Not Aunt Bee's Pickles Story. . .

The cucumbers are coming in like crazy so, the hubbs and I made some quick refrigerator pickles.  The hubbs loves his jalapenos and of course they ended up in my mild mannered dill pickles.  I  do not like sweet pickles or bread and butter pickles, I am a straight up dill pickle girl.   The hubbs got his jar with jalapenos and I got two jars, one with a little onion and one straight dill.  I just tried the jalapeno ones last night and I must admit they were awesome.   They are not too hot but have just a little kick.  I tried the ones with onion this morning, yes I eat pickles in the morning, anytime is a good time for homemade pickles.  The ones with the onion are good but, if you do not tell my hubby I said this, I will admit the jalapeno ones were the best.  The boys do not like any kind of pickles so the hubbs and I have three jars to eat and he does not like them that much either. 
Here is the recipe we used, we tweaked it to fit our personal taste, I do not remember where the original recipe came from but this is ours.

Refrigerator Pickles

We used standard mason jars:

In each Jar

3 cloves garlic peeled
3 tsp black pepper corns
1 small onion sliced
2 bunches of fresh dill
4 slices of jalapeno with seeds

Several cucumbers sliced into spears and cram as many as you can in your jar.

Liquid

2 cups water, 4 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 1/2 Tbs kosher salt.  Mix together until salt dissolved.  Pour over your cucumbers in the jar.  top with part of your dill and make sure your cucumbers are covered with liquid and put your lid on.  Invert your jar a couple times to get everything swished around and put in the fridge for 2 days.  This recipe is for one jar of pickles, you will have a little liquid left over. 

Hope you are enjoying my recipes and my stories, stay tuned. .. .

What Would We do Without Pinterest????

I got an incredible craving last night for a zesty pasta salad.   I began my search through the trusty Pinterest site to look for something good.  I found several that looked good but, I ended up fixing some cucumbers with a little onion, dill, and cider vinegar.   I will be enjoying those today.  The hubbs likes those but, that is the only way he will eat cucumbers.
My mom used to make this linguine recipe that was so zesty.  When I make anything with spaghetti I use whole wheat angel hair.  I like the texture of the whole wheat and the thin noodles, I have never liked fat noodles.  Last night in my may pasta craving insanity, I was looking for a recipe similar to Mom's linguine.   I may have to create my own since I have not been able to find it.  It had tomatoes, cucumbers, little bits of cheese, black olives, onion, and maybe Italian dressing.  I want to think there was something else in it but I cannot remember.
What would we do without Pinterest?   I will leave you with a picture of my cucumbers.

Garden Crazy. . .

The cucumbers and zucchini are really going strong now.  I thought I would share a couple of recipes that I am using to keep up.  Yesterday I made my yummy zucchini cornbread casserole with jalapeno peppers.  I had to use my peppers from the freezer because our peppers are not ready yet.  I have been eating our cucumbers just with a little salt.  Now that they are really going strong I needed a recipe that would use more than one.
I was reading something on the Internet the other day about cucumbers and their health benefits.  I thought I would share some since cucumbers are going to be in full swing in the next few weeks.  One point was relieve joint pain (arthritis) and inflammation, as I have gotten older I have noticed my knees aching more and my hands sore at times.  I am willing to try anything that is natural for joint pain and I love cucumbers so this is a no brainer for me.  This article also said it helps with weight loss, this one I am more skeptical about but I have seen several posts about cucumber water on Pinterest lately.    It is also supposed to help blood pressure, diabetes, hydrate the body, and reduce cholesterol.  I love cucumbers and I always have, I am not sure that I believe all of what they said cucumbers can do but they are very tasty.
I fixed these the other day:
3 cucumbers peeled and sliced (thick)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp dill
1 or 2 garlic cloves or 2 tsp garlic powder
1 jalapeno pepper
3 small onions sliced
I used a large mason jar and put my vinegar in then added my cucumber slices, dill, onion, and pepper (whole), then filled with water.  It was hard to leave them in the fridge because I wanted to eat them right then.   I held off for 2 hours and tasted, they were good but the longer they sit the better they get.  I love these!!

We have a lot of zucchini too so, I decided I would make zucchini muffins.  This is not the original recipe, as usual I tweaked it just a bit.
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 egg beaten
2 1/2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp molasses
1 cup finely chopped zucchini
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Combine first six ingredients and set aside.  Combine egg and oil then stir into dry ingredients.  Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.  Oil your muffin cups bake 350 for 20-25 minutes or until pick comes out clean.

Below is my cucumber vinegar combo:

Cucumbers everywhere. . . .

We were over-run with zucchini and now we are being over-run with cucumbers.   I love them but I am about the only one in the family that truly loves them.  Hubby will eat them soaked in vinegar but I like them raw with some dressing, on a sandwich, and  in vegetable spread (I will share that one with you in minute).

When I was little my Mom used to host Bridge Club and she would make all of these tasty treats for her guests.  We got to eat what ever was left over and sometimes she would make extra just for us.  One of my favorites was the vegetable spread.  So here is her recipe:

3-4 cucumbers shredded
2-3 carrots shredded
1 onion shredded
a block of cream cheese softened
a dash of Worcestershire
a dash of Tabasco
a dash of garlic powder

squeeze all of the excess water from the shredded cucumbers, carrots, and onion then add to the cream cheese with the Worcestershire, Tabasco, and garlic powder.   Cream this together and let sit for a couple hours in the fridge.  You can use it as a dip or spread it on bread for a sandwich.  Yummmm.

Here are the other recipes I have found for cucumbers in my recent search:

2-3 cucumbers peeled and sliced
1/2 onion sliced
1-2 garlic cloves whole
1 cup of white vinegar
4tbsp sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tsp salt

I put all of this in a mason jar.  They are good for 2 weeks in the fridge.   All of the liquid did not fit but these are great!!  Hubby loves them.

I have not tried this one but I am sure I will since I have a surplus of cucumbers.

1-2 cucumbers chopped
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
dash of lemon juice
Italian seasoning
Let chill and serve.

One more before I go:

4 cucumbers peeled and sliced
1 onion chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayo
2 tsp vinegar
a dash of lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp dill
dash of cayenne pepper
dash of garlic powder

mix sour cream with all ingredients below then toss with cucumbers and onions.  Let chill in the fridge for at least two hours.

I have also been putting a couple of slices in my water throughout the day along with a sprig or two of fresh mint.  Let us not forget the spa trick of a slice over each eye too.  I have been doing that as well.  Never hurts to try, right?

Happy crunching. . . .