I’ve been busy in the kitchen. In the past few days I’ve made dill pickles, heirloom tomato salsa, summer squash relish, and rosemary rhubarb preserves. I also dehydrated tomatoes and yellow squash, and made apple sauce.
I used this recipe for the dill pickles. It is a simple, easy recipe and the pickles come out tangy and crisp.
The secret is to soak the cucumbers in ice water for at least 2 hours before pickling.
I used dill flowers and sprigs in each jar.
It is helpful to have a huge pot to sterilize the jars in.
Pack the jars full of cucumber slices, dill, garlic and pour in the boiling brine.
After the jars are packed, process them in a hot water bath for 15 minutes if you would like to store them for a while. If you plan to eat them quickly you can skip this step and keep them in the fridge. I hot water bathed about half of the jars and put the rest in the fridge.
I also made some salsa. It came out so good! I had made some fresh salsa the other night for dinner and decided it would be good canned as well. I picked all the fixings from the garden- tomatoes, cilantro, jalapenos.
I shredded some garlic and onion with the rest of the ingredients in the food processor.
I added a half cup of rice vinegar, salt and pepper and boiled it for about 10 minutes. I drained some of the excess liquid and then processed it in jars just like I did with the pickles.
Wow! I never thought to drain the extra liquid when I’ve made salsa. A general complaint of mine regarding my homemade salsa was the feeling that it was too watery. Thanks for sharing your technique.
The pesto you made was oh so delicious as well! Thanks for the jar of pickles too! We’ll enjoy them for sure!