Kosher Dill Pickle Spears

So, are you drooling yet?  Got any extra cucumbers laying around?

So far this year I have decided I LOVED the Mrs. Wages pickle mix I made a while back.  Seriously, these things were awesome.  I nearly ate all of them all by myself once we cracked open the first jar back in January.  I liked them so much I bought several packets of the mix this year a ton of cucumber seed and plants.  So far, none of those have produced this year.  So I did the next best thing, I bought a bag of cucumbers at a swap so I could get my fix while waiting on the second planting to decide to do its thing.

Normally I use National Pickling or Burpee Pickle Bush as my cucumber of choice and pick them very early so the seeds are at a minimum but beggars can't be choosers and these were made with Straight Eights.  To avoid the seed issue, since I'm just weird that way and don't like picking seeds out of my dental work, I scooped the seeds out of these, sliced into slivers and packed them.  Just like last time I added a little extra, this time it was a clove of minced fresh garlic, 1/2 tsp dill and 1/2 tsp dried onion to each pint to help the flavor along.
I also have decided to keep this ready mixed so that any time I can get a jar full I can pour the mix over and can immediately instead of waiting.  I'm storing the mix in a vinegar bottle that was emptied a few weeks ago, in the fridge as well to make sure no nasties move in and ruin my mix!  I'm doing the same with a hamburger dill mix and a green tomato pickle mix.  Makes life easier and quicker this time of year.

This batch was 7 pints, no I counted right, there's a 7th pint in my fridge because I just couldn't wait any longer.  I needed a pickle fix.

Long time, no see, eh?
Yeah, it's been a bad year here but canning season is coming in again and I've finally been able to sign back into my blog account.  Really, it is quite annoying when you can't link your gmail address to your account even if it's your ONLY email address.  Gah.... the wonders of technology will never cease to befuddle me.  

So far I've only been able to can 5 pints of turnips from my wonderful failure of a garden this year but I have been able to lay my hands on a bunch of cucumbers that I'm planning on attacking tomorrow, hopefully.

I also plan on adding my quilting back on the blog again since I've been doing a lot of it lately.  Heck I might even get the other blog I had been planning up and running once I can figure out the whole gmail address issue.  Never know.

So a bit about the year since I've gotten on here and drove you nuts....
Hubby was laid off.  We hadn't even been here a year.  And he still hasn't found a job.  Lots of prospects but nothing in stone... yet.  Crossing fingers that changes next week.

My computer crashed and burned last fall and I had to do without until we could scrape together enough cash to replace the hard drive.  Hence why I lost all my log in info for here and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't let me log in under my gmail account!

We lost one of our dogs to cancer in the spring. Have another that's 15 and we know his time can be measured in weeks to months due to the chronic illness he has.  It's going to be one of those years for us pet wise I'm afraid

One of the trucks has decided to die and without a pay check it's siting there until we can pay for someone to look at it and tell me what the heck is wrong with it, and enough cash to fix it.  We can live on one truck for now, it's no big deal.

With hubby out of work that pantry I had came in REALLY handy.  I even got over the fear and broke in my pressure canner that was bought before we moved.  Maiden voyage was 83 quarts of boiled peanuts last fall.  Found out I have muscadine and blueberries on the property and they were made into jelly last fall as well.  Will be adding those to the canning recipes this year.

Our garden so far this year has completely sucked.  We lost a small section devoted to corn to the crows and had to replant.  The rest of the garden is anemic at best.  Nothing we've done has helped at all.  So we figure it's the spot we have it in.  Should have a second garden in a totally different spot put in tomorrow so I can at least try to get a few things grown and out up this year.

And I'll leave you on that for tonight, think pickles, I know I will be tomorrow!