Chicken Castle is delayed temporarily. The brakes on the truck need replaced.
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.
"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~
Chicken Castle is delayed temporarily. The brakes on the truck need replaced.
I finally got around to make a full batch of meatballs. I like to get this done before the freezer fills up. One year I barely had room to flash freeze, and made a mess with meatballs stuck to the wire shelf above, ha ha!
While the meatballs were flash freezing, I shredded up the very last of the picked zucchini. I made us a batch of the most delicious chocolate zucchini muffins I have ever had. I found the recipe this year online, and it is a keeper. Yum! I uses Einkorn all-purpose flour.
We are in the 80's during the day here, and pretty warm. Are you stocking up or preserving anything right now?
It is tough getting the day started this week. The cooler weather, just screams "sit, sip and enjoy the morning while you can" and then I delay the day ha ha ha! It's worth it, as we are heating up now to the 80's again.
Our pear trees do not have pears this year, so I had to buy a pear for this salad, but the apple came from our trees. It is a new salad, and looked interesting. It contains 1/4 cup honey, but that is for the entire salad.
The taste test? Absolutely delicious. Potluck worthy. I typically do not add the links to my posts, but here is the recipe if you are interested.
https://juliasalbum.com/broccoli-cashew-apple-and-pear-salad/
I used the Greek yogurt option, roasted raw cashews myself (to avoid bad oils), and used juice from a lemon (not bottled juice). I do suggest the pear be on the firm side, vs. a soft ripe pear. We really liked it. If you are avoiding sugar, this does contain the pear and apple and 1/4 cup honey. I would not make this every week, but we will be enjoying this during apple season. So good! We will just balance it with a low-carb dinner.
I finally got a chance to join this again. The tomatoes were exhausting this year, but we are thankful to have them.
The tomato plants have all been yanked, and are done for the season. That was a big job. The yellow squash and the zucchini plants have been yanked.
The plants were huge this year. I had not had time to pull the plants earlier, and it appears that the bees cross pollinated the zucchini with the yellow squash plants. I am still getting some nice yellow squash, but some plants are like in the photo above. Either way, they are out now. I'm trying to leave the acorn squash, spaghetti squash, and pie pumpkins in as long as I can.
We got more work done on "Chicken Castle" or otherwise known as the Hilton Hen House. We still need to frame in the door (woohoo for a regular walk-in door for me), build the door, frame in the windows (yay for ventilation on hot summer days), then side it and roof it. After that we will build the run. We are far from done, but making progress again. We reached out help, but they never called us back.
The weekend was cold! Our nights were in the lower 40's here. It was a perfect time to dehydrate Goldenrod. It's been preserved and stored for winter. Dehydrating may happen a few days this week. It all depends on the weather.
Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. It's been a while since I've done this, but like I said, I canned two weeks straight when the paste tomatoes were harvested.
As I look outside my window. . .
It's pitch dark out right now, but I see some schools are delayed due to fog.
Right now I am . . .
Posting this, so I can go do my exercise for the morning.
Thinking and pondering . . .
We are working on a plan for the garden next year. We need to get at least one raised bed built for fall garlic (new plan and hope is works).
I have a small ornamental apple tree in the front of the property. I am thinking I will dig it and move it, so in the spring I can add a plum tree to the homestead in the same location the apple tree was.
Listening to . . .
Work out music first, then Country music
How I am feeling . . .
Pretty good now that things are slowing down in the canning department here. I am getting used to my exercise routine, and my husband's health is doing better than ever right now. We will have actual numbers in about 3 months, so I am hoping for a really good doctor check up for him.
On the breakfast plate . . .
-Einkorn pancakes with blueberries, sausage patties
-next will be crockpot steel cut oats with our apples
On the lunch plate . . .
-chicken salad on a Swedish bread cracker, apple with peanut butter dip (Greek plain yogurt mixed with sugar free all peanut, peanut butter)
On the dinner plate . . .
-Sheet pan chicken sausage dinner with carrots and rutabaga
What I am wearing . . .
Still in jammies, sipping coffee at the moment
On the reading pile . . .
Mostly recipe books.
On the TV . . .
Movies on YouTube lately
On the menu . . .
Looking around the house . . .
To-do list . . .
Devotional, verse, thoughts, prayers . . .
In regards to the prayer requests for our friend's daughter (brain bleed), she is off the ventilator, and making some movement, but not talking. Thank you all! I will try and get updates here as I get them.
I have attempted to try this vegetable more than once (back between 2012 and 2015, but could not find it here locally. Finally, we have found it at one store recently.
I roasted it with olive oil and salt and pepper, to get an idea of the flavor we are working with. I was told it would taste like a golden potato, by roasting it this way. It did not, but it was delicious, and creamy in the center. I peeled it, diced it and tossed it in olive oil. I sprinkled it with salt and pepper both. I roasted it at 425°F for 40 minutes (stirring half way during roasting time).
A rutabaga is a cross between cabbage and a turnip. It is a root vegetable. Do you grow rutabagas in your garden? We are considering it, as we have a terrible time finding it in our stores (or any farm stand) in our area.
I have one more to experiment with, and I hope to return to the same store and get a few more.