Category: pickling

Something new?

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I’m bored with my clothes right now.  I have no good transition pieces for this time of year.  I feel it’s too early to break out the wool and velvet, too chilly for linen, I’m not quite into wearing cords yet and I really hate all my jeans right now.  This morning I remembered I still had a balance on my Marshalls gift card that my girl scout troop gave me as a thank you for leading the troop last year, so I took myself shopping.  I spent an hour wandering around, trying things on and left with this:

A new black cardigan.
Black cardigans have been a staple of my closet since high school.  This would be black cardigan number Five in my closet currently,  not to be confused with the black velvet blazer collection.  Thankfully, both work with the black wool pleated Talbots skirt collection and the black velvet pants collection I’ve got going on.   
I wear a lot of black. And the same styles, clearly, if you are familiar with the demin skirt (as seen above) that my college girlfriends have pointed out I’ve worn since at least 1992. Although the one I’m wearing there is a newish one, acquired this summer while thrifting.  Edie has taken to calling me ‘goth mom’. Apparently, she didn’t get the memo that my style hasn’t changed since 1986, despite adding some charcoal grey in the form of cardigans and at least one wool pleated Talbots skirt and the occasional pink shirt as seen above.
The lines of this new one are divine.  And it’s cashmere.  And the price was just right.  Ultimately, both Edie & Betty highly approved my purchase, even if it’s yet another black cardigan.
I did try something new in the kitchen today though.

Fermenting peppers. 
I’m on this quest to make a good hot sauce.  Something more interesting than just peppers and vinegar.  I’ve read that fermenting is the key to Tabasco, so why not try that as my first step?  Pat’s dad, Grandpa Jack, brought me a grocery bag of habarenos that I combined with various chili’s.   I can already tell you that you need eye protection when opening the jar the fumes are so hot.  Should be good stuff.
But of course while trying something new, I had to go with what I know. 

Pickled peppers.
We opened a jar of last year’s batch a few weeks ago to eat on some nachos and they were so good we ate the entire jar. I think I used this recipe in making that batch (I used like 3 different pickled pepper recipes last summer and this one I identified by the spices in the bottom of the jar, I think.) so I went with that one again.  There are some baby pablanos in there, some jalapenos that had turned red that Grandpa Jack shared with us and then a boatload of jalapenos from our garden in there.
It’s worth noting that I finally remembered to wear gloves.  Although I did cut into the first habareno, rub my lips and then realize I should put some gloves on.  The tingling wasn’t nearly as bad as last time though.
This something new kick started the other day when I brought some beets home from the farmer’s market.  We like the idea of them, but I never seem to make them.  So I set about fixing that. You know what?  We still only like the idea of them.  The reality is, they taste like dirt. We are still willing to try some pickled, but we, as a family, may be quite willing to declare ourselves beet free.
As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  In our house, that clearly applies to things like beets, pickled peppers and black cardigans.  Did I mention the new one was cashmere?

On Preserving the Harvest.

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I’ve been getting a good number of questions on the subject of canning and pickling here lately.  I don’t claim to be an expert, but admittedly, I engage in that activity on average a few times a week  most of the year and find that along the way I’ve learned much through trial and error.

