A Time to Celebrate - Family

Dad making soup

October 1st marks my youngest sister's 50th birthday. She finally made it. I am long past that now and feeling great to have had a wonderful life and still able to learn so much daily. I am truly grateful for my family, and particularly my sisters (all 5 of them). We always have a wonderful time when we get together, with everyone talking, everyone laughing (which puts me in mind of the quip: "I laughed so hard the tears ran down my legs!"), lots of wine and or other drinks, and most of all the foods. We all are excellent cooks. Some of us have stronger skill sets in one area (or maybe just more patience!) than another, but we are all wonderful cooks. This stemmed from Mom, who was a very good cook, and Dad, who loved to experiment when he had time, coming up with some marvelous recipes along the way.

 
Dad loved to experiment, and was not afraid to try new things. I recall when he and Mom collaborated on a recipe for Ham Bone Soup. Dad found a recipe for "Senate Bean Soup" originally, but was not pleased with how the recipe came out, so over the years he and Mom tweaked the recipe until it came out "right." He loved to make Stewed Tomatoes, and played with that recipe right up until the end of his cooking lifetime. When we were young, Dad would sometimes make us French Omelettes, something he learned when in France during the war. Mom made dishes from her Slovakian heritage with a few other staples thrown in, all of which were just marvelous.

I guess what I am trying to say is that all of us sisters learned what good food was since birth, and we all learned to experiment. When we get together for any event there is so much wonderful food; so many wonderful flavors. Standing around eating and savoring the flavors is something my husband described for me:

"Have you ever had a meal where the visual presentation was stunning, the smells were incredible and the taste was so remarkable that you ate slowly, savoring every bite, wishing that the experience would never end?"

That is what happens when we all get together. Well, maybe not the "eating slowly" part! But it is magical. Laura, the upcoming birthday girl, makes the most wonderful truffles. I have never had the patience. Barb is always busy with job and her own family all getting together, but even as busy as she is, she always makes putting together a meal for kids, grandkids, extended family and their friends - seem easy. It is a gift, to be sure. She makes basic food taste sublime. Her "Friendship Bread" was nearly an addiction for me! I could write a short story about all the wonderful talents my sisters have in the kitchen. Please excuse if I don't get into the wonders each have created. 

So this is some background on my family and how we all got the "cooking gene", and I have taken it a step farther by bringing it all online.  I will be gone a week to celebrate Laura's 50th. In running around the house, gathering up things to pack for the trip, my husband came home with some small cukes to make into Bread and Butter Pickles. I had wanted to make them weeks ago and between one thing and another it didn't happen. Then the season for the small pickling cukes was over and I was left without being able to make these. I wanted to put a photo on my website, but had no cukes to can. I did get them made yesterday, finally, and here is a photo of the final product. 

Bread and Butter Pickles

Bread & Butter Pickles

1 quart apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
7 cups sugar
1 - 2 teaspoons turmeric
2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon allspice berries
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon whole cloves
5 pounds pickling cucumbers
3 pounds onions, sliced and quartered
Canning or Kosher salt, for sprinkling

Slice cucumbers to about ¼-inch thick and layer into a large colander, sprinkling salt all over them, layer upon layer. Set them aside to drain for at least 1 hour. Meanwhile, slice the onions and set aside. In a large nonreactive enamel or stainless pot mix together the vinegar, sugar water, turmeric, mustard and celery seeds.

In a small piece of cheesecloth, place the allspice, cinnamon and cloves and tie together for easy removal later. Place into the pot. Bring the mixture to nearly boiling to dissolve the sugar. Drain the cucumbers well and add them to the pot with the onions and bring just to under a boil. Remove the little bag of whole spices. Pack the pickles and onions into hot, sterilized jars and top with lids and rings. Place the jars into a boiling water bath to cover and process for 10 minutes at 0 - 1,000 feet. Add 5 minutes for 1,000 to 3,000 feet; 5 more minutes for above 3,000 feet. 


For the next week I will be helping out at my sister Anita's house, making things to share with all of us for the birthday week. Anita has things well in hand already, but it will be a busy few days. Off I go!


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Pickles - 'tis the Season

Some of my Beet Pickles

I must start out with the fact that I am not into canning all that much. On occasion, I have canned some few jars of something, such as jam, dill pickles, pickled beets or pickled jalapenos. On the other hand, when I married my current husband, I found out about pickles and canning on a scale heretofore unknown in my world. My mother-in-law was the absolute Queen of Pickles, and I say that in a most loving and appreciative way. Her pickles and other canning were legend. From fruits and tomatoes to Green Tomato Relish, Apple Butter and all things in between, her larder was well stocked, year after year.

