Last pickle post for the year?

So about two shelves of my refrigerator are fully dedicated to pickled products...however, Mr. Ranch is doing his best to lower our inventory so there is room for holiday food!  Notice that this round of beets were actually beets...

Pickles Part 2

So the first round of pickles was so successful that Mr. Ranch decided we should pickle "other things".  He is a big fan of "hot mix", which is about $6 a jar at the local King Soopers...so I decided, why not?  We used the spicy recipe from my 9/13 post and a spicy beet pickle from my handy dandy Ball Canning Book.  This time I remembered to buy coriander...which at $5.99 a jar made me glad that I planted more cilantro for next summer!

 My trusty Ball Blue Book (say that 5 times fast...)

 Ok, didn't can this, in fact it is still sitting on my counter.  We think it is mutant cucumber.  It is very interesting.

 Some of the trimmings...

 Jalapenos...I used gloves when I cut them up, but not when I put them in jars and have spent the last 24 hours trying not to touch my face or eyes.  Which made taking out and putting in my contacts interesting. Luckily, today I found a home remedy ("wash" your hands in olive oil for 1-2 minutes, then wash with dish soap and cold water.)  It's about time for bed, so we'll see if it worked when I take out my contacts in a few...

 More cucumbers...they just keep coming...

 Some of the other produce that is going to be pickled or otherwise processed.  From left-ish to right...that weird cucumber, cauliflower, celery, green and yellow peppers, cucumbers, beets, onions from the garden, asparagus, carrots from the garden, and tomatoes to be made into salsa. (Eat some, freeze some).

 A close up...

 Most of what I made was "refrigerator pickled"--it has to be stored in the fridge because I don't use a pressure cooker.  Most of the jars "seal", so I feel pretty good about it not going bad...

 There are a few jars here (on the left)  that were new jars and seemed to seal themselves, so we are going to try not refrigerating them...we think that means we can give them to people who can't immediately refrigerate them.  We'll see...

And finally, we had a few beets from the CSA.  Last week we froze some, but given that we don't often eat beets..that didn't seem like a reasonable solution for this round.  Luckily I found this recipe...

Spicy Pickled Beets

4 lbs beets, cooked

3 cups thinly sliced onions

2 ½ cups cider vinegar

1 ½ cups water

1 tsp salt

2 cups sugar

1 TBSP mustard seed

 1 tsp whole allspice

1 tsp whole cloves

3 sticks cinnamon, broken

Only had 3 beets, forgot the water, didn’t have whole allspice or cloves, so used ground allspice and ground cloves...sigh.

Wash and drain beets, remove peel, cool and cut.

Combine remaining ingredients in a sauce pan, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 min.  Add beets, cook until hot. Remove cinnamon sticks.  Pack beets (and onions) into jars, pour hot pickling liquid over beets.  Put on lids...

Then I put them in the refrigerator.  I tasted the one piece leftover and they were yummy...

 As you can tell from the color though, these might have been sugar beets.  Or even turnips.  But I'm pretty sure they were beets...and they were yummy when they went in the jars, so it's all good!

Pickles, Part I

As promised...here is the pickle post!!! (oh, joy, Ren!)

I love our garden but every year it seems like there is one particular veggie that takes over everything else.  Last year it was zucchini.  Even I got tired of zucchini.  So this year we didn't plant any zucchini, we planted extra cucumbers.  We have cucumbers coming out our ears.  Literally.  But I'm not giving any away, since they are Mr. Ranch's favorite food.  But...what do I do with them, so they don't go all gross and mushy?  Make pickles, of course!

A very small selection of our cucumber harvest

I started out with traditional dill--using an "easy refrigerator recipe" I found online.

Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Yield: about 3-4 16 oz. jars of pickles

Ingredients

1 bunch fresh dill

4 cloves garlic, peeled

3-4 medium-large cucumbers

3 cups water

6 tbsp. distilled white vinegar

3 tbsp. kosher salt

Directions

Add 1 minced or pressed clove of garlic and a few springs of dill to the bottom of each jar.  (Don’t stress over exact amounts.  I’ve made these countless times, undoubtedly different each time, and they have always been great.)

Cut the cucumbers into spears or whatever shape you like.

 Add the spears to the jars, packing in as many as you can without having to force them in.

 In a large liquid measuring cup or pitcher, combine the water, vinegar, and salt.  Stir well until the salt is dissolved.  Pour the mixture into each jar over the cucumber spears so they are completely covered.  Top with an additional few sprigs of dill, if desired.  Screw on the lids of the jars.  Repeat with remaining cucumbers, making additional brine as needed (only takes a few seconds!)  Refrigerate for two (agonizing) days.  Enjoy!  Continue to store in the refrigerator…presuming there are leftovers, of course.

Thanks to Annie's Eats

Trying to not have $64 tomatoes, we are re-using jars...look up the book if you've never heard of "The $64 Tomato"

Two nice little jars of dill pickles.....

 When Mr. Ranch arrived home, he asked....and announced he wanted spicy pickles.  Well, alright-y then....

Back to the internet...

Spicy Dill Quick Pickles

© Tina Rupp

Spicy Dill Quick Pickles

Contributed by Grace Parisi

 TOTAL TIME: 20 MIN Plus overnight brining

 SERVINGS: Makes 2 quarts

    Vegetables

    3 tablespoons kosher salt

    2 tablespoons sugar

    1 1/4 cups distilled white vinegar (5 percent acidity)

    2 tablespoons coriander seeds

    6 large garlic cloves, halved

    4 to 6 long red or green hot chiles, halved lengthwise

    16 dill sprigs

    Pack vegetables into 2 clean 1-quart glass jars. In another jar, combine the salt, sugar, vinegar, coriander and garlic. Shake until the salt and sugar dissolve. Add 2 cups of water and pour the brine over the vegetables. Tuck the chiles and dill between the vegetables. Add enough water to keep the vegetables submerged. Close the jars and refrigerate overnight.

 I quickly realized I had everything...except the coriander seeds.  Grrr.  But wait, thanks to my somewhat scattered gardening skills, I have overgrown cilantro in the "herb garden"--wha-la...coriander seeds!

 And there we are...more jars of yummy, spicy pickles...ready to eat in 48 hours!  I feel like Laura Ingalls...(what? She lived most of her life in the 20th century...she had an ice box!)