Gordon's Living Site

Whole Pickles

I'm trying to make some pickles a little like those big, huge ones you can buy at the movie theater. This probably isn't it. But, it's going to come out well. I modified a pickling spice I found on the internet and ended up making waaaay too much. The extra will go into the frig and I'll be be making more pickles using it soon.

• Enough fresh cucumbers for six quart jars
• 8 c vinegar
• 12 c water
• 1 T salt for each quart jar
• 1/4 c pickling spice per jar

Pickling spice

• 1 T ground mustard
• 2 T ground allspice
• 3 tsp coriander
• 4 whole cloves, grind with mortar and pestle
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 bay leaves, crumbled

combine pickling spice ingredients and add to 3 cups vinegar and 4 cups water. Bring to a boil. Take 1/4 c of this and add to each jar. Refrigerate remainder. Like I said, this is enough to last awhile.

Bring vinegar/water to a near boil and fill each quart jar to within 1 inch of top. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Bread and Butter Pickles

Here goes another one. Found the original recipe on Recipezaar. It had a 5 star rating based on 60 reviews. That's darn good. Of course, I can't leave well enough alone so I modified it anyway. I'd had my cukes soaking overnight and this called for a different soak. Didn't want to do it again, so I skipped their step. Otherwise, I'm not far off from their recipe. Here's how it's done.

• Lots of homegrown cucumbers. This recipe made 15 pints.
• 4 c water
• 4 c white vinegar
• 4 c sugar
• 1 T turmeric
• 2 tsp celery seed
• 2 tsp dried mustard

Rinse cukes and let drain. Slice lengthwise and pack into quart and pint jars.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed and mustard. Bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes. Stir and make sure there are no chunks of spices floating around.

Pour liquid over cukes in jars. Wipe glass lip and put on your jar lids (that have been boiled, of course). Place in large pot, cover with water and boil for 10 minutes.

Store for about 3 weeks to allow flavors to mature.

Millionaire Brisket

Actually, 2 brisket, 2 ribs and 2 chickens. I'm using a recipe from the book BBQ USA by Steven Raichlen. AN excellent book with about 400 recipes. It's a good read, too, as he details a lot of BBQ places around the US.

I've upped the quantities for this cookout. I was still left with plenty for a whole chicken later on.

• 1/2 c kosher salt
• 1/2 c light brown sugar
• 1/2 c sweet paprika
• 4 T chili powder
• 4 T black pepper
• 2 T onion powder
• 2 T garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 6-pack favorite craft beer, more if the day is hot.

Fire up the smoker and cook about 160-180. Chicken will be probably be done first. Check with a meat thermometer. I'm lacking firewood this time around, so I'll be using charcoal briquettes and adding some mesquite chips early on.

Forever Crisp Dill Pickles - first ones of the season

I can't believe it's been February since I last got around to making a post. Spring has been so busy I fell behind in the garden. I did a lot of mulching earlier this week so it is beginning to look better, but I don't think I'll get the production I was hoping for. More on that later. Here's the pickle recipe I found on cooks.com. They are I modified it slightly.

• about 4 lbs cucumbers
• 2 cloves homegrown garlic in each of 12 pint jars
• 1/8 tsp dill in each jar
• good pinch of freshly cracked black peppercorns per jar
• 1 small slice of homegrown jalepeno pepper per jar
• 5 c water
• 5 c apple cider vinegar
• 5 T salt

Soak fresh cucumbers in lightly salted water overnight. Rinse, pat dry and slice lengthwise. Those that were too long to fit into pint jars were cut to length and the all parts packed into jars.

Boil water, vinegar and salt. Pour over cucumbers in the jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Let for three weeks before opening and enjoying.

Stir-fried veggies with Kielbasa sausage

We are working to thin out the contents of the frig and freezer so our creativity is being put to the test. Janelle thawed out a Kielbasa sausage for dinner and left me to come up with something edible. (Strangely, this seems to happen quite often on her off days??)

So, I went exploring the refrigerator to see what was there and I decided to try a stir-fry. Here's what I found:

• 1/4 of a bell pepper (slice thin)
• a couple of some kind of onion (very mild; slice thin)
• one medium onion (sliced)
• 6-8 cloves of garlic (chopped very fine)
• one fennel (sliced)
• some of the fennel fronds (chopped fine)
• a few pieces of chives (chopped very fine)
• 1 can Rotel
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 2 c rice, cook
• olive oil

Prepare the vegetables as described above. Stir fry in a few tablespoons of olive oil until slightly crisp. Set aside in a bowl.

Slice the sausage very thinly and stir fry. Add back the vegetables and add Rotel and diced tomatoes. Stir until well warmed and let simmer about 15 minutes.

Serve over rice.

"Just Short of Critical Mass" Salsa

Really hot salsa has a definite advantage to it: no one in the house will eat it but me, me, me!

