Pioneer Woman at Heart

Grab a cup of tea and enjoy the tidbits for today: We woke up to a chilly 34°F and our first frost of the season. My Monday to-do list had to be re-adjusted.  Rain continued, and high winds kicked in, so less laundry was done and on drying racks indoors, more cauliflower was blanched and put in the freezer, more condensed homemade soups were made and into the freezer (cream of celery, cream of chicken), and more cleaning was done.  These condensed soups are so easy to make.  The recipes are on Simply Scratch online. Snow is now in our next weekend forecast.  I'm not concerned.  We've had it in October before and it was light and melted quickly. I am concerned about how cold it got last night, but not cold enough to freeze thankfully.   Good news!  Our 19 year-old daughter was promoted from Asst. manager to Manager of the video rental store she works at.  So proud of her for turning things around at that store.   ...

Hubby and I were sipping coffee at 5am on the porch Friday morning (won't be many more mornings to do this), and the radio had garden talk and advice going on.  They gave advice on whether to pick your tomatoes and bring them in to ripen or have a tomato fight.   If you pick green tomatoes when it's in the 70's, they will ripen in two weeks.  If you pick them in the 50's, it will take 4 weeks.  I decided to get out there and pick them all.  We had a frost warning, and after that they won't be any good.  The ladies and Stud Muffin Sparta had a hay day helping clean up too. As for the garlic, it depended on the weather at 4:30pm when Hubby got home.  Rain was in the forecast.  We managed to toss down some peat moss, and get the garlic bed tilled just before rain arrived.   Once the parsley left the dehydrator, plantain went in.  I'm hearing more people are getting bitten by spiders this year, and requiring doc...

Thaw 2 cups of home grown pumpkin puree from your freezer (or purchase pumpkin puree)  Mix: 2 1/4 c. organic all purpose flour 1 1/2 c. sugar 3 1/2 tsp. non-gmo baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. homemade pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp. organic cinnamon* optional Add the pumpkin puree to the dry ingredients, and add 1 tsp. of homemade vanilla extract .   Bake in a 9 x 13 in baking pan sprayed with organic non-stick oil spray.  350° for 25-30 minutes.  Check center with a toothpick. Allow to cool completely. Using the handle of a wooden spoon poke holes in the top of the cake and drizzle homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce.  I do not measure.  I simply drizzled it into each hole made.  Top cake with organic whipped cream,  sprinkle a bit of homemade pumpkin pie spice on top and drizzle more whiskey butterscotch sauce and if preferred some chopped organic pecans.  Store in refrigerator. This is good, but it's bett...

Remember all of that lemon balm I grew?   I dehydrated it for teas and tincture making.   Well it's tincture time.  I'm making all three mentioned.  Only one will be made later, as it is currently out of stock and I did not grow it this year (echinacea). Not only will they be utilized individually, but together.  I have a daughter who often gets canker sores in the fall, after school starts, and this combination is said to work. You can read about the canker sore relief at LearningHerbs . The lemon balm tincture can be helpful as a sleep aid, and a lemon balm tea can be used to help sweat out a fever. Lemon balm is soothing and also an astringent.  It helps relieve colds and flu.  It's also known for helping reduce a headache, and an aid to reduce or prevent cold sores. The sage tincture aids healing sort throats and mouth irritations due to it's antiseptic and astringent qualities. The echinacea tincture aids the healing pro...

It cooled down quickly (woke up to the 40's) here, so home grown sweet potatoes, green bell peppers and garlic went into good use - sweet potato chili.   After running into the basket in the kitchen too many times, my extent of "fall" decor was placing those hard-as-a-rock pie pumpkins on the porch ledge.   The dead bolt on one of the doors broke.  I had to gently lay that news on Hubby.  It was stuck locked, and the latch to turn it broke.  Good thing I have another door to use.  Avoiding the garden for the most part of the day, I baked some flourless brownies... Whipped up some more whiskey butterscotch sauce .... Made a jar of homemade pumpkin pie spice. Homemade pumpkin pie spice 3 Tbsp. organic ground cinnamon 2 tsp. organic ground ginger 2 tsp. organic ground nutmeg 1 1/2 tsp. organic ground all-spice 1 1/2 tsp. organic ground cloves Mix and store in an airtight container.  I used a recycled bab...

Although our carrot harvest was zero this season, we still had carrot tops.  You know our family motto? Waste nothing.  Not that there was much to waste either. I used some of the tops to make homemade mouthwash. Boil 3 cups of water, and add a half cup of chopped organic carrot tops.  Simmer on the stove top for about 20 minutes.  Steep for an additional 30 minutes then strain.  Store in the refrigerator.  Simply gargle each day in place of your store brand mouth wash.  Carrot tops have antiseptic qualities. We stole off on a motorcycle ride the other night, and delivered meals.  I just happened to get a call the night I made salmon romanoff, from one of the girls.  Of course she asked, "what's for dinner?"  and "can you bring me some?"  Luckily, I was already delivery a meal with pie to my Dad, so we packed up another meal for her.  She later texted me "OMG that was heaven" ha ha ha!  Kids!   ...

I've lacked the motivation to do much of anything for winter prep, and slacking horribly.   I finally went out and drained all the rain barrels and flipped one upside down.  That was the extent of my "winter prep."  One barrel has poison ivy growing in front.  Wonderful.  I'm flipping the rest today. It's a winter without beets as well.  I did my first dig and they are the size of the carrots - pathetic.  All that weeding for nothing.  Can't even save the greens - tops dying off. I took some time to dig up more carrots, but if you saw my post about it, they are getting tossed.  No carrot seeds saved this year either. I saved some of the carrot tops.  I'll have another post for that project. More tomatoes were picked - 7#.  Last picking.  Plants are coming out.  I would have started it yesterday, but I left my knife in the house, and walking back and forth to get it was not on the agenda - too hot anyway. Glo...