From Cucumbers to Pickles

This is our little cucumber patch. We are growing the "muncher" variety. Burpless.

One late afternoon, we picked 10 cucumbers at one time. 10! There are only so many cucumbers you can eat before they start to get rubbery and soft. You can't freeze them. You can't dry them. So on a whim, at about 7 o'clock at night, we decided to break from our "freezer only preserving" (just having made a batch of boysenberry jam a few days before) and bite the bullet and actually, for real, pickle these babies.

We didn't have a canning pot, or pickling salt. I had 3 new wide-mouth jars on hand, but when Mike went out to get a canning pot and the salt, he also picked up a dozen wide-mouth quart jars. Needless to say, the three I had on hand were just right for the 10 cucumbers. We decided to cut them into spears, since they were just the right size. One tip: stuff 'em in real tight.

Dill, of course. We have this dilemma in our house. I love dill. My husband loves sweet. My kids...don't care because they don't eat 'em...yet. But since I allowed my husband to shoot the photos and he got my pregger belly in the pics, I won with dill...and garlic!

Stuff the dill, flowers and stems, into the jars. These are dill, so don't skimp on the dill!

Whole garlic cloves, peeled, have been added at this point. 2 cloves for each jar. I guess I should mention at this point that the brine has been simmering away already. Water, white vinegar, and pickling salt. That's it. That's the brine.

Pour the brine into the jars, using a wide-mouth funnel is very helpful. Just fill up the jars and leave a 1/2 inch space at the top. Then seal them up with the lids and rings. I do this part because if I let my husband do it, he would probably end up tightening too tight and break the top of the jar off. Did I ever tell you about the time he put up the garage door opener and sheared a bolt right off the thing? Well, that's another story.

Sitting pretty in the water bath. Put the jars on the rack. Very important, the rack. Set them in the water. Bring this giant pot to a boil and then let it boil for 15 minutes. Some say 5; some say 10. I was being cautious so I did 15.
You will see them start to turn from the bright green, fresh looking color to this. What kind of green would you call that? But it looks like pickles to me!The whole process from start to finish to about 2 hours. Enough time for us to be done and sit down to watch the Bachelorette. 20 minutes after they came out of the water bath, all 3 lids popped. Let me tell you, when you "can," you just sit and pray for those lids to pop. And when they did...it was like angels singing in my kitchen. And then my husband and I did a high-5.

Salt. Pink Salt.

Do yourself a favor and pick this up. I used it in some muffins I recently made. You can taste it. I promise. You use it just as you would regular salt, but Pink Salt is purer and higher in mineral content. The picture doesn't do the color justice. It is much more pink in person. Sprinkle some on top of brownies. Yum. Or even better, brownies drizzled with caramel and then sprinkle some pink salt on top...heaven. Sprinkle some on top of vanilla ice cream. Double Yum!

And this has nothing to do with salt, but I picked up some more of these at the same time because I was out of them. Freshly grated nutmeg ain't got nothing on the ground up stuff. Do yourself another favor and get some, too. I always add just a pinch to my banana bread and it makes your palette think, "what is that hint of yumminess?" You can also add it to eggs. Yes, eggs. Especially omelet-ly type egg dishes. My favorite is a quinoa and feta egg scramble. But that's for another post.

One more time...

First there was this...

and then this..Baby McCarthy (kid #3) is on its way! Baby is due November 26th. Doctor's appointment and ultrasound at 9 weeks all clear and everything looks good. So I though it was time to tell why I have been MIA and mysteriously "not feeling well" to put an end to the rumors and mystery. This will be the last one for us. Just keeping our fingers crossed and praying that all will go well with this pregnancy and we can greet our little one on November 18th. Yes. Can you believe that they already scheduled the C-section?! With our first baby, Colin, being breech I delivered C-section. So it's C-section for every baby now.

We are very excited! Colin wants a baby brother; Katie wants a baby sister. We'll take what we are given. Winter holidays around our house are going to be crazy busy. Our anniversary in the first part of November, Baby #3 due late November, Thanksgiving, Katie's 4th birthday on December 7th, then Christmas, and Colin's 8th birthday on January 13th. We are ready for the ride!

the BIG 40!

My husband turned 40 yesterday. He's been pouting about it all month. But his spirits were cheered up when his birthday adventure started yesterday morning. (Excuse the beard. He's growing it for a musical play our church is doing for Easter. I think it makes him look much older. Under the pile of hair is a baby face.)

It was really Colin's idea. His little 7 year old head came up with a scavenger hunt...hiding all the presents and then making up clues to find them. He helped me write about half of the scavenger poem. I couldn't believe the rhymes he came up with.

Mike got to look for one present in the morning, because I thought he could use it throughout the day...an Otterbox for his smart phone. His other phone cover literally disintegrated into pieces this last month and he had just gotten it for Christmas. If you have never heard of Otterbox, you have to get one for your smart phone. Worth every penny.

After Mike came home from work, the hunt continued. I know he had a good time searching for everything and the expressions on the kids' faces were reward enough. Of course he got Lego set (Star Wars) and a new Kurt Elling CD.

I made a chocolate cake that everyone devoured, but still have leftovers. We sang happy birthday and had cake and Mike built Legos with the kids. A quiet birthday at home, but it was super fun. Looks like he survived turning 40, after all!

so excited to build Legos he couldn't even finish his dinner.

Colin loves Legos...

...and so does Katie!

My Little Irish Beauties

These are my kids. One boy. One girl. He's a blondie. She's a red-head. He has green eyes. She has blue eyes. Their last name tells of their Irish ancestry. Her physical traits speak for themselves.

Did I mention she's a red-head? With the personality to match. Just look at that face. Could you ever imagine that her nickname is "the red-headed dragon?"

My kids are my heart. At times they make me crazy, want to rip my hair out. At times they are angels. With every hug, kiss, smile I know they are children of God sent to me to tend on this earth and everyday I am thankful for that. I marvel at their intelligence, bravery, and innocence. They are what get me through each one of these days.