Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I am still getting a few stalks of asparagus, and now a few dandelions each day.  I picked one stalk of asparagus on June 8th, and so far that was the last.  Best year for it yet.  I continue to collect dandelion flowers. The heat is here now.  It was in the upper 90's yesterday and we finally got a good downpour to give the gardens a good dose of Mother Nature.   The heat will heat up even more over the next two days, so I am praying all the new plants and flowers/seeds will be handling it well.  Not sure it will happen, but the forecast is to be in the lower 100's over the next two days. Soon to be back on the crochet hook . . . I have had another request for these hand crocheted baby washcloths.  I was actually ready to retire the yarn, finish the current crochet project request, but will keep the yarn. It will be a nice all-summer project, that is light weight to work on, during hot days.  The yarn is cotton, 2 ply, and a discontin...

Pardon me, while I down coffee with the hopes to revive my tired self, and gather my scrupples.  One can easily forget the amount of physical labor it takes to plant a vegetable garden, until it's planting time again.  Wowzer.  Nothing like popping a few arnica capsules, after rubbing arnica salve into my knuckles and very sore hands, and all before heading to the garden.  Kicking myself for not dehydrating enough dandelions to make dandelion salve, but weather was against us this spring. Allergy season this year is the worst year ever.  My eyes feel like daggers stabbing them most days, and my nose is so dry, I have to use a spray with aloe to survive outdoor work.  The cotton wood is terrible, and looks like a fuzzy white blanket over the grass top.  Thank goodness for nettle tea for some relief.  However, it's not been enough.   One day we battled awful wind while gardening, and I developed a really bad earache.  I have not had a...

  I have borrowed many cookbooks from the library, in search for a good "burger sauce" recipe.  In the process, I decided on one recipe to make homemade aioli for the very first time ever. I used yolks from our ladies (fresh of course), and used garlic that we grew in the garden. The recipe called for "vegetable oil" but I only had organic canola, olive oil, and a few others.  I decided on canola. Not calorie free obviously, but homemade and fresh.  Boy it was delicious on burgers we grilled with mushrooms, onions and swiss cheese.  So good! I'm still on the hunt for a different burger recipe.  We once visited a restaurant (many years ago), that had a sauce they called Mama Mia sauce (house made).  We are still looking for a sauce similar to that taste, but glad I gave the library some business and was motivated to make the garlic aioli. The cookbook the recipe is from (photo above).  There are many different aioli recipes by the way.  It's b...

  My 20 year old garden sign gave me a chuckle.  It is sort of how we felt after all that rain here.  The sign is broken, and it will be replaced.   Flower beds are weeded, rose bushes trimmed and flowers planted.  Whew!    The vegetable garden?  Not planted.  It is still, even with this heat here, way too wet.  I managed to weed out the rhubarb plants, but I think I carried about a pound of wet mud on my muck boots out of the garden.   We are still getting a few straggler asparagus.  The rain God's gave us a lot more chive blossoms, so I started another chive vinegar, and this one is with organic red wine vinegar.  It'll be great for summer salads and more.  I think we use red wine vinegar more often, but we now have both infused with chives (white wine and red wine vinegar). There really is no excuse to be so far behind, but I finally (yes, finally) got all the last 11 granny squares sewn on to my crochet ...

  A blind date book gift, that I received from someone last December.  I'm finally opening it, and I have already used the pampering eye mask.  In fact, I've already been using the post-it page markers too.  I have no information about the book or author, but I did see it has a 3.88 rating from Goodreads.  I have yet to even open the book to read, but it fun opening it and all the goodies that came with it.  I'll be enjoying the tea soon too. No rain yesterday, nor today (so far), and no rain in sight, so we may be drying out.  The evenings are running about 49 degrees, so it's still cooler out some evenings. We enjoyed, what may have been the last of our asparagus harvest this season.  It's been a wonderful year for asparagus too.  There wasn't a large amount of the asparagus, so we grilled it with other vegetables. Other than the green onion, the herb garden is springing back to life with the recent rain.  Everything is growing in the ...

  It's a happy month for me.   Don't get me wrong, as things can go haywire on any given moment, but good things are happening. Back in 2015, I posted about some writing adventures.   At that time, it was 11 years ago. You can read about them (it's a short post) HERE .  It feels like I put writing to the pasture long before that year, but.... I used to freelance many years prior to that, but put it all aside to raise the kids, and run the household (one was in about 4-5 school sports and activities  - softball, basketball, you name it!).  They were all active in something - school plays, band, sports, etc.  In other words, we were a very active family, so I put my writing on hold.  It wasn't on purpose.  It just happened. Well, back when I had surgery last December, I decided to enter a poetry contest that was local.  I did not win the top prize, but my poem is printed in a book (have yet to pick it up).  Not long after th...

  Whelp.  The rain and cold is still with us.  Early morning temperature was 33°F.  My rosemary looks fine however.  We may actually see a day with zero rain today.  Crossing fingers. Not sure if you can really see the below recipe, which came from the cookbook I shared in my last post (scroll back to see). I guess, because I have never made garlic aioli, I did not realize it is basically fresh mayonnaise with a bit of spice to it. I'm still looking through several cookbooks, but we remain on the hunt for a good burger sauce for grilling season.  I have obtained one from a restaurant, but I need to figure out how to downsize the recipe for two people.  There is a funny story regarding looking for this recipe, and one of these days will share it. I'm also looking for my copy of the fruit cake recipe that was asked for so many months ago.   Update on finding San Marzano tomato plants this spring.  We found them, and the flats range fr...

