Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I had a recipe (put on the internet in 2021) I made once last year, and could not find it.  I ended up finding it, but the recipe called for Weber's store brand Garlic Jalapeno Seasoning.   You know me right?  I went on a mission.  First, I am not really a person to store a "mixed spice" in my pantry, other than my homemade "fire powder" for spicing up dishes when I want to. However, they do come in handy for traveling, and especially when camping.  Mixed spices also come in handy for grilling out, grilling at a picnic etc. To see the actual ingredients in the store brand, you can simply read the label next time shopping, or find it on the internet.  I have no idea what stores sell it, or if they even make it anymore, but sharing what my mission was pretaining to this seasoning. The original seasoning contains sugar (more than the jalapeno), "spices" (no specifics on what this is), citric acid, gum arabic, rice concentrate, and "natural flavors...

  The tool on the left is used for removing the garlic skins.  you place the garlic inside the tube and roll it with your hand.  The tool on the right is used to slice the garlic. You put the top piece of the slicer back on top and twist the bottom as you press down the top. I have learned to not over fill this, making it much easier. I know this is a repeat post, and I do make it yearly most garden seasons.  If you have never made garlic powder you can click on my post below on how I make it, after the garlic is dehydrated.   My very first years making garlic powder, I would hand peel, and hand slice.   How to Dehydrate Garlic and Make Garlic Powder Tips: -Use latex gloves. -Rinse all the tools/knife if you are not going to do dishes right away.  Garlic dries rock hard, making washing things difficult. -I only have 4 mats for my dehydrator, so I use parchment paper some times, so that I don't lose the very small bits of the garlic.  I d...

We worked on barn wood all day Sunday.  We are very tired and sore.  I took photos, but will load them later to share.  As soon as we finished removing boards so we could load up a trailer, a stranger pulled in wanting the metal hay rail.  We now know why the other guy wanted it - money.  Each little metal piece (photo to come later) is worth $10.00.  Not including the rail.  So this stranger, after we did all the work, just drives on in and asks for it for free.  I'm going to put signs up for those types of people. Oh, and the stranger immediately asked for the pulleys.  Hm.  The nerve of people.  So, without photos of the barn clean up, I'll share my garlic.  A frost is possible in a week or so, and I wanted this job done. Last year I planted about 175 cloves of garlic. This year?  I planted 70 cloves of Moroccan Creole, 56 cloves of Russian Giant, and 100 cloves of our regular variety (so far - we have n...

  It's very convenient to buy the packets of dry fajita mix at the grocery store, but you can make it yourself.  I've been making our dry taco mix for several years now.   You most likely will have all of the ingredients to make this at home.  I buy some of my ingredients in organic/non-gmo bulk, which saves us money and allows me to have extra on hand to make many other dry mixes homemade.  Let me know if you make your dry Fajita mix without the sugar, and if it changes the flavor.   Homemade Fajita Dry Mix (makes about a 1/4 cup of dry mix) I use all organic/non-gmo ingredients, and bulk buy some of them, as I make a lot from scratch 4 tsp. Chili Powder ( I buy bulk) 2 tsp. Ground Cumin (I buy bulk) 2 tsp. Paprika (I buy bulk) 1 tsp. Garlic Powder (we use homemade from homegrown) 1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper (use more for more heat) 1/2 tsp or more of onion powder (we make this homemade) 1 1/2 tsp. salt Optional: 1-2 Tbsp. sugar or brown sugar if you...

Dehydrating garlic was next on my list of "to-do's," and to make garlic powder from my home grown garlic.  Some of my followers have probably already made homemade garlic powder, so forgive me if it's a boring post.  This is a first time for me. We were gifted garlic two years ago, and planted all of them in the garden in the fall.  I dug them up the next season, and repeated that for one more year, expanding our harvest this year.  

