Knitting Update ~ Dishcloths

I finally did it!  After all these years of buying these knitted dishcloths, I knitted not one, but two myself. 

The first one was a basic square, and I put it up for sale in my on-line store.  The second pattern involved a diagonal garter stitch.

I do not have size 7 needles, so I made it with size 8, but it ended up 2 inches smaller than the pattern stated.  I am also concerned, because my starting point and the ending point do not look the same.  You can't really see in this photo, but to me it appeared different.


I found another pattern on-line this morning, and the woman had the same feelings about the starting and ending points.  I will try her pattern also, and make sure to keep measuring as I knit.  


I'm excited to finally do this.  I am still crocheting, tatting and making other crafts, it's just been one day at a time.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup With Homemade Noodles

It started raining before I pulled the carrots for our soup.  I darted out there and pulled the last of them (I think).  After that I realized I forgot the swiss chard.  Then it started raining harder.

I have to think like pioneers, so I thought I'll just use what I have.  I diced a green bell pepper in place of celery.

I roasted two of our chickens (meat chickens raised by us) and pulled off the meat, added it to organic broth (I try to make my own, but had a box heading toward the expiration date, so I used that).  

Prior to that I diced onion, carrots and sauteed those in olive oil, then added the green pepper, broth and water, chicken, and half of the homemade egg noodles I made a few days ago.  The other half will create another meal.

I, of course, added herbs from my herb garden.  Yummy! 

I also baked 2 loaves of pumpkin bread.  I am just now getting ripe baking pumpkins, so I used a can of canned pumpkin.  However, my goal is to start canning baking pumpkin for recipes such as this.  I also did not have enough cooking oil.  I made up the difference with my homemade pear butter, and it turned out moist and delicious.  You can also adjust the amount of sugar to your preference.


Pumpkin Bread
3 cups of sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 eggs, beaten
1 can of canned pumpkin - 16 oz.
3 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2/3 cup water


Cream sugar and oil.  Add eggs and pumpkin. Mix well.  Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and cloves.  Add to pumpkin mixture alternately with water.  Mix well.  Pour into 2 - 9x5 in. loaf pans, greased and floured.  Bake at 350° for 80-90 minutes, or until completely done.  Let stand 10 minutes before removing from pans to cool.


Enjoy!  Those loaves didn't last long around here.  I had to hurry up and get slices in school lunches before it was all gone.

Soap Making Day

Yesterday was another soap making day. 

I could not find pink zote soap in the stores this time, and used white zote soap.  It's becoming more difficult to find zote soap in stores.

It was another good day for the garden, although the cauliflower now has green worms - yuck.  I picked about 2 dozen green peppers, about 5 red peppers, some cayenne peppers, banana peppers, and more tomatoes.

We didn't get that many spaghetti squash this year, but it was a very wet planting season, and now harvesting season.

We are still getting a few more watermelons.

This morning I had to go to plan B for making breakfast.   Since the cauliflower was worm infested, I added different veggies to our egg/cottage cheese dish.  I added diced green peppers, banana peppers, and canned jalapeno flavored banana peppers for flavor.  I also chopped up a few garden grown shallots.  The kids said it smelled like a restaurant in the kitchen.  

Sadly, we are now down to only 3 eggs.  I had hoped to make homemade bread or pancakes, but will have to wait to see what the chickens lay today.

I am roasting two more of our raised chickens, to use in homemade chicken noodle soup.  I know it's not really cold out yet, but its house payment week.  That's the week where we have to use what we have vs. head to the store.  I will go out and dig up a few last carrots and use swiss chard in place of store bought celery.  I may have to use shallots in place of onion too, but it all works out well.

And thanks to a farmgirl, in a friendly barter, I now have spearmint growing.  I had enough leaves to make brewed green tea with spearmint.  Man it was soooooo good.  I just closed my eyes and remembered, with one swallow, my grandmother.  She made spearmint tea all the time.  Gosh those were good times.

This week will be one of the most frugal spending weeks we've had in a very long time.  After the house payment, we have about $98.00 for food/gas/animal feed.  We are out of dog and rabbit food (sigh).  Good thing my son can buy the dog and rabbit food this week.  It's going to be a very tight week until the next paycheck (long sigh).  We are out of bread, lunch packing items, and cooking oil.  This makes it tough when I bake most of the kids lunch items.  I think I will zip on over to my on-line store and add another dishcloth for sale, then check my on-line articles.  Where there's a will, there is a way......

New Photo Album On-line

I am starting an on-line photo album to share.  The main reason to do this was to share wild flowers and other plants growing here.  However, I am adding more.

To view them, click here: Pioneer Woman At Heart's Photos

Visit often!

High Food Prices ~ Pioneer Frontier Tip

If you are among those who are stocking up, in preparation for very high food prices next year, you may be interested in this recipe.

I was reading information about the pioneer lifestyle and about the typical meals they ate.  It wasn't a shock to read that a growing a successful garden was "critical" to putting food in their bellies.

It was interesting to find out that some store owners added fillers to certain food items, so they could make more money off of the buyer.  Some of what I read really raised my eyebrows - plaster in the flour?  Or dyed dried beans in the coffee?  Yuck.

One tip I read, was about a coffee substitute, when coffee was not available or affordable.  Here is the tip:

"One popular "coffee substitute" recipe advised settlers to roast molasses-soaked bran in the oven until it was charred black. The bran could then be ground like coffee beans, and the resultant brew was "a very tasty drink for a number of months." (From Pioneer Life)

I wonder what bran and molasses we cost next year?  I guess if you grown your own grain, this may not be a problem. 

Canned Banana Peppers With Jalapeno ~ Stocking Up Update

Remember these?  Well, we popped open a few jars, and hubby does not like to eat these right out of the jar.  These were boil sealed, so the peppers are soft.  I did make fridge pickles for him with these, and those turned out crunchy.

Making the Most of Swiss Chard ~ Breaking Down Cost of Zoo Membership

The other day I used the stalks of my Swiss chard, in place of celery to roast chickens. I cut the leaves off, and sliced them thinly.