Happy New(ish) Year!

So it’s 2012!  Yes, you can call me Sherlock and say “No shit.”  2012, wow.  Isn’t this kinda like when it turned 1999?  Everyone was all like, what references are now going to be available to me when I want people to know about the extent of my partying?  Well, people who like to make jokes based on shared cultural norms, what about end of the world jokes, or say, terrible end of the world movies starring a slumming it John Cusack?  We’ll see, I guess.  Scary religious types, can you help me here?  Is there a rapture coming up I’m not aware of?  Don’t let the Mayan calendar people steal your spotlight!

Anyway, I’m back for 2012 with an attempt to blog a bit more about subjects other than xmas music.  I guess I’m learning that I like, nay require, structure in order to make myself blog.  History shows that I like blog challenges and/or blogapaloozas.  Well, those challenges that don’t involve making meat into various gels and purchasing hog casings.  Yep, I tried Charcutepalooza last year, but I never made it past March.  But I learned how to make good old all ‘mmercun bacon as well as Canadian bacon and corned beef.  That’s kinda all I needed to know anyway.  Although I still like to learn to make my own hot dogs.  As my dad used to always say, we’ll see.

So my pal Grow and Resist recently alerted me of some new blog challenge for 2012, and I figured, what the heck.  I did (and loved!) the Can Jam back in 2010 and it kept me blogging all summer long, when all I really wanna do is drink beer in the yard and watch my tomatoes grow/not grow.    The first is called Cook It 2012, hosted by the blogger over at Grow It Cook It Can It.  Hey, I do each and every one of those things referenced in that blog title!  So I figured I’d join!  The goal of the challenge is to learn new kitchen skills and techniques throughout the year.  Sweet!  I signed up!  And you can too, blog or no blog, if you wanna, no big whoop.  The first challenge is pasta making.  I’m on it!  Check out the awesome pasta dish Grow it Cook It Can It made here.  It was near lunchtime when I read this post originally, and there may have been some drool.  Just sayin’.  So stay tuned for my attempts to follow along with that challenge.

The second challenge is hosted by the blogger at Tea and Cookies.  She’s also looking to get ambitious and learn some new skills in the kitchen.  I’m in!  First up is something that I wanted to do throughout 2011 but never got around to: making my own sourdough starter and bread.  Sourdough might be my favorite bread, but unfortunately I have never managed to bake a loaf of it myself.  Shame.  I have tried and given up on several starters in the past.  This time, I’m gonna do it.  Stay tuned for that as well.  I’m gonna get my foodie uncle’s favorite starter recipe!

You’ll also hear more about my gardening exploits this year.  The garden did pretty well in 2011–lotsa tomatoes and cukes and garlic, and really, what else do you need–and I’m hoping to up the ante this year.  Namely, I’m looking to finally have some success with potatoes, carrots and beets.  Little help?

So what else.  Well, when I was blogging about xmas songs last month, I promised y’all some year end roundups that I never got around to.  So, with no more further delay, here are some things I liked in 2011.

Gourmet camping!  I’ve heard some talk about glamping, but I just can’t call it that.  And that’s not what it is!  We still sleep in a tent (with pillows and an air mattress!), we just don’t eat shit like candy bars and hot dogs.   How about fancy camping?  Gourmet camping?  You know, camping where you bring more fresh herbs and housemade pickles than hiking gear and lanterns.  Where you plan where you’re going to get good fruit for preserving rather than where you can rock climb.  In 2011 we combined our camping with a shit ton of fruit picking that we then processed into deliciousness that we are enjoying right now: dried cherries, homemade maraschino cherries, dried and canned peaches, fruit infused vodkas, and so on.  Double S and I camped the shit out of 2011 and are gonna do the same this year.  I’ve talked about my cooking escapades while camping before, yes, but we enjoyed camping with a renewed vigor this year.   And no, I’m not gonna tell you our favorite spots or sites, cuz I’m selfish like that.

Fruit picking while camping! Here: (incredibly cute) cherry picking!

White tube socks!  Wow, do you guys realize how comfortable quality white tube socks are?  Are they still called tube socks?  They don’t have stripes on the calves are anything, but that’s what I called them growing up.  Anyway, nothing says I’m Staying In For the Day/Night, And I Like It! like tube socks.  Plus, nothing allows you to slide down your hallway as gracefully as tube socks either.   Screw you, ex girlfriend who convinced me to stop wearing white socks back in 1999.  They’re comfy as eff!  I can’t wear argyles or smart wools all the time.  Added bonus when you wear them with shorts and house shoes!

