On the hunt . . .

 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 from $40 up to $63.00.  I really need a greenhouse built here.  I really do.  It's still on my wish list.  I just do not have the space in my house, or outlets for that many plant grow lights. 

On the hunt . . .   ©  May 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Sprained Toe ~ Weather Woes and Garden Prep Flooding

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 the rain arrived.  I have yet to harvest more dandelions due to the abundance of rain.  The last dandelions all went to seed very quickly.

I'm hoping we will get more chickweed, as I have yet to weed three more flower beds (actually four, but we have a plan to work on that one this year). Anyway, I typically pull the chickweed to save, as I weed the flower beds this time of year.

Our cold weather apparently does not want to leave yet.  We will be dipping to the 30's for three or four nights.  I'm just hoping it's not a hard freeze. 

The abundance of rain is a problem for our vegetable gardens.  One, it's too wet to even walk in, which means zero tilling or weed pulling to prepare the beds, and two, we've not been able to even obtain tomato plants this spring (yet).  I do not start my own tomato plants, because we plant so many (and indoor space is limited to start every single plant).

Rain is in the forecast yet this morning, and more tomorrow.

Sprained Toe ~ Weather Woes and Garden Prep Flooding ©  April 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Travel Tea Infuser Tumbler and Tidbits

 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 nothing when they are completely dry.  First time to dehydrate dandelion flowers (for a future salve and whatever else I decide).

In the past, we have made dandelion flower bread, which is delicious by the way.  It's time consuming, so I have yet to make it this spring.  We do not make dandelion jelly anymore.  We tend to made reduced sugar jams now.  It does make a nice gift for others though.

I've also been working on starting tinctures for the season, using seasonal spring goodies.  

I'm hoping the spring rains will provide us with chickweed, cleavers, plantain, and mullein.

The rain has been continuing, and my boots sunk every step into the garden recently.  I have already had to cut the flower buds off my rhubarb, and boy is the garden saturated.

Comfrey is up nicely, as well as lemon balm, in my new "weed" garden.  No sign of anything else (possibly did not survive the move last year).

The clothesline has been being used in full force, but on days in between the rainfall.  Very thankful to have use of it, and it saves us on our electric bill (which is the highest in the area). Not to mention, that it smells good too.

Time has been getting away from me this month, but I hope to keep you all entertained.   My husband finally sorted a huge pile of his clothing, and the donation pile has increased.  I told my husband the other day, that I do not know how anyone who works full time, has time to do their housework.  I am constantly racing the clock to keep bathrooms cleaned, laundry washed (on the line, back down and folded and put away), homemade meals prepared (not to mention all the dishes), errands, shopping, appts, and the like, all in the mix of it.  I'm working on creating a "schedule" to give myself more grace with free time.  We (ha ha!) shall see if I am successful.

I can say, I'm the queen of sticky notes right now.  Staying on task is happening.  I have also purchased a new devotional that I love.  It's short and to the point, but if I remember, I'll take a photo of it to share. I might have a handiwork update too, but it's been less and less in my days, as the weather is taking us outdoors much more often.

Travel Tea Infuser Tumbler and Tidbits ©  April 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

More Wild Violets and Leaves ~ Asparagus

 

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

Tidbits

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 libraries.  No purchase necessary.

Free stickers (these were sent in the mail to me).  Not sure what I'll use them for, but they'd make fun snail mail or I could slap them on a a cover of a notebook, journal, or gift maybe.  I love the barn sticker.  No purchase necessary.  I do have a few more free stickers we picked up at another event last year.  Stickers seem to be the rage right now.

As winter dwindles, we are looking forward to another garden year, but we are reading forecasted dry weather.  We've seen it all, experienced it all, so we will just have to wait and see.

Tidbits  ©  February 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Home Canned Pickled Jalapenos ~ New Recipes Tried

 

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 adapted organic ingredients, and used our home grown, and home canned pickled jalapenos.

The results?

The casserole recipe uses less flour, and cornmeal, and ends up a more "spongy" texture and more of a "pudding" type dish vs. a bread type dish.

It was edible, but we did not like it enough to keep the recipe.  The recipe requires a lot more work to make it than the first recipe mentioned first.  Our pick was the first recipe, but you would have to try for yourself.  The second recipe requires a can of whole corn, and a can of creamed corn.  

The winner pick for these two, was the first recipe (by Bowl of Delicious), with adapted organic ingredients, and home canned pickled garden jalapenos.

It was fun trying these recipes, and it's always fun to find a new way to utilize something home grown, and canned.

