Saturday, October 23, 2010

Cucumbers to Pickles

We made pickles for the first time ever as a family and it was a fantastic learning experience for everyone.  I dream up lots of plans but don't always follow through so when I announced part way through the summer that I was interested in making bread and butter pickles they males in my house did small eye rolls and gently nodded their heads.  My daughter, of course, was gung-ho from the beginning.  I googled bread and butter pickles and found this man, Drew Kime's wonderful website/blog and just followed his easy steps.  We bought baskets of smaller cucumbers and mixed them with regular sized cukes from our farmer's market, rinsed them and my son took charge of slicing.

From above cucumbers to these delicious pickles.  We will have pickles all winter long plus I've given a few jars away.  They are just the right amount of spicy to sweet.  My husband and I just sat down and ate lunch together: two pieces of soft bread, stone ground mustard, thinly sliced radishes, salad greens (two scores from this morning's market), sharp cheddar, and a jar of homemade pickles to dig into=YUM sandwich!


This post is part of Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads. She's got something appropriately timed about witches and wine with a giveaway included.   
Other news:  I'm very close to finishing linger by maggie stiefvater.  I wish I was in Mpls this weekend for the Kid Lit conference as she is the headliner and I would love to hear her speak and maybe have an opportunity to shake her hand.  I have this weird excitement about shaking hands with certain peeps.  I can feel the eye rolls and fond smirks even as I type this!

6 comments:

JoAnn said...

What a great family project! I've never made pickles, but really should give it a try. Maybe next year...

Beth F said...

Fabulous project. And thanks for the link to a new blog, too. Your jars look lovely, and I wish I had been with your for lunch. Just my kind of meal on a lazy weekend.

Oh and Kit Lit Con ... yes, wish I were there too.

bermudaonion said...

There's nothing better than homemade pickles!

Golden Eagle said...

Pickles are good! Great project. :)

Peppermint Ph.D. said...

I'm ashamed to tell you that from 2 cucumber plants this summer, I had more cucumbers than I could handle...along with my overabundance of tomatoes! I actually had to throw some cucumbers away :( I will be more prepared next summer though and will make pickles!! Yum!

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I love pickling cukes - just with salt, although my dad use to make pickles (dill) all the time.