Pick a peck of peppers to pickle

A peck? Quite honestly, I'm not sure how many peppers it would take to fill a peck! This is how much I used. And as you can see, I also have some green tomatoes, sweet green peppers and cherry peppers thrown into the mix. Oh, yes, can't forget the okra, there's not much, but it's there.



I used two different recipes, both are cold-pack, meaning, to me at least, the jars are not processed in any way shape or form, and must be refrigerated, and consumed within a reasonable amount of time.


Pickled veggie recipe #1

Sterilize jars, lids, etc.
Wash vegetables and place in jars.

Place in pot and bring to a boil:
10 peeled garlic cloves
2 quarts white vinegar
16 tablespoons pickling salt
2 tablespoons celery seed.

Pour over vegetables and seal.





Pickled vegetable recipe # 2

Sterilize jars, lids, etc.
Wash vegetables and place in jars.
Put 1 and 1/2 tablespoons pickling spice and several peeled, cracked garlic cloves into each jar.

Bring to a boil:
1 and 1/2 cups white vinegar
8 teaspoons pickling salt or kosher salt
2 quarts water

Pour over vegetables and seal.


These two recipes produced 8 quarts of pickled veggies. The jars must be refrigerated for at least 4 weeks to achieve full flavor fantasy! So sometime in early November I'll be cracking open a jar and fighting with Youngest Son and Husband for the luscious garlic cloves!

mmmm...definitely good eats.

Fresh tomatoes and okra, oh my!

Our tomatoes and okra are finally coming in at a faster pace. All the rain we've had the past few days has helped immensely. Now I must keep up with feeding us fresh veggies as they are picked--the only thing I desire to can this year is cold packed pickled okra.


We've been eating a salad of tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, olive oil and salt and pepper almost every day. Now I've run out of mozzarella. Until I make the 30 mile trip for more mozzarella I need to improvise.

So I improvised and came up with this:


Okay, so maybe I need some sort of food designer who can plate my food to look appetizing! But it really tastes pretty good.

I fried about a half pound of bacon and crumbled it. Then chopped up a couple of tomatoes, mixed them with the bacon. I tossed in about a handful of torn basil and parsley from the garden. I whisked some mayo--maybe one quarter cup--a couple of splashs of red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. Drizzled this on the tomato, bacon, basil, parsley mixture and tossed. It was yummy.

Now for the okra:


This is a recipe Husband found last year when our okra crop was humongous, gigantic and extremely prolific.

Easy Indian Style Okra

3 tbs butter
1 med onion, chopped
1 lb sliced, fresh okra
1/2 tsp each--cumin, ginger, coriander
1/4 tsp black pepper

Melt butter, add onion, cook until tender. Stir in okra, add seasonings. Cook and stir a few minutes, reduce heat to med-low, cover and cook for 20 min., stirring occasionally.

Other than breaded and deep fried, it's our family's favorite way to eat okra. Of course, I'm not sure if any of us really LIKES okra, but we enjoy eating it.......