Baseball!  Now y’all don’t understand this if you’re not from the greater St. Louis area, but if you’re from the Lou you will be a Cardinals fan.  Baseball will just matter to you, because its everywhere.    Even if you actually happen to leave the greater St. Louis area (rare!).    It’s just an ingrained thing.  At my family’s Christmas celebration this year, we all tuned in to the REPLAY of game 6 of the World Series that was broadcast on Christmas day, because that’s just how psyched St. Louisans were for the Cards this year.  And we cheered!  And we talked about the chills that said game still caused to spread down our spines.  My aunt, who I had just asked to postpone her questions about how I was doing because they were about to show a key play, had to ask Double S incredulously if there really was a team in Seattle.  (Answer: Not really).  My aunt proceeded to ask Double S who she rooted for, as if she was meeting a gnome or troll from a faraway land with no Cardinals baseball as an instant point of reference.  Which was a bonus for Double S because, being Norwegian, she loves the shit out of the creepy trolls that are a part of her culture.  I’m more like Troy from Community when it comes to trolls.

Double S doesn't mind!

Anyway, a quick recap of just what the Cardinals did in 2011, for the uninitiated.  The Cardinals were 10½ games back in the wild-card race on Aug. 25. They were still 8½ games back with 21 games left. They were three games out with five to play. And four times they faced elimination in the postseason.  They played the best team in baseball and the World Series favorite Phillies in the division series, and won.  They played the Brewers, first place in the their shared division, and won.  By the way, I watched both series while sipping mai tais in Kauai.  Best sports watching ever!

They played the Texas Rangers in the World Series, also heavily favored and with Dubya and Laura cheering on the Rangers in the stands.

In your faces, Dubya and Nolan Ryan!

And won.  In game six of the World Series they were twice down to their last out, last strike.  Hometown hero David Freese twice kept them alive, in basically a story that every kid who ever played sports dreamed of.  A fan posted a video on You Tube that has basically the same epic, sweeping orchestral music that plays in my head when I think about those moments in the game.  Plus the goosebumps and slightly misty eyes.

I’ve always loved the Cards, and it was the 2011 miracle comeback season that reminded me how much.

Magical!

Refrigerator pickles! I kind of fell off the canning wagon last year, but I fell into a deliciously awesome vat of refrigerator pickles.  I didn’t blog much this past summer, but the bonus is that I now have a list of tried and true fridge pickle recipes to share with you all spring and summer long.  Later the same day as I originally wrote this I was alerted by some pals on Facebook of this.

And this:

We sure can!

Yep, it hits close to home. This past summer I made the following fridge pickles: sugar snap peas, tomatillos, okra (fucking awesome, bt dubs), regular old cucumbers three ways: fermented (natch!), with vinegar, and cucumber kimchi pickles, nasturtiums, garlic scapes, pearl onions, and prolly more that I’m forgetting.  Check it!

Turnips that I pickled into Lift, a traditional Lebanese pickle. I'm gonna blog about them this year, so prepare to be dazzled.

Pickled garlic scapes. Double S said the following about this picture: "Wow, this looks like their senior picture!" Isn't Double S great?

Nothing grows in the Pacific Northwest like peas. So I pickled that!

Traditional fermented pickles. Always a classic.

Katy Perry!  She just gets me.  Nah, but I did love “Last Friday Night (TGIF)”  She has headgear in the video!  Just like my girl Double S did back in the day!  True story!

Dogs!  I really really want one.

I'll have this kind!

My cat The Bear.  Just because he continues to be awesome.

Teevee!  We’re still in a golden age of good tv.  In 2011, we had no Mad Men.  Me mad!  But it’s back March 25th!  Counting the days!  In 2011, we still had the comic awesomeness of Community and Parks and Recreation.  And if you’re still not watching Community, eff you!  You’re the reason it’s not on NBC’s schedule this winter.

This is all your fault.

