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!

Wedding Cookie Buffet

A couple months ago I was honored to plan, decorate and coordinate a special couples big day. Seemingly endless paper decorations, hand stamped tags and a beautiful cookie buffet were some of the visual highlights. The wonderful photgrapher that day was Victoria Carlson. Her photos are so intimate and warm. They blow me away. She offered to send me some photos of the work I did at the event and I am happy to share them with you. 

Dog Feathers

I am a dog nerd. I spend a lot of time with my dogs and train and compete in sports with all three of them - kinda like a soccer mom. Owning a pet supply store only fuels my dog mania. 

This weekend Mischa and Toby had an agility trial and I wanted to spruce them up for the big day. I have seen a couple of companies with pet feather extensions. Crazy! Of course and I am in! I didn't want to pay the high price of these pre made feather extensions since I expected them to chew them out pretty quickly. So I decided to make my own from the stash of feathers I had from my wedding. 

I went to Sally Beauty Supply and picked up some extension beads and a hook to pull the hair through the bead. I also needed some needle nose pliers - they have special pliers for extension beads - but since I am only putting in one it didn't make sense to pay $35 for special pliers. I picked out some feathers and held them in the shape I wanted then tied the ends together tightly with thread and tied them to secure them. 

I found a spot behind Toby's ear and threaded the hair through the bead. I then put the feather ends into the bead and pinched the whole bead flat holding it all in place in his hair. 

Isn't he cute! I picked natural feathers for Toby - he is a boy after all. 

For Mischa I picked hot purple feathers and put them on her hip so they would stick out from under her tail. So pretty. 

We had a lot of compliments at the agility trial. The great thing is it does not bother the dog and are easily removed without cutting the hair. 

The sweet taste of sugar

I must confess - I am a sugar addict. 

It starts in the morning with iced coffee sweetened with artificial sweetener or simple syrup. If we are at a favorite coffee shop I might add on some sort of sweet as breakfast otherwise cereal with fruit and either sugar or artificial sweetener again. 

I try to find time to bring a "healthy" lunch to work. Salad of some sort, yogurt and fruit. I usually get bored sometime during the day and start snacking on something that contains sugar or salt. A diet soda to wash it down - bored stress eating.

I finish the day with a meal of some kind and occasionally a sweet to end the day. 

If I am bored, stressed or overly hungry I often will reach for the wrong type of quick snack that leaves me with a sugar crash yearning for more sugar. 

Sometimes life can get so busy and crazy that I don't notice I am wrecking myself until it is almost too late. Lately I have been not sleeping well. I have had no energy in the afternoon and I just noticed that my sugar and sugar substitute consumption was quite high. 

I knew I needed a drastic overhaul. I worry about my weight of course, but I also have wrist tendonitis and I know that sugar is a culprit of inflammation. I know I want to feel better so cutting sugar out is where I am going to start. This will be no small feat - take for example the Nectarine Oat Cake I baked today. Not even a bite and that hurts. 

The goal is no sugar for 30 days. Today is day one. This includes artifical sweeteners. Also no prepared products with sweetener - honey, stevia, molasses etc. I am good about reading labels but need to be diligent. This means lots of fresh whole foods. I will let myself eat fruit. A couple of pieces a day. 

Yesterday I needed to get my pantry and fridge in order so I could be prepared for this adventure. I bought fruit and greens for smoothies and found two amazing cereals that have no sugar. One is a Museli and the other a locally made hot cereal. I need cereal. It is how I start my day off right. 

Today I put together a orzo and garden vegetable salad for me and Mr. Ramon to take to work. 

I think the hardest thing will be my coffee. I always drink sweetened coffee. I have not had any coffee today since the thought of black coffee made me sad. So I feel tired. Iced tea maybe? With lemon. 

I expect to have a lot to share with you as I experience this over the next 30 days. 

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?