Update on Thawing Shredded Zucchini in Waxed Paper ~ Thawing Pumpkin Puree in Freezer Bags

 Last summer, we had a plethora of zucchini in the garden.  

I came across a different way to freeze shredded zucchini.  Here are my thoughts on it....

The idea is to place a cup of shredded zucchini in the center of a piece of waxed paper, and twist both ends.  You then place as many as you can in a gallon freeze bag, label and store in the freezer.

The idea was to waste less zucchini.  For example, if you thaw it in a smaller freezer bag, it's harder to get all of it out of the bag (unless you turn it inside out).  The waxed paper freezer version works great, as it leave very little mess on the waxed paper.

The way you freeze shredded zucchini is entirely up to you, but there you have my results.  The only con I have with the waxed paper, is that it takes more freezer space to store.  The pro, is that it is less expensive, as you use less freezer bags.

I honestly can't remember why I froze the last of the pumpkin puree in freezer bags, but I did.  To empty the bag, I cut a corner and squeezed it all out.  However, the con for freezing it this way, is you do lose some of the puree, as it is hard to get all of it out of the bag.  I much prefer a container, although freezing it this way saves you a lot of space.

Update on Thawing Shredded Zucchini in Waxed Paper ~ Thawing Pumpkin Puree in Freezer Bags © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Welcome May! What's Growing?

 

We a getting more asparagus thankfully, but I need to (again) plant more this year.  We are also getting rhubarb from the garden.  Yum!  

The lilac bush is blooming, and it smells wonderful when I am outside.  You can even smell it clear on the front porch.   I"m so glad the pine tree did not ruin the bush.  It did some damage, but I think it's recovering.  It just doesn't have as many blooms, but boy it smells divine.

Herbs in the herb garden.  Just ignore the weeds for now.  I hope to be back to that job sooner than later.

Green Onions

Sage

Thyme

Oregano

Chives

Lemon balm

Peppermint

My bleeding heart is blooming.  Terrible photo.  It was very windy when I took the photo.

I have so many volunteer chives just about in every crack and nook around the herb garden this year.

Yarrow

What is this?  Wild garlic?  Wild onion?  They are growing up singular, and all over my flower beds this spring.  I can't even tell from smelling the bulb, and cutting a bulb to smell.  These are tall, but the bulb is small.

They do not look like green onions or chives, so I'm stumped.  

Meanwhile.....

The rosebed with hostas from h-e-double hockey sticks.  If I wanted to harvest clevers, this would be a great time for that ha ha ha!  I see a mullein plant in there too.  I see several days of weeding this one too.  I don't think I could pay someone to weed for me ha ha!

I have a few spring perennials coming up, but have not bloomed yet too.  It's not quite time to plant any annual flowers, herbs or plants/seeds in the vegetable garden just yet.  I am pretty sure we are not planting any peas, considering I can't get out there to put up my pea fence right now.

Welcome May!  What's Growing?  © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

April Garden Notes

Just when I thought I was in shape, I was not.  The very first day outside weeding reminded me of that, ha ha!  Boy, oh boy, you do get a work out outside.  

Did anyone else venture out this month to start the garden process, clean up beds and such?  Did you slide out of bed, like a sloth the next morning, and drag yourself to the ever needed delightful coffee you preset to brew the night before? Only to find out you have more muscles than you thought?  And can barely walk, let alone lift your arms?

Note:  The above was drafted up prior to my foot fracture ha ha!  

The arrival of April has pushed all of our "projects" (indoor anyway) on the back burner for now.  It's that time of year to till the garden (done), start weeding and mulching flower beds and the herb garden (in the works), and planting the garden.

 

Our homegrown asapargus is starting to come up!  I have my husband on picking duty for now.  Yum!  No asparagus tastes better than homegrown.

I had plans to dig up the rhubarb in the raised bed, and replant it into a grow bag, for a temporary location.  The raised beds, which were our original beds put in over 10 years ago, are going to be dug out.  They were not tall enough, and we did not leave enough space for the mower.    I'm hoping the rhubarb does okay until we can find it a more permanent home. I will just have to wait a week or so to do this job.

Comfrey is coming back already.  I have it in a plant pot.  I have plans to dehydrate it, and maybe put a few poultices in the freezer.

I dug up the wild mullein plants that were growing in the flower beds, and replanted them in the area I replanted lemon balm.  I know they won't grow as tall, but they needed moved.  As of this post, they are still thriving in their new location.  Thank goodness we got rain after I moved two of them.  I still have one more to move.

