Bread & Butter Pickles

My cucumbers have been doing fantastic—that’s about the only thing doing extremely well in my garden this year. We’ve had so much rain in our part of the world, it’s giving everyone fits with their gardens.
I’ve had an abundance of cucumbers. An “abundance” for me, maybe not for anyone else. Actually, I don’t even get enough at one time for a full batch of pickles, but I didn’t let that stop me from making some pickles. My sweet Jacob loves bread and butter pickles, but they must be homemade—none of that store-bought stuff for him. I was able to make two separate half batches from our garden and thought I’d share the recipe. Thankfully, batches of pickles (unlike jellies and jams) can be halved, doubled, or tripled and still have great results.
We have always used Southern Living's recipe. Bread and butters almost always turn out crunchy and they are super easy to make. Dill pickles can be so finicky and you don’t always get consistent results. I think the moon has to be just right and the proper stars aligned for dill pickles. (No, I’m not bitter at all.) Not so with bread and butters! The recipe on the SL website is for a smaller batch than the recipe in the cookbooks my mom and I have. Below is the recipe I used. I took pictures of most of the process, but with a two year old and a crawling 5.5 month old helping me, I missed a few steps.

My kitchen smells like HEAVEN while the pickles are getting mixed up and while they chill. The smell almost runs my husband out of the house but it smells divine to me, which is funny because I don’t care for bread and butter pickles at all.
Also, I’m assuming you know the basics of canning. If not, please visit here before starting.
Bread & Butter Pickles (Half Batch makes 5-6 pints)
3 lbs cucumbers, washed and sliced
2-3 medium onions, sliced
1 large bell pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/6 c. salt (original recipe calls for pickling salt, but we have always used regular salt and had great results)
Ice—crushed is best, but I’m still old school and have ice trays.
~~~~~
2 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 c. white vinegar
1 T. yellow mustard seeds
3/4 t. turmeric
3/4 t. celery seeds
~Combine the first 4 ingredients in a large dutch oven or pot. (I use my 11 quart soup pot. I’ve also just used a large Tupperware container, it just needs to be able to fit in your fridge.) Stir well, then add the salt and stir again.
Add ice and stir well to make sure the ice is distributed evenly throughout the pickle mixture.

Let chill in the fridge for 3 hours and drain. It’s ok if there is a little ice left, just so long as you get all of the water out. Set dutch oven on stove.
Mix together in a bowl remaining ingredients.

Pour over cucumber mixture and mix to coat.
Heat mixture til just boiling. Don’t let it boil for very long at all or you may end up with mushy pickles. Everything will turn a lovely mustard yellow color.

Immediately pack into hot jars (be sure and check the rims for nicks and make sure the rims are clean), put lids on and tighten rings finger tight. Place in a hot water bath canner, cover jars with water 2-3 inches above lids and process 10 minutes (let the jars boil for 10 minutes –set a timer) then remove with a jar lifter. Let jars set for at least 12 hours before moving them. Enjoying the happy popping sounds of the jars sealing!

A word about hot water baths: it’s a commitment. The recipe makes it sound so quick and simple. But it’s not. It takes FOREVER and a day for that massive pot of water to come to a boil. I think it took around an hour. And I started with warm water. Just warning you.

Summer Snapshots

What have I been up to lately? Here are a few glimpses into our life the last couple weeks.

Apple pie—yum ;)

A trip to the hayfield…..

Faith had to check the hay like Papa was to make sure it was dry enough to bale.

Faith “helping” me getting the pickles ready for their three hour chill.

Bread and butter pickles—my first batch ever. I’ve helped Mom make them over the years but these were my first to make alone.

We also made apple pie filling the same day we made pickles. I can’t wait to try it out!

Meet Fergus, the latest addition to the JHR spread ;) He is just a few hours old here.

And last but not least, here is Jacob and his little sweetheart being silly:

Dewberry Jelly—from Vine to Jar

   Yesterday I shared about picking dewberries (blackberries) and all of the fun that goes along with it. Picking berries and eating fresh berries is wonderful, but after you pick all of those luscious berries, what do you do with them?

