Garlic Spicy Pickles

 More pickles today.  The canning jars and pretty much used up but luckily, I am going to meet a friend of a friend this week who has jars to give me.  The next thing to make is blueberry syrup but today it was time to use up the cucumbers.  The problem is I had the dill sitting right in front of me and I forgot to put the sprigs in the jars.  I did manage to remember to put in the little chili peppers and slices of garlic so hopefully they will come out ok.  This recipe came from this month's Better Homes and Garden (my friend drops off her magazines every month for me. I come home and there they are on my porch. It's like Christmas)

Best Ever Dill Pickles

3 to 3 1/4 lbs small pickling cucumbers

4 cups water

4 cups cider vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup pickling salt

6 tblsp dill seeds

chili peppers

garlic

Thoroughly rinse cucumbers.  Cut off a thin slice from both ends of cucumbers.  Slice into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices.  In a large nonreactive pot combine water, vinegar, sugar and pickling salt.  Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, prepare jars.  Pack cucumbers loosely into hot, pint canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Add 1 tblsp dill seeds, 2 little chili peppers and 1-2 cloves of garlic, sliced.   Pour hot vinegar mixture into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims, top with lids.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Start the time once the water starts to boil.  Remove jars and cool.  Let stand at least 1 week.

While the kids are away

My kids are with their Dad for the next two weeks (headed to Chicago, lucky them) so I decided my challenge would be to only eat out of the pantry/freezer/fridge/garden for the next two weeks.    A trip to the store may be in order to buy eggs since Farmer Allan's chickens have stopped laying because of the heat.  I was thinking of also making a trip to Costco to stock up on essentials but for the most part, I think I can live off of what is in my house and garden.

An inventory of the freezer shows:

Bread flour
A bag of pecans
lots of soup bases (Roasted red pepper, vegetable, chicken)
2 bags of toffee chips
2 lbs of unsalted butter
bags of chopped rhubarb
ham steaks
2 boxes girl scout cookies (shortbread)
a bag of mahi mahi steaks
1 bag naan
1 bag plum tomatoes (from last year's garden)
tomato puree
lots and lots of sausage
pork chops
strawberries
blueberries


There's lots more in my little freezer and lots of vegetables in the fridge.

I started out this morning with fresh fruit, yogurt and honey.  Lunch was leftovers from last night's dinner.  Tonight I am making pasta with sauteed chard and garlic.  Chard and garlic from garden and I'm going to toss it all with a little arugula pesto that I made last month.

The chard is Bright Lights

Recipes from the garden

The garden is producing like mad.  This week, it's going to be close to 100 degrees every day so I'm going to have to water morning and evening, I think.    I'm from New England, and after living in the south (North Carolina before DC) for 16 years, I'm still not used to the hot and humid weather here.

Yesterday, Sean and I went blueberry picking at Butler's Orchard.  He needs some picking training as I seemed to have filled up my container while he was eating the berries off the bush instead of putting them in his bucket.

Here is the garden harvest and some things we made with the fruit and vegetables.

Blueberry Cobbler

Right out of the oven

Yesterday's haul

Leftover zucchini from relish making.  We decided to bread and fry the slices

Garden tomatoes, broiled with mozzarella cheese

Tonight's dinner.  Zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, layered with bread crumbs, basil, mozzerella, parm and topped with beaten egg.  A favorite from the Moosewood cookbook

Cucumber Purslane salad with minty garlic yogurt sauce

Zesty Zucchini Relish

It was time to try making relish.  We started this project last night, as the vegetable mix was salted and needed to sit over night. 

If you can believe it, I'm almost out of canning jars - at least the ones that are recommended to use. I have plenty of the old fashioned kind with the rubber rings.  The recipe is from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving.  I used purple peppers and hungarian wax peppers.  I also had to go out to my local funky foodstore (Rodman's) to get the horseradish and as always seems to happen, I ran into someone I knew.  Happily, it was an old friend and we spent a few minutes chatting.