Certain rules you must abide by – the whole idea of acid contents determining processing styles and times still intimidates me, so I don’t play around with that one nor do I skip sterilizing steps, although I might not always hold fast to the 10 minute boiling rule anymore for sterilizing my jars. Should one of us get botulism this year, I’ll revisit that, definitely.
I have never pressure canned, so I can’t really answer questions on that process.  I struggled for a long time with making successful jams, but was finally (!) successful with it this summer – thanks to the Food in Jars Cookbook, I learned the temperature at which jam sets (220 degrees F) and since then have successfully made several small batches, including a cantaloupe jam.  I’m definitely feeling more comfortable with jams these days than I was even 6 weeks ago.  After years of massive failures because I was attempting to jam 20 pounds of fruit at a time, I’ve come to embrace small batches and with that, I have finally found success.
  It’s so much easier to get a feel for what you’re doing when you do it in small batches.  My first successful jam ever was a small batch of stone fruit jam inspired by new favorite cookbook mentioned in the above paragraph  – I had a handful of cherries and two small peaches that needed to go, so I threw them in a pot and gave it a go.  I yielded exactly one half pint jar that I didn’t bother to process but just stuck it straight in the fridge.  It gave me the confidence to try more.  Like the cantaloupe jam.
I have two chest freezers in my basement and consequently, freeze quite a bit of food as well, like corn, green beans, tomatillos and peppers.  I keep a spreadsheet of what’s in each freezer so that I know what’s where (I have my Type A- moments). I have experimented with drying foods (like tomatoes) and am starting to read about fermenting, because I want to try that out as well.  Preserving the harvest by canning, pickling, jamming, freezing, drying and fermenting are really an extension of cooking as I see it.  I don’t like to waste food, and so over the years I’ve learned that when my green beans are tough because of hot, dry weather, they make fantastic pickles. Bolting arugula not only cooks well as a green, it makes an excellent pesto. And then there are Watermelon Rind Pickles, in which someone once upon a time thought to use every last part of that watermelon. 
I’ve started a page on here that lists my favorite resources for food preservation, with the first link being an article from the Virginia Cooperative Extension that I was given when I took my first canning class.  I keep a printed copy in a binder along with the rest of my food preservation cookbooks.  The websites I have linked to are listed in the handout I give my canning students and these are the links I tend to reference when searching for an answer to a question I receive.  I know canning can sound intimidating, but if you approach it one little bit at a time, it’s really quite easy.  And I assure you, there is nothing better than opening up a jar of something you put up one hot afternoon in August to eat when you are snowed in again come January and February.

Catching up.

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Since I last visited this space, we have had a few adventures.
Going to pick up Edie from camp was the first.
After last year’s camp closing ceremonies, Edie announced that her goal for this year was to be recognized for archery at the closing ceremony.  Which she was.  Her face as her name was called for that was absolutely beaming.  She was quite proud of herself, as were we. Is there anything better than seeing the satisfaction of your child’s face when they hit a goal they set for themselves?  She was also recognized for Dance & Lacrosse.  She was surprised by the lacrosse recognition as she doesn’t care for the sport.  I told her she didn’t have to like it to be good at it, but wasn’t it nice to know that if she wanted to play it she’d be good at it?  She was only slightly sold. 
There was a dirt road involved on the way home.
We are fans of detours that include dirt roads, especially when they include ice cream as well, which this one did.
When we got home, I had her dump her trunk down the laundry chute so I could wash everything.  My basement smelled like someone had been bathing in a pond for 3 weeks and then left all her towels out in a rainstorm.  Which pretty much was her story.
While I was switching out the loads from the washer to the dryer Saturday night, I happened to glance over and see something wriggling in a spider web that didn’t look like it belonged there.
Turns out, it didn’t.  It was a baby Eastern Ringneck snake. The tiniest little snake you’ve ever seen.
Edie really wanted to keep it, but Pat wasn’t sure if it was eating the tiny worms we brought him/her.  Also, when all of Edie’s pals came by to see her the one day she was home between adventures, the little bug catcher the snake was in didn’t get properly closed and we woke up to find Ringo gone.
Hopefully it’s made it’s way out of my house.  But if it eats bugs, then hopefully it will stay out of my eyesight.
As soon as I got Edie’s camp laundry done and my basement smelling like a basement again (a big improvement over pond water believe it or not), we took off for our last family adventure of the summer.
We headed down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to visit our friends the Dorbads.
19 month old Lincoln is cute as can be.  He also had a nasty cold he was more than generous with.  His poor mum came down with it while we were there and while Edie complained of a sore throat for a few days, I think I managed to zinc her up enough to head it off. 
I had totally forgotten that when you have a 19 month old, that’s pretty much all you do all day.
Although they are awfully cute and entertaining.
We had some great beach weather.  It was in the 80’s and thanks to some offshore winds, the water was ICE cold.  After sitting in the sun and ‘getting warm’ as my mother used to say, it was refreshing.
Also, how nice is it to get in the ocean in August and have goosebumps from the water temperature?