    I came home late Friday evening and put my berries in the fridge with full intentions of juicing them the next day. We were gone all day Saturday and I wasn’t able to tend to the berries. Sunday afternoon I finally had a minute and was able to juice them. I was so worried that they had spoiled—some of the berries were very ripe—but thankfully they were just fine.

I have always loved canning and making jelly. There is such a sense of accomplishment and pride that comes with seeing all of your labor lined up in jars on shelves. I love listening to the happy popping sound of the jars sealing. While I was making the jelly yesterday I told Jacob that I really felt like a grown-up married lady now—making jelly in my own kitchen. ;) Even though we have been married for over a year, I sometimes still stop in amazement that I’m really married now. I thought I would share my jelly making adventure with you today.

The first step is to wash the berries thoroughly and remove any leaves, stems, or any other foreign matter that does not need to be in your jelly. When picking berries with children, there will invariably be foreign matter in your berry basket.

Next you need to cook the juice out of the berries. After you have washed them, place the berries in a large pot and almost cover them with water. You don’t want too much water or your juice will be diluted and weak and your jelly won’t have a very strong taste. It will just be a lot of sweet with a little flavor.

Cook the berries on high, crushing them with a potato masher or a wooden spoon. You’ll know when they are done because the berries will turn red and the juice will be close to boiling. It’s fine if it boils, but not for too long.

There are two ways to do the next step. You can mush the berries through a very fine strainer or sieve, or you can strain them through cheesecloth or an old t-shirt. Either way is fine and works great, just make sure not to get any of the crushed berries and seeds in your juice. You want just juice. I used an old t-shirt this time as I didn’t have a strainer. You can get more juice when you use a strainer. If you use cheesecloth or an old t-shirt twist it very tightly and use a wooden spoon to help get the most juice out that you can. This will take a little while. The berries and juice will be hot, so be careful.

You can use the juice immediately, or refrigerate it for a few days, or freeze it for later use. This juice is ready for jelly or for cobblers or anything that you need blackberry juice for. It will make your kitchen smell wonderful. 

  From a gallon size ziploc bag full of berries I got almost a gallon of juice.

Now comes the fun part!   Here’s what you’ll need: jars, rings and lids, a jar filler, a large pot, pectin and the recipe below.

Prepare your jars and lids by checking the rims of the jars for nicks or bumps or anything that would prevent the jars from sealing. The rims need to be smooth. You can check the rims by wetting your finger and  feeling around the tops of the jars. Heat your rings and lids in a small pot of hot water. Fill the jars completely full of hot water and set aside. This ensures that they do not crack and burst when the hot jelly is poured into them.

There are 2 different types of pectin out there—liquid and dry. We have used both and my mom and I prefer to use the pouches of liquid pectin.  Certo is great and Ball also makes liquid pectin in pouches. They are both wonderful and work the same. The methods for liquid and dry pectin are different. I’ll be demonstrating the liquid pectin method.

Here is the recipe:

3 3/4 – 4 cups prepared juice

7 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 pouches liquid pectin

Combine the juice and sugar in a 6-8 quart pot and cook on high, stirring frequently, until it reaches a full, rolling boil that cannot be stirred down.

Add the liquid pectin, being sure to get all of the pectin out of  both pouches. Stirring constantly, return to a rolling boil and  boil hard for 1 minute ( set a timer so you can be sure of the time). Remove from heat. Skim foam from top. (The foam is a great sneak peek and sample of what your jelly will taste like. We often throw a pan of biscuits in the oven while we are making jelly so we can sample the jelly by the foam.)

Empty the water from the jars  and pour the jelly into them. A jar filler is the best thing to use, but if you don’t have one, just pour slowly. Fill the jars, leaving about a 1/2 inch headspace from the top.

Oh, look, the hubby snapped a picture of me ;) Now you can see how messy my kitchen gets when I can ;)

Next, place the rings and lids on the jars and screw them a little past. finger tight (as tight as you can get them with your hands). Turn them upside down and leave them for 5-10 minutes. This heats everything up and helps the jars seal better.

Next, turn them over and listen for them to seal. The popping sound of jars sealing is one of my favorite sounds. Let them set overnight before moving them.