Regarding my recent sprained toe...  I unfolded each piece of gauze to prepare and make the poultices for my toe area. (looks like ants are chewing holes in the leaves) I harvested some comfrey from our "weed" garden, to make poultices.  I only had 2 x 2 gauze, but it worked for my toe.  I used my new smaller food processor this time, and it worked great (comfrey leaves, a bit of water, and flour {can use arrowroot, or whatever for a thickener}). The plant is springing up pretty well, and was large enough to get enough leaves cut for the poultices.  I used a freshly made poultice right away, and froze two more.  The frozen ones work to also reduce the swelling. I also used my homemade comfrey salve, and the bruising is very quickly healing, and pain was gone after day one of poultices.  Thankfully, it was a sprain and not a break. A strong thunderstorm, with rain and wind, moved into our area last night.  Only about half the mowing was completed before...

  I purchased a travel tumbler with tea infuser.  I randomly chose one based on reviews.  It can become frustrating, when you cannot find one person who drinks herbal teas/medicinal herbal teas.  If we like it, I'll post an update on it. By the way, there are several options to buy one, with several sizes too. Something new I learned from a book: -I can brew my herbal tea, cool it, and freeze it in freezer safe vessels.  Pack them for a picnic or travel and it will keep food cold, then thaw for enjoying.  Another perfect idea to travel with your brewed herbal iced tea. -I once watched an "expert" on a video (maybe youtube, not sure) say brewed teas were only good for 48 hours.  I'm reading in a book that brewed teas, cooled for iced tea, are good for up to 4 days.  Anyone know the actual truth to either of these findings? I've been busy dehydrating dandelion flowers.  I, apparently, need to dehydrate more.  They shrink up to about nothin...

  Dehydrated some wild violets and leaves.  However, my 15+ year old smaller dehydrator (for small batch) died on me.  Good thing I did not turn it on when I ran out for errands.  Sheesh.  Any who, I'm already on the job for looking for a new smaller one.  I use it often for herb seasonings and small batch items like the violets. I have also been out in the flower beds, and they are filled with purple dead nettle.  I have chickweed too.  Hm.  Lots of ideas are spinning away. Ordered a bunch of recipe books from the library (again).  I will never learn, ha ha!  I'm on the hunt for a specific recipe we would like to have for grill out meals. Picked the first of our spring asparagus, and boy it feels so refreshing to get something from the garden again. More Wild Violets and Leaves ~ Asparagus ©  April 2026 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

Our weather is warming up soon, or so they say anyway.  We are looking forward to sunny days again. We've obtained asparagus roots, and will expand our existing asparagus patch in the vegetable garden this spring.  We will not be planting anything squash related this year, to give the garden a "clean sweep" from squash bugs.   We are late, but seeds will be started for a few garden goodies, including a few for the herb garden (that are medicinal herbs). The next room to clean out, prior to giving it a planned new coat of paint, is a room where my canning supplies are stored.  I may be reducing the numbers in there.   I still have the supplies to can our favorite "Christmas" jelly, which did not happen.  Not sure if it will yet or not.   The winter has been a long winter, and not much blog content, here are a few fun freebies we snagged. Free bookmarks.  I absolutely love this one.  It was the last one at one of the area librari...

  Did you can pickled jalapenos last garden season?  Or last year with farmer's market jalapenos?  It was a "new" to us item to add to our pantry, and here is the update regarding the two cornbread recipe trials.  One is actually more like the traditional corn casserole, often served at the winter holidays. The first recipe we tried, we loved!  If you remember my post, it was a more dense cornbread, but with some home canned pickled jalapenos.  A nice spicy cornbread for soups/stews and chilis. I was incorrect on the source for this specific recipe.  It is online free at Bowl of Delicious . We adapted organic ingredients, and if you make the recipe with buttermilk, it's even better.  We really liked this recipe. The next recipe was more of a "corn casserole" type baked dish, very similar to the traditional "corn casserole" one might bake at the holidays for a side dish.  The recipe was from an online source (Farmhouse on the Boone).  I ...

  Our weather is all over the map. One day it was sunny and 65°F, the next dreary and rain all day, and then the next?  Cold and snow.  Yep.  That's how it's been.  Now we roll into a a cold snap. I have had some later than usual work.  I filled the dehydrator with parchment lined paper, and got busy with about 10 heads (or bulbs) of home grown garlic.  I apologize to those who have already read posts about making garlic powder.  Back in 2020 I hosted an online Pampered Chef party to help out a friend.  Never in my life did I think so many people would order, and I ended up with lots of free items.  Two items were the garlic peeler and slicer.  The above is the "peeler" for the garlic cloves.  You do separate the head of garlic, then place a few cloves inside the tube, and roll it back and forth in with the palm of your hand.  The dried peeling will crack and very easily come off the clove of garlic. I use disposable latex...