I'm In a Pickle~

Yep! I'm thinking I'm in a pickle. Earlier this year we planted "the garden". I had kept a list of the seeds I had bought so as not to duplicate, but somewhere along the way confusion happened and I do not relish (sorry) the outcome.

Don, the hubby, planted the seed at several different times and it so happened—evidently—that there was cucumber seed every time! Today he brought home the first pickin', two five-gallon pails. So now I am making plans for; freezer pickles, canned pickles, hot pickles, sliced pickles, sweet, sour, dill, diced, crunched, munched and I 'm hidin' a bunch!

I don't like to question God but I am wondering why he could not have blessed my squash just a little more, and the cukes a little less. I know it is a matter of an over abundance of seed, but usually our "yellow crooked necks" take on a life of their own and really go for it, so much so that we really are the people who leave them on your door step in the middle of the night and make a run for it!

Never the less here we are with lemon cucumber, burp-less, extra long and slender, pickling', bush and the far-reaching old-fashioned vine variety, and they are all healthy plants! I wish I could bake them or fry them or almost anything else in addition to pickling. I mean I do love the vinegary treats but making them is not always easy—in my case—while holding a book in one hand and dangling a freshly captured cucumber in the other.

What I would really like to do is try dipping one in chocolate, dark of course. But what I will do one of these days soon is don my cute little (in some respects) retro apron and turn my cd player on high as I listen to my choir rehearsal music and try to keep my toe tapping and my knife wielding in the same tempo. Depending on my recipe and using a lot of vinegar, a little sugar, a little garlic, spices and salt always salt—all Christians know the importance of salt—I'll be thanking God for the opportunity to make my family happy and keeping the peace once again, in a sweet, sour-ish sort of way!

I'm sharing a favorite with you. My Mothers recipe.
Mom's Dill Pickles:
For 1 Qt. Pickles
A clean sterile jar
1-cup vinegar
1-cup water
2TB canning salt
1 Heaping tsp. dill seed OR 1 head, stems and pieces of dill weed
Pinch Alum
1 bud garlic
2 grape leaves (optional) but do it if you can.
As many cucumbers as you can push, shove, or cram into jar
Sliced, whole or chunked.

Heat liquid and salt to boil~ Place grape leaves and bud of garlic in bottom of jar~ Pack pickles tightly in jar~ Place dill and pinch of alum on top~ Pour in the hot liquid to within ¼" of top~ Seal and store in dark place, make yourself wait for at least a month! YUM!

Mark 9:50 of course.






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