Hurray! The finished product! From my juice (almost a gallon) I was able to make 8 pints and 2 half pints of jelly.

Picking Berries

Last Friday I spent the day with my dad, mom, and baby sisters for some much needed get-away time in country. Daddy took me to lunch at the local café and it was so nice running into old friends and church members that I had not seen in a while. It was nice to be able to just relax and spend several hours visiting with my Daddy—we are all so busy it is rare for me to have him all to myself.

We had a busy day that involved some of the grandparents dropping by, and aunt and some cousins stopped in for a little while.

We ended our fun day by picking blackberries on our farm. Ever since I was young, we have always picked berries for jelly and cobblers. Often times my aunts and grandmothers would come pick with us and it was like a party.

There are three different varieties of blackberry that grow wild in that area. Dewberries—which is what we picked Friday—are ripe at the beginning of April. The berries are huge and there are not as many thorns on the vines.  Dewberries are our favorite. They grow close to the ground in most cases and they are great for little kids to pick.

Mayberries ripen in early May. The berries are a little smaller than dewberries. Then there are blackberries that ripen around the end of June-beginning of July. The berries are small and have lots of thorns on the vines. We usually don’t pick blackberries because they are not as people-friendly as the first two and the snake factor goes up considerably in the summer months. I can remember being young and picking blackberries and seeing rattlesnakes. In addition to the snake factor, it is so hot during the summer months that it just isn’t worth the  effort for the berries. Usually during April and May we pick berries every other day.

Below are some peeks into our evening.

When sat down and began to eat berries it made up think of the story about Little Sal, so of course I had to take a picture ;)

Lydia was ever vigilant to go ahead of us and find berry “jackpots”.

We were blessed in our efforts and after a short while had picked well over a gallon of berries. Mom sent a gallon Ziploc bag home with me for my jelly making plans. But that is for another post.

Peach Cobbler--from scratch

Last summer before I married, my mom and I canned and put up lots of vegetables. Hers were done in quarts, and mine were done in cute little pints. :) I put up mostly squash and green beans, but I also canned 12 quarts of peaches for peach cobblers. This made Jacob very happy and I finally made a cobbler a couple of weeks ago.

11 quarts of peaches, plus a jar of red plum jelly and bread-and-butter pickles

 Having the peaches canned takes so much work out of making a cobbler. All you have to do is open a jar and pour the peaches--syrup and all--into a pie crust.
 Below is the recipe I used. It's easy and fast--especially if you make your pie crust in a mixer. I use my KitchenAid mixer for just about everything.

Pie Crust for (2) 8 or 9 inch crusts:

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 t. salt
1/2 c. shortening
2 T butter, cut into pieces
5-6 T cold water

Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in shortening and butter until mixture resembles small peas.
Add water, a little at a time, until ingredients are moistened and dough begins to hold together.
Divide dough in half. Pat each half into a ball and flatten slightly.
 Roll one portion out to use as bottom crust. Place in pie pan, pressing firmly against bottom and sides. Set aside. Roll out remaining portion and cut into strips (to be used for the lattice top) OR leave in one piece.

Pour 1 quart of canned peaches  (including all of the syrup) into crust. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Lay strips of crust across top of pie to form a lattice top, OR place second whole crust on top and cut a few slits in the top. Either way, crimp or flute pie crust edges to seal.
Bake at 425*F for 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

How to Preserve a Husband

Being a new bride, keeping my husband happy and comfortable is naturally one of my main concerns and interests. I came across the following in an old canning book of my mother's. She assures me this recipe is a good one and worth following. Enjoy!


How to Preserve a Husband

Be careful in your selection. Do not choose too young. When selected, give you entire thoughts to preparation for domestic use. Some wives insist upon keeping them in a pickle, others are constantly getting them into hot water. This may make them sour, hard, and sometimes bitter; even poor varieties may be made sweet, tender and good, by garnishing them with patience, sweetened with love and seasoned with kisses. Wrap them in a mantle of charity. Keep warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion and serve with peaches and cream. Thus prepared, they will keep for years.

--from the Ball Blue Book, Copyright 1972