Monday, February 09, 2009

waiting patiently

From the Man, a photo:


We're waiting patiently over here for spring, people. *******************************************

I was asked a few posts back about our pickle recipes. First, allow me to admit that we don't quite have one. I have a book, Pickled, that gives me my base recipes. Then I tweak - a little more garlic here, a bit of lemon peel there, etc. My current favorite pickle is a combination of the book's recipe and one I found here . I did add a little touch or two, and a spot of paranoia - I boil my brine, and pour it into the jar immediately after turning off the heat. And yep, I process my jarred pickles perhaps longer than need be, but hey, I'm a canning newbie and bacteria scare me.

I embrace my paranoia. Makes it easier for everyone, all 'round.

For the curious, some specifics: The latest batch of pickles got a vinegar, water and kosher salt brine with black peppercorns, dill seed, 3 allspice, bay leaves. In the jar, I packed cucumber spears, lemon peel, 6 cloves of garlic, fennel fronds (we were out of dill) and oh, what else? Oh, right - one jar was a little short on cukes, so I finished it off with fennel.

For you non-pickle eaters, we tried this Boston Globe jam recipe, and ooooh. It tastes like sunshine. (Budget warning: there's a good, inexpensive wholesale produce place in my area. Otherwise, yikes! the Meyer lemons aren't so much cheap.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

60s-70s here in middle tennessee for two more days then it's back to winter. the weather gods tease us so

Anonymous said...

I love the photo. On Saturday Isaac was commenting that baseball season is almost here.