Home Canned Pickled Jalapenos ~ New Recipes Tried  ©  February 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

How I Make Garlic Powder from Dehydrated Home Grown Garlic

 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 gloves for this job.  Garlic will make your hands smell for days if you do not.  

The slicer unit top comes off, and you insert the peeled cloves into both sides of the inner compartment.  Place the top back on, and using both hands, twist the top, and the slices come out the bottom onto your pre-lined trays for the dehydrator.

Dehydrate according to the dehydrator instructions.  

I use a coffee grinder, used solely for grinding dehydrated foods, and grind the pieces into powder.  I store it in my pantry and use for all things delicious, and homemade dry mixes.

I have heard that some newer ovens, and some air fryers have options for "dehydrating" foods, if you do now own a dehydrator. 

How I Make Garlic Powder from Dehydrated Home Grown Garlic  ©  January 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

This and That

I harvested one last bit of Russian Red Kale.  I saw new sprouts of our Swiss Chard.  It makes me happy to see it growing this late in the season.  I am already missing the garden.  Crazy as that sounds, but I am. 

A funny to share.  I was working on the dinner in the kitchen when my phone rang.  Ha ha ha!  It was my husband.  He was home, so this was strange to me.  He said, "Well, I have discovered one problem with the coop.  Can you come let me out?"  Ha ha ha ha ha ha!  The door shut, and latched on him.  We are still laughing about it.  We will be doing something to rectify that from happening again.  Oh, they are still not laying eggs, but they deserve a break too.  They still get treats and such, so hopefully they will be laying again shortly.  Then again, they have new roosts, so they may be acclimating to them.

Our little library is celebrating 100 years, and they are having a "home" Bingo game, but the numbers are called on social media, so I have to check there every day to play.  A little bit of fall fun.

I may have shared this for crochet folks, but did you know that Boye is not making the "I" hook in 5.5mm size?  They only make them in 5.25mm now.  It sort of messes up my patterns I use.  I am still trying to find more of these to keep on hand. 

I ordered one from Herrschners online, which stated 5.5mm, and when it arrived it was 5.25mm.  Just a heads up on that information.  You can buy other brands in the 5.5mm size.

Here is an update on the larger lap afghan I am crocheting for a gift.  I am not yet halfway done, and the month is going by way too fast right now.

I have already been going through the yarn stash to make the next gift (it may end up after Christmas, but the recipient knows).  I have not narrowed down the colors just yet. Can you tell the recipients of both blankets like green? Ha ha!  Blankets take a good amount of time to crochet.

This and That  ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Lima Bean Hummus

 

I found it very difficult to find a selection of any lima bean recipes.  I asked around, and only one person I know ate them as a kid, and not ever as an adult.  

I purchased canned lima beans in the Amish area we visit this year.  They are very hard to find around our area for some reason.  I have had them sitting around waiting to try.  

I used them to make hummus.   Delicious!!

(source:  Google images)

I did not cook the lima beans, as I do not when I use chickpeas, but I may try cooking them next time (to see if it would be creamier, and/or cook from dried beans).  I do not mind the texture regardless, and it tastes just like chickpeas in my own hummus recipe.  Of course, I used home grown garlic, and it makes it the absolute best flavor.

I just swapped out the chickpeas for the canned lima beans (rinsed and drained), and it was fantastic.

My traditional hummus RECIPE.

Red Lentil Hummus

In the past we have tried beet hummus, black bean hummus, pumpkin hummus, green bell pepper hummus, white bean hummus and others.  I think the only one yet we have not tried is sweet potato hummus.  

Lima Bean Hummus  ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Using a Spiralizer and Garden Basil Pesto

 

I tried another new crockpot recipe, and we loved it.   The only thing I discovered, is my crockpot "low" setting is pretty hot, and I can lower the cook time on this, and it lacks "color" due to the homemade basil pesto.  We think adding some red bell pepper next time would be nice.  

Also, it did not make a lot.  It's about a 3-4 serving dish, but it ended up a 3 serving for us, ha ha.  I would double this for leftovers.

What is it?

Chicken with Zucchini Noodles and Basil Pesto

Where is the recipe from?

                         

I prefer to cook my raw chicken separately, and not with other vegetables, when it comes to crockpot cooking.  It's just me.  I cooked the chicken the day before (in the crockpot), shredded it and cooled it (recipe called for chicken breast sliced).

I simply added the chicken at the end of cooking, as well as grated parmesan cheese, because I froze our homemade basil pesto without the cheese this last time.

We thought it was so filling too, and wow, so healthy.

I bought a new hand crank spiralizer about a year ago, and I (gulp) finally used it.  Wow, it is so much easier than the little gizmo I used to use.

