Crock Dills

I know I said sweet pickles for the next post but I am still trying to figure out how to do the post on those as they take 11 to 12 days and maybe I'll just wait till it's all done and make it one post, I'm thinkin' on it!
In the meantime, I will share the pickles I have been eating all week, this is another of those 'summer memory' foods.

Grandma made pickles or cucumber salad with most of her cucumbers but she had so many plants that quite a few of the cukes would get too big for pickle jars, these were the crock dill cukes and we all waited with baited breath till these were ready.  I will share that there are several of these comfort foods that you must have to be born to to like, as my Mom and my Aunt C (married Daddy's brother) neither one ever developed a taste for some of these foods that we who grew up with them dream of!  These taste a lot like the pickles you get at a kosher deli, and they probably are similar as they are essentially a brine pickle. 

Crock Dills

Place 1 bunch of dill in bottom of crock (hence the name - seriously) (a large glass bowl will work), then put washed cucumbers almost to the top of the crock, leaving room for another bunch of dill.

Boil together 1 gallon water and 1 cup canning or picking salt, let cool and pour over cucumbers. Ready to eat in two or 3 days!

 PS: Put a plate upside down on top of the cucumbers and weigh down with a clean rock on top!  (Somewhere in the move I have lost my nice, round, smooth, clean rock that I used for this sort of thing so am using a jar of water.  Have to find another good rock!)

As you remove crock dills you can add cucumbers back in to keep going for awhile – Slime and mold are signs to change the water and dill, but a little haziness is ok!  For some reason the second batch of cucumbers in the brine is always better!  (the first batch is always a little salty and the second a little mellower to me)   These are easy and we used to eat them wrapped in a slice of fresh bread - Yum! 

I tried to plant dill 3 times this year and lost it to bugs, mystery disease and never sprouting, so was forced to use the dill they sell at the store and it worked but it is better with fresh. I'm hoping the local grocery will be carrying the big stalks again this year so I can put up some regular dills yet this summer.  

This guy came to visit the other morning when we were in the garden, he lives with the neighbor behind  us, they said he just showed up one day and decided to stay!  He comes to visit now and then, he may just get tired of listening to the chickens back there! 

He is so pretty - when the sun hits his feathers just right that iridescent blue/green is just beautiful!  I think he knows it though, he always seems arrogant to me!  (I may be doing just a little anthropomorphizing here!)






                                                                            You just never know what will happen around here!  :)

Corn and Marmalade....not together!

I went out to the garden this morning to see how many cucumbers  there were that were still small enough for my sweet pickles, checked the corn and it seemed like some was ripe and a couple of stalks were dying after the big wind so I went along my row of 15  or so corn stalks and 13 ears were ripe (some a little overripe), found quite a few little 'gherkin' size cucumbers, a couple of monster zucchinis (AKA - courgette in the UK- isn't the internet wonderful? I have learned a new word!), a couple of crooknecks/summer squash, pulled another onion for dinner, a few grape and mini tomatoes (the big ones are orange - I am sooo looking forward to sliced tomato! Does anyone else eat slices with salt, pepper and sugar on them?), and several of hubby's cayenne and Thai hot peppers and a big bell pepper, a couple of still small carrots and the last two cabbages!  Oh and one bean!  Seems my bush beans are working on the next round and my pole beans are still making pretty flowers, silly things.  Feeling quite rich today!  Tired tonight however as I then spent the bulk of my day standing up at the counter.  Got 5 more pints of kraut, started the 11 day sweet pickles (I am taking pics, next post will start that process) think it will put up 4 pints, and used up those apparently camouflaged zucchinis (do I just need new glasses?) in zucchini marmalade (Hubby calls this ambush jam - something about sneaking in the zucchini!) and froze some shredded zucchini for bread later on.  Tonight we ate corn on the cob!  It was butter dripping down your chin good! 

Hubby was taking photos for his Facebook page and arranged them all so nicely for us!









Today's recipe then is zucchini marmalade, I have seen this in several places on the net always just a hair different,  this recipe is from my great Aunt Annie, it was handwritten by Grandma on a slip of paper stuck in the marmalade section of her 1940's Kerr canning book.  I am not yet in the habit of 'filming' my life so forgot to take pics of the process, but it is incredibly easy and I think it will be OK. 