We wandered down to Jennette’s pier one day so Pat could fish. 
While he was up there on the pier, Edie girl & I sat on the beach nearby. We had a most fabulous chat over a coke (her) and a beer (me). 
Daddy got to fish, Edie got chocolate ice cream AND a coke and I got to sit on the beach and read not quite an entire book all day, which we all considered perfect. How to top a day like that?

By heading even farther south to Cape Hatteras National Seashore the next day.
That was the view to the left of us down the beach. 
How sweet is that?  I adore Hattaras island and that particular stretch of coastline for just that reason.
The umbrella in the distance marked the set up of a young couple near us for the day.  It was so deserted she chose to sunbathe topless.  (One of us was horrified, one of us was amused and one of us thought good for her because I’d surely burn in a most unpleasant way in some uncomfortable spots if I did that.)
We went for a stroll to collect shells and to get away from all the people.

I couldn’t help but notice that Sandy McSandster, my daughter’s beach alter ego, lives on.
That child has some sort of magnetic attraction to sand.  When she was smaller and would come in from the beach completely coated in sand, I chalked it up to her being a baby, a toddler, three, four, etc.  But now she’s 10.  And still leaves a heavy trail.  I’m surprised there’s any sand left on Hatteras Island, because the inside of my car is completely coated, as is my beach bag, the cooler and I have no doubt her entire suitcase. 

At one point, we let her go into the cooler for something, where she proceeded to coat everything in there with sand as well.  Seriously.  One hand in to grab and everything after was coated.  That beer is fresh from the cooler, after she was in it. You should have seen the one she handed her father.  He took it into the ocean to clean it off. 

I guess she’ll never outgrow it.
Which is okay, because I happen to know 40-somethings that have similar traits.  She’s in most excellent company.

Despite the fact that my child coated everything in sight in sand and our hosts were under the weather, it was a great trip.  The day we spent at Hatteras was one of the most perfect beach days I’ve ever had.  It was 80, barely a cloud in the sky, the water temp and the breeze just right.  And I got to spend a day with those two with no outside distractions besides my book.  (I’ve been plowing through “Game of Thrones”, having watched the entire show the first week Edie was at camp, I picked up the books and am now on the fourth one.)
We spent the week without television and internet.  That was week two for me, unplugged and for Edie, week four.  (She was completely unplugged while at camp.).  It might be habit forming. 
We came back Friday afternoon.  Saturday I taught a pickling class for Market Central.

We pickled peaches, green beans and cucumbers.
It was a good class if I do say so myself.
I had planned on using the Ball Pickling Mix that is all over the market this season for dill pickles.  However, due to a small oversight, there was no pickle mix on hand for the class.  A quick flip through the stack of canning & pickling cookbooks I had brought along and we selected a new one – from my trusty Food in Jars Cookbook.  We just so happened to have everything it called for on hand and so we went with it.
I’ll let you know how they turned out in a week or so when I open the jar I carried home.  I’ve yet to make anything out of that cookbook or from her websites that isn’t good, so I felt safe trying that out in a class, untested.
I do need to brag that I completely guesstimated on the amount of brine to make for those pickles and turns out my guesstimate was just enough.  Not only did I pull it out, I pulled it out perfectly.
I’m good like that.
I can’t say the same for the amount of peach brine I made, there were several quart jars left over that students took home with them.  No one seemed to be too upset about that, as the pickled peaches were a huge hit just on the smell alone and as I pointed out, when you have leftover brine, you can use it to do another batch.  I shared the recipe I came up with as a happy discovery to much rave reviews, which felt pretty darn tooting good as well.
So now we are home for a good while – school starts Wednesday and we need to settle back into that routine.  The weather today – grey, drizzly and cool – was slightly conducive towards that end.  I cleaned out the fridge and found a forgotten jar of bread & butter brine, but I also happened to have a few cukes on hand and some jalapenos from the garden that I threw in, so there was a batch of pickles made today while I was baking bread with the sourdough starter Leni shared with me.  None of us have unpacked from the beach yet – heck, Edie still has bags sitting around with camp gear all over the house, thanks to the fact that she’s slept in her own bed exactly 2 nights since we picked her up over a week ago.  It’s good to have her home, it’s good to be home and it’s good to have a few more days to collect ourselves before it all starts back up again.

I can pickle that.

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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.