Harelipfrog

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Pickles

Since Gunner has been so kind as to post the images of our first endevours (after the eggs that is) I felt it only right to give you the recipe that goes with them. I will give you the pickle recipe tonight and will give you the others every night or two as I have time.

This recipe came from the "Ortho Books - All About Pickling".

Childress Bread and Butter Pickles

8 cups sliced cucumbers
Salt
2 cups sliced onions
4 green bell peppers (with some red if possible for more color)
2 cups distilled white vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 teaspoons celery seed
1 stick cinnamon (broken)

1. Sprinkle cucumber slices with salt and let soak for 1 hour. Wash off with cold water and drain.

2. Cut onion slices crosswise and the pepper in about 1 1/2 inch lengths. Remove any seeds.

3. Combine vinegar, sugar, and spices in a large kettle and add the cucumbers, onions and peppers. Bring to a boil and cook 3-5 minutes or until the cucmbers start to look glassy.

4. Pack into hot sterilized jars, seal, and process 5 minutes.

Makes 5-6 pints (we got six pints).

I try to post the onions and salsa over the weekend. After that ... PEACHES.
(And more cucumbers too.)

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Pickling away

I thought I should drop by here and post some pictures showing the result of our canning.

Not counting the eggs that we have pickled this is our first attempt at canning here at home. We are doing high acid items that simply require a hot bath to seal good. The pressure cooker will be used later for other items.

We first did some Salsa, Mainly a tomato and pepper dish it looked like a good one to start with.

Here is a closeup of one of the pint jars.

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We also did that first evening a bunch of Bread and Butter pickles. We were surprised how much pepper the recipe asked for. They also went into pint jars.

Example

Here is the totality of our first evenings worth of pickling.

Example

The next day we took a whole pile of Vidalia onions and made Sweet Onion relish. Since the relish would be at the dinner table we felt full pints may be to large so we did them in two shapes of half pint jars.

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The result was 17 half pints of Sweet onion relish.

Sorry the pictures are horrible. For some reason the 5 megapixel camera that we borrowed from her mom is great outdoors but sucks inside.

My dear wife will add the recipes here or post them in another post for anyone who wants to try it yourself

Friday, July 15, 2005

Niemann-Pick's Disease - For Kate's Sake

One of the people that I work with has had both of her daughters diagnosed with a very rare genetic disorder.

Niemann-Pick Type A and Type B (N-P A&B) are the two variants of a very rare genetic disease. Niemann-Pick Type B probably occurs once in a million people. This estimate is based on reported cases, and many go unreported and undiagnosed because of its obscurity. Everyone has two sets of genes, and as long as one of each set is healthy, the existence of a faulty partner gene will not result in illness. In this type of disorder, the father and mother each carry a defective gene which is recessive. Once parents who each have a bad gene conceive a child, that child has a 25% chance of getting two bad genes and having the disorder.

More here.

If you could take a minute to read about it, and do what you feel best I know that Kate and Caroline's parents would appreciate it.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Stuff

Gunner and I have been pickling/canning again. We now have 6 pint jars of Bread and Butter Pickles, 6 pint jars of Salsa, and 16 half pint jars of Sweet Pickle Relish (a two day recipe). I will be posting pictures in the next day or two.

Meanwhile, a funny for your day ...

A Bottle Of Wine

For all of us who are married, were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren't married, this is something to smile about the next time you open a bottle of wine:

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride.

With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car. Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally. "What's in the bag?" asked the old woman.

Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, "It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband."

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two.

Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said, "Good trade."

: )) Thanks Jeanne!