Chopped continues to be my go to cooking show where viewers can actually learn about cooking rather than manufactured drama.  Although, speaking of, I still like Top Chef.  Up All Night and New Girl and promising new comedies.  I tend to to be the overlord of our Netflix/Seattle Public library dvd queue, so I organize what we’ll watch during tv downtime.  We’ll typically binge on some acclaimed tv that we never got around to watching.   In 2011, Double S and I watched Deadwood.  So recommended, especially if you wanna see an awesome Calamity Jane and wish you used the word “cocksuckers” more than you currently do.   Do not be put off by the fact that it is a western!  Speaking of westerns, Justified had an amazing season and one of the best villians in Mags Bennett that I’ve seen on tv.  We also binged on a little seen show from 2008 called Swingtown, about life in the Chicago suburbs in 1976.  We watched it in April and still refer to the characters and (awesome!  (see below)) music therein.    Friday Night Lights came to its conclusion, and yep, it is one of the all time greats.  My heart is full but my eyes aren’t clear due to my tears!

"Television: Teacher, mother, secret lover!"

The music of the 1970s!  In case you’ve never read a word of this blog before, I’ll tell you something new: I love 80s music.  But I had never got into much 70s stuff till 2011.  I was born in 1975, mmkay?  My newfound appreciation kinda started when I watched the above mentioned underrated and cancelled too soon one season show from 2008 called Swingtown this past Spring.  Recommended!  Then I started downloading and getting 70s stuff from the library.  I’m not gonna front that I was getting into Led Zeppelin and all that.  Meh, not interested.  I’m talking pop and soul and country rock and adult contemporary.  Saturday in the Park by Chicago!  Jackie Blue by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils!

Ladies and gentlemen, from the great state of Missouri. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils! See, they look like today's hipster bands, but without all the whining about being 25 and adrift.

I Just Wanna Stop by Gino Vannelli!  Freddie’s Dead by Curtis Mayfield!  Crazy Love by Poco!   I love this one.  It reminds me of being 5 in my parents car, heading home to watch Looney Tunes and Laverne and Shirley reruns and the Electric Company.  Check out this trippy Hanna Barbera interpretation of “Crazy Love.”

Songs of the 70s were the soundtrack to our fancy camping this year.  Full circle!

Ok, that’s it for now, friends.  I hope your 2012 is treating you right.  Come back soon for some actual food blogging!  You know mixed with Huey Lewis videos, lolcats and 80s nostalgia.

What Have I Been Up To? Early Summer Preserving Update!

It’s July and the bounty is here, friends!  I was going to title this post something like “Prepping for Preserving,”  but then I realized I’ve probably pickled and dried and otherwise preserved more than most sane people do in a year.  Kinda like this commercial from my youth:

But with a little less tanks and guns, and a little more cukes and jams.  And just the same amount of  sweetass early 80s mustaches!

Anyway, July and August and September here in the Pacific Northwest bring strawberries, cherries, raspberries (We’re just eating the first off our bushes this year!), blackberries, tomatoes, cucumbers (mine are doing great so far!), peppers, apricots, peaches, nectarines, and apples.  And I’ve got plans for all of them!  So, before the truly busy(er) fruit and veggie months of August and September roll around, wanna see what I’ve been up to in May and June, preservation wise?

But first, see, I have a sort of game plan.   I evaluated what I did last year. I canned and pickled and fermented and otherwise preserved many things last year and blogged about most of them.  Duh doy if you were following along here on ohbriggsy!  So I evaluated my larder and freezer and shelves to see what was hot and what was not over the last year, to see what I want to try again and what I want to chalk up to a learning experience.

I checked my larder of canned items.  Wow, I canned a lot last year!  And a lot of it was a success and will be repeated.  Like my canned peaches.  They are a great snack, and also pretty sweet with greek yogurt.  And my pizza sauce.  My pizza sauce is the bomb, yos!  I also liked my dill pickle slices and dill relish.  More please! And my asparagus!  Great in a Saturday morning bloody mary!  And my pickled jalapenos and carrots!  These really grew on me.  Around here we toss a jar into our black beans for beans and rice, or top our nachos with them.  I can’t get enough of jalapenos in any of their forms.  So there will be more of them.  Oh and my concord grape jam (great on PB&Js!) and tomato soup (Wow.  I’ve gotta tell you about that tomato soup and jam!) that I didn’t blog about!  And my raspberry lemonade concentrate.  What still sits on the shelves collecting dust is my Salsa Criolla, rhubarb jam, strawberry jam, apricot jam. Get the pattern?  The jam was good, but we don’t eat a lot of jam.  It was a great item to gift during the holidays, but that took a lot of work when my ass could just go get a gift card.  So this year, no more jams.   Well except maybe a sour cherry jam, because I’m intrigued by cherries this year, as I did nothing with them last year and cherries are truly awesome.  And, well, I do bake much more bread now, so maybe some freezer jams?  See, I need professional help.