Woke up to a brisk 49°F (feels like 47°F).  Brrr!  Not good for the garden.  Sheesh.  Yesterday the wind was blowing so hard I chose not to use the clothesline in fear my bloomers would end up in the next county. Garlic scapes are part of the garlic plant that gets cut off to help the plant continue to grow.  By the way, if you do not grow garlic, check your local Farmer's Markets for garlic scapes.  Many gardeners sell them this time of year.   They are edible and we love to make garlic scape dip with radishes we grow as well. They also last a long time in the refrigerator, but this year I tried something new with the remaining scapes.  I dehydrated them into garlic scape powder. Dice scapes and use the temperature on your dehydrator you use to dehydrate vegetables. Once they are dried, grind to a powder using a coffee mill and store as you would garlic powder.  It's a milder flavor, but I'm excited to have it in my pantry this year....

After waking up with a bit of a sore throat (allergies), I decided to take Thursday off from the garden (avoiding the grass), and get some inside work done.  I was up just before 5am and downed a cup of hot ginger tea before making good ol' organic coffee. It started as a beautiful day, but I was praying for rain too.  We need it badly.  We got rain too.  Twice during the day, but not enough.  We could use more. Even though I've been whooped by dinner time, dinner has still been getting made - homemade chicken alfredo and roasted rosemary asparagus.  The alfredo sauce has been posted before, but not the entire recipe.  We are just low on fruit.  The red raspberries need rain.  The blackberries are loaded, but not ripe to pick just yet. Homemade Alfredo Sauce 1/2 cup organic butter (or homemade) 2 cups (1 pint) organic/non-gmo whipping cream 4 oz.  organic cream cheese (or homemade ) 1/2 tsp. minced garlic * 1 tsp. homema...

I woke up Monday to a warm 63°F and later a high of 87°.  And guess what?   We started the "resurrection" of the flower beds/rose bed/herb garden on Sunday (no chance in convincing Hubby to break out the chainsaw for wood chores in the heat either), and now we are to get 4 days of possible rain.  I guess the Good Lord thought I needed softer soil to rip those weeds out, ha ha!   Clean up before the end of the day.  But oh, so much more to weed (like about 60-70 feet of flower/herb beds). Monday, we labored (again).  Hubby mowed some more, we weeded, and prepped the garlic bed.  Oh that was a joy - windy as heck, and try putting plastic down in the wind.  It took us about 1 1/2 hours or more to pull up old plastic, till, and put the new plastic down.  Now it will sit for a week or so to kill off more weeds/grass before I fall plant. Laundry was put out.  Dried in seconds with the wind, heat and sun we had....

The wind chill was a perfect time to bake a side dish to go with our big pot of chili.  I typically make a buttermilk cornbread, but we have to keep an eye on my husband's diet. By the way, this morning we woke up to 23°F outside!  Wind chill is 14°F.  Feels like a heat wave after that sub zero weather we've had. I resurrected this draft (while looking for something else), that I have had for a few years now. I have no idea who gave me the recipe, but there are so many variations of them. I can't make this stuff up, ha ha!   First, my "whoopsie" below happened from using my recipe in my recipes, not off of this blog draft (thankfully). It wasn't until I made them again, that I realized my blog draft said "baking soda" and my home recipe stated "baking powder."  Had I not even found this draft, messed them up again, and looked at both recipes, I would have never noticed until someone else baked them.  Photo is when I forgot to add the baking...

We've been watching a family of 4 bald eagles out in a field by our homestead.  As long as the leave my barn cats and chickens alone, we are enjoying watching them. I made homemade seasoned salt for a recipe I needed it for yesterday.  It was better than store bought seasoned salt. I used my homemade onion powder and garlic powder to make it too. Homemade Seasoned Salt 2 Tbsp. salt 2 tsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. organic paprika 1/4 tsp. organic turmeric 1/4 tsp. homemade organic onion powder 1/4 tsp. homemade organic garlic powder 1/4 tsp. organic non-gmo corn starch Mix and use in any recipe.  

