If you can slice a cucumber and own a microwave,
you can make these bread & butter pickles.
I have already made a batch of the pickles today. They are delicious!!! They are crispy. The flavors are subtle and the perfect proportions. Easy peasy! I will make them again. I agree that the onions would be the perfect addition to potato salad. I am thrilled!
Goodnightgram does not exaggerate.
Yes. Bev's pickle recipe I posted yesterday is indeed easy enough to make with a 4-year-old dancing and singing around me as I work. And a baby who stayed right under my feet, hoping I'd drop something for her to pick up and put in her mouth. But, it did take me two days to get to the "cooking" part.
Yesterday afternoon I washed the cucumbers from the garden. I found the onion. I set out all the spices and the vinegar. I was going to make the pickles after everyone went to bed. That didn't happen. I fell in bed as soon as I read a bedtime story to Little Sister.
This morning after I got back from the dentist, I was determined to get the pickles made before the cucumbers were beyond using. I used my mandoline* to slice my cucumbers quickly. (It probably took me as long to find the safety release on the mandoline was as it did to make the pickles.)
Bev is right. Once you find the right size dish, this gets even easier. I used my postal scale to weigh cucumbers. I learned that three cucumbers from the garden weighed roughly one pound. So I sliced nine cucumbers and measured them---just about 8 cups. I used a 2-1/2 quart Corningware casserole for the cooking part. It looked like it was nearly too small when I added cucumbers and the onion (had to leave out a few cukes.) But as they cooked in the microwave, they started to cook down.
This dish was full to the top before the microwaving and cooling.
When the microwave part was done, we had lunch while they cooled on the counter. By the time lunch was over, there were a couple of inches left at the top of the dish. Next time I'll slice my onion into that dish, then slice cucumbers in until the dish is full. No weighing. No measuring.
So thank you, Bev for the recipe. And thank you, Goodnightgram, for the encouragement to do these today. These are as good as the ones my mother used to make. And much easier. I am so happy to have this recipe.
*The only accident related visit to the ER I've ever had was years back when I sliced my finger badly as I was slicing vegetables with a mandoline. Use a mandoline with GREAT CAUTION.
Please stop by Goodnightgram's Blog and say hello! She's also a grandmother and a knitter and lives in a very different part of the country from me. I love seeing what life is like in the far north.
How fun to come for a visit and read that you ahve made the pickles now, too. You and I must have used the same size cukes because I weighed mine and determined that I needed nine, too. Fun! I don't have a Corningware casserole dish, but I have a microwaveable Dutch oven and it must be slightly bigger than your casserole because I got all the cukes in right at the start. So much fun to read about your process. Other than that, we pretty much had the same fun at opposite ends of the country! My end is cooler right now. :-) So thanks again to you and Bev. That mandoline accident gave me the shivers. My goodness!
ReplyDeleteI searched for a bigger dish, but couldn't find a thing larger than 2-1/2 qt. Slightly larger would make it easier to stir.
DeleteThe upside of the mandoline accident was that I had to keep my finger bandaged and dry for 10 days. No washing dishes!!!
These look delicious. Unfortunately, I don't have a garden. Funny how early my bedtime gets when I have the grandchildren for a few days!
ReplyDelete