apparently, it helps you digest them, brings out their flavor and nutrition. I did not even know that re-usable freezer bags, that use a handheld tool, existed.  The tool removes the air from the bag.  They re-seal and are washable.  I bought one (not the one I wanted, as I don't think it is being made anymore), but trying it out to see if the bags keep the air out after months of being in the fridge.  I hope it works out well.  I just put hot peppers in the freezer.  I can take out a bit, re-seal and put back in the freezer.  I love the fact that it will cut back what I spend on ziploc bags.

I ran out of time in the kitchen, so I finally finished up with what I brought home from the grocery store. Put a head of cauliflower in the freezer,  ...as well as some broccoli (all organic of course). Froze a bit of diced celery as well, and.... Last year I hosted an online pampered chef party to help out a friend.  I got these for free.  The rubber white tubing is used to shell the garlic clove (works great), and the other slices it.  These made my life so much easier when making garlic powder.  Note:  I didn't know until I had the party, but all of their stuff is made in China, so you may want to check for USA products online.  Anyway, it was so much easier filling a 9 tray dehydrator of sliced garlic. ...filled the dehydrator with garlic to grind into garlic powder. I boiled more eggs for egg salad.  It's a great meal for our very hot days here.  My husband works outside and next to very hot equipment and doesn't want to eat "hot" food ...

I put more stuff by the road and it was all gone by evening.  I'm so glad that someone can use it or scrap it, and it's out of the garage. We hit a whopping heat index of 102°F yesterday.  Hot and very very humid.   Prices are soaring.  Daughter K bought a 2 1/2 oz. bag of cotton candy last week at the fair and it cost her $7.00!!  Outrageous. I made a trip to the "Big City" and restocked groceries and other items.  We ran out of trash bags while cleaning the garage last weekend. I froze 2 bunches of organic asparagus, 2 bunches or organic dandelion greens, and a few organic red bell peppers.  These are not items I have from my garden, so I am stocking up when I see them available.   Thunderstorms continued through out the evening and may continue into today.  They say we'll have higher temperatures tomorrow.  It will either make or break the garden this year.  

(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...

I've been spending rainy/cold days on theter putting orders in to restock and preparing for canning season.  Brazil nuts help my hair and nails stay healthy.  These are not sold in our stores, and I haven't found them at the health store 40 minutes from home either. I use this for a few canned items, but I also use Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar for many other canned items.  The organic white is not sold in stores (non-gmo). This corn syrup was in very limited supply last year.  Two years ago the grocery store carried it.  I'll probably order more to be prepared for the holidays, without worries of limited supply.  I also use it to make homemade teriyaki sauce. Restocked the einkron flour as well too. I also made a batch of homemade dinner rolls for our "Christmas" gathering with my side of the family. It's more like an Easter get together now. I love bread making days.  It's sort of relaxing. I am writing up a...

I'm finally getting around to researching some poultry travel crates for meat birds.  If you have purchased any, and have reviews, and prices, I'd be interested in your thoughts. It's time to prepare seeds for this year's garden.  Sending up prayers and goof vibes we all have a grand one this year. Hubby's cousin found free maple (dry) for us.  She and Hubby (or with myself) will either team up to fetch it, or she'll deliver it so we just have to split it.  It's 2 truck loads of wood.  So thankful for that, and helps us stay ahead of splitting wood this spring.

To all of you who read through yesterday's long post, thank you for your dedication and patience to read through it.  Today's post will be much shorter. It's was gonna be a cold night last night (second freeze warning), so I trudged out to the barn and brought in more wood.  Hubby is already starting to show the signs of sleep deprivation and exhaustion.  He's a grouch.  He apologized, but he'll need a lot of rest after this long work week.   It was a chilly 30°F this morning, and the wood stove was going strong.  In October.  So odd. The coop got a good cleaning, and I stuffed the roost with extra straw.  I had to wait a bit for the temperature to rise, but it was still cold out there.  The ladies and gent will want the warmth in this cooler weather.  I had to fix their coop ladder too, and as I fixed it I noticed a hole chewed through the chicken wire.   It's between the main coop and the emergency smaller coo...

Our green pepper plants we started from heirloom, organic seed, are producing.  However, they are not tall enough, and as you can see, the peppers are half or less the size they should be.  I only saw these and a few more out there.  It sure doesn't help me start the day in a happy, motivated, upbeat, peachy-keen attitude. I can't weed very much due to the ground being so wet yet, but I managed to pull all the thistle from my front flower beds.  I was contemplating what to do, with nothing to harvest, nothing that could be easily weeded etc.  A few balls of pizza dough made it to the freezer, but that was about it.  I am out of everything all at once it seems. I have had a few very nice tea breaks on the porch with this cooler weather.  I'm still working on the crocheted lapghans, but I can only handle sitting idle for so long.  I decided to head to the garage and at least try to clean up some stuff.

It's either too hot or too wet, and this is our reality.  This is a small side of the front porch flower bed.  I have trees growing in it, ha ha ha ha!    The mailbox flower bed.  Trees are growing there too, ha ha! If you look close enough, you'll see my roses in that weed field next to the house, and in front of that, across the sidewalk my weed packed herb garden.  I wasn't kidding when I said the weeds were so tall, I could see them out my windows. Another view of the herb garden.  Even the grass can't be caught up with, nor the trimming.  You should see my vegetable garden.  It looks like we are growing hay out here. On a good note.  I tried something new this year.  I took 5 geraniums inside over winter, and 3 survived.  Check out this one. . . The plants I kept out in the living room, near the wood stove over winter, did the best.  Sure saved money on buying annuals. This my friend...