I wanna can new stuff too!  Like aforementioned sour cherry jam!  And cherry and apple pie fillings!  And more!

Anyway, all of that to say, here’s what I’ve been up to, preservation wise in the late spring/early summer.

First, I thought about what I like to do in the summer.  And, well, we like to sit on our deck and get our drink on around here.  So when rhubarb finally got red, I made it boozy.

I made the Tigress’s rhubeena, and rhubodka (Cheap vodka infused with rhubarb, with a complicated sounding yet whimsical name!) from here.

Rhubodka basically involved obtaining rhubarb, cleaning a large jar, and going to the liquor store to buy vodka. Then combine all three and let it sit in your basement for a month. Easy peezy!

I got a lot of rhubarb at the farmer’s market this year, but wasn’t much of a fan of anything I did with it last year.  I made a low sugar rhubarb jam last year that was pretty meh and decidedly not a hit here at the homestead, so this year I just experimented with rhubarb and alcohol.  Infusions are easy and quick, and you can infuse many of your favorite alcohols with many of your favorite fruits.  This year, I also made a traditionally Polish rhubarb cordial that I found here.

From left, Polish rhubarb cordial, rhubodka, and rhubeena.

I’m intrigued by the Polish cordial because first you let the rhubarb steep in vodka for a week.  After a week, separate the rhubarb from the vodka.  Let the newly infused rhubarb vodka sit in it’s own jar.  In a second jar, add sugar to the rhubarb chunks you just strained and let that marinate for a month.  After a month, combine both and strain out the rhubarb, and let that age for several months.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

But that wasn’t all!  I also made David Lebovitz’s strawberry vodka.  You can’t go wrong with David Lebovitz.

I spent a lot of the holiday weekend rinsing, hulling, and slicing strawberries.

But making the vodka was a snap!

Pour a 750 ml bottle of vodka onto your cleaned, hulled and quartered pound and a quarter or so of berries...

Yep! Before the shake...

And after. Now let it sit for a week or so, strain and you're done!

Alcohol infusions are easy and fun.  I’ve also read about whiskey infused with cherries, and tequila infused with strawberries. I still have plans to buy these.  Man, the friendly folks at the Washington Liquor Control Board stores are gonna think I have a problem.  But, I’m making infusions, I’ll say!  Sure you are, they’ll say!   All of that to say, take a fruit you like and infuse its essence into the booze you like.  It’s just that easy!

Did I mention that Double S and I went strawberry picking again this year?  Yep!

We got Shuksans! But just for Double S's strawberry shortcake and for snacking...

Then we hit Remlinger Farms for some good ol’fashioned 3rd of July strawberry picking!

The field was crowded with camera and iphone toting strawberry pickers!

The berries were ripe and delicious. And according to the 15 year old weighing the berries, they were Rainiers. They were of really varying sizes and shapes due to the erratic weather of the NW spring of 2011.

4osomeodd pounds worth! See I told you, I can't help it!

You need to move with a quickness if you pick strawberries.  They are fragile and pretty much need to be processed within 24 hours.

