Homemade Pickles

Well. Sort of. Yankees are well known for being frugal.

My favorite store bought pickles
I can't be the only one that does this. When I finish a jar of pickles there's more than a half a jar of pickle juice left. See the picture? I hate to waste it. Sometimes I use it in dressings. Especially slaw dressings. Often, especially this time of year, with the abundant farm fresh produce and sandwiches on my menu, I'll use that pickle juice for...more pickles.

I slice up a pickling cucumber. First I drag the tines of a fork the length of the cucumber. It gives the pickles nice frilly edges and helps the pickle juice penetrate. I add chopped red onion and sliced jalapeño.

In a day or two...

Delicious fresh (homemade?) pickles!
I usually get 3 jars of pickles for every jar I buy.

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Actually, I do sometimes make homemade pickles. I can't be bothered and I don't have time for the whole canning thing with the sterile jars and all. So I always make some kind of refrigerator pickle. Refrigerator pickles are so easy to make anyone can do it. You keep them refrigerated and I'm told they'll keep for up to 2 months. I've never had any last more than a few days.

Sometimes I just add some sliced cucumber to a vinegar solution with a pinch of salt and a little honey. Maybe I'll put some dill in it too. Makes a great little side flavor thing with sandwiches or a fresh platter.

Something like peppers need a hot solution. Many years ago D. L. Jardine's made something called Texas Hot Wheels. These were *delicious* sweet pickled jalapeño wheels. I used to buy them by the case and I'd sit and eat them until my mouth was numb.

Then they discontinued Texas Hot Wheels. Such a bummer!

I haven't been able to copy the recipe. So I veered off and made a bread and butter solution I use over jalapeños.

• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon pickling salt
• 2 or 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon pickling spice
• Some whole peppercorns. Sometimes. However much looks right.

I put all those ingredients in a stainless steel sauce pan. Bring them to a boil and then pour the solution over a couple of pounds of sliced jalapeños. Make sure all the peppers are covered with the solution. Cover them and refrigerate when they cool.

Start eating them the next day. They get better and better every day. I just stand in front of the refrigerator and eat them by the fork full. I had some last a little over a week once. They're very good with sandwiches, hamburgers and for some reason, I especially like them with hot dogs.

Week in review

I take the week off over the 3 day weekends during the summer. Usually I have stellar vacations.

It was off to a promising start!

Ride now?
The weekend was very nice and I caught a couple of lazy rides. A little too lazy. So on Monday we stepped it up.

I like to go English when it's hot out. I don't know that it makes much difference really but I feel better about the lighter load. My stock saddle weighs a ton!

Sweat!
We really did some serious work. We do that every once in a long while.

Tuesday it rained so I went off on a Big Mac Road Trip.

I *love* Big Macs!
And then...it rained. And rained. And rained. Freezing cold too. Did I mention the rain? It poured buckets! Well at least I had electricity.

Look at the pollen! In September?!
I've never seen pollen in the river this time of year. This is a common sight in May but not in September.

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Seasonal Ingredients

The Farmer's Market is *the* place for seasonal ingredients and of course I love seasonal ingredients.

Franklin MA, 9 September 2011
I think ratatouille is to Summer what beef stew is to Winter. And this is my favorite ratatouille recipe!

Ratatouille on the stove
Made with field fresh produce this is just Summer on a plate. No that's not summer squash. It's one of those golden zucchinis. I like ratatouille as a main dish with some chianti or better yet, anything at all from the Languedoc region. I had this a few weeks ago with a Minervois and it was sensational.

And I made a discovery!

SoCo Creamery vanilla
These people here at SoCo Creamery make the most awesome ice cream I swear.

Corn Fed

It was a couple weeks ago the first ears of local corn appeared at the farm stands.

17 July
This time of year I'll eat corn just about every day until it's gone. I'm crazy for fresh corn. A summer treat that never gets tired. Here. Look at this.

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Buy Fresh. Buy Local.
Almost every community has a Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign of some sort. Find your nearest one and support your local farmer!

Tangerini's Farm 30 July
I call these "tomato towers" because I stack slices of tomato and onion with some herbs between each layer.

Field Fresh
Everything on the plate, except for the vinegar, is fresh from the field. Perfect with a glass of Chianti or Merlot.