You will need:
Zucchini - 6 cups
Sugar - 6 cups
Lemon juice - 2 Tbsp
crushed pineapple - 12 oz can
Jello - 6 oz box -  really any flavor -  I used orange for this batch

Grate the zucchini - (a dark colored jello you can leave on the peel, I peeled these for the orange jello its up to you on the visuals of it and whether or not you are hiding the veggies!) 

add the sugar
(note: I have made this with sugar free jello and 3 cups sugar, or it will work with sugar free jello and the splenda equivalent according to my diabetic friend)

In a large pot, boil zucchini and sugar for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking to bottom, the zucchinis will be translucent and the syrup a little greenish at this point.
add 2 Tbsp. of lemon juice
and one 12 oz. can of crushed pineapple,  juice and all
boil 5 more minutes

remove from heat and stir in one 6 oz pkg jello mix (I have used raspberry and orange both are awesome), stir well,
ladle into hot jars
water bath for 5 minutes

This is just yummy on toast or biscuits!  It's a pretty good imitation of marmalade without all the work and you can tell yourself its healthy because it has veggies in it!  It even looks like the real thing!

The quart jar is not quite full so it goes in the fridge for me to start on right away.  Hubby has a zucchini phobia so it is 'Mine all Mine'!!!  (maniacal laugh here)  Of course now I'm hungry - toast and jam for my pill time snack. 

Feeling blessed this evening - all of this bounty!

Enjoy!

This 'n' That

Bits and pieces running through my head tonight, so I'll share.

Had a bad storm come through the area day before yesterday and lots of folks lost tree branches and parts of roofs. We were fortunate we only lost power for a short time and our trees are all where they are supposed to be (not on our roof!). However my corn looks silly, it all blew over and now is propped up on the back fence, maybe it just looks tired! The neighbor in front of us had a huge branch fall on their car and knock out the windshield and dent the hood. You could count the rain drops we had on two hands I think! Strange storm.

Idaho attracts environmentalists and animal activists. We have the debate about wolves and elk, we have had several bear incidents lately where people have found themselves face to face and either shot a bear or been injured by one. A man actually was taken to court because he shot a grizzly bear in his back yard where his kids were playing! This brings out the folks who need to 'monitor' us hicks to make sure we are not doing things to hurt the wildlife! One of the folks who are here to monitor the wildlife got bitten by a grizzly – he will be fine – it just made me laugh out loud - it's probably a character flaw and I will work on it, just as soon as I can breathe again!

Our youth pastor is in India on a mission trip till Monday, his wife is in the hospital as the baby decided to come now instead of in 3 weeks. Heck of a way to find out how the rest of your life is going to be now that you have children!  :)

My grandma has had another TIA type stroke and the left side of her body is affected. My mom is with her and has been since January, Grandma is fading, she knows where she is going and she is ready to get there. At nearly 101 she is just about the last of her generation, she has lots of friends and Grandad waiting for her, this is hard for my mother to go through and there is nothing I can do other than pray for them. (Grrrr!) How fortunate I am to have had grandparents for so long. My children have had multiple great grandparents until recently! Now they are down to one grandma and one great grandma. What a legacy they have enjoyed!

We have been talking for awhile about having insulated curtains on all the windows to keep the heat out in the summer and the heat in in the winter. They kitchen/dining are the last ones and we finally bit the bullet and bought the material for the kitchen ones, they are the last ones that still have curtains I cobbled together from my stash! I am going to try and 'quilt' curtains – got several fabrics and am going to try a zig zag pattern, white muslin on the back. I am debating what to line them with, thinking I may use some of the very old polyester double knit I have been given if it won't show through. That stuff is the best insulator! I have a polyester quilt grandma made and it has no batting in it and its the warmest quilt ever – can't believe we used to wear so much of it! Only one problem with it though, polyester is like Tupperware – it never wears out so you never get new!

That's it maybe now I can sleep - just need to get it all gone through!

Isn't it funny how much random 'stuff' just runs through our heads!? Ahh life!