When the cat's away

those leaves are grape leaves, put one in the bottom of each jar to help keep the dills crispy

Charlie is out of town for work, so last night I decided to have a little party. A pickle party, to be precise. Earlier in the day I'd bought 12 pounds of pickling cucumbers at the Yakima produce stand, a big bunch of dill, and a new box of pickling salt.

dills ready to go in the pot to process for 10 minutes...they start out so vividly green

I uncorked a particularly fine bottle of wine and got to work. I made two kinds of pickles. One straight recipe of kosher dills (kosher means that they have garlic in them), and one of slightly spicy bread-and-butter chips. These particular cucumbers were really bumpy and they looked great when cut into thin slices. While the chips were sitting in their salt bath for the recommended three hours, I made the dills. I originally had planned on making whole dills, but found that it was really difficult to cram them into the jars that way. Cut in half lengthwise it was much easier to fit and I could put more in. They're not exactly whole, not exactly spears, but they look good.

Once the chips were done soaking I rinsed them well (I don't like salty pickles) and simmered them in a delicious smelling brine for a bit. It had vinegar and brown sugar, hot sauce, some miscellaneous pickling spices, and tumeric to give the chips that distinctive golden-yellow color.

pickles this morning, ready to go in the cabinet

By the time everything was processed it was 12.30am, I had drunk almost an entire bottle of wine over the course of the evening, and I retired to bed with slightly sore feet. Now comes the worst part of pickles: the waiting. They have to sit for at least three months or so to develop their true flavor. Once these jars are labeled I'll put them in the cabinet and try to forget about them for a bit. In fact, I'll probably find some pickled asparagus in there that I tried to forget about three months ago, so it should work out fine!

---------------

Eggs laid in the coop today: 2
Eggs laid in the coop Wednesday: 5
Eggs laid this year: 77