Pat & I have been told more than a few times that we may resemble more than few sketches in Portlandia.  Admittedly, we are music snob geeks with some pretty firm standards about what music our child listens to (Mike & The Mechanics ARE a gateway band that we refuse to let her listen to and yes, we do know who Neu! is. ).  We may have watched entire series of TV shows in marathon format, but what has really gotten us the most comparison to the show is my love of pickling.

Admittedly, I have mostly laughed it off.  After all, I’ve already taught one canning & pickling class and I’m gearing up to teach  a pickling class in a few weeks, so I need to practice and know my stuff, yes? 

However, the other night, Pat & I were having dinner with friends and had jimica for the first time.  About two bites into it, I looked at him and said “This would make a great pickle”.

This week, with Edie being gone, most of the block on vacation and Pat at work all day, I’ve kept myself busy with you guessed it, pickling.  As I type this, my second batch today is on the stove – Curried Pickled Squash & Zucchini, Betty having left me a big bag she acquired from Russell.  Leni was kind enough to share a large bag of cukes I turned into Bread & Butter pickles earlier today.  The squash pickles would be my 4th batch of pickles in 3 days.  I spent all day Thursday making Watermelon rind pickles (and realized I need to rewrite the recipe to double the liquid amounts in the brine) and last night I pickled a peck of peaches (which is really fun to say.  Pat & I walked around all night saying it. I bet you said it while reading it, didn’t you?)

I have often stated that I don’t tend to follow recipes while in the kitchen, but when it comes to canning and pickling, I don’t improvise, I am by the book.  The whole concept of acid content and knowing what works and what doesn’t is sort of beyond me.  Or so I thought.  Last night, as I was getting myself set up to pickle those peaches, I realized that the last time I made a batch, I sort of merged the recipe from “Joy of Pickling” with the one from Serious Eats In A Pickle, meaning, I wrote my own recipe.  My very first pickling recipe.   And because we’ve already eaten them and people that have had pickled peaches before have eaten them and declared them just like their grandmother made, I knew I had done it right. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed with myself and sat down while the last batch was in the canner and wrote the recipe out to use in my upcoming pickling class.

My name is Becky and I’m a pickling junkie.  I’m going to walk away from the canner for a few days and head to the water for some quality time with my all time favorite partner in crime from college.  I’m going to resist the urge to pickle anything for the next few days, although I can’t promise I won’t put a bird on it.