Pickle Time

This summer has had a hold on me like no Seattle summer ever has. Mostly due to our new outdoor space for gardening and entertaining. Our garden gave us much satisfaction with its meager yields. Gardening in the PNW holds it own unique challenges like slow starting summer and lack of sun. This lead to some disappointments and my biggest one was my pickling cucumber plants never grew. Pickling is one of my favorite things to do and this year I again had to pick up my cucumbers from the local farmers market. 

I find pickling so easy and fun. It is something anyone can do. And you can pickle so many vegetables - carrots, beets, cucumbers, okra and the list goes on. With these cucumbers I decided to do some spears and burger chips. 

I started by washing them then slicing them the way I want to pickle them. The spears I just cut lengthwise into slices and the burger chips I sliced on my mandolin. 

I washed and sterilized my jars ina boiling water bath. 

The smell of fresh dill is so amazing. I also picked this up at the farmers market. 

I got my water bath set up and on high. Then I made my brine. 

Pickling Brine

4 cups white vinegar
4 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup pickling & preserving salt

Bring all ingredients to a boil. 

In each jar I put:

1 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon pickling spice
1 head fresh dill

1 dried pepper (I like them spicy but this can be omitted)

Once the herbs and spices are crammed at the bottom I fill the jar with the pickle slices. I make sure to fit them in there nice.

Once all the jars are filled I fill them with hot brine and put the lids and bands on. They go into the water bath (make sure they are completely submerged) for 10 minutes. Pull them out and let them cool on the counter. Now let them sit for at least 3 months and you have amazing pickles!

Here I am!

I bet you thought I disappeared. Me too. Summer is coming to an end here in Seattle and there has been a mad scramble of weddings, BBQs and events. While I have loved seeing my friends and celebrating with everyone for so many reasons, I think that the end of summer has me down. I have a lot of things coming up as we transition into early fall - pickling, readying the garden for winter, last ditch yard efforts, basement cleaning and the such. I will be sure to share it all with you. 

The neighborhood my store sits in had a block party with yummy food trucks. Mr. Ramon brought these delicious items back to me for lunch. I can't remember the name of the food truck but the food was divine - some little pork taco type snacks and some type of warm sugar sprinkled donut. Mr. Ramon know just how to make me happy. 

We have been eating a lot of zucchini. I love it and am not even close to sick of it yet. One night I just sauteed one of our sweet onions from the garden in butter and olive oil then added the sliced yellow zebra zucchini and cremini mushrooms, some thyme, salt pepper until just soft. Sprinkled some parmesan on it and yum! Eating from the garden tastes so good. 

While we wait and hope that our larger tomato varieties both paste and slicing ripen before the weather turns. We have had many cherry tomatoes and they are sweet like candy. Perfect for a quick salad.

On Labor Day Mr. Ramon and I had the day off so we went to Whidbey Island again with the dogs. We took our friend Kalin and her two dogs and let them all run on the beach for a few hours. It was such a gorgeous day. It really made me wish summer would never leave. 

I hope you are enjoying the end of summer. What fun things are you doing to make these days last? 

Tomato Summer Squash Gratin

When planting our first garden together this summer I knew that squash would be easy to grow and provide us with some actual "eating from the garden" satisfaction. I also know that squash can overrun a garden and leave you with piles and piles to work through. 

We decided to plant several summer squash and a early winter squash. We put in Spineless Beauty Zucchini, Yellow Zebra Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash - all organic starts from our local nursery. We have had a nice steady flow of squash this summer and have enjoyed them grilled, in bread and raw in salads. 

I was super excited to grow my own tomatoes but knew I needed to be ready for disappointment if summer just didn't bring enough heat. But the good news is - I can get beautiful local, organic tomatoes at our neighborhood co-op. 

I think the idea of a summer gratin sounds delish. Actually the idea of anything gratin sounds good to me. To "gratin" something means to top it with a browned crust of breadrumbs, grated cheese, and/or butter. In this case I want to take care how I prepare the veges as these two items can get soupy and mushy when cooked due to their high moisture content. But once you have a good technique in place you have a wonderful summer dish that is good fresh out of the over or room temperature. 

Summer Vegetable Gratin 

• 1lb of summer squash sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• 1lb of zucchini sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• 4 large tomatoes sliced in 1/4 inch slices
• 2 onions sliced thin 
• olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• salt/pepper
• 1 cup bread crumbs fresh or dried
• 2 shallots minced
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Toss sliced summer squash and zucchini with 1 tablespoon of salt and place in colander to drain. Drain for about 1 hour. Arrange squash and zucchini on a folded kitchen towel or several papertowels, cover with another towel or more papertowels and press to remove any additional liquid. 

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Oil a 13x9 baking dish. 

Arrange tomato slices on a kitchen towel or several paper towels. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of salt and let stand 30 minutes. 

Preheat a skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil and sautee your onions on medium low heat until they are soft and brown - about 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 

Place another towel or paper towels on top of tomatoes and press to remove liquid. 

In a small bowl combine garlic, 3 tablespoons oil, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and thyme. In large bowl, toss zucchini and summer squash in half of oil mixture.

First layer the zucchini and summer squash in the bottom of the 13x9 baking dish. Spread the onions over the squash evenly. Next layer the tomoaotes over the onions overlapping as necessary. Drizzle the rest of the oil mixture over the tomatoes. Bake until tomatoes are brown on the edges and vegetables are soft. About 45 minutes.

In a bowl mix the bread crumbs, shallots, parmesan and salt/pepper to taste. Turn oven broiler on. Sprinkle bread crumb cheese mixture over vegetables and put under broiler until topping is brown and crispy. Remove from oven and let sit 10-15 minutes before serving. 

We enjoyed this with a yummy roast chicken on the patio with some good friends. It was a perfect summer meal!

Raw Garden Salad

The best thing about growing your own food is eating it! With this warm weather I swear I can see my zucchini grow. Wanting to stay ahead of the squash downpour about to happen I made Mr. Ramon a raw garden salad for work this week. It was really cool to be able to pull a few of our vegetables together to make this tasty salad. This salad is easy and fresh and crunchy. You can add almost any vegetable you have growing in your garden. 

Open, drain and rinse 2 cans of Cannellini Beans - place in medium bowl

Slice 2 small zucchinis lengthways into 4 pieces then chop into thin bites - place in bowl with beans

Slice three handfuls of green beans on the diagonal - add to bowl 

In a small separate bowl mix well- 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste 
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Pour over vegetables and mix until coated. I like to top the salad with crumbled feta cheese. This salad is even better the next day. 

Enjoy!!

How does your garden grow?

Of course I had high hopes when starting our garden this year. We eagerly built our beds and filled them with plants we were sure to see great results from. Wah Wah Wah! The combination of extended rain and no sun during some of our plants most important growing phases left us with some stunted plants and others just starting to take off at the end of July. 

Our pickling cucumbers never grew and are sad little plants only about 5 inches tall. Similarly our green beans never quite took off but are trying hard to produce beans on their stunted little stalks. 

All has not been lost. We have had a great run on lettuce, fava beans, radishes, potatoes and kale. We are just about to experience green beans and zucchini. Our cook neck squash and tomatoes are just setting and hopefully with the continued heat we can get to a harvest. 

I hope that your vegetables are faring better than ours. Would love to hear about your garden and what you have been harvesting!