Advice:  Grow an herb garden.  Even if you have to grow it in pots.  You will have so many options for your meals, medicinal options, and you will have so much fun in the process.  I'm considering teaching classes for herb gardening, but the actual classes to be "certified" in any way, per say, are expensive.

Using a Spiralizer and Garden Basil Pesto ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Garden ~ Canning Halted ~ Butterfly Pea Flower Tea ~ Power Outage Preparedness ~ Lap Afghans Donated

 Garden clean up is very late this year, due to circumstances beyond our control.  Now we are delayed with rain, but we may have a few warmer days this week.  We may only have two days left to finish the removal. In hindsight, we should have hired help, but.....

The sunshine kabocha produced a few, although most do not look completely ripe (by color), and the butternut is pretty small.  The cocozelle zucchini we left on the vines is the perfect size for seed saving.

Although most of the mashed potato squash was cross pollinated, we got a few that produced to enjoy.  We literally got zero spaghetti squash (which is very very rare, but we did have a bad drought year).  The Mashed potato squash is the white one in the above photo.

Russian red kale and a mix of Swiss chard were washed, sliced, blanched and frozen for winter use.  The bugs got to most of the Swiss chard.

Green onions were dehydrated for the first time ever.  I froze some as well, but we now have two options.  To dehydrate the green onions, you want to leave them whole (like I do with chives).  I store them as whole as I can in a canning jar, which is vacuum sealed.  I will snip or grind them as needed.  Each preservation method produces a different flavor and different texture.  

Snow is in the forecast, along with the rain.  Who knows what we'll get.  There are coyote and raccoon droppings all around the property as fall weather turns.

We've been trying to focus meals on meat and vegetables lately.  Easy, healthy and lower cost.  Fruit is always in the mix of course, but we are thrilled to find a new butcher for most of our meat (lowering our cost).  In the photo is a roast I put in a crock pot by itself (veggies in another one), and simply topped it with salt, pepper and a container of homemade mushroom soup (which I pre-make and freeze).  Absolutely delicious.

(Applesauce cake baked with home canned applesauce and a bit of molasses, topped with crock pot baked {similar to fried apples} apples)

Sadly, my canning is halted for the season (again, out of my control).  I have more apples, but we'll be adding them to salads, cooked meals (with vegetables), added to yogurts, crock pot "fried" apples, and such.  I want to try an Einkorn applesauce cake next.

I have already listed plans for apple canning next year.  I'm not sure if we'll get apples every year yet.  We'll find out next season.

Tea time . . .

New medicinal/herbal tea tried.  I have had the flowers, but brewed the tea for my facial toner.  I finally had to the time to brew some, and try it as iced tea.  I have discovered that adding lemon infused honey makes this the best.  It's butterfly pea flower tea (organic).  I will be trying it hot in the future.  I'm on the fence with buying another herbal tea recipe book.

I have since located two stores that specialize with teas, and one particularly with medicinal herbal teas.  Both are a bit of a drive, but on the radar for when there is time to check them both out.  

A recent power outage (actual two days of outages within one week)  gave us the chance to try out some portable, battery operated light bulbs.  I do have chargeable light bulbs in some lamps as well (some charge as they are used daily).  I do see how more canned fruit would come in handy for power outages, so that is on my radar for next year.  We also have two solar chargeable light bulbs, and are interested in expanding more preparedness for such times.  Our portable (small generator) can run the portable electric water pot, coffee pot, or other appliances.

On the handicraft front . . .

Seven crocheted lap afghans were donated to an organization that helps veterans and first responders this year.  I package each one in a zipper bag.  It keeps them clean for transport, and eventually to the new owner.

Started a new lap afghan.  I'm currently searching for new blanket patterns using stripes of different colors of yarn.

I had purchased a snap project bag for another crochet project, and needed one for traveling back and forth for appointments, and they did not have the same one in stock.  I ordered this one, and was not disappointed, although more expensive.  The larger part has a side zipper area, shoulder strap, and comes with a scissor holder and smaller zipper storage bag.  It works perfectly for the size I needed. 

It's been one doozy of a year, and we are so ready for it to be over with, so we can start a new year with renewed inspiration. 

It's time to finish up notes in our garden journal for the year.  We did not plant fall garlic (beyond our control), but we do plan to plant it fall of 2026.  I have dug up two chive starts, and already have someone to gift them to.  Thanks for reading today's, much longer than usual, blog post.

Garden ~ Canning Halted ~ Butterfly Pea Flower Tea ~ Power Outage Preparedness ~ Lap Afghans Donated  ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart