Granny's a Genius

Not that we didn't already know this, but I figured to make it official.

Granny from Annie's Kitchen Garden is a veritable genius. Granny's been so helpful over the past year offering advice and encouragement. She's sent me files on canning and preserving and recipes for the same. However, she found the right chord in a comment on yesterday's post. She mentioned Googleing "refrigerator pickles." Amazing! I always thought my cucumbers were toast since I don't have a canner, and I never knew you could do it without the heat. Yeah, so they can't sit on the shelf for a year, but seriously, do they ever last that long anyway?

Granny, after picking yet another pound of cucumbers today to add to the pound already in the fridge, you hit the nail right on the head. We had everything we needed to make the refrigerator pickles in the house. All I needed was some jars. I could do it in Tupperware, but the jars would at least look nicer.

My first batch made two one quart jars of what I suppose are bread and butter type pickles.

First I sliced two medium size cucumbers:

Then, I layered them by alternating placing cucumbers, sweet onions and jalapeno peppers in the jar. I don't care for the jalapeno, but I wondered if it would add a bit more to the flavor.

Continue alternating until full.

In a saucepan I heated

1 cup sugar
1.5 cups vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp celery seed

Heat and boil for one minute.

I put some peppercorns and garlic in the jars for good measure and poured the mixture over the top of the jars.

I had enough mixture to fill two 1 quart jars. As always, the magical fairy bubble wand is optional.

We'll know in a few days if it tastes okay, but a word about the mixture. It stains everything. Your cutting board, your counter top, your sink, everything. I'm assuming it's the turmeric (something I've realized I'm not so fond of and would leave out about half of it in the recipe if I was doing it again). Hopefully bleach can get some of it out.

THEN, and more on my line of pickle eating, I found this recipe which is sooo good from a comment left on the blog In My Kitchen Garden: The Sporadic Garden Journal of a Lousy Record Keeper .

1 cup mayo

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp white vinegar

1 large cucumber sliced

Salt and pepper to taste. Just mix and stash in the fridge.

I upped the vinegar from what is listed here. We like vinegar. The mayonnaise may turn you off, but when you add the vinegar it's more like a sour cream mix than anything. I think they'll either be great on their own or snap up a sandwich!

Thanks, Granny! I'm going to find a dill recipe to do for the next batch.

The morning comes early. Sweet pickling dreams.