Bread and Butter Pickles

I went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and cucumbers were everywhere. It is pickle season!!!! I bought two pails and made some dill pickles and bread and butter pickles. I remember my mom making bread and butter pickles when I was a kid. The distinct smell of warm vinegar and spices filled the air. I didn't much care for the smell when I was a kid but my sense of smell seems to have matured and now I love it. Here is the recipe I used from The Complete Book of Year Round Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard. It is a nice book with all sorts of recipes for jams, chutneys, relishes and pickles that use, as the title suggests, small amounts of fruits and vegetables.

Best Bread and Butter Pickles

4lb small pickling cucmbers

4 small onions, thinly sliced

1 sweet green pepper, cut in thin strips

1 sweet red pepper, cut in thin strips

2 Tbsp pickling salt

4 cups cider vinegar

3 cups granulated sugar

2 Tbsp mustard seeds

1 tsp celery seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Cut a thin slice from the ends of each cucumber and cut into medioum thick slices, about 3/16 inch. Place cucumbers, onions and peppers in a non-reactive container, sprinkle with salt and let stand for 3 hours; drain. Rinse twice and drain thoroughly.

Combine vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, turmeric and cloves in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add vegetables and return to a boil for 30 seconds or just until cucumbers are no longer bright green.

Remove hot jars from canner. Remove vegetables from liquid with a slotted spoon; pack into jars. Pour liquid over vegetables to within 1/2 inch of rim. Process 10 minutes for pint jars and 15 minutes for quart jars.

Arugula

I planted arugula for one reason, a salad I had over 13 years ago while on vacation in St. John, US Virgin Islands. I had never had it before but after trying it I, occasionally, would re-create the salad. It was a very simple salad of arugula, toasted walnuts, goat cheese and a very mild vinaigrette. I have been enjoying this salad for a good while this summer, but last night I found myself without goat cheese (woe is me!) in the house, but I had a mango. So I made the exact same salad and sliced the mango into it. I actually think it is better than the original. The spicy arugula, tart and salty vinaigrette, earthy walnuts and sweet mango was an amazing combination. While I haven't measured exactly the ingredients, here is the recipe. Be sure to taste the vinaigrette as you make it so it suits your taste.

Arugula, Mango and Walnut Salad

large bunch of arugula, washed

handful of walnuts, toasted

1 mango sliced

1 clove garlic

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp mustard

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil or more to taste

salt and pepper

To toast the walnuts put them in a small pan over medium high heat and leave for about 3-5 minutes stirring often making sure they dont burn. When they start to brown and you can smell a nice toasted nutty smell they are done. Remove from pan and set aside.

To make viniagrette mash together the salt and garlic clove to make a paste. Add the garlic paste to the mustard, vinegar and stir. Slowly pour olive oil into vinegar mixture all the while whisking. This will form a nice emulsion. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put it all together. Put arugula walnuts and mango in a bowl and drizzle enough vinaigrette to coat but not drown salad. Toss. Serve immediately

Variation To make the original salad substitute crumbled goat cheese for the mango.

What's your favorite arugula recipe? As you can see, I have a lot in my garden!

Coconut Macaroons

This weekend we are going to a celebratory gathering for my nephews high school graduation. I offered to bring some cookies and so began a search through cookbooks for a good cookie. I believe there will be a lot of kid food there so I wanted to have something that would appeal more to the adults in the crowd. I was thinking I would make some frosted lemon cookies. I will admit the amount of work the recipe I found was going to take made me hesitate. But then, I found a recipe for coconut macaroons. I had never made them, but do really love them. The recipe called for only four ingredients, and while the baking time was long, the whipping up time was short. They are really sweet, but mmmmm, mmmmmm good!

A few notes on the recipe...first off it calls for cake flour but I used regular flour and it worked just fine. It also calls for loosely packed coconut, but I would pack it fairly well, my first batch was very flat and sticky. After adding more coconut I was able to get a nice mound shape that held. And finally, I used both parchment paper and a silicone mat for lining the baking sheets and the parchment paper was the hands down best.

So, here is the recipe which came from Baking in America by Greg Patent. Enjoy!

Coconut Macaroons

1/2 cup cake flour

2 1/2 cups loosely packed sweetened flaked coconut

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Line a baking sheet with cooking parchment or a silicone liner. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour and coconut, tossing well with your fingertips to coat the coconut with the flour. Add the condensed milk and vanilla and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until well combined. The mixture will be stiff.

Spoon rounded regular teaspoonsful of the mixture onto the baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart and making 20 mounds.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the baking sheet from front to back once during baking. Increase the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 6 to 10 minutes more, only until the macaroons are golden brown all over; do not overbake. Carefully transfer to cooling racks and cool completely. Serve very fresh.