Zesty Zucchini Relish

Makes 5 pint jars

12 cups finely chopped zucchini

4 cups copped onions

2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

1 green pepper, seeded and chopped

1/3 cup pickling salt

2 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups white vinegar

1 tblsp ground nutmeg

1 tblsp ground tumeric

4 tblsp prepared horseradish

1 chili pepper, including seeds, chopped.

In a large glass or stainless steel bowl, combine zucchini, onions, peppers, and salt.  Cover and let stand in a cool place for 12 hours or overnight. Transfer to a colander placed over a sink and drain.  Rinse well with cool water and drain thoroughly.  Using your hands, squeeze out excess liquid.

In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine drained zucchini mixture, sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, turmeric, horseradish and chili pepper.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until liquid is reduced and mixture is the consistency of a thin commercial relish, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare canner, jars and lids.  Ladle hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot relish.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes.  Remove Canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

Chopped zucchini

Sean, chopping peppers

Finely chopped peppers

Sean crying from chopping onions

Onions

Mixture with salt

Next day, continuing with relish

Relish to go in the fridge

There's the relish!

This Week's CSA - June 29

Last week, there was no delivery of the CSA.  This week, it was back to normal deliveries.  In this week's bag was

Yukon gold potatoes - truly "new" potatoes.  

Onions
New garlic 

English Cucumbers
2 heads of lettuce 

Purslane
Shallots
Chard

I split the bag with my friend so I think I gave her the cukes and I took the chard.  

Purslane - what to do with it?  This is the weed that I pull out from the yard and garden but apparently it is very nutritious.

I cleaned it and tasted it and it's not bad.  Sort of a sour taste, like sorrel. I found a cucumber yogurt mint salad that uses it, so that's what I'll try.  

The potatoes and new onions went into a chicken noodle soup and the shallots were sauteed with garlic and the chard.

Spaghetti Scrub

Last month, Sean, the kids and I went to Brooklyn to visit my sister in law and her family.  While lounging in her fabulous kitchen, I noticed this funky scrubber in her sink.  She described how a friend had given it to her, it was made out of corn and that it was fabulous.  I decided I had to have one of my own.

This is what it turned out to be

Spaghetti Scrub

It comes in two types - Coarse (made of corn cobs) and Gentle (made of peach pits).  I only ordered the coarse but I'm thinking I should get the gentle too.  The ingredients for the Coarse are corn core powder, cotton and polyester.  They are made in Japan and supposedly the scrubs last for months and won't rust.

The next question is whether they are compostable?

Weekend Herb Blogging - Dill

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted by  Food Lover's Journey.

I had the morning off today thanks to President Obama.  I work at American University in Washington, DC and Obama was scheduled to give a speech today at the SIS (School of International Service) building.  The library is adjacent to this building and after going back and forth about who would be allowed into the library, how one side of the library (with the windows facing the SIS building) would be cordoned off with police tape and other security measures, it was decided to close the library for the morning.  Woo hoo, thank you Mr. President.

My plan was to make these Dilly Beans last night but my helper wanted to go for a walk instead so with the time off this morning, it was the perfect project.

This recipe is from Yankee Magazine

The recipe says it makes 4 pints but really 5 pints with a little left over

Dilly Beans

2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed

8 to 10 sprigs fresh dill

4 medium cloves of garlic, sliced

4 cups cider vinegar

2 cups water

3 tablespoons coarse or pickling salt

1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds

1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Wash beans, then cut into lengths 1/2 shorter than jar.  Cook beans in boiling water to cover for 1 1/2 minutes.  Drain and plunge into ice water.  Drain and set aside.  Pack beans tightly into sterilized jars.  Add 2 to 3 sprigs of dill and a few slices of garlic to each jar.

Combine vinegar and next four ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan.  Bring mixture to a boil and boil for 1 minute.  Pour hot mixture over beans, filling up to 1/2 inch from top.  Remove air bubbles by tapping lightly.  Wipe jar rims.  Cover with metal lids and screw on bands.  Process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Fresh dill

Plunged into ice water

Packing into jars

Being filled with hot vinegar

All done