Under Costruction.....

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Just like life building (rebuilding) a blog is a journey.... please stick with us as we make this blog better. Thanks y'all!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

pickle me some.....

What do all these things have in common.....

22 trips to the grocery store

2 girls registered for school...though I would rather just keep them home...
26 chocolate chip cookies that had to be eaten

4 gazillion times I sat on the couch and nursed a baby girl....well not just a baby girl..my baby girl

4 gazillion and 1 times that I looked at facebook, my hubs thinks I am slightly addicted

1435 loads of laundry

3 laborious and soul searching shopping trips...have you seen the grunge and eighties fashion going on....I may be having nightmares...worse then being nekkid.....okay maybe not that bad....

6 episodes of Big Rich Texas (I heart Texas)

1 pre-season highschool football game....GO #62...that was his dad's number if ya remember or want to know

5 chauffeured rides for  #2 to go to work.....and thus....the three shopping trips....

14 pints of bread and butter pickles just like granma's

1 calming drive to a little highway town

0 miles on the treadmill

400 times that I cleaned up a potty mess......and we are no closer to being potty trained

36 quarts of dill pickles

2 dinners that included grilled corn on the cob

did you guess? do you get it? you need another hint?

um...no post here this week....i am a slacker, i admit it...i did visit other blogs when I found that fb was a repeat....

all those blogs are inspiring and hopeful and knowledgeable.....

and so i will pass along my incredibly knowledgeable and awe-inspiring blogging at 12:30 am on a saturday morning because i didn't do it during the week.....

hold on a moment, time to take a look at the (venison) that is now hanging up in my garage...thank you  #2!

so what knowledge will I pass along? only what I know....

and I will spare you the long and labor inducing stories of birth...so the next best thing is food, canning and preserving those oh so yummy and nourishing summer fruits that we will all be craving this winter.

I love cooking and the love for cooking has expanded to canning and bottling fresh vegetables and fruit to make sure that my family have all the nutrients from homegrown food and to try and live as if I am on my farm.

This year there was no garden......because as you know....I have no farm, let alone a house with a yard....BUT there is a wonderful self pick farm down the road and luckily farming communities that share their labor of love (you have to love farming...or you wouldn't do it!) and in another few weeks and we will be knee deep in tomatoes, and thank heavens because we are plum out!

canning always makes me feel nostalgic and oh so thankful that i have a/c as my kitchen is an oven and i can't imagine what it was like to only have an open window to cool things off. and can you imagine what it was like when the breeze didnt' blow and the rain didn't fall, and yet you still had to bake the bread and bottle the peas and what not because that would be your only food come winter?  again, thank heavens for bought air!
this is my sweet sister and her family with my granma...she looks better then I so I will post her picture!

and today as i prepared the bread and butter pickles i couldn't help but think about my granma and how she loved these pickles with homemade bread and butter...nothing else needed.... i do not know if she made them, she certainly loved them and i know that she bottled other foods, so today's post is to her and my sweet memories of her as i grew up... and her unconditional love and support of me...and that she kept the renderings of my farms for 30 years!

i managed 14 pints, all beautiful and yummy...we (me and the mctwins) were eating them while they were still warm and in the pot!  and they were oh so crunchy! i was a little sad that I had already eaten two rolls today...

and with trying to loose the baby muffin....bread is on restriction to me, by me. if only i stuck to it! so enjoy this recipe and don't eat your allotment of bread until after you have made these!

Bread and Butter Pickles

30 cucumbers, thinly sliced
5 onions, thinly sliced
3 teaspoons diced garlic (I just use the bottles prediced garlic...because I go through it like crazy and it is just easier this way!)
1/2 cup salt
4 cups cider vinegar
7 cups white sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 teaspoons celery seed
3/4 teaspoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons alum

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, mix together cucumbers, onions and salt.
Allow to stand approximately 3 hours. (if you don't use the alum, then you will want to put ice in the mixture to create a more crisp pickle)
2. In a large saucepan, mix the cider vinegar, white sugar, mustard seed, celery seed,
whole cloves and turmeric. Bring to a boil.
3. Drain liquid from the cucumber mixture. Stir the mixture into the boiling vinegar
mixture. Remove from heat shortly before the combined mixtures return to boil.
4. Process the pints for five minutes in a water bath.

thank you aunt Diana for having and keeping all these recipes for me to try and fall in love with all over again!
i made dill pickles too!!! i made dilly beans last year and since my dear cousin wants the recipe, i will share it all with you too! they are such a refreshing change to pickles and so easy to munch on when you just need a quick pick me up and, and, are you ready for this, it helps the munchies go away!  really, if i munch on them, I am not craving other foods.

DILLY BEANS
6 cups water
1 cup pickling salt
6 cups distilled white vinegar
8 heads fresh dill weed (i just used dried)
1/2 cup pickling spice
1/2 cup mustard seed
8 dried red chile peppers
16 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon alum
5 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and
trimmed
DIRECTIONS:
1. Sterilize 8 (1 pint) jars in boiling water for at least 5 minutes, or in the dishwasher like i do and i use wide mouth jars for the beans because it is easier to pack them and get them out later!
2. Combine the water, pickling salt and vinegar in a large pot, and bring to a boil. When
it begins to boil, reduce heat to low, and keep at a simmer while you pack the jars.
3. In each jar place the following: 1 head of dill, 1 tablespoon of pickling spice, 1
tablespoon of mustard seed, 1 dried chile pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1/8
teaspoon of alum (the alum is necessary as it keeps the beans crisp!). Pack beans into the spiced jars in a standing position.
4. Ladle the hot brine into jars, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top. Screw the lids onto
the jars, and process in a hot water bath for 6 minutes to seal. Store for at least 2
weeks before eating.

well there you have it, this is what i have been doing and what i will be doing for the next couple of months, i heart bottling, it makes me feel complete and like i did something good for my family...even though it leaves my kitchen a disaster and I am mopping the floor at midnight!  it is all worth it...really.....because after all you will be creating food that has no HFCS or MSG or other preservatives that make us sick slowly but surely.  tonight is not the night for my soapbox, but rest assured i feel strongly about not putting food in our body that has ingredients in them that you can not even pronounce

and, um...stay tune......i will be sharing my experience with you on cooking and trying deer liver....it is good for you...but i still have nightmare stories about sitting at the table until i finished nasty fried liver that tasted mushy and burnt and a whole lotta other things ....but game liver is fresh and not stocked full of grain and soy products..... this could get interesting!

luv yer guts and then some!


2 comments:

Marnie said...

Alright, Texas is awesome, and we have a great kindergarten program. I only say that because it's true and I am one of the K teachers here in our little town.
but the heat is killing us and all of our grass and anything else that needs to be watered.
No worries cows are fine and we got plenty of cow pies for fuel. (no I won't use them).
Wishing I had your talent for all things bottled and gardening. I fail at both.
Hoping that one day you get your slice of heaven in the country, and I hope to be lucky enough to be your neighbor to enjoy your bottled goodness.

Tiffanie said...

LOL....i DO NOT care how many recipes you post on LIVER---ya am NOT going to be trying it!! I think I may have the SAME nightmare. There is no way to may any type of LIVER good...says me! lol...love your posts!

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