(Green onion/parsley pesto  - can also be made with basil)

The herb garden is already producing green onions, the starts of bunching onions, chives, oregano and thyme.  I will have to plant basil, parsley, rosemary, cilantro (see below), tarragon, and margarom.

Although our chives are not all fully up, there are a few bunches that are.  I have dehydrated some for dry mixes and such.  I will freeze some later in the spring.

I dropped some cilantro seeds early this year.  We'll see if they come up.  If not, I have enough seeds to replant.  I'll wait a bit longer to plant more in the herb garden.

Although April is not completely over yet, I don't see much more happening for now.  I do see that my sage survived the freeze warning we recently had.  

Happy Gardening!

April Garden Notes © April 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Radish Hashbrowns (another version)

Do you plant radishes in your garden?   

We absolutely love diced hashbrowns made with home grown french breakfast radishes.  We didn't get to grow them last year, and we will be this spring.  We didn't get to grow any variety of radishes last year for that matter.

Hankering some radish hashbrowns, I bought a pound of regular radishes and made a different version of radish hasbrowns. 

My husband made me promise not to serve him green beans for breakfast, but he got radishes ha ha!  

I can see why the original recipe calls for 2# of radishes.  They do not amount to much after you squeeze the water out, prior to cooking them first.  I had 1# on hand, so that is what I used.  I highly recommend using 2#, as you add only one egg, and one egg to 1# vs. 2# was too much, and made the cooking time longer.

You shred/grate (a food processor speeds up the process) the radishes, squeeze the water out, cook them, cool them, add an egg, and cook them in a waffle iron.

I used pickle juice from our home canned bread and butter pickles for the dip recipe.  I used sour cream vs. mayo in the dip as well.

Results?  Delicious!  They take a lot longer to make vs. the diced version, but these were very good.  I think I will make them the day before next time, and reheat either on a skillet or in the air fryer.

Don't skip the sauce/dip for these.  It is very good.  Recipe is from gnom gnom.com (Radish Hashbrowns with grated Radishes).

(Pumpkin Oatmeal bake with home grown pumpkin, scrambled farm fresh eggs and rash hashbrowns with herb garden green onions and homemade sauce - see recipe link for hashbrowns)

I didn't realize it, until I wrote up this post, that the original recipe shows a photo with some snipped green onion on top of the radish hashbrowns.  I added some to our leftovers and we loved it.  I will be adding those to it next time as well.

Note:  If I remember, the original recipe states to make these in a mini waffle maker, but I would make several in a regular size waffle iron to speed up the time making them.  It takes about 8-10 minutes to make one in a mini waffle iron.  Unless you are busy in the kitchen with another project, the mini waffle maker will take you a long time to get all of the hashbrowns made.

Another note:  I may even try frying an entire pan full, in heated oil next time.  

Update note:  my husband re-heated his in the air fryer at his work, and said they were amazing topped with the sauce and snipped herb garden green onions. 

Radish Hashbrowns (another version) © April 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Snippets ~ March comes to an end

Bedding dried on the clothesline smells the absolute best!

Birds chirping make you smile.

Sunshine is medicine for the soul.   Enjoying it as much as I can.  Rain returns this weekend.

The chicken coop was spring cleaned.  Man it needed it.   I was hoping we'd have them moved by now, but nope.  Anyway, they are happy ladies.

Although a pine tree fell and slightly damaged the lilac bush, it has spring buds. 

There is a lot of debris that needs cleaned up before the first mowing.  The main trees were cleaned up, but limbs and twigs remain.

New recipe tried.  Einkorn banana muffins (recipe is from A modern Homestead online).  These muffins are basically a one bowl recipe if you sift your pre-measured flour (I used einkorn all-purpose flour) over the mashed bananas.  They use 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup.  They bake up very nicely and are very good.  I will be trying these with some added cinnamon/nutmeg maybe, and there is a possibility of making them with date syrup (to replace honey/maple syrup).  Either way, these are delicious.

 

I was winding leftover yarn into a ball, and about to cut up a rutabaga for dinner, when the doorbell rang.  Confused at who would come out for a visit, but happily surprised at the delivery.  My husband sent me these, along with a box of locally made chocolates (like about 3 hours away local), and I'm sure it cost him a pretty penny.  I tell you what.  It made my day.

Did you know that local chocolate makers are having a difficult time right now?  We found out the florist is having trouble obtaining the boxes of delight.  Why?  We are told that cocoa is up 129% in cost right now.  It's true.  I read a few articles about it.  Then again, what isn't up in cost right now?

