What’d You Do Last Weekend?

Want to try a gluten-free dessert that tastes anything but? How about hanging your lip on a Nanaimo bar? The recipe's from our neighbors up north, but the gluten-free graham crackers are a creation of Celiac Teen's Lauren. Unbelievable.

Pickling Day!

Posted by jenny on 08/18/2009

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Before leaving town for the weekend, I needed to put up some of our garden's goods. This year has been pretty fruitful in our backyard, and there were pickles and beans ready to can and more zucchini ready to dry.

I used the same brine for both pickles and beans, a garlicky concoction that both would handle well. I only had enough veggies for 6 jars: 3 pickles, 2 dragon tongue beans, and 1 green bean, but a bit of weak glass resulted in one casualty when I started processing, and I lost the green beans. One pickle never created the vacuum, so that went right into the fridge. The rest sealed nicely and will be a great treat in our pantry in a few months.

The zucchini recipe comes from Hank Shaw's Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blog, and I covered it in a separate post earlier this week. Our zucchini is really producing now, so I'm salting and drying and freezing the slices. When room opens up in the olive oil jar in the fridge, I pop a few more slices in and we have a wonderful antipasto addition in about a day.

Pickle Brine
3 c white vinegar
3 c water
3/4 c kosher salt
1 tsp pickling spice (with very little allspice and cloves)
1 tsp dried dill
5 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Boil the brine.
Stuff the sterilized jars with veggies, fresh dill, whole garlic cloves, and red pepper flakes.
Pour the brine into the jars and leave 1/2" headspace.
Process 10 minutes in a water canner.
Remove from the pot and allow to rest undisturbed for 12 hours.