Sweet and Spicy

We made our annual trek out to see some friends in Seaside, Oregon, yesterday. With the name of their town, you might think they live right near the beach. Although their mailing address is Seaside, the town doesn't actually end up by the sea for another half hour or so west of their place. Nevertheless, it does have that beachy, marine air feel some of the time. Yesterday, it was just plain August hot.

We see these friends (and their friends, and friends of their friends) once per year. It's a sit-around-and-listen-to-certain-men yack session. Sometimes I enjoy going out, and generally, we make a weekend of it. (It's a weekend-long party.) When we do that, we take our camper, and the camper is a nice place to take a break from people and noise. Right now, Erik and Mae have our camper while they complete a bathroom remodel, and so we were just there for the afternoon. It was less enjoyable that way, and I really just wanted to be at home sewing. Nevertheless, it was a good day for the most part and now we're back home again.

During the day, I generally get out with my cameras and take a walk around the place. There's always plenty to see and look at, especially when one's focus is on the tiny things. I had my camera loaded with a macro lens yesterday so that I could take pictures of every little thing. Here's what I saw:

I love the blooming grasses at this time of the year, and they always glisten in the late afternoon sun.

Who doesn't love a good dandelion close-up? Most of the dandelions had spread their seeds, but there were a few left that were mostly intact.

These are like tiny little apples. I don't know what they are or if they're good to eat. They're smaller than a marble.

This little bunch had a critter on it.

This is called Queen Anne's Lace.

Here's how it looks in bud.

There are some little volunteer fir seedlings around.

And this little feather, about an inch long.

Later in the day, our shadow selves went out together.

They saw these little crabapples...about the size of a golf ball.

And the berries of these Alder trees. Mike's shadow self Googled them to see if they were edible, and that was a definite and loudly spoken NO! According to Google, "The fruits of the alder buckthorn are very TOXIC." And we're not talking about lower case "toxic." No, this is ALL CAPS "TOXIC," so put your hands in your pockets until we get by here.

Also, these little white flowers. They had a critter too.

This is some sort of succulent growing in the garden. Our friend was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She seems to be doing well and she has a happy spirit, but her garden has suffered and grown over in blackberries, which is kind of sad.

The blackberries are producing fruit, but I always stand in solidarity with Mike and his shadow self and we don't eat these seeded berries.

And I love the look of stacks of firewood. I don't know why, but I simply have to take a picture when I see them like this.

So getting back to the goings on here at the Three Cats Ranch this morning, I received my Pickle Crisp from Amazon. Although I pickle a lot of things, I don't make a lot of pickles per se. And so I only knew about Pickle Crisp from the canning pages I've seen on Facebook. Today I'm using a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that called for Pickle Crisp. It's an alternative to lime in pickles (don't ask me...I don't know), and it's really just granules of calcium carbonate. I'm assuming it lives up to its name and keeps the pickles crisp.

So I looked for it in the grocery store the other day and couldn't find it. Instead, while I was standing there in the aisle of the grocery store, I consulted my friend Google about the Pickle Crisp. As it turns out the parent company of Ball (Jarden) produced a powdered Pickle Crisp at some point in time. When it didn't sell well (by their judgment), they took it off the market. The clamor of canners looking for Pickle Crisp was loud enough that they re-released the product, this time in granular form. I found it on Amazon, and ordered it from where I stood. It was delivered yesterday. I ♥ Amazon Prime. No really. I really ♥♥♥ it. If I wasn't already married to another man, I would beg Amazon Prime to let me have its babies.

So today's adventure is a sweet and spicy bread and butter pickle. (You probably thought I was talking about myself with that title up there didn't you?) Our farmers love their peppers, and at this point into the season, they start showering us with peppers. We're just barely getting started, let me tell you. This last share included serranos, jalapenos, and these Italian wax peppers.

So my recipe uses nearly 3 pounds of the zucchini (more than half of what I have...bonus!), 3 jalapenos, and four shallots. And while I don't generally go monkeying around with canning recipes, I added the two Italian wax peppers too. There's enough vinegar in this mix that it shouldn't be a problem adding a little more low-acid veggies to the mix. As I'm writing this, I've done the slicing and now it's sitting in salt for the next three hours.

When time's up, I'll drain it, pack it into jars with the spices, and pour the hot vinegar over, and then process it. I'll have to get back to you and tell you how it turns out.

Aside from that I'll be making lists today so I can get the RV packed for our trip to the beach next week. It's our first outing in the new RV, and so I'm excited about that. If there's any time for sewing today, I'll get to work on August's Tuxedo Tales cat.