Pioneer Woman at Heart

I woke up Tuesday morning with a stuffy nose.  Not good.  I had trouble sleeping on account of congestion.  I was up early to drink my honey/ACV/water mix, hoping to prevent it from getting worse. I spent the day canning more Queen Anne's Lace Jelly.  I plan to give samples out at the next Farmer's Market day.  I was told that we can give them out, and I several people interested in trying it.  I was disappointed to see the color more yellow than pink this time.  I think it has to do with the amount of purple centers in the flower that I put in. I canned more sweet pickle relish too.  Long day for sure. In between that, I cooked up 7 pounds of ground beef for homemade sloppy joes. The weather is much cooler at nights here.  I am yearning to go camping. All but two of my zucchini plants died - squash bugs!  They are on my heirloom baking pumpkins now.  I spray every day with a natural spray, and even dust with ...

(before baking) Yesterday we tried two new recipes that used honey.  They were both delicious.  We are keeping both recipes, but cutting the bacon drippings in the potato salad down to a minimum.  They were both very good. 

A cup made in France for $.30.  I found this a few days ago when I was in search for something else. I never intended to bake and cook so much today, but we wanted to enjoy some the sweet corn we purchased yesterday. I was up and milking goats at 6:30am, then out to the front porch to shuck 5 more dozen ears of corn.  Before 9am I had 30 more cups of corn blanched and cooled for freezing.   For dinner, I ended up making a new potato salad recipe, and the kids hand churned a new ice cream recipe that is made with honey. I may be sharing both of the recipes if they are winners with the family.  I also baked 2 apple pies with my last 2 jars of homemade pie filling.  Looks like I will be canning some more this season. We finally got rain, so I plan on getting some much needed rest for the much needed weeding tomorrow. Our tomatoes are also turning red, so canning salsa may be happening soon too. If you don't see me commenting on your blog, I'm having...

  I'm dehydrating potatoes this year. I have a 4 tray Excalibur dehydrator.  I filled those trays up in no time, and will have more to dehydrate during the next few days.

We plant beets every year, and different types.  This year we've roasted them with onion and rosemary, and roasted them with other vegetables.  I have made Green Tomato Cake , so why not one with beets? I made a Chocolate Beet Cake.  It was delicious!  Even without frosting.  The family gobbled this cake up instantly.

Found this unfinished project buried.  I pulled it out to work on a bit (hand towels).   I work on these in the evenings. Today, I am just now putting 4 jars of relish in the canning pot, made 4 jars of hot pepper jelly earlier, put two loads of laundry on the line, watered all the gardens (lacking rain here again), weeded, harvested, and now have to get the clothes off the line.  I was hoping to finish earlier, but did not.  Here are more projects I am working on when I have the time. Finished another pot holder set. I'm still working on this Christmas crocheted lap blanket. I started working on my handmade Christmas ornaments.  You'll soon see what these are for. I'm continuing to knit washcloths for my Aunt, using a country blue cotton yarn. Speaking of my Aunt, she sent me a surprise box of books.  I was so excited to have it delivered on a day where I needed a "pick me up."

 Sweet Pickle Relish and Spiced Pickled Beets I've been very busy stocking up the garden.  I've updated the stats that I've been keeping track of on the left side of my blog. Basket full of beets (buried underneath), cucumbers, green peppers, and carrots. I intended to weight all of our produce and keep track of that, but I'm running out of time and often forget.  I've frozen about 4 quart bags of green peppers already. Our carrots did much better this year.  Longest one so far has been 8 inches.  We planted them in a different part of the garden.  I dug some up for dinner.  I won't have enough to freeze or dehydrate, so we are planting more for a fall crop.  Cut and dried more sage, rosemary, oregano and thyme. More From the Homesteading Journal. . . Staked 38 more tomato plants using pieces of wooden drying racks that were beyond repair.  Pulled out the pea and bean plants and replanted for another harvest.