Well, I WAS going to finish sanding and painting the fence today. Best laid plans... sigh.
But I woke up and realized that I have a big mouth. I love cucumbers - and told a neighbor so. Well, she is swamped with produce - especially cucumbers. I also told her that I pickle and can. So this morning I was faced with the third bag... a lot of sweet corn on top, and still more cucumbers below. So I had a sinkfull of cucumbers! Nothing to do but to pull out the canning stuff and make pickles!
If you've ever pickled you know that no matter how carefully you cut and measure, you are always going to have too little - or too much - pickle brine. Of course at first I had too little. So I made more. Then I had too much. The jars were all full. I'm out of lids (but never out of screw tops - still trying to figure THAT out, like a half-dozen mismatched socks). So I went downstairs and found one last BIG glass pickle jar, washed it out, and sterilized it too. All of the "leftover" pickles - the hamburger slices, the big munchy slices, and the spears - went into THAT jar, along with most of the leftover brine. Success! All of the little lids went "shnick" and popped down - sealed pickles. The big jar will be the house jar, the one we use and dip out of.
The corn (which I love but cannot eat) I shucked and cut and blanched, except for the last two ears - I cooked them for Mike. By one o'clock, everything was canned and pickled. I even had enough left over for my late Dad's favorite little splurge - cucumbers and onions in the pickle brine in the fridge. I took half of that, chopped it, mixed it with chopped boiled eggs, more spices, and mayonnaise, and came up with a pretty neat vegetable/chip dip. And it was a damned good thing I did, too.
Because at two o'clock Miss Enid appeared at the door with a bag of tomatoes, green peppers - and cucumbers! ROFLMAO
I don't need meat this week - I have vegies! Yummers!
Guess whose getting two big jars of pickles!!!
And guess who has to go into town this week after all - to buy canning jars, lids, and some more spices! Oh, well, I was promised a birthday dinner at Cedar Canyon, so what the hell....
March Writing Assignment
13 years ago
4 comments:
Can't beat fresh vegetables! When I was a pup, we would go visit my godparents who lived out in 'the country'. The food was very simple, and somewhat sparse-looing at first. Vegetables from Uncle Joe's garden, and usually boiled ham, bread and butter, and of course, a pot of tea.
The taste was sensational. I'll never forget it. Everything tasted sweeter, more intense. Nothing at all like us city folk were used to.
I ate things there I'd never seen at home. Uncle Joe didn't say much, (although he broke wind almost continually) and when he did, it was hard to understand him. For many years I thought there was a vegetable called 'Sparrow's grass'.
I don't even know if people like them even exist now. They were both formiddable. Plain speaking, totally blunt, but with hearts of gold. They both seemed different somehow, with a store of seemingly ancient wisdom to draw upon.
They're both long gone now of course. As an adult I often went to see them, and took old Uncle Joe down to the Red Dragon for a couple of pints. He seemed to enjoy it. He still didn't say much, but he never did stop breaking wind.
It NEVER fails- you always run out of something! How about home pickled beets? Now you are talking YUMMO!!
Great memory, LDG!
You know, they say that people who eat mostly vegetables break more wind... of course, "they" also say they are less pungent than those of meat-eaters, but I have no factual information on that.
I will say that with the influx of fresh garden vegetables in our diet, we are (ahem) much more physically relaxed, and it's a good thing we are more removed from society now.
And KBK - no beets yet. But next year I will be growing, canning and pickling them for sure - I like them but haven't found anyone else to share that particular taste.
Pickled beetroot is a favorite back home, as well as pickled red cabbage, pickled onions of course, and a crunchy mixture of various veg including cauliflower, onion and cabbage called picalilli.
Droooool.
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