"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Thursday, April 11, 2024

What's Cooking?

 

The ladies are back to normal egg production, so I washed some up for scrambled eggs to go with breakfast.  I also tried a new recipe, and I'll try to get that posted tomorrow.  Any radish lovers out there?  Shockingly, the new recipe was delicious.



I decided to make another pumpkin oat breakfast bake (vs. pancakes) this time around, and I have to say, I'm very happy with the pumpkins we grew last year.  I planted a different variety, and the puree is much thicker than the previous pie pumpkins we've planted.

What did I plant?  Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin, Baker Creek Seeds.

Do you have a favorite pie pumpkin that you plant in your garden?


The crock pot pork chops I recently made us, used up the very last container of homemade cream of mushroom soup we had in the freezer.  I don't use it that often, but it comes in handy, and it's much healthier.




The spring rains are thankfully bringing the herb garden back to life, and just in time.  I am getting to the bottom of my jar of oregano.  I made us a large pan of roasted vegetables, and I used several of my herbs to season it.

A fresh cut pineapple was cut up and packed for this week's lunches.  My husband joked at my $0.88 pumpkin, but I  was not missing out on that deal, and boy am I glad I bought one.  It is very good!  I do not have any of the gadgets to core this either, so it was a bit of work, but for $0.88??  You can't beat that.

Spring herb garden green onions are back, and I have found so many reasons to add them to meals.  I even snipped some in containers, to pack in my husband's lunch, so he can top his breakfast with them (or even his lunch).

What's Cooking?  © April 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart


Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Cleaning and Organizing ~ Books ~ Wild Violets ~ Homemade Rosehip Infused Oil

I'm getting some odd jobs crossed off the to-do list lately.  One was to wash the bed cover and bottom sheet from the spare mattress upstairs, and to wash a quilt we took out of storage for a few overnight guests.  They were all dried on the clothesline and put back into storage until we get cracking on the upstairs repairs and updates.

I'm sort of rotating from room to room, trying to get things cleaned up, organized, and back to normal, but some rooms like the utility room and the upstairs will take a lot of work yet.

I'm working on a few lighting options for two other rooms.  We've already began the search, but it's not on the important list, so it's whenever we are out, sort of fun searching.

I'm ordering items I need for the vegetable garden, but I do need a trip to the garden store soon.  I'm ready to tackle the flower beds as soon as the rain leaves this week.


I started a small batch of rosehip oil, but I had to re-order my organic jojoba oil.  Sheesh, the price of it has really gone up (what hasn't?), but it's still cheaper than to buy the oil already made for skin purposes.  I just learned that this infusion is not only good for age spots, but for scars too.  Interesting to learn new useful information, but I try to get most of my knowledge from books.

Speaking of books, I just put in an inter-loan order for another book that my husband thinks I should have.  I'll update you later when the book comes in.


Did you know that this book contains a ton of recipes from the TV show America's Test Kitchen?  They won't let you read the recipes online unless you have a membership, but even with the minimal membership I cannot access their TV show recipes.  I came across this gigantic book (not to get myself in trouble with so many recipes ha ha!) and am glad I did.  I can get this book for free, any time I want, from our library inter-loan program.  I used to love watching their show, but have not been able to for over year (no cable etc here).  I loved watching them test kitchen utensils and other foods, looking for the best buy etc. P.S. The book has over 1,000 recipes.


I have spotted a few wild violets already.  This particular color is the one I use to can the wild violet jelly I posted about.