Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Interesting info for anyone who crochets . . . I received a few different crochet tension rings, and have yet to give them a try.  I have heard of them, but have never used one.  Very interesting concept.  The ring holds the yarn tension as you crochet, vs. wrapping the yarn in between fingers or around your hand.   I never did get any comments on the best row counter.  I'm still looking into that.  As for the lack of posts?  Well, I'm busy weeding gardens.  However, yesterday I realized I forgot to trim back the lavender plants and they are already starting buds.  I believe I am too late this spring.  I will wait for blooms and maybe trim what I can after that.  The plants are becoming too big for the flower beds. We are slowly working on a plan to get the vegetable garden planted.   I'm glad to say, I am back to using our clothesline, but using it is hit or miss around here.  The rain comes and goes ofte...

  Tuesday was our "Monday" this week.  We both took Monday "off" and spent the day enjoying it.  Tuesday was the day for thunderstorms to roll in late afternoon, so laundry went out on the line early. I am working my way through my garden freezer goodies, and made us some flourless pumpkin bread with frozen garden pumpkin puree.  It is a very dense, thicker bread, and with less sweetness and flavor, but by adding some extra cinnamon and nutmeg it's pretty good. The bread is also about half the height of other baked pumpkin breads.  I test the bread about 30 minutes into the cooking time, and let it cool almost completely in the pan.  I finish the cooling on a wire rack before slicing. Flourless Pumpkin Bread In a blender mix all of the ingredients: 2 cups organic old-fashioned oats 15 oz. of frozen, thawed garden pumpkin puree (I measure it, as it will weigh differently depending on the thickness of your pumpkin puree).  You can use 1 can of pure pumpk...

Good morning my blog world readers.  The cold weather is still lingering, to remind us that winter is not over just yet.  Happy Valentine's Day!  Hard to believe we are at mid-February already. Each trip upstairs, I try to pull open craft drawers, and pick anything that needs to be donated.  It feels good to get things organized again, after all these repairs/renovations.   I'm being pretty successful at purging books.  Funny story.  I was reading a book and realized I had already read it.  I then went to flip through my book journal, and found not only did I read it, but I read two books that my Mom had given me (obviously books I had read, and gave to her).  I had read one in 2004 and the other in 2007.   Those are going to be passed on to a sibling. I'll be doing better at rotating books out, as they come in.  I've been busy in the kitchen, more than other work lately.  Pumpkin Oat Breakfast bake.  I love this...

I seem to be spending the first half of my day in the kitchen.  I threw together a zucchini breakfast bake and topped it with freshly grated parmesan cheese.  There is spinach in it too.  I didn't use a recipe.  I just tossed some things together. I had some thawed pumpkin to use up, and got out my old trusty cookbook. Wow!  I haven't made pumpkin bread in years, and it called for 3 cups of sugar.  That is a lot of sugar for one loaf.   I went online of course and found one that was a low-sugar recipe.  I didn't have white whole wheat flour, but adjusted to what I had on hand. I totally forgot to take a photo of it, but it was delicious.  I swapped out the coconut oil for canola.  I just didn't see it staying in a liquid form after adding cold milk and cold pumpkin puree.  It turned out good and my pumpkin puree didn't go to waste. Recipe is called Healthy Pumpkin Bread from Cookie and Kate. Daughter E is now volunteering for t...

Pie pumpkins are also called sugar pumpkins, but the perfect pumpkin for pumpkin puree for baking and cooking.  Simply cut the pie pumpkins in half, and roast in a baking dish/pan at 350°F for 45-50 minutes.   The best tool to clean the pumpkins is my melon baller. I lay the cut side down, and prick the skins with a fork a few times prior to baking.  Allow them to cool, scoop the pumpkin off and puree in a food processor.  Freeze in air tight containers. One of our favorite dinners, using pumpkin puree, is pumpkin/sage macaroni. Our family motto - use it up!  Don't forget to save those seeds. Roast them, and toss the rest of the pumpkin innards to the chickens for a nice fall treat.  Nothing wasted. Our favorite recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds:  Whiskey Bacon Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (any whiskey will work) I finally packaged up all of the remaining dried seeds for next year's garden. I know many of my followers already know how to roast and puree ...

(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...

Friday I started my morning by paying bills, doing laundry and posting items up for sale on my Rooster's Crow Farm (handiwork) blog. Our weekend weather was not just wacky, it was insane.  We had 60 degree weather Saturday with pouring down rain, and thunderstorms, and today we woke up to "feels like 23°F" and snowing. I used some frozen garden pumpkin puree to make dog treats for Romeo.  I'll use more for pumpkin soup, pumpkin hummus, pumpkin pancakes or waffles, pumpkin BBQ sauce and pumpkin/sage macaroni (using Jovial Einkorn noodles).  What else do you use your pumpkin puree for?  Besides pumpkin bread or a dessert? Homemade bruschetta, using the leftover mix from the chicken dinner.  By the way, I bought a new basil plant now, so we will have plenty next time I need fresh basil.  Yum! My new kitchen shelving arrived.  I am replacing a wooden stand with metal and on wheels.  I can easily move it to sweep and mop under...