INGREDIENTS

• Several (6-8) of homegrown Anaheim peppers
• Bunch (12-15 small) homegrown Ancho peppers
• Several (8-10) homegrown red chili peppers
• 4-5 homegrown jalapeno peppers
• 1/2 c homegrown onion
• 8-10 homegrown garlic cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 T olive oil
• 3 T vinegar
• 3 pints homegrown Old German tomatoes

DIRECTIONS

Use a food processor if you have one to chop everything. Leave all the seeds in. Combine all ingredients and simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. This recipe makes about 3 1/2 cups. Can some of it or refrigerate it.

Quick and simple chicken strips

You get home at 6:30, everyone's hungry, what do you do? Ordering pizza will take an hour, so that's not a good answer. Try this with chicken strips. It's spice, moist, quick and nutritious.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb or more chicken breast strips
• Stubb's marinade or other marinade
• Bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400F.

I used some Stubb's Pork Marinade leftover from last night. It works really great on pork, but it's a little too spicey for chicken. Can't figure out why I didn't notice that on the pork. Anyway, put the chicken in a bowl, pour in the Stubb's and mix. No need to let this set. Put your bread crumbs in a 2nd bowl and drop the strips in one at a time to cover. Place in an oiled Pyrex dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Doesn't get much easier than that does it?

Peanut Butter Cookies

I don't often make sweet things. I've a very efficient digestive system that ends up storing too much of it! This is a simple PB recipe. There doesn't actually seem to be that many different ways to make PB cookies.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c chunky PB
• 1/2 c (1 stick) butter softened
• 1/2 c packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

   DIRECTIONS

• Sift and combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In another bowl, beat together PB, butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth.
• Add egg and vanilla.
• Combine flour mix with PB mix and blend well.
• Cover and place in refrigerator 20 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Use a teaspoon to drop cookie batter onto ungreased cookie sheet.
• use a fork to flatten and make pattern over top of cookie.
• Bake 10-12 minutes.

My Newest Granola Recipe

I need a name for these don't I?

I modified the recipe again. I like what I'm getting but each time, the exact makeup depends somewhat on what's available in the pantry. The quantity of honey is about right each time, about 1 part honey to 6 parts other ingredients. Last time, I tried my food dryer to dry the granola and make bars. The biggest problem with that is simply getting decent sized and shaped bars. They tend to fall apart as I formed them in my fists and I knicknamed them "seed turds" due to their size and shape. Not quite as catchey a name as Kashee, huh?

So, this time, I mixed them and packed them onto a sprayed 9X13 pan.Then I placed them in my oven overnight at 170F. This is the lowest the oven will go. To make the bars, I placed a cutting board on top, flipped the pan and hit the bottom to force out the granola. I tried cutting up the bars with a coping saw from my shop (I washed it, ok?) but that met with limited success since the pan-sized bar tended to break apart. I ended up breaking the granola into large pieces and that worked as well as anything I've tried so far. I'm still thinking up alternatives, but most things I dont' think will work. The table saw will cut too wide a swath, my band saw is broken and the Dremel tool will make too much mess. I'm open to ideas.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 C oats
• 4 T flax seed
• 1/3 c sunflower kernels
• 1 c pecan
• 1 c almonds
• 1 c unseasoned peanuts
• 1 c mixed dried fruit
• 1 c Craisons

DIRECTIONS

Chop the almonds, peanuts and fruit. I used my mini- food processor to good effect. Mix all dry ingredients in large mixing bowl and add honey. It helps if someone else can add the honey slowly as you mix. Mix well, adding a little more honey until you don't see any dry spots in your granola mix.

Spray a nonstick 9X13 pan with Pam. Add the granola mix and pat down firmly. Place in oven at 170F for 12-14 hours. Remove and let cool. Figure out some way to cut up the bars and wrap in cling wrap.

Owens Chili

I don't think Owens actually makes chili, but if they did, this would be it. Come to think of it, the company should pay me about $100,000 for this recipe! I haven't made chili in about 5 years. Last time I did, Janelle complained it was too hot and I hadn't even added any pepper, yet. I just gave up!

This recipe is a good example of making do with what you've got on hand. I didn't have any chili beef or chicken, but I did have a couple of packages of Owens Maple Sausage. It worked! Except for the severe need for 6-7 jalapenos, this is an excellent chili. Great, unique taste.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lb Owens Maple Sausage
• 2 T brown sugar
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp cilantro
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1 T paprika
• 1 Anaheim chili pepper, home grown, chopped
• 3 pints homegrown and canned tomatoes
• 1 12-oz can tomato paste
• 1/2 c onions, homegrown, chopped
• 3 c water
• 2 cans kidney beans (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Brown and break up the sausage. Add all ingredients except sausage and water. Put on stove at very low heat to simmer at least 2 hours. Add water late in cooking to get your preferred thickness. Add beans about 30-40 minutes before serving.

Serve with crackers.