  Our weather is all over the map. One day it was sunny and 65°F, the next dreary and rain all day, and then the next?  Cold and snow.  Yep.  That's how it's been.  Now we roll into a a cold snap. I have had some later than usual work.  I filled the dehydrator with parchment lined paper, and got busy with about 10 heads (or bulbs) of home grown garlic.  I apologize to those who have already read posts about making garlic powder.  Back in 2020 I hosted an online Pampered Chef party to help out a friend.  Never in my life did I think so many people would order, and I ended up with lots of free items.  Two items were the garlic peeler and slicer.  The above is the "peeler" for the garlic cloves.  You do separate the head of garlic, then place a few cloves inside the tube, and roll it back and forth in with the palm of your hand.  The dried peeling will crack and very easily come off the clove of garlic. I use disposable latex...

Hello?  Anyone out there in "cyber" land? I love smoked almonds.  However, the ingredients in them are typically bad for good health.  Usually, they include bad oils and a form of soy.  In my opinion, all soy, unless it's organic/non-gmo, is bad for good health.  Very bad. If you saw how many times they spray the soybean field in my state, you'd never eat anything with it again.  Anyway.... I decided to make my own. First, I made homemade celery salt using dehydrated organic celery leaves and salt. I had about 1/4 cup of dehydrated celery leaves, so I ground them up with a small amount of salt.  I didn't measure.  I just "eye-balled" it.  Tip:  When you purchase organic celery with leaves, to freeze celery for winter, dehydrate your leaves for celery salt or to simply use in soups/stews, pastas, and other dishes too. Then I made the almonds with the celery salt and other ingredients.   How did they taste?   ...

It seemed a s soon as we stocke d some firewood by the house, the weather turned dreary , cold and then rain a rrived.  W e woke up to this.   The sun is shini ng and the there is no wind.  It's actually a b ea utiful Sun day.  Warning.... feeling talkative this m orning.  Grab a cu p of your favorite bevera ge. Our grocery store is now selling an organic whole wheat (label ed non-gmo ) bread.  I was lucky to get a loaf at a good price, which I made homemade croutons with.  N ext batch I will try using homemade bread of some sort.

I threw in "Fascinating" for extra thrill today, ha ha!  It's not really that interesting. Gladys were all pulled for winter.  The bulbs have grown bigger over the years, and have outgrown their box.  They won't survive the winter here outside.

  Using parchment paper on my dehydrator trays makes this grinding part easier.  I push the dried garlic to the center of the paper, and lift the sides to slide it into the coffee grinder. The jar I use fits my canning funnel, making that part easy too.  You could use a smaller funnel for smaller jars.  We use garlic a lot, so hence large jar. I dump out the older garlic powder into a cup with spout, put the new garlic powder in first, then the older on top.  All set for another year (maybe, ha ha!). It's not exactly a quick job.  I wash all the trays after I dehydrate, so tastes and smells do not permeate into the next dehydrated food.  I wash the coffee grinder and clean out anything that blew off the trays inside the dehydrator. Question about rhubarb: Our rhubarb died last year, and we were going to move it anyway.....but... I believe someone on here bought root starts online one year.  I can only find seeds (organic, non-gmo), and our local p...

  Winner recipe!  New recipe tried! I had just enough cashews to use up, and the oven was already on, so..... Of course I used my homemade garlic powder in this recipe. Perfect for a chacturie board for any occasion. Delicious  as a snack. The recipe is free online with The Southern Lady Cooks. A bit sticky for a travel snack, but pack it up and enjoy it at your accommodations with cheese/crackers and a bottle of wine. It would make a nice gift too, along with some other creatively made food items, a bottle of wine, or specialty cheese/crackers.  The ideas are pretty endless. I've been experimenting with our frozen garden green beans.  I recently just tossed a bag full (maybe 3 cups) into an 8 x 8 baking dish, added 1/2 tsp. homemade garlic powder, and drizzled it with some organic olive oil.  Gave them a toss with some tongs, and baked them at 400° for 30 minutes.  I then sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top of them.  Oh my gosh!  Deli...