Sort of a boring post, but not much else to talk about in winter time.  Hope you enjoy. Meal prepping from the freezer and pantry has been a complete success, not to mention sort of fun.  It's been a fun challenge for sure. When I made the banana bread the other day, I swapped out the oil for home canned applesauce.  I also used walnuts from the freezer (grown locally). Tonight's meal is soup beans, using a ham bone from the freezer.  I'm pulling some sour cream from the freezer too.  Adding some to homemade buttermilk (using homemade buttermilk) corn bread makes a very moist bread. I also pulled organic ground pork to make homemade sausage.  I'll be back to let you know what I use it for as well. (Tiger keeping warm under the bed quilt) Well, the weather man wasn't wrong.  We went from freezing cold temps to a boat load of rainfall.   Clean/purge/re-organize updates: Garage:  5% done (looks like a losing game...

Thaw 2 cups of home grown pumpkin puree from your freezer (or purchase pumpkin puree)  Mix: 2 1/4 c. organic all purpose flour 1 1/2 c. sugar 3 1/2 tsp. non-gmo baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. homemade pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp. organic cinnamon* optional Add the pumpkin puree to the dry ingredients, and add 1 tsp. of homemade vanilla extract .   Bake in a 9 x 13 in baking pan sprayed with organic non-stick oil spray.  350° for 25-30 minutes.  Check center with a toothpick. Allow to cool completely. Using the handle of a wooden spoon poke holes in the top of the cake and drizzle homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce.  I do not measure.  I simply drizzled it into each hole made.  Top cake with organic whipped cream,  sprinkle a bit of homemade pumpkin pie spice on top and drizzle more whiskey butterscotch sauce and if preferred some chopped organic pecans.  Store in refrigerator. This is good, but it's bett...

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...

Hubby took the day off work on Friday, so we could get an important appointment completed.  It worked out well.  One of my cousins flew in from CA, and brought her partner.  Somehow, we got almost everyone together in one place and had lots of laughs and had a wonderful dinner. Photos were taken, and it was sad to depart.  Hubby and I even got a motorcycle ride in as well. I decided to recycle a bathroom stand (no longer needed) by spray painting it.  It was a "dust colle ctor" for bathtub salts etc.  Those are now stored in a wooden box on the tub ledge.  Less to dust .

It was a high of 74°F here yesterday.  The wind kicked up, but boy it was the strangest and oddest weather for us.  Although I don't think it broke any weather records.  I hone stly don't remember it ever being this war m in February.  Woke up to find this fella laying near the driveway.  It' s not an odd thing.  Every year we find one there for some reason.  Usually after a rain storm too.  He is far from the river tha t runs behind us, but he may be on his way there from the ditch too.  We left him alone, bu t Kin g wanted to eat him.

I'm not sure if it's just this time of year, but yesterday's sunrise was just gorgeous too.  

I snipped a few containers of chi ves and go t them in to the freezer.  We plan to add these to every breakf ast scramb le, soups and whatnot .  Sort of like greens, but a lot more.   As the co oler weather approaches, I go in to panic-mode.  We have not even started splitting wood, so I'm ma dly stocking up the herbs before the first frost.   Today, breakfast was "on the go" as Hubby and I made our first visit back to the gym.  We get up at 4:30am and get about an hour work out.  I pre-made the breakfast yesterday, using my crock pot.  I was completely out of apples, and thankful to have a few straggling pears left from our tree.  I made steel cut oats with pears, organic raisins and locally grown walnuts (which I am about out of).  It's a pity that stores here do not sell organic steel cut oats. 

Youngest asked for me (for her 13th birthday dinner) to make a few new recipes - Pumpkin and Sage Baked Macaroni , and Italian Oven Roasted Cauliflower.  (Cauliflower dish) (Pumpkin Macaroni Dish) Both were super easy to make,

In my quest for locating more good millet recipes, I found some in a cookbook I already had. Although the recipe I tried is in the book, it's also online if you are interested in making it - Curried Sweet Potato and Millet Soup .  I substituted pure maple syrup with our homemade corn cob syrup. The results?  

The other day my younger three girls were raving about muffins I made last year.   I had been discussing making pumpkin pancakes or waffles, so the topic of pumpkin was wafting through their busy brains. "They were HUGE!" "They were so good!" "They were really moist and big!"

These were delicious.  We doubled the batch, using our pumpkin puree, and have extra for breakfast.  The kids can toast them, and cook up eggs, and make egg/cheese/waffle sandwiches (or simply eat waffles).