Dinner turned out fantastic this time around. I decided to use my crockpot vs. the oven this time.  I wanted the oven to roast the rutabaga, so here is what I did....

The above photo was my husband's plate.  He mixed a bit of sauce into his rutabagas.  Roasted rutabagas are so good, if you haven't tried it yet.  Anyway.

I thawed 2 cups of frozen garden grown spaghetti squash, and layered it in the bottom of a crock pot. I then added half of my home canned herbed tomato sauce (I can Ball's recipe), and then layered in one cooked (cooked them frozen from the freezer) dinner serving (about 15) homemade meatballs (made with organic oats vs. bread crumbs), then topped it with the remaining sauce.  I put the crock pot on low all day, and the squash made the sauce so thick and delicious.  I will be doing it this way from now on.  Three ingredients and that was it.  I got some fresh parmesan out and we sprinkled a bit on top, but we really didn't need it.  

We both had high ambitions to put the "done" stamp on the hallway project by the end of March, but life happens.  However, we are giddy happy, that we are very close to being done.  We just have to make a trip for a few supplies to finish the floor trim and the second step.

I have put the official "done" stamp on this crocheted blanket.  I took the photo yesterday, but the ends are sewn in, and it is completely finished.  My goal was met for this project.  Done before the end/by the end of March.

The last bit of gray yarn from this blanket.  In fact, the last of all of the gray in my entire yarn stash.  It's enough scrap yarn to use in a scrap yarn ripple lap afghan.  

Have a fantastic Easter weekend!  Cheers to all of your end of March goals!  

Snippets ~ March comes to an end  © Mar 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Finished!

 I finally finished the XL pot holder for us.  In all of the years of crocheting for craft shows, I never once made us one of these.  We now have one.  It's a pattern I created myself, using cotton yarn.  I added a loop on ours.  It's double thick, and fits under a 9 x 13 baking dish, or can be used for a baking pan, pizza pan or any baking ware that is larger.  I also made these for Christmas gifts one year.

A pretty boring post for you today. Oh, I found two more UFO's (more unfinished crochet projects) in a basket, but those were taking apart, and will not be finished.  They were for craft shows, and I'm not doing those anymore.  

Did my crafting bloggers know that JoAnn Fabrics filed chapter 11 bankruptcy?  Not sure if this means they will close any stores, but we are seeing more and more nearby (other) businesses closing this year.

Update on my nettle tea infusions.  I had been making these for me, and specifically for hair/nail health, but there are so many more health benefits for it.  Now, my husband is honing in on my tea and asking for it daily.  It's great for my spring allergies as well.  I am now making two jars of it daily.  It's nice to have an iced tea in the evenings, that does not contain caffeine.

The cold weather is still hanging around.  The chicken's water froze yesterday.  It's that cold.  The wind has been pretty wicked as well.  

We are ready to get the garden tilled, but we are awaiting some warmer weather days.  We woke up to a wind chill of 21 degrees this morning.  Spring?  Not yet.

Finished! © Mar 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Mid Week Medley ~ Question for Condiment Canning Aficionados

 The rain is slowly bringing the outdoors back to life, and we see more green again.  We have had snow flurries, which deterred me from harvesting any of those baby green onions coming up, but everything is brighter outside for spring.

The Daffodils were blooming like crazy, and I would love to cut some to bring inside, but the snow just keeps on coming.  Not a lot, but enough to remind us that winter is still not over with.

The rain is also giving us gifts from the Earth.  We have three wild growing mullein plants in the flower beds.  I need to dig them up to move them, so we can utilize them this year.  If I leave them in the flower beds, they will continue to replant in there, and the wild plants grow very tall.  We dehydrate this medicinal weed for tea.

We took a drive to do some hiking.  I have to admit, that outdoor hiking uses more muscles than what you may use on a treadmill.  Good gravy we were happy sore, and have plans to get more hiking in this year.

Although it is too late to start more seeds for the garden this spring, we attempted to visit a new non-gmo seed store (new to visit for us, but in business for a while). We should have called to double check their business hours.  What stated on their online website, for a closing hour, was incorrect.  We arrived just after they had closed for the day.  We do plan to go back. and take a look at what they have to offer folks.

What's been purged/donated?

The last four mugs I had, that I crocheted mug "hugs" and matching coasters for, were donated to another local senior center.  I also donated two smaller items to the local library, for prizes within the children's area.

