Spicy Pickle Spears

I’ve had many (well maybe only two) people ask me recently what’s going on with my blog and why I haven’t posted in a little while. Well in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been doing/am in the middle of some redesign. After almost five years of running things on Blogger, I’ve decided it’s time to put my big boy pants on and switch over to WordPress. I wanted everything to be perfect before sharing it with everyone, but who knows how long that might take. Slowly but surely I’ll be going through all of my old posts to make sure they look as they should—so I ask that you be patient with me as I work through these formatting issues. Now onto the food…

My air conditioner is running daily, so that means that we’re in the full swing of summer. With that comes an abundance of fruits and vegetables. I’ve never personally taken part of a CSA (yet), but though many love getting the bounty of fresh produce each week, they sometimes feel overwhelmed and don’t know what to do with everything. One easy solution is pickling! This way you’ll get to enjoy these great products well into the fall (and winter if they last that long). One of my favorites is pickled cucumbers. In this recipe I use a store bought pickling spice that I enhanced with some red pepper flakes and some minced garlic. If you’re really ambitious, I’m sure you can even find some great pickling spice mix recipes online to make your own. I made these about a month ago and still have a couple left in my refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 Tbsps. (or so) pickling spice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 1/4 lbs. kirby cucumbers, quartered
• 1/4 cup salt

Procedure:

1. Place water, vinegar, sugar, pickling spice, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a pot. Bring to a simmer to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes.
2. While the pickling liquid is going, slice your cucumbers and toss with the salt. Let them hang out in the salt while the pickling liquid is steeping.
3. Pour the pickling liquid over the cucumbers. Place in the refrigerator, and ideally leave them alone for a day or two before enjoying.

What do you all think of the new design?