My family loves dill pickles. So I decided I should give homemade pickles a try. WOW! They are so good, almost beyond words good. They are crunchy, spicy, and full of flavor. Truly so much better than anything you can get a the grocery store. They remind me of fancy deli-style pickles, only better.

I have tried several different recipes, and our favorites are the refrigerator dill pickles. I have found that the recipes that just require refrigeration, as opposed to processing, stay crisp and fresh tasting.

This particular version is our family’s absolute favorite, we think it has just the right amount of dill, garlic and spice, but feel free to add or reduce the garlic, red pepper flakes or dill to suit your tastes.

Although I am sure you’ll enjoy these, maybe even too much to share, they make great gifts for friends and family.

Making pickles is rather easy and a fun summertime activity to do with the kids or grandkids, even my three year old likes to help. But of course, there are few tips that will help you create the best pickles possible.

Hints for the perfect pickles:

• Always use the freshest cucumbers possible. If you don’t have a garden, use the farmer’s market, local produce stand, etc to get the freshest pickling cucumbers possible.
• Use pickling salt. It’s cheap, has a long shelf life, and is available at regular grocery stores.
• Most stores with bulk foods have dill seed, pickling spice and red pepper flakes at bargain prices. You’ll only need a very small amount of each, probably less than $1 altogether.
• Cut thin slices off both ends of the cucumbers before pickling. Technically, it is the blossom end that has an enzyme that may cause the pickles to soften, but it can be difficult to tell which end had the blossom, so I just make a small slice off both ends.
• Refrigerator pickles need refrigerated These aren’t the processed variety, so they have to be stored in the refrigerator.
• Wait 10 days before eating. I know, this is the hardest tip to follow.

Refrigerator Pickles in the jar.

Ten days later....Can you see the spices? So yummy.

Refrigerator Dill Pickles

I prefer to slice mine into spears and I tightly pack them into jars; if I find that this recipe makes the perfect amount of brine if I do it this way. When I sliced them into rounds I needed to double the brine in order to adequately cover the pickles.

• 12 3-4 inch long pickling cucumbers whole, speared, or sliced into rounds
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 1 /2 cups roughly chopped fresh dill
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 8 cloves garlic, chopping is optional
• 1 1 /2 TB pickling salt
• 1 TB pickling spice
• 1 1/2 tsp dill seed
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• approximately 4 clean jars and lids, I find that wide mouth pint size jars work the best

1. In a large non-reactive bowl, combine water and salt; stir until salt is dissolved. add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Allow to stand at room temperature for 2 hours.
2. Remove the cucumbers from the bowl and place, tightly packed, into clean jars. Make sure each jar has at least a sprig of dill and a clove of garlic. Ladle the liquid over the pickles, making sure to cover them entirely. Cover with a lid and refrigerate for 10 days before eating.

Cooking With Kids, Make ahead, Sides, Snacks, Uncategorized easy pickles, garlic dill pickles, refrigerator pickles, spicy dill pickles

Sometimes I feel like I have an alternative flour store happening inside my kitchen. If you bake gluten free you probably know what I mean.

Well, this morning I wanted to make a recipe calling for potato flour, only apparently I didn’t have any left.

Potato flour is actually ground from whole, dried potatoes. It adds moisture to your baked goods and extends their shelf life.

I decided to do some investigating to see if there was anything I could substitute for the potato flour.

I managed to find a comment on the King Arthur’s Flour from one of their staff members stating that 1 cup of potato flakes = 1/2 cup potato flour.

I only needed a couple tablespoons of flours and I wanted to make sure that the flakes became fine for my particular purposes, so I ground the instant flakes in my mini food processor.

It appeared to me that the instant flakes were reduced by half after grinding them. This allowed me to substitute the “flour” I had just created at a 1:1 ratio for the potato flour called for in the recipe. And it turned out fabulous!

Whether or not you choose to grind the instant potato flakes into a fine powder is really just a personal preference. I thought it would dissolve better in my case, but it is probably not required.

So if it is difficult to find potato flour in your area or you find yourself needing a substitute, I wouldn’t hesitate to use instant potato flakes.

1 cup of potato flakes = 1/2 cup potato flour

*if you grind them in your coffee grinder or mini food processor you should be able to use it 1:1

Gluten free kitchen essentials, Kitchen Tips, Uncategorized

Today I am not posting a recipe or kitchen hint, I just couldn’t let this topic go unmentioned.

“Come fall, the ground beef used in school lunches will be as safe as ground beef sold to the nation’s fast food chains — a major improvement, critics say.” USA Today

These changes are coming due to a USA Today investigation that revealed some major concerns.

Here is the full article.

Okay, am I the only one this scares? The meat in our school lunch program didn’t have strict rules. It was not held to the same regulations as restaurants or grocery stores. YUCK!

My kids aren’t in public school, so maybe I shouldn’t get all worked up about these things, but food safety is really important.

I think it is disgusting the food we serve via the school lunch program, a program that is supposed to provide a nutritional and I assumed, safe meal for school children, many of which get these lunches free or at reduced costs.

And given the state of the economy, I would guess this would be the one “good” meal many of these children even get.

I just find it frustrating. Especially given that fact that people die every year from food borne illnesses in this country, many of which are children. How many salmonella or E.coli outbreaks do we have to have before we make major overhauls?

I guess it’s a step in the right direction, just really scary that these regulations weren’t already in place and it took journalists to even initiate change.

I think Jamie Oliver is really on to something, our school lunch program needs a serious Food Revolution.

Kitchen Extras, Uncategorized