Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I tried a new granola recipe and boy it's good.  First, it's a recipe from Mennonite Girls and Cook, and called "Backpack Snacks" online.  It calls for granola, so I used my homemade granola that we love.  Picture is the dry ingredients. Second, I pressed the final mixture into a 9 x 9, parchment lined baking dish instead of rolling it into balls.  The color of these photos are all different, because of the time of day, and how dark the house was from the thick Canadian smoke that was still outside at the time. These cut very nicely, and were very good, straight from the refrigerator.  It was hard to eat just one of them.  I will be making this again, and switching out the peanuts with walnuts, and switching out the raisins with dates.  Oh my!  The binder is honey and peanut butter. These are perfect for your hiking days, camping, your grandkids, or just for snacks when you want one. The rain arrived thank goodness, and washed the smoke in...

I have not had much to blog about, and to be honest after looking over past posts, I really don't have much that is  new to post about.  Changes are being made here at the homestead, with more to come, and they are all good and productive.   Honestly, they are not wasted days either.   We are downsizing the kitchen table, and it will make it much easier to sweep and mop.   The upstairs is still in limbo (uncertainty) right now.  In reality, the summer times leaves little time for home repairs and such. We replanted what hot peppers would could buy, that were affordable and big enough.  Half of the green and wax beans were replanted and have sprouted.  The greens did terrible where I planted them this year.  I have replanted two of what I had seeds for.  We will not have arugula this year.  We are entering another heat wave, which makes garden season a bit tricky. The first zinnia seeds sprouted almost immediately, but...

First day of July.  It's hot.   I'm definitely not entering a stage of boredom any day soon.  Although I've been doing a lot, it's been productive.  We are in the middle of the worst heat wave I can ever remember.  So humid, there is very little to no work being done in the gardens for the last few days.  Heat index has been up to 106 degrees, and nights did not get any cooler than about  77 degrees.  The heat wave will continue for the rest of the week.  No rain yet. I froze water in small bottles to keep the chickens water cold, and froze treats for them. I canned a small batch of reduced sugar peach jam (before the heat  wave).  I have to admit, it's been very nice to can for two people now.   Enjoyed the last of our asparagus harvest.  The last two stalks were harvested June 29th.  The longest asparagus season we've ever had.  They look light colored, but taking them out of the fridge, they quickly...

      On the positive side (after the hot pepper debacle). . .                                                We are looking forward to creative healthy meals, derived from the garden and whatever is in abundance, or available.  The chickens helped supply this meal last year and was delicious. Beets roasted with onions and rosemary from the herb garden.  Also, a picture from previous garden years.  Oh, we put thyme on these too, and also from the herb garden. Not to forget those tomatoes and all the sauces made over the years.  That dish included asparagus from the garden, as well as oregano from the herb garden. Sometimes a roll down memory lane gives us the spark to keep gardening and planting.  Maybe.   Reminders?   ©  June 2026 by Kristina at 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...