Besides making strawberry libations, I also froze and dried strawberries.  Which reminds me of my game plan.   When planning for this summer, I inspected our dried fruit collection from last year, which was easy because that shit was gone long ago, minus a few stray leftover dried peaches.  All that to say, dried fruit was a big success at the homestead, and I plan to dry even more of it.   Last year, I dried so many apricots I thought we’d never run out, but we did by late winter.  Dried fruit proved to be an awesome snack, or “Nature’s Candy!” as I liked to wholesomely refer to it.  Plus, Double S discovered that it worked swimmingly in her incredible homemade granola.  Last year we dried apricots and peaches, a few cherries and made some strawberry fruit leather.  This year, I plan to drythe majority of apricots I can get my hands on, instead of the apricot jam that still sits on the shelf, and dry sliced strawberries to skip the hassle of fruit leather.  Nectarines are surprisingly good dried, but dried peaches I found to be a failure.  I think it was the peaches.  Drying fruit, just like canning it or eating it fresh, must be done with the best quality fruit you can find.  Bland fresh peaches will be even blander dried peaches.  But dang!  It’s hard to put an exceedingly juicy fresh peach in a dehydrator.  But this year, I will make the leap! Drying is easy.  We have several driers we scored at thrift stores.  Or you can dry fruit in a sunny window if you don’t live in Seattle, or in a 145 degree oven.  I’ve read that some people dry it on cookie sheets covered with wax paper in their cars on hot days!  No energy used at all, and you can dry a lot of fruit at once.  Color me intrigued.  When I finally fully accept my late 30s hippiedom, I’m gonna try this method.    You’ll be the first to know.  Well, my neighbors will be the first, watching me checking my car incessantly in my undies all August.  But you’ll be second.  Promise.

When drying the fruit, make sure it’s dry when you put it into the oven/dehydrator, and that the fruit pieces are not touching one another.  Dipping the fruit in a solution of one juiced lemon to a few  cups water will help preserve the color.  Store bought dried fruit often contains sulfur dioxide to preserve color.  That shit is nasty, and it makes me wheeze.  Lemons are all you need!  The fruit is done when its chewy, not crispy or squishy.

With my excess of strawberries, I decided to dry some.  I sliced them in either halves or thirds, depending on the berry.

I arranged them on the trays of my dehydrator.

And the next day I had a bowl full of dried strawberries! These will have to be coveted, because, wow, a lot of berries turned into a medium-sized bowl of dried delicious orbs.

I also made jam.  But I decided it was too hot to can.  I guess I’m a true Seattleite.  80 degrees and I can’t bear the thought of my canning pot and it’s inherent steam. So I made freezer jam.  Why didn’t I know how easy freezer jam is?

I tossed this together after work in mere minutes!

First, I whirled enough berries in my food processor to makes 4 cups of puree.  Then I mixed one and a half cups of sugar with a package of freezer jam pectin.  You can also use Pomona’s pectin to avoid the preservatives.  I stirred that with the berries for several minutes to avoid clumps, then into those cute lil’ Ball plastic containers for freezer jam.  Easy and much lower in sugar.

Besides my canning and drying, I also pickled just about everything I could get my hands on. And I got my hands on a lot!  Backstory: Refrigerator pickles were a great success here at the homestead over the last year.  My ferments are long gone and I just finished the fridge pickles.  I made a big mistake with my refrigerator cucumber pickles though.  I made a shit ton of them, ended up loving them and all the while had a sense of dread because I didn’t write down my recipe.  By the time I made them, I was hella sick of preserving.  It was September and I was using all the cukes from my garden before they went bad.  Whatever I came up with was epic, but now I’ve gotta do that annoying thing where I try to recreate them but of course can’t recreate them perfectly so I’ll always compare them to last year’s.  All of that to say, write down your recipes or how you alternate from recipes!  You may think this is just some quick pickle you’re tossing together, but what if you love it?  What the eff will you do then?  Answer: Cry.  But keep trying!  This year, I keep a small notebook in the kitchen to memorialize my creations.

So a’pickling I went over the last few weeks.  I pickled anything I could find in my garden.  This is the first year I’ve grown garlic, and the most awesome surprise was the beautiful scape that grew at the top of each plant.  I saw them and marveled at their swirly beauty.  But I thought nothing of it. I walked by perfect bunches of them at the farmer’s market.  But I was just like…

Finally I realized that I can, nay, should pickle these bad boys.  I read a beautiful blog post about canning scapes, but I wanted that crisp crunch that only a ferment can provide, but I was scared (as I always am with fermenting) that I’d eff them up, so I made some scape fridge pickles as well.

Our garlic grew beautiful curly scapes!

And I supplemented them with bundles of scapes from the farmer's market, cuz I wanted to get creative!

If you grow garlic, and you plant it in the fall, May and June are the perfect months to harvest your scapes while they’re nice and tender.  Cutting the scapes also helps the plant focus it’s energy on making the bulb as big as possible.  Win, win.