Sometimes I use red onion, sometimes yellow. Sometimes I have cheese with it. Grated fresh Parmesan or maybe crumbled goat cheese. With a little splash of vinegar. Try it with a beefsteak tomato. Try it with an heirloom tomato.

Sometimes I leave the stack intact and scatter some sliced cherry tomatoes around the plate. Other times I make a criss cross cut with a sharp knife and just let it all collapse.

One can enjoy this who knows how many different ways.

Saturday. Sunny. Hot. Dry. Breezy. The most perfect summer day.

Noteworthy days

The local corn is in!

15 July. Roasted.
Like the first snow and the first daisies, the first local corn is one of the ways we mark the passage of time around here. At least I do anyway. The first ears showed up in the farmer's markets a week ago yesterday.

As much as I hate the wintertime, and I *really* hate the wintertime, the other 3 seasons here in New England are usually quite nice. When the local produce comes in there is no place I'd rather be.

And I confess...I...am a ... corn snob. If it was picked more than 3 or 4 hours ago I'll wait for something fresher.

I like to either roast or steam fresh picked corn. To roast corn I pre heat the oven to 350 and just put the whole ears in for about 30 minutes. To steam corn I get about an inch and a half of water going at a rolling boil and I put the clean ears in for 3 minutes.

Remember this? Watching the seasons change never gets old here.

25 June
It's hard to believe this weekend marks mid summer. Another day or two and we'll be closer to the end of summer than the beginning.

Product review!

OMG These are awesome.

Fresh stuff!

My friend C and I rented some space in the Community Garden this year. I stopped on my way home from work Friday afternoon and ... look at my radishes!

I love radishes!
I fixed a nice salad with some radish greens. One of the reasons I'm so fond of garden radishes is I like the greens too. They're peppery and flavorful. The greens from supermarket radishes aren't nice like these!

Try some radish greens!
I decided I'd have this with dinner:

I understood Pinotage paired with vegetarian fare. I don't know. I'd have to say..not so much. A little bold for vegetarian. But in all fairness it's very hard to pair wine with salad. So they tell me. But I think this probably goes better with barbecue.

I followed that up with Puttanesca for my main course. I would rather have had chianti with it.

There are dozens of Puttanesca recipes on the web. I made this with San Marzano tomatoes. I used chopped garlic, two anchovy filets, Indian red pepper flakes, capers and I chopped the olives. This dish says so much about how I feel about food. Quality ingredients simply prepared.

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And then Saturday was a glorious late Spring day. Dry, sunny, warm and breezy. We picked fresh strawberries!

Just look at these beautiful strawberries!

Strawberry shortcake is hard to resist with these! But I'll have to get some kiwis to mix up with these. I slice them up with a little bit of honey and mix them with Greek yogurt too.

It was the most perfect day for a lazy ride with L. She's been messing with me lately so I had to wear spurs. I phrased that very deliberately. Really, she just needs to know I have them. I don't need to *use* them.

I have a funny story from last week. We went up into the fields and she started messing with me in a big way. I wasn't wearing spurs and I didn't bring a crop. And she *really* blew me off. So I grabbed a small stick.

Not a whisper of a problem for the rest of the afternoon. The stinker!

Oh! Mark your calendar! Summer starts Tuesday, 21 June, 1:16 pm!

Tomatoes

I *love* tomatoes. Really. How can anyone resist this?

Friday Night Snack
I stopped and got a greenhouse vine ripened beefsteak from a farm not too far from here.

And yesterday I find the neighbors planted roughly 6000 tomatoes! Along with maybe 1000 mixed peppers.

And I have a dozen of my own in some community garden space.

It's going to be a good year for tomatoes. I never get sick of them.

We have to be careful. Baby turkeys are starting to leave their nests and wander about.

Back Off!
L doesn't spook at stuff like this. She goes after stuff like this and I don't want anyone getting hurt. It's the most amazing thing. She'll puff up like a cat and confront threats face on. I never saw a horse do that before. I don't mean she gets a little poofy. I mean she gets all kinds of BIG. And woofy. I'm used to it now but it took a while.

We did a little ring work yesterday. My trainer and I have differing opinions. Early on, learning something new or refreshing some training, I'll back off as soon as L gets it. That can be hard. Because when you get it right you want to keep doing it. Which is what my trainer recommends. When you get it right - do it again. And again. And again..

