Finally! Seriously, I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen but it did, I was finally assigned Deb’s blog: Eliot’s Eats. I actually started reading Deb’s blog because of SRC. She got my blog, well, almost 2 years ago; she made me blush with all the nice things she said about my blog. I had to get to know this blogger so I checked out her blog and loved what she was posting and have been a faithful follower (not necessarily commenter) ever since. If I could only meet one blogger in this world it would be Deb! She is warm, sincere and talented.
Deb embraces growing your own food and purchasing local (as inspired by Barbara Kingslover’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) when possible. I love her common sense approach to it as in ‘we do what works for us’. Common sense and everything in moderation (except travel…). She has inspired me to read more about self-sustainability, shopping local and “putting up” food. Everything she does is with love, I have pinned and bookmarked so many of her recipes that it is almost crippling to try and decide what to make for Secret Recipe Club reveal.
But I took my cue from Deb and looked to the garden, and what to my wandering eyes did appear? Dill, dill, dill and more dill. Actually the dill is in one of our community gardens and it has become a nuisance, it’s become the weed part of dill weed. And I thought to myself, what would Deb do? She’d make pickles of course! I did a quick search of her site and honed on these babies. When Deb made these pickles she had home grown grape leaves, cucumber and dill. Sadly I do not have grape leaves nor are my cucumbers ready but I purchased a 3lb bag of local cukes for only 69¢, wow that’s cheaper than growing them!
Although I fell short on the grape leaves I had homegrown garlic and onions to add. I omitted the grape leaves (not sure how they add flavor), used both onion and garlic, used 1 tsp of yellow mustard seeds and 1 tsp of brown mustard seeds. I sliced my cukes into sandwich stackers rather than halving or quartering them although it makes no difference except I wanted stackers. The original recipe Deb used didn’t call for refrigerating the pickles but she did anyways and I totally agree since they aren’t heat canned.
Pickling Tip: Did you know if you pickle with salt that has been iodized it affects the color? Nothing wrong with the pickle of course, it looks like any heat canned pickle but I do love the fresh color that is retained with refrigerator pickles when using non-iodized salt. And just because I had some on hand I added a ¼ teaspoon pickle crisp to each jar.
After two weeks we finally sampled them, they were definitely deliciously dilly, briny and very low acidic tasting. These are the perfect pickle for someone who like a less vinegar/tart taste. A keeper for sure!
I was also hoping to have her chipotle peppers recipe done by now but the jalapenos took too much time turning red. I’ve picked about 6 and as you are reading this I am probably doing a small batch of chipotle peppers. My peppers may not have been ready but I did manage to make the dryer balls she posted! When I get pictures I’ll post about these incredible yarn balls.
- 3 lbs. Cucumbers, 4-5? long
- 8 heads and stems of dill
- 2 teaspoon ground horse-radish
- 2 teaspoon mustard seed (I used 1 tsp yellow and 1 tsp brown)
- 2 small onions quartered
- 4 cloves garlic
- 5 cups water
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/3 cup pickle salt or other non-iodized salt
- ½ teaspoon pickle crisp (optional)
- Halve, slice or quarter cucumbers lengthwise, then use to fill jars. To each jar, add half of dill, horse-radish, mustard seed, garlic, onion slices and pickle crisp if desired.
- Boil water, vinegar and salt together. Pour hot over cucumbers in jars; seal at once. Let cool and refrigerate at least 2 weeks so flavor has a chance to develop.
- I got 2 quarts plus 1 pint from this recipe
Don’t forget to check out all the other SRC reveals.
Aw, so jelly! I’m still waiting on that miracle assignment to occur for me – LOL! I got yours a while back but still no Debra, after what – 3 years! Ridonkulous. LOL! The pickles look great – how in the world did you slice them so perfectly? Mandoline? Thanks for the pickling tip too! Oh and I remember those dryer balls! Do you love them? I have plastic ones that have turned our dryer blue. Boo!
Isn’t weird how the assignments go? You would think by now we would have been assigned everyone that’s been around this long! Um actually I sliced them by hand, but I did discover that if I sliced them curve up that it was easier to get a uniform slice then let’s say laying on the counter in a ‘C’ position. And yes I love my wool balls 😉
Rhonda, you make me blush. Really. Wow. You make EE sound a lot more than it is. So glad you made these pickles. According to my mom, a grape leaf helps the pickles stay crisp. Now, I will await the time that I can get KW again for SRC. (You’re on my blogger friend must-meet list, too.)
Oh I don’t think I made it out to more than it is. Thanks for the leaf explanation, guess it’s a good thing I added pickle crisp to take the place of a grape leaf. Someday we may get to meet, I hope.
Yum! I love pickles but am too nervous to try heat canning and am not a huge fan of refrigerator pickles…. but these sound fantastic! I can see why bloggers wax poetic over Eliot’s Eats. 🙂
Sashi, I think once you try heat canning you’ll find it’s not that difficult! Especially a simple water bath type (which is for acidic foods like pickles and tomatoes). But then there is work involved…
Homemade pickles are the BEST! Yours look wonderful. Great SRC pick.
Thanks Erin I agree homemade pickles are the best!
oh Pickles! 🙂 I am not a fan of them but my daughter loves them, so I might have to try this out since I have about 4 cucumbers growing outside still in my garden box! 🙂 Looks simple to do and I don’t need a whole bushel of cucumbers to make them 😉
I haven’t made pickles in years. I think next year the garden will have pickling cukes so I can try these pickles.
Amazing – these just look amazing! I adore homemade pickles and this recipe looks like da bomb!