Pink Pickles

Richard Saunders and the crew over at Poor Richard’s Almanac took a trip to the 13th Chili Pepper Festival in Bowers, PA yesterday. I like to think my “After Burner” sauce would fit right in with the hot sauces he described.

Richard’s blog report on the trip got me to thinking, I need to cook. I also need to do a little canning as red noodle beans, cucumbers, and such are coming in slowly. As I do not have enough produce for a large batch of pickles, the canning method will have to be refrigerator pickling. This is basically the same as regular pickle making except there is no water bath, the jars are not sealed, and the pickles need to be consumed in a couple of weeks instead of lasting for months.

The brine for the pickles I made today is equal parts vinegar to water, 2 tablespoons sea salt to each cup of brine, one tablespoon of dill seed to each cup or brine, and a couple of chili pequino chilies and garlic cloves per jar of pickles. Heat up the brine for a few minutes in the microwave and poor over sliced cucumbers and/or green beans (I use the red noodle or yard long beans). If you want to have a little more fun with this, add the sliced up stalk of a red Swiss chard to the brine. This will tint the brine pink making pink pickles.

For dinner we are having dirty rice. This is simply browned ground beef and rice with peppers, onion, garlic, celery, rice, and Cajun spice. I don’t measure anything. Everything is to taste.

I had to brown one of those giant batches of ground beef. Somebody, who will remain nameless, forgot to cut it up into meal sized portions before freezing it. So I will also make sloppy Joes and spaghetti sauce and put them in the fridge for meals for the next two days. Yippee, I don’t have to cook dinner on Sunday or Monday. What ever will I do with my time?