Sunday, August 26, 2012

Galveston and gardening

Galveston Island, and Gardening
   Well, I haven't wrote in a while, I've been a bit busy with the normal end of summer fun.. Other than being stung by a stingray lol. I went, yet agin, to Galveston. This time with my dad's cousin and her daughter, my niece Lex, and my mama. We stayed on the strand, in a beautiful hotel, called the Tremont Hotel. Seriously one of the most beautiful hotels I've ever stayed at. (thanks Kim!) we had a wonderful time. It was rainy, but it made for an unpredictable tip. Which is always fun. We went to the Pleasure Pier, rode the infamous ferris wheel, which was especially beautiful at night, when we rode. (Ferris wheels are my favorite thing a a carnival/fair) We walked around the Bubba Gump restaurant, and had a good laugh at all the Forrest Gump memorabilia. All the while hiding out from the unexpected rain storm that had hit us. The walk back to the car was especially laughable.. We took off out of the restaurant at the front of the Pleasure Pier, only to find that it was still raining, hard. The cheapo umbrellas that we were using, broke, lol. So the run back to the car was definitely exciting. Very memorable though, that's for sure. We did a lot of gift shop shopping, well, window shopping. Lol cause every one of those shops have the same thing, maybe just in a different color. We had an all around good time. Lots of gigles and talking, and discussions about the normal things women talk about.. A hen party, to say the least, and I love it.  I was sad to come home.


   Upon coming home, I found my okra plant covered in perfect sized okra! Exciting, in my mind. So, I decided today, to pickle my findings. A friend of mine, the other day, on Facebook, asked for a pickle recipe, so here's my perfect opportunity to give it out. I'm not a master canner, but nothing lasts in this house anyway, so it doesn't have to last long lol. This recipe could go for ANYTHING that you want to pickle. Now let me warn you, these are good sour pickles, my favorite. Here it is:
   



   Depending on the amount of veggies you have, you're going to have to switch this up a bit..
You need:
3parts white or apple cider vinegar
1part water
Black peppercorns
Fresh dill sprigs just a little bit will do
Kosher salt (kosher is important, regular salt will make them look cloudy)
A clove of garlic for every jar you are going to use
Okra, cucumbers, or anything else that can squish into a jar!

Take your vinegar, water, salt, peppercorns, and peeled garlic and bring it to a low boil for a few minutes. This is the point that you should taste your vinegar mixture and make sure you like it. It needs to taste good to you at this point, for you to like the pickles. Add water, pepper, whatever you want to make it taste like you want it.

By this point you should have disinfected your jars and lids, lookup a Kerr or Ball website on canning to find a tutorial.
Take your veggies, and prep them as you want, slice, cube, whatever your preference, and shove them in the jars, and I mean shove. You've gotta fit all of them in there so that you don't have wasted space. I also put a clove of my boiled garlic, extra black peppercorns, and a sprig of dill in each jar, before and after I put my okra in it.
Put the lid on and hand turn it, until it's somewhat tight, not too tight though, just a little snug.
Boil it in a pot, that has enough water to cover the jars, bring to a boil, for 25 minutes. Take them out with tongs, and let them cool to room temp, listen for them to pop. If it doesn't pop, you can either reboil it, or just keep them in the fridge. Eat them quicker than the others.  Let the popped jars sit for 2 weeks or longer, before eating them. They'll taste better.


Enjoy!! :) hopefully your pickling experiences turn out as good as mine.
Let me know what you pickle and how they turned out!

3 comments:

  1. I really had a Wonderful Time with you Jess! Well of course I always do!I always enjoy sleeping with you when we are away from home...I Love you

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    1. Mom, I'm gonna need you to sign out next time you comment lol it looks like i absolutely just love myself. LOL!!

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  2. I Love You and Your Mommy :) and I So Enjoy reading about Your adventures <3

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