But when we do that I can sometimes almost feel L telling ok ok, enough already. Chances are, under the circumstances, what I'm asking her is going to be hard. So when she gets it right I'll do it again just to be sure it's not a fluke. Then I'll back off. And then I'll start there next time. It works for us.

Well. They redeemed themselves with this! It was a little cool and breezy. Nice day to try a new stout. I thought their Summer Stout was just awful. In all fairness though it could be great stuff and I just don't like Summer Stout. But this. This is strong. Bold. Thick. Rich. It is what I expect of stout.

Here, this deserves a close up:

I have another bottle of the Summer Stout and I'll wait for a perfect summer day to try it again. After all. I didn't really like this until I learned how to serve it. Now it could be a favorite!

Colors of Fall

We had a few days of color!


The seasonal changes here in New England tend to be bold. Every season I like to get that one picture that I feel best reflects the season. Because of the dry summer this year the foliage season was late and the colors were expected to be dull. The colors were late but we did have a couple of days of brilliant color.

Here, I think "Fall 2010" has to be one of these:



Trail tip!

If I should..oh.."lose my seat" on the trail I really don't think L is going to go far without me. But just in case - one never knows, I have a dog tag with an emergency phone number on her bridle. Oh, and those are little pieces of reflector tape on her browband. There in front of her ears. Sometimes we ride in the dark. Not in the street. But still.



And of course Fall in New England is time for apples!


Have cheddar cheese with your McIntosh apples. I think this is actually called an "orchard lunch" or something like that. Carr's Whole Wheat crackers are delicious with McIntosh apples!

My sad little garden

Channeling my inner Oliver Douglas:

I live in a condo and I board my horses. Sometimes I really miss having a farmer's porch and a garden. I never miss cutting grass and shoveling snow. But every time I think it's time to move I look out my living room window and say not just yet.

This is my view to the west:

And my view to the south is better. Did you know views are appraised? My view is 18% of my property value according to my last appraisal. I love my view.

But I still miss having a garden. Every year I mean to ask the BM/Trainer for a few square feet to plant some lettuce or squash or some such thing. But every year I have a bunch of excuses. Spring is a busy time of year anyway and even though we're practically family around our barn my planting a garden would cross some boundaries I'm sure.

This year I said screw it. I picked some trays out of the recycle bin, poked some drain holes in them, filled them with soil and I planted some lettuce and cucumbers. It worked out so well I stopped and got a couple of aluminum foil roasting pans a couple of weeks later and I filled those with soil and put in some mixed greens and basil. I put them out in a discreet corner of the property and nobody even knows they're there.

I got my seeds at the dollar store. My squash didn't come up. Bad seeds I s'pose. But all I need is say, .. 2 heads of lettuce and a couple of cucumbers and whatever else I get is free food!

Sad as my little garden might be, look!


Another week or two and I'll be eating salad!

Support your local farmer

I live in a town that has a Community Farm. Property purchased by the town several years ago as part of the community preservation effort was developed into a community farm as a nod to our rural roots. Produce is sold on the farm stand on the property 4 days a week. I stopped the other night and found excellent quality lettuce, cucumbers and basil. The local produce is one of the joys of the season. Keep local sources of quality produce viable - visit your local farm stand!

Being with my horses makes me feel close to the earth and close to natural things. Preparing food with local, high quality, seasonal ingredients is just another part of that whole close to the earth rhythm of life thing. I'd hate to see it go away.

We're having a gangbusters season this year in the metro west Boston area. The Farmer's Market has field tomatoes for sale and I'm told Kelly's Farm Stand even has their corn for sale already.

I never liked pesto much until I started making my own.


I find it's the garlic mostly and obviously your choice of olive oil will have a huge impact on your pesto!

1. 2 cups fresh basil, packed
2. 1/3 cup or toasted pine nuts or chopped walnuts
3. 1 teaspoon lemon zest
4. 4 cloves garlic
5. Pinch of salt
6. Fresh ground pepper to taste
7. 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
8. 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Just whir all that together in a food processor or a blender. This makes 2 servings. I love it with chianti.

And you can freeze pesto! Leave out the cheese if you're going to freeze it. The cheese doesn't freeze very well. Add the cheese when you thaw it for serving. I understand it will keep for 2 or 3 months anyway. Use those little 2 oz. plastic containers lined with baggies to freeze your pesto.