GINGER AND PICKLES

Well it had to happen sometime,   my mind is starting to go to pot.  I try to keep it sharp by reading, involving myself in lively conversations, and doing mind games like NY Times crossword puzzle and Sudoku, but it hasn't improved my memory any.  Case in point, I had ginger on my shopping list so I bought some.  The next time I went to the grocers, I had a nagging feeling that there was something I had forgotten.  Oh yes!  Ginger!  So my second bottle of the expensive little spice went into the cart.  Then the next day I was organizing my pantry when I found a little tin that holds all the rarely used spices like cardamon and chervil, well, there was another bottle of ginger.  Since when did ginger become a rarely used spice?  The end results is that now I have almost a pint of  it.  We will be eating gingerbreads and spice cookies for a very long time.  But that's ok.  I've forgotten how nice and homey  a  humble little cookie made from pantry staples tastes.  Seems now days, if a cookie doesn't contain some exotic and often expensive ingredient, it isn't worthy of baking.  When the boys were home and our budget was meager, we made a lot of these types of goodies.  They even request custard once in a while.  They never guessed that I made it to use up the milk that was beginning to go sour.  Here's a recipe:

Ginger Creams

1/3 C. shortening
1/2 C. sugar
1 egg
1/2 C. molasses (I made a mistake and bought the "robust" flavored molasses and had to cut it with Lyle's Golden syrup)
1/4 C. water
2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda (why do we put "baking" in front of soda?  If you don't know what we are talking about perhaps you shouldn't be allowed near an oven?)
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
white frosting

Cream shortening, sugar, egg, molasses and water together.  Stir in dry ingredients and blend well.  Chill dough.  Bake cookies at 400 degrees on a lightly greased baking sheet for approximately 8 minutes.  Cool.  Frost with white frosting.
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While I was at the grocers, I noticed that they had a big bag of cucumbers on the reduced for quick sale bin.  This was providential as our dill has just began blooming and it looks like the cucumbers we planted are a major failure this year. It seems dill and cucumbers never are in synch in my garden anyhow.  Makes me wonder how pickles were ever invented.  The abandoned compost bin yielded the nicest dill this year.  For the last couple of years, we have been reluctant to till it over as it produces some of the best little gifts.  This year dill and onions.  Last year tomatoes and pumpkins.  And the perfect tomatoes too.  Hardy enough to survive through a Michigan winter.  I saved the seeds and grew some for this year.  So far the are outperforming all the other tomatoes.  If you would like some of these compost tomato seeds, just let me know, and I'll be glad to send some to you in the fall.

Anyhow, back to pickles.  Aren't they wonderful?  At the end of summer when we dig the potatoes, we always have a meal of them just boiled with a dab of butter and these pickles.  Perhaps not nutritionally sound, but so delicious!  They taste of the good Earth!

Bread and Butter Pickles

15 C.  sliced pickling cukes
3 yellow or white onions (I once used red and it made the most unattractive peach colored pickles)
1/4 C.  pickling salt
4 C. cider vinegar
 4C. sugar
 1 1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. celery seed
2 tbsp. mustard seed
fresh dill heads

Cover cukes, onions and salt in a large bowl.  Cover with ice.  Let stand for 3 hours.  Drain.

Combine vinegar, sugar and spices in a large pot. Bring just to a boil.

Place 1 dill head in each sterilized pint jar.  Fill with cucumber mixture.  Pour brine over the cukes, leaving a 1/2 inch  headspace.  Poke a sterilized knife in the jar to make sure there aren't any air bubbles.  Place sterilized lids and rings on the jars.  Process 10 minutes in a hot water bath.
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Lastly, I leave you with a picture of my Issac Perrier rose.  It looks so lovely growing up the weathered shingles.  The cool weather is a real boon to the roses this year. By the by, we have finally settled on a name for our cottage.  We needed to have one, as we are having a quarterboard made up for the entrance. And the name is ...... Sweet Briar Cottage!