Quick Pickles-National Pickling Cucumber

I am growing the National Pickling Cucumber and have 2 plants so there are a few cucumbers a week coming off of the plants.  Mine are growing especially well this year after I started feeding them their Moo Poo Tea from Annie Haven's ranch! (You can get your own at this link: http://www.manuretea.com/)

decided to make a Quick Pickle last Monday afternoon.  The difference between canning cucumbers and making a Quick Pickle is that you don't have to go through all of the different stages of sterilization, etc.  You merely need a clean jar and you don't have to process it in a water bath.

These pickles last in the fridge for a few weeks, but really they are so good, you'll eat them up!

First slice up a few cucumbers, this was 4 of the National Pickling Cucumbers which are about half the size of the traditional cucumber.  4 of them made 2 pint jars, which is plenty.  Then sprinkle salt on them and let them sit for a while.  This draws out the excess moisture so that when you pour the spicy brine on them they absorb the flavors more quickly.

Absorb the excess moisture with a paper towel, then

Grab a clean canning jar and start stuffing them in.

Keep stuffing

Stuff until it is full to the top

Or not, I just had the right amount to fill two jars.  

On the stove top in a non-aluminum pan mix up the following:

1 cup of water

1 cup of vinegar (any kind works)

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of salt

1/4 cup Pickling Spices

Boil for 10 minutes and then pour it over the cucumbers in the jars.

That's it! Wait until it is cool or 4 hours (but it is better at 24 hours) and then eat!

Refrigerate them within 24 hours.

Dark Rich Chocolate Cake + Free Printable

I love to give homemade gifts, sometimes because it saves money and sometimes because I like making them and sometimes, just sometimes, because it is the best version of whatever it is.  In this case, this is the BEST chocolate cake mix recipe ever!

The creative process

I've been making up batches of this recipe for my family and friends for years.  Thanks to the HillBilly Housewife website which I was surfing at work one day looking for ideas on how to save time and money on meal preparation.

This cake is dark and rich and oh so chocolately.  It is also incredibly moist thanks to the powdered buttermilk!  If you've never seen this in your grocery store, I have found it locally here at Stater Bros. and Smart N Final.  I grew up using it in recipes and my grandmother would always bring us a bunch from the air force base when she went shopping there with my uncle.



Powdered Buttermilk


Below is the ingredient list and instructions from HillBilly Housewife:

Dark Rich Chocolate Cake Mix

Ingredients

·          1 cup unbleached white flour

·          2/3 cup whole wheat flour

·          1-1/2 cups of sugar

·          ¾ cups unsweetened cocoa

·          ¼ cup dry buttermilk powder

·          1 teaspoon baking powder

·          ½ teaspoon salt

·          1 tablespoon instant coffee crystals

To prepare add:

2 cups of water

½ cup of vegetable oil

2 eggs

Mix for two minutes or until smooth

{Batter will be runny}

Pour into oiled 9”x13” pan

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes

Recipe taken from:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

The key to this is putting the ingredients into quart size (sterile) canning jars using a canning funnel as seen below.  This really helps cut down on the mess.  Also, you MUST mix in the buttermilk powder.  Personally, I put in the salt, cocoa and baking powder, then mix in the buttermilk powder by shaking up the jar.  If you don't do this step you will ruin the mix if it sits in the cupboard longer than a week.  The buttermilk turns into a rock if it isn't mixed in or kept completely dry.

Canning funnel with Quart Canning Jar

Once you've assembled the ingredients, you are ready to begin.  Total cost for 14 jars was under $62 so it is about $4.00 per jar.  Certainly more expensive than a $1.00 box of cake mix, but this is totally worth it.  These also make great party favors and you can cut the recipe in half and use smaller jars but it only saves about $1.00 because the canning jars are still pricey.

Ingredients

Completed jars including shopping for ingredients is about 1 hr.  So 14 gifts for $62 in an hour.  That's the kind of time and money management I can get behind!

Completed Jars

Now you can get fancy and make a hand-made label, but I just print mine out on the printer and tie it with a ribbon and I'm done.

Feel free to use this on your own jars.  Just paste the pic into a Word Doc and enlarge until it fills a standard sheet of paper.

The ABC's of things I love for the garden

A = Apple Trees (for their blossoms, most of all, and their fruit, but also because when you trim an apple tree you have apple wood which makes beautiful garden stakes)

B = Ball Canning Jars I use them as plant cloches / mini greenhouses when I set out plants in winter 

C = Compost

D = Dirt and lots of it. See C above. A gardener can never have too much potting soil or compost or seed starting mix, Amen.

E = Eggshells to plant seedlings in. Also, to crush and put around the base of plants to keep away the snail population.

F = Foliage

G = Grubs, when I find them I feed them to my hens...watching them go nuts over grubs makes them worth having in the garden. 

H = Hens

I = Irrigation (as in my hose-yep, I don't have ANY sprinklers, so me and my hose are good friends)

J = June (as in the whole month!)

K = Kettle (as in my tea kettle filled with boiling water to kill weeds)

L = Lady Bugs

M = Manure

N = Nitrogen

O = Open Pollinated Plants

P = Pruners

Q = Quilting Needles (I use the loop shaped needle to 'sew' plants with lightweight twine to supports and trellisis, try it! but only on plants that are seasonal, you need more flexible support for long term growth.)