One local (non-chain) thrift store, has put a stop on taking any Christmas donations until September of this year.  We still need to do a complete garage clean out this year, so we'll need to find more donation locations.  The kids left their Christmas decorations behind, and many other items we need to get rid of (left behind because they don't want them) .

A box of books is awaiting it's donation destination.  I'm still filling it up with books I am finishing reading, so I'm not in a big hurry on that.

Canning Question:  Do you have a tried and true way to can caramelized onions (boil seal method), without using a crock pot?   I just don't want to can after dinner time, and I do not want to run my crock pot all night.  It is the only recipe I have used once (trusted recipe source), and it was successful, but now I want to can them again. 

Or....have you frozen homemade caramelized onions?  I have read they only last 2 months in the freezer, and what is the texture when they thaw?

Mid Week Medley ~ Question for Condiment Canning Aficionados © Mar 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Happy Homemaker Monday

 

(Snow!)

Our weekend went way too fast.  We actually went out for breakfast with family, had a kiddo and her boyfriend over for a late lunch, and did not do a lick of work.  It rained Saturday, and snowed Sunday.  Sunday was more of one of those days you just wanted to curl up with a good book or movie and stay home.

I also shared some of our bell pepper breakfast ideas with the kids, and by golly, I need to make these again soon.  I miss the stuffed ones for breakfast too.  Here I was telling my husband, we should take a year off from the garden and let it (and us) rest, but I miss those fresh bell peppers.  We could always hunt down a produce stand, but even people we know who have a stand, spray their garden.

Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

I'll link up when she posts.

The weather . . .

It's still cold today, but we are to warm up this week for a bit, then cool back down again.

Right now I am . . .

Sipping coffee and posting this.

Thinking and pondering . . . 

We've been discussing foods we only eat when the garden is producing fresh goodies.  I sure do miss roasted beets with onion, and rosemary and thyme from the herb garden.  I will be checking prices on organic beets in the store.  We are also missing my spiced pickled beets.  We are out of them.  

How I am feeling . . .

Tired.  We do not like the time change, and we had to "spring" forward Sunday.  It's an adjustment for sure.  On a good note, we are back to longer days and later sunsets, and in time for our spring gardening work soon.

Since I met two fitness goals earlier in the year, I have come up with two more.  

I am back to making weekly nettle tea infusions.  I have not been making them in the winter, but with the warmer days, my allergies act up, and it's great for allergies.  As a bonus, it's great for my hair and nails.

On the breakfast plate . . .

. . .to be decided on yet.

On the menu . . .

-cod, roasted asparagus and roasted rutabaga
-grill burgers with home canned condiments, sweet potato "fries"
-homemade pizza with chickpea crusts

-leftovers

On the reading pile . . .

I'm still reading this book.  I spent more time on the crocheted blanket over the weekend, as it was very cold here again.

On the TV this week . . .

Not much.  We mostly listened to music.

Looking around the house . . .

It's pretty tidy, other than a box of books to donate, and some of my leftover yarn to deal with.   I'm actually making up a plan to distribute my books in a few free little libraries.  The one free little library that I went to recently, is very full right now.  

I also started to purge the office.  It's a slower process, as I am still working on the hallway painting, and of course have regular chores, and cooking from scratch (that is time consuming). Not to mention, we all need to make sure we take time for ourselves in each day.

On the to-do list . . .

-prepare a new breakfast for the next few days

Organic hannah sweet potatoes roasted in garlic powder, roasted black beans and corn, onion, bell pepper and a bunch of spinach, topped with two eggs, and homemade cilantro sauce and green onions.  So good!

-dinner prep

-brew another nettle tea infusion

-brew a gallon of iced green tea with garden spearmint

-cut up a whole watermelon and a whole pineapple
-catch up on any laundry
-dishes
-sweep/mop any floors
-finish cleaning one bathroom

From the camera . . .

If you missed my post, READ HERE to see what I took pictures of, that is growing around here.  In the above photo, are my chives growing up in the herb garden.

What I am crocheting . . .

I'm still crocheting this large blanket (photo from last week).  My goal is to finish it before the end of March. 

Colors are, from bottom up: 

-Heather Grey

-Real Teal

-Soft White

-Claret Bordeaux (all Red Heart yarns)

I am still slowly working on an XL pot holder for us.  It is in my on-the-go bag for when we go to town or longer drives.  Once these are done, I have a few more unfinished projects.  I also have some crochet Christmas tree ornaments in a project bag.  I totally forgot about them.

Devotional, Prayers, Bible Verse . . .

No current prayer requests.

Happy Homemaker Monday  © Mar 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart