Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Happy End of Summer! It’s been a long, hot one, and it’s still H O T !A few weeks ago there was a family adventure to the cooler climes in North Dakota. One of the souvenirs brought back were some home grown cucumbers. A whole bunch of them. These are not the kind you find in the grocery stores, all waxy or wrapped in plastic. No, these were garden fresh with crunchy, prickly skins – delicious.

When life gives you cucumbers – make pickles! And since we’ll be minus our North Dakota contingency, these garden gifts needed to be pickles for our family Labor Day burger/bbq fest! I can’t even begin to tell you how many recipes there are on the Net for pickles. People have been pickling things before there was even a thought of a cookbook or a fridge. I’ve been enthralled with my latest cookbook find, ‘It’s All Good’ by Gwyneth Paltrow and have been making her version of Bread & Butter pickles. They are fabulous. Not too sweet and not much vinegar harshness. Eat ’em right out of the jar good! As we all know there are rules on that whole copyright thing, so you find your own mix of spices and follow along.

DIY Bread & Butter Pickles

Step 1:

Get some garden goodness together of a pound of cukes and a small onion. In the past, I’ve used the English (seedless) cucumbers. They worked very well, and were easy to find year round. No, I did not use the whole gigantic onion from the photo! Then find your favorite spice blend. This one includes turmeric, which is so good for you. The recipe I made also used honey instead of sugar, and white wine vinegar which made it milder.

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Step 2:

Slice up the cucumbers and onion and float in some ice water with a bit of sea salt for about 2 hours. You’ll need time to contemplate your storage vessel anyway. So, go clean up an old Mayo jar (I know you’ve got one somewhere) or one of those Ball canning jars that are good for storing everything from pickles to extra hardware from that piece of Ikea furniture you put together last week! Oh, yea, I know you saved that leftover bag of screws and bits….cause I know I do.

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Step 3:

OK, so the 2 hour mark is creeping up and it’s time to get serious. Get a big pot, like a dutch oven, put in the sweetener, vinegar and spices and bring up to a boil to get the flavors to come together. There isn’t much liquid so this’ll happen quick. Then turn it off so as not to boil away all the liquid while you go and get the real stars of the show added.

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Step 4:

Drain the veggies and add to the pan.

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Step 5:

This is where you discover why you needed such a big bottomed pot for just a bit of stuff. Get the heat back on, bring to a boil and stir the cukes around. The extra surface area means that everybody gets a turn in the flavor broth. Just a minute, this is all very quick. Then turn off the heat.

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Step 6:

That’s it! Seriously, you can make pickles in minutes (well, after the icy swim). Get them jarred and pour the liquid in. Pack those babies in the fridge and look for some yummy lunch to have them with. No, I do not do pickles at breakfast.

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Finale:

I ate mine with some multi-grain crackers for an afternoon snack. I’d never eat supermarket pickles like that. OK, maybe I would those tiny kosher dills from the fridge section. But factory made Bread & Butters are just soooooo strong, you wonder if there’s a vegetable in there anywhere. These are crunchy, and mild, and won’t last long.

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Pickles!

Enjoy!

Michelle

Sunroom

Coming back from a vacation always puts me in the mood to create something new and I’ve got all kinds of ideas.  But I also wanted to clean up some old projects.  I don’t have much storage–houses in Florida do not typically have basements and the attics are too hot to actually use.  I have numerous baskets and trunks that I use for fabric storage tagged with the appropriate label.  But those hiding places are overflowing and after doing a little inventory I decided that some of this stuff must be used before I buy anything new.

I had these matching fabrics which would really make a cute nautical tote bag for the beach.  But I’m really not into making tote bags right now.  And summer’s almost over.

Sunroom

I used this stuff years ago to make cushions and pillows for my sunroom which is outside of the main guest bedroom. (Sometimes it’s a bedroom, it’s more often Terry’s office and my workout room.)

I’ve had this rocking chair for 36 years!  I bought it right before Jes was born.  It was a dark pine with an awful orange upholstery which I thought was GREAT back in 1977.  When I came to my senses a few decades later, I couldn’t strip the dark stain so just painted it white.  My first piece of painted furniture that I did way back in the 90s!

Sunroom

My friends gave me this glider for my 50th birthday.  It was rusted but in otherwise good shape, so I had it powder coated and now it’s beautiful!

Sunroom

The navy blue and white is the same color scheme in my laundry room and there are two expedit shelves in there which need some boxes. More storage! I’ve been wanting to try a different method to create the boxes so thought that this would be a perfect DIY.

Expedit Box

I planned on giving the instructions for this box today but wanted to make it twice.  One time creating the directions, the second time following and fixing my babble .  But I ran out of interfacing.  Tried to get some at WalMart (which is the only shop that we have here in Homosassa) but no one actually works in the fabric department.  It’s just there for decoration. So I’ll be headed to “far away” to pick up some raw materials today and will give you the tutorial next Friday!

Have a great last summer holiday weekend!

DIY Pouf

This week I’m featuring a DIY from our daughter-in-law, Lauri.  She made this adorable pouf for our smallest granddaughter.

DIY Pouf
Pretty Princess Piper in pink on her puffy pouf!

Lauri had it pinned on one of her Pinterest boards and decided to create it when she met with her craft group.  Piper picked out the piping.  And it’s not pink!

DIY Pouf
Piper, Lauri and Pouf

One more look at the pouf!

DIY Pouf
So cute and Piper loves it!