All of which makes it no surprise that my husband is absolutely nuts about the pickles she made, such as her green Lime Chunk Pickles or Bread and Butter Pickles or her Watermelon Rind Pickles. He eats these types of pickles like there will be no tomorrow. In my life I had never seen anyone eat so many pickles at one sitting. Once I tasted my mother-in-law's pickles, I understood how this could be the case. In particular, her Lime Chunk Pickles were so delicious, to me they were nearly like a dessert. I was happy with 4 or 5 chunks. Richly spiced and very sweet, with enough vinegar tang to make them incredible. Early in my relationship, she gave me the recipe. However, it was a recipe that would take days of work, and I heard enough about the process to make me leery of trying to make them alone.

I grant you, I have not been one to shy from a cooking challenge. I have made Guatemalan tamales, for heaven's sake. The difference being that the first time I made Guatemalan tamales, I was helping my (ex) sisters-in-law make them, and so I was instructed all along the way just how something should be done, or how it should look or why it was done in this one way, etc. As for the pickles, I never had the opportunity to see how they were done. If I was going to spend three days on making pickles, I surely didn't want to find out they didn't come out right.

Making Lime Chunk Pickles

My sister-in-law, Sherri, when visiting recently, told me that WE were going to make Lime Chunk Pickles. She had an order placed for a half bushel of pickling cucumbers. She already had all the large pots and a canning pot, as I do not. I was instructed to pay for the cucumbers and we got started making these little gems last Friday evening.

Rinsed of lime and soaking in clear water

Up to this time in my life (at age 63) I had never, ever, come face to face with a half bushel of cucumbers. Sherri and I sat at the table and cut all those cucumbers into small chunks, or thick slices. She prepared the lime solution of:


1 cup of pickling lime, mixed with
2 gallons of water

This mixture was made in each of two 16-quart Granite ware preserving kettles. We divided the cucumber slices into these two pots and stirred them well. At this point, they were to set overnight, stirring them now and again to keep them in contact with the lime that tends to settle to the bottom. This part of the process is to firm up the pickles and help with the nice crisp crunch, later on. My husband was in charge of the periodic stirring.

The next morning, Sherri came over and we took turns washing the cucumber slices free of all the lime solution. This step is very important as any leftover lime will turn the pickles black. No one wants black pickles! We went to the degree of actually running fingers over each and every cucumber chunk or slice, under running water. After this thorough washing, the cucumber chunks were once again returned to the cleaned kettles and covered with clear water and left to soak for the day.

That evening, we prepared the brine. When I think of brine, I think of a salt water solution. While this mixture contains salt, it contains no water. The "brine" mixture (per kettle) is:

2 quarts apple cider vinegar
4½ pounds white sugar
1 tablespoon canning salt
2 tablespoons celery seed
2 tablespoons whole cloves
2 tablespoons pickling spices
½ teaspoon green past food color

Lime Chunk Pickles, canned and processed

Each kettle with brine solution was brought to just under a boil; just to the point where it was too hot to keep one's finger in more than a few seconds. At this point the sugar is dissolved and the brine is ready. The green paste food color is really just an option, but my mother-in-law's green Lime Chunk Pickles were always vibrantly green, so for me this was not to be left out. We added in the food color, about a half teaspoon, until the spoon we were using to stir was no longer visible immersed in the solution. We added the drained cucumbers and stirred them in well and left them overnight.

Next morning I brought the first kettle of cucumbers in the brine to a boil and then allowed them to boil for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, I had another of the large kettles with boiling water and the quart canning jars, lids and rings. Once the pickles were cooked, I filled the jars and sealed them, while placing the next kettle to boil. My mother-in-law never used a hot water bath to process these pickles. They would seal and the lids would pop and that was that. I know that these days, everything is supposed to go into a boiling water bath, so I did process them for 10 minutes. In all, the outcome was 15 quarts from the half bushel of cucumbers. Seeing them lined up on the shelves makes me incredibly proud. I am very glad to have been a part of it and finally learn how to make them properly. It may well be years before I do that again. At least in that quantity. I think I would stick to a peck of cucumbers in future. They sure are pretty though. 


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.