I made garlic scape refrigerator pickles three ways.  I used the basic brine recipe of one cup vinegar to one cup water to one tablespoon kosher salt.  I made an Italian style garlic scape pickle, with red wine vinegar, and fresh basil and oregano from my garden.  Then I made more of an Asian inspired scape, with rice wine vinegar, a dash of soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, chili flakes and a dash of sesame oil.  Finally, I made more of a traditional pickle scape with white wine vinegar and cider vinegar, fresh dill, and mustard and coriander seeds.

Scapes, ready for their brines!

From left, traditional pickle, Italian style pickle, Asian style pickle.

Also, I tried fermenting them!  I used the larger jar seen in the above picture, and I used a combo of spices that yielded much success with my fermented pickles last year.  My secret: I threw in some kombucha to get the fermentation process rolling.  It works!  Just add about a fourth of a cup or so to your ferments. You can also add whey or store bought cultures to do this, but kombucha is perfect and semi-vinagery for this purpose.  For this ferment, I used enough scapes to fill a one quart jar, 1/4 cup kombucha, 8 cups water and 4 Tablespoons kosher salt.  I then added pickling spices: juniper berries, fresh dill, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, and pink peppercorns.  I just checked them yesterday, after they have been fermenting one week.  They smell like garlic and they are delicious!  Check out the brine after one week!

That's the cloudy brine of success, pickle-wise!

Ferments are working well in the NW right now, because we’re actually having some summer weather, and warm (not hot) weather speeds up the fermentation process.  After you make your brine, sit the jar on your counter out of the sun for about a week.  Taste the brine and when you like it, put the jar in the fridge for additional aging.  Don’t be afraid of a little mold that you might find on top when you first check it.  Just skim it off.

The other major harvest so far in my garden have been sugar snap peas.  We planted ours late, but our harvest has been just as great.  We have grown these for the last 3 years and pretty much just snack on them.  This year, I needed something new.  After googling, I found this and they are AWESOME.

A new taste sensation. Speaking of... music break!

Gratuitous Arsenio Hall action.  Long live the dog pound!

Anyway, I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, but I added more garlic and a bit more tarragon fresh from my garden.  I made these Friday and as I write this they were already pretty near close to awesome and truly a new pickle taste sensation for yours truly.  If you perchance can still get snap peas, do try this!

But wait, there’s more!  Asparagus!  I didn’t grow it but I saw it everywhere, so you know I gotsta pickle it!  Asparagus is probably a distant memory for my more easterly friends now that it’s July , but here in the NW it’s still available.  Last year I canned pickled asparagus and it was a hit.  I made a basic brine, but in some jars I put a chipotle pepper with adobo.  In others, a few lemon slices.  And in others, fresh homemade horeseradish.  This year, again, I decided just to make refrigerator asparagus pickles.  They’re crunchier and just snappier, and they last a long time in the fridge.   As I said, my fridge pickles and ferments flew off the shelves, while many of my canned pickles still sit gathering dust.

So I pickled asparagus last week, which I adapted from here, minus the allspice cuz that’s just nasty, and with the addition of some new things like celery seeds, cumin, fennel seeds, and sumac.  As my dad used to say when we asked him for stuff, we’ll see!

I blanched them then dunked them in an ice bath. The resulting color was amazing.

Whadda green! Speaking of... next music break!

Finally, I even got a taste of my favorite kind of pickling of all.  Cucumbers!  Squeal!  I found my first of the season cukes at the Yakima Farmer’s Market two weekends ago whilst on a camping trip, and they were organic Japanese cukes to boot!

I gasped when I saw and tasted these gems!

Japanese cukes brought from Yakima to the homestead.

I made a quick pickle, and used ponzu for the first time.  I used 1.5 pounds of Japanese cukes, 1 1/2 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar, 3/4 cup ponzu, 4 garlic cloves, juice of 4 limes, cilantro sprigs, scallions, salt, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce.  Wowee zowee these are the shit a week and a half later!

The chili garlic sauce was a last minute addition, but again, how can you go wrong?

All pickled and ready to rest!

Finally, I scrounged for whatever is on sale and pickle that too.  I know jalapenos aren’t in season yet, but I found a stash in the dollar bin at my local fruit stand, and I made my favorite pickled jalapeno.  David Lebovitz…is there anything he can’t do?

Ok, now that I’ve got my spring training done, I’m ready for the majors.  Let’s go!  What have you pickled so far this year?  And if you haven’t, get ye to the vinegar aisle of your favorite store and go to town!