Simple Canned Pickles, for Dummies!

Simple Canned Pickles for Dummies like me, lol!

  I canned pickles today! Two types, Dill and just pickles and onions, I also canned a couple jars of Jalapeno peppers! This is something I really enjoyed doing with my Grammie and Mom growing up. It was kinda like the icing on the cake for a gardener. See what you have grown being preserved. Its fun and its very easy, Its also a dieing art that needs to be taught to our children.

Here is the Basic Recipe, you can customize it to your tastes and likings:

The Redeemed Gardener

Grammies Basic Pickling Recipe
4 lbs any vegetables (harder ones work better)
2 3/4 C Vinegar
3 C Water
1/4 C Sea Salt or Canning Salt (make sure it's not iodized)
When everything is set up and prepared, mix your pickle juice ingredients - salt, vinegar, water - and heat them up in a pot on the stove. Stir until salt dissolves.

Spices commonly used in pickling spice :
Coriander, Fennel, Dill, Black pepper corns, Dried red peppers, Mustard Seed, any spice you want!


   Rather than using commercial pickling spice, play and blend the spices! Put a fair amount of the spices at the bottom of the jars, but save some to top them off.
   For sweet pickles, add sugar.  For smoky pickles, add black cardamom, chipotles, etc.  After you add the spice, pack the vegetables into the jars ( the tighter the better or as we say in West Virginia "the Fuller the Better").  Pour the hot pickle juice over the pickles, leaving 1/4-1/2"  head space at the top.  Use the corner of your clean towel to wipe off the band mouth of the jar before you put the lid or the band on, so that there is no solids blocking the seal.  Put the lid and the band on and tighten finger tight. Note: we always put the lids in boiling water right before we put them on for a few minutes (this kills bacteria and helps make the rubber softer for a better seal) .

Caution! Make sure to load the hot jars on the clean towel, and to use hot pickle juice, because the heat differential between jars, the juice and the counter can cause the jars to explode! Trust me I have had it happen and no matter how careful you are you will as well.
   Put the jars into a hot water bath.  Make sure there is at least 1" of water covering the lids, and bring to a boil.  Boil for 10-14 minutes (add 5 min for every 1000 feet above sea level you are). If boiled for less time, there is a greater risk that it won't seal or kill the bacteria, but your pickles will be crisper! Longer times will result in greater safety, but softer pickles.
   When done pull jars out of Hot water bath and set on towels to cool and seal. Listen for the pooping sound. Then do the push test on the lid to make sure they are sealed. It doesn't take long!

Have fun and make it a family project!

Cucumber Sandwich's, Yummy!

   Nothing like a Cucumber Sandwich's on a hot summer day!

  They are simple to make as well!

 Mix Cream Cheese and Dill to taste

Spread on both slices of Bread

Peal and Slice Cucumber's

Place on sandwich and Enjoy with Ice Tea, Yummy!

“For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.” Psalm 149:4

Red Velvet Cake, After 20 years!

  After 20 years, my wonderful wife finally baked me my favorite cake "Red Velvet"! YUMMY, was it ever good! I will tell you it was well worth the wait. It was the BEST, I have ever eaten. My Grammy used to make use one every birthday but this one "takes the cake". Well I am off to spend the evening with the family. I just wanted to show you this wonderful cake and make your mouth water.

  P.S. She won't give up the recipe, lol!

North Carolina Mac –n- Cheese

3 ingredients

WOW!  What a warm welcome you all gave me on my first post as my husband’s first guest blogger.  I enjoyed reading all your wonderful comments, thank you so much!  I haven’t had an opportunity to reply to all of your comments, I’m not a moderator on this blog just a guest so I don’t see them until he moderates them.

Today I am going to attempt to share a recipe for something that I don’t have an actual recipe for.  I don’t even have a real name for it but it’s something that my family likes to eat as a side dish mostly with grilled or BBQ chicken.  This is a dish that I first had while visiting family in North Carolina when I was in high school.  My step mother’s sister lived there and I would go stay with her some in the summer time.   She and I are pretty close in age and we had a lot of fun together and she had the most adorable little girl.  Both sides of her husband’s family had farms and that is where I first ate what I call “Carolina Mac and Cheese”.

Now mind you I knew Mac and Cheese as something you bought in a box with a package of cheese sauce or powder and was a bit taken aback when they introduced this version of one of my favorite foods.  This mac and cheese consisted of ziti type noodles with home canned tomatoes from the garden and mild cheddar cheese.  I wasn’t so sure I was going to like this dish as I have never been fond of tomatoes but the well mannered girl my mother “tried” to raise me to be, knew I had to eat it, pretend I liked it and compliment the cook.  Well I didn’t have to pretend I loved this strange version of mac and cheese, even the tomato part was good.

I have made this dish many times over since my visit to that Carolina farm where I also did what they call “getting up hay” for the first and last time in my life!  Getting or putting up hay whichever way you want to say it isn’t fun, its hard work and I had a new found respect for farmers.  For those of you who don’t know what getting up hay is, it’s when you go out to the fields and load all the hay bales onto the tractor.  Let’s just say I worked up a pretty healthy appetite!

Carolina Mac -n- Cheese

1 box of ziti pasta or any tubular pasta similar to that

1 quart size jar of canned tomatoes, drain off the juice (preferably home canned but you can sub 2 store bought cans of stewed tomatoes)

1 brick mild cheddar cheese shredded

Preheat oven to 350.

Boil your pasta according to package directions, drain and place in a (greased or sprayed) 9x13 casserole dish.  Make sure you drain off the juice of the tomatoes, if they are too large cut them smaller and stir into the pasta.  Spread the shredded cheddar over the pasta and tomatoes.  Bake for approx. 20 minutes, just long enough to get the tomatoes hot and melt the cheese; you don’t want the cheese to cook until it’s brown and hard.

"Yummy Goodness"

Keep in mind that you can adjust this recipe to your liking, adding more or less tomatoes and cheese would be fine.  My favorite foods to serve this with are, BBQ chicken on the grill, green beans (either home canned or fresh that have been cooked all day in bacon drippings, West Virginia style I like to call them) and homemade hot rolls. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Blessings to you from The Redeemed Gardener’s Wife, Dana Baker.

Linked with:
Teach Me Tuesday
Country Garden Showcase
Garden Party Farmhouse Friday
Thursdays Treasure Hunt
 Home and Garden Thursday
Farm Photo Friday
Saturday night Special