R = Root Pruning.  I use this technique to keep my tree roots where I want them and out of my plumbing.  Yes, it is a ton of work, but I like to dig so it is enjoyable.

S = Seaweed Magic  (Great fertilizer and it's cheap)

T = Time to garden

U = Umbrella (or really my pop up canopy, I move it around to where I'm working when it's hot and sunny because I don't like to feel my skin fry.)

V = Victory, I love the concept of the victory garden and it inspires me.  Feeling like I can feed my family if there is a major disruption in the food supply, even temporarily, gives me a feeling of security.

W = Watering Cans

X = Excellent scissors (couldn't find a word for x but I love the cheap 25 cent scissors you can find in the back to school sales.  I leave them outside all year and just toss them when they get dull)

Y = Yard Sticks (Great for measuring plant and seed placement!  I use a Sharpie to mark the common measurements I use so they stand out easily) 

Z = Zebra Stripe Heirloom Tomatoes (My absolute fave: Green Zebra)

What are your favorite things for the garden????

Hanging out at Down East Basics

Wednesday night I had a girls night out and met up with some of the local OC Bloggers over at a new store Down East Basics located at the Irvine Spectrum Center.

They hosted a Holiday Blogger Mixer where we could all hang out, chat and of course try on fun finds.  Here is Heather who works as a fashion designer, blogger and model here in Southern California trying on the cutest skirt that was full of layers, texture and color.  She was layering up tons of their pieces and creating great combinations.  You can check out her post about the evening over here.

I have been loving anything lavender or gray lately and I saw plenty that caught my eye in store.

I loved this gray dress with the chunky blue scarf.  The ruching on the top was very flattering and works well if you have {ahem}.. bosoms...

With the weight I've lost I am so stinking excited to be able to go to a 'normal' store and purchase items.  It was such a treat to walk in and realize what a fantastic selection awaited me.  I really loved the look of the store.  It felt like an up-scale boutique but the prices were AMAZING! 

They also have clothing for little girls.  Look at this adorable outfit I picked up for my little one.  The gray top has a triple ruffle pleat at the neckline which matches the triple ruffle pleat on the tulle in the skirt. I added in a beaded flower clip to use at the waist and this will be the perfect outfit for a trombone recital!  Everything in the little girls section was modest and appropriate which is of utmost importance to me when raising daughters.  The skirts were not too short and they had a great selection of items meant to be worn with leggings which in our house are always'daddy approved'...

I'm a girly girl so I love anything with ruffles, bows and that extra bit of detail and each of their pieces had something unique about it.  I also have about a million headbands with bows so when I walked in and found a giant purple felt bow on a headband I knew I was in a store I was going to shop at often!

I picked up a great lightweight scarf in a soft gray-the kind of gray that reminds you of early morning-but here's the kicker...it is trimmed in the most beautiful of soft purple crochet.  Here's how I layered it together for my Friday casual look.  I took a silver sequined t-shirt, layered on a gray cardi, my boot
cut jeans and added the scarf...it was perfect. I felt so cute and received compliments, which I adore!

Overall I would say that this store had great finds that were ultra-feminine, and heavy on the cute factor...no athletic wear here!  Just super cute feminine design.  Many of their pieces could be layered easily and they carried quite a selection of sizes and a ton of unstructured designs which are very flattering on many different body types.

Location: The new DownEast Basics store is in the Irvine Spectrum Center at

71 Fortune Drive

in Irvine, California. The store is located between H&M and Anthropologie.

DownEast Links:

• Web: www.downeastbasics.com
• FB: www.facebook.com/downeastbasics
• Tweet Tweet! www.twitter.com/downeastbasics

Irvine Spectrum Links:

• Mall Twitter: http://twitter.com/irvinespectrum
• Mall FB: http://www.facebook.com/irvinespectrumcenter

**I was gifted a $25 gift card for attending the mixer and reviewing the store, as well as a scarf and some delicious chocolates.**

Pickling Okra-My Way

So I did a bit of front yard gardening this year, which is typically a no-no for my husband. Our rule is I can 'mess up' the back as much as I want and he doesn't mind...but....the front yard is his domain.  He loves his football field of grass and tolerates my flower beds. 

Well, I had some okra seedlings and no space so I plopped them next to my roses and flax and sure enough, I've got what looks like ginormous weeds in my front flower bed, but they are yielding huge quantities of okra from 4 plants.

I've given a bunch away, and starting pickling the rest.  This is a total experiment...so do not try this at home kids.  I didn't want to go through the traditional canning process so I am trying to make fridge pickled okra.

Here's how I did it:

• Grow okra
• Pick okra
• Wash the ants off (ants love my okra plants this year)
• Trip the tip and top off
• Stuff them in a sterile jar
• Dump in pickling space
• Dump in some salt, I think I used about 1 tsp per jar
• Pour White Vinegar in to the top
• Shove them in the fridge

Wait 4-6 weeks for the pickling spices and vinegar to soften them and let the flavors meld.

I'll let you know in a few weeks if it worked!  I figure the vinegar keeps grodies from forming plus it is in the fridge, so I should live through this experiment and if it works, hallelujah.  I love pickled okra!