Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Snow is predicted Sunday/Monday.  Nothing new.  It has snowed in October here.  I took one last look at the herb garden, before it rests for the winter.   I dehydrated more green onions, and froze a bit more.  The dehydrated ones were left whole to dehydrate, then I store them in a canning jar.  I do this with chives as well.  I mostly use the frozen ones for baked egg dishes. I use a small vacuum that works for regular and wide mouth jars.  So far, it's worked great, and I've had it for a few years now. I love to make ground vegetables, in cases where I have a larger harvest of something.  It adds flavor to any dish.  I ground some of the dehydrated green onions, and filled a repurposed spice jar. I had to keep adding the dehydrated green onions to the grinder, as they are so light, it helps the process of grinding it all down to a powder. A "first" for us this year.  I think it would be great on homemade crackers, and ...

  The very last advent gift was wrapped and stickers attached.  The bags are ready to deliver.   All fall decorations were taken down. Christmas decorations are slowly being put up.  No new recipes tried lately, but I have ordered a fiction Christmas themed book from the library.  I have more Christmas themed books on my own shelf to read yet too. I started a crocheted lap afghan for a Christmas gift.  It will need mailed to the recipient, so I hope to get it finished this month. A "first" for us this holiday year - Christmas Spice Extract.  I am making it homemade to try in baking recipes, but I do need to add peel from one organic orange yet.  Not sure if it's worth making until we use it in recipes.   7 Weeks Until Christmas   ©  November 2025 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Woman at Heart

  Garden clean up is very late this year, due to circumstances beyond our control.  Now we are delayed with rain, but we may have a few warmer days this week.  We may only have two days left to finish the removal. In hindsight, we should have hired help, but..... The sunshine kabocha produced a few, although most do not look completely ripe (by color), and the butternut is pretty small.  The cocozelle zucchini we left on the vines is the perfect size for seed saving. Although most of the mashed potato squash was cross pollinated, we got a few that produced to enjoy.  We literally got zero spaghetti squash (which is very very rare, but we did have a bad drought year).  The Mashed potato squash is the white one in the above photo. Russian red kale and a mix of Swiss chard were washed, sliced, blanched and frozen for winter use.  The bugs got to most of the Swiss chard. Green onions were dehydrated for the first time ever.  I froze some as well, but...

  A chilly 36°F outside this morning, so it will be touch and go, if I am able to dehydrate more herbs or not.   Speaking of herbs, I just learned that Thyme is an herb that promotes sleep.  I had no idea.  I know it's great as a medicinal tea for coughs and other ailments, but this was interesting information. The cold weather has me doing much winter prep work, but there is much more to get done. New recipe tried - Homemade Cherry Pie Energy Bars.  Recipe is free online by Mommypotamus.   I had to add a few extra medjool dates to get the mixture into a mixture that would press into bars.  Note:  I lined an 8 x 8 pan and pressed it in, then flipped it out and cut into 8 bars.  These were very good, easy to make and I may even cut them smaller next time.  Simply 4 ingredients to make them.  They contain organic dried cherries, organic medjool dates, organic almonds, and organic cinnamon. Chilly ~ New Healthy Recipe Tried ~...

We are experiencing cooler weather, but the rain is back.  Although we need the rain, it puts a halt on garden clean up, and fall herb garden dehydrating.    I may need more spice jars in the mean time.   Two doctor appointments are off the calendar now.  We have found yet another new-to-us place to walk trails.  I pulled 10 summer tops from the closet, and about half are being donated.  Took 4 boxes of items to a thrift store, and passed one Christmas decoration on to a kiddo.   I donated one Christmas book to a free little library.  I got to about page 60 and just could not read the rest (did not like it at all).  I forgot to take a photo of it, but that is one less Christmas book on my shelf. Visited a flea market (indoor) and found a Christmas book display.  I ended up buying one book (gulp!). Bought this "blind date with a Christmas book" at the "Christmas in October" event (see below) we went to. Three new recipes for the...

I finished this book, which I believe I was prompted to read by a blog here I follow (Far Side of Fifty maybe?).  It was good, but it took me forever to read, as it was canning season, and the days were long and tiresome.  The thought of lifting a book or hook was out of the question at the time. Anyway, I crocheted a granny square to match the cover.  The colors in the square could have been done about a dozen different ways.  I just went with what colors I had in scrap balls. I'll try and get an updated photo of the actual blanket soon.   Clinking my hot tea cup to yours, to books and hooks again.  I'm hopeful that it will be soon for myself too.   The weather is pretty warm for fall right now.  We've been in the lower 70's and sunny.  We may even hit the 80's this coming weekend.  It's garden clean up season for us, and those days are hit or miss, with what's on the busier-than-normal fall schedule. Rosemary plants were pul...

  It's officially "fall" here now.  Woke up to 40°F and boy it is very chilly.  The leaves are turning even more, and more are falling.  The tomatoes are done for the garden season too. 5 pints of Lemony-Basil Tomato Soup was canned.  I normally get about 2-3 batches canned, but not this year.  I am thankful for what we did get.  The cold weather has started to diminish the amount of herbs we are getting from the herb garden now. There are other goals now that the tomatoes are all processed. We will need to pull everything left in the garden(s), and do other prep work to put them to "bed" for the season.  I still have apples to process, but they are in the fridge for now.  I need to get caught up with other work and I have a strainer full of garden bell peppers to dice and freeze. I totally forgot that I planted several rosemary plants inside the garden this year, so I will need to process those (have no plans to try for the umpteenth time to...