Pioneer Woman at Heart

Yesterday my kitchen had the wonderful aroma of beets boiling.   My wonderful husband brought home some organic beets so I canned them.  Mmmm!  I'm so blessed to add more to the pantry this winter.  Considering how the world is going, it's nice to have more preparations for our meals. Yesterday morning the dogs started barking at a particular door in the house.  We all assumed it was raccoons eating the cat food.  Not so. It was around 5am.  Daughter K beat me to the door and took her dogs out.  Had I been more awake, I would have gotten my husband up.  Daughter K said she could hear something out near the woods but could not figure out what it was. Later when daylight arrived, and after canning beets, I went out to the camper (which sits under a pole light all night) to get the last of the items to winterize it. I found the door wide open and lock still in lock position.  Someone (or more than one) broke into our camper, but t...

Preserving continues....   I started the early morning (yesterday) by canning one batch of habanero-apricot jelly with some of the habanero peppers.   We enjoy this jam on biscuits, rolls, crackers with cream cheese, on meats etc. It comes in handy for family/friend gatherings for appetizers and snacks.

Morning sunrise this morning. It will be in the 80's (almost 90's one day) for the next 7 days here.  The humidity for today is forecasted at 92%.  It's too wet to work in the garden today, so I'm inside again, working on all that garden goodness I brought in recently. Busy. Busy. Busy. Yesterday I preserved 6 lbs of those delicious beets. 8 pints restocked now.  I have about 2 more pounds to put up yet.  One daughter was not happy to hear that "the canner pot" was coming back to the kitchen.  It's only temporary, but needs done.  Either way I preserve the beets, they are boiled, peeled and put into an ice bath (canned or frozen) first.  Although the recipe I use calls for "baby beets" I used the smallest of my Cylindra beets recently picked.  They sliced up in nice small circles for canning. I tasted these, and oh my gosh, they taste better than the last beets I canned this way.  We may be planting ...

Here are a few new blooms around the homestead this month.