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Pretty!

Zesty Refrigerator Pickles

Printable Recipe

Since I have an abundance of cucumbers from the garden, I decided to try my hand and refrigerator pickles.  I don’t even like cucumbers, but I do LOVE pickles. Cucumbers don’t ever stay around our house long because Cal LOVES them.  He eats them whole like a banana while he’s watching tv!  I had to sneak a few from him so I could make my pickles. 

These were a very pleasant surprise!  They are a little spicy but oh so good!  Cal was a little concerned about them, but after he gave them the sniff test, he decided to try them and gave them a thumbs up!  Pretty good, eh?

The recipe said to use 6 cups of cucumbers and 1 onion, but that didn’t sound right to me with only 1½ cups of the vinegar solution, I used less cucumbers.  I put them into 2 tall containers and divided the vinegar solution in them so it would come up half-way.

 

Source:  Cooking Light  I believe it was also in Southern Living maybe last month, but I can’t find that issue.

Ingredients:

4-5 cucumbers, thinly sliced

¼ onion, very thinly sliced

1½ cups white vinegar

¾ cup sugar

4 cloves garlic, chopped

¾ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

½ tsp. mustard seeds

½ tsp. celery seeds

½ tsp. red pepper flakes

1. Place cucumbers and onions into containers
2. Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and boil for about 1 minute.
3. Pour over cucumbers and onions, let cool.  Cover and place in refrigerator for a minimum of 4 days. 

Next up are dill and garlic pickles!  Yum!

Let’s all do the Copper Shingle Jingle!

Look at our pretty copper roof!  My hubs put that on all by himself (with a little help from his father-in-law).  You should be impressed!  We’ve gotten lots of compliments on it - I’m very proud of the hubs.

I don’t think I ever put up a picture of the stone all completed…so here it is.  I’m ready for some siding now!

And here’s our front door!  It’s not stained yet, so don’t pay attention to that.  We’ll stain it after the siding is done and we have a better idea of what color we want.

Also, the drywall was started on Saturday.  The bonus room, upstairs bath, and the front bedroom are all done; and half of the back bedroom is finished.  It should all be put up and ready for painting in 3 weeks. 

Eeek!  Who wants to help me pick out paint???

Jerk Chicken

Another great summertime meal!  Healthy too! 

I marinated my chicken overnight, so this was really quick to (have my hubs) throw on the grill after work.  (I haven’t figured the grill out yet.)

Printable Recipe

Source:  Paula Deen

For the marinade:

Combine the following in Food Processor and pulse until fairly smooth-

1 small onion – about 2 cups

5 cloves garlic

2-3 habanero peppers – however hot you want it

2 tsp. allspice

½ tsp. nutmeg

2 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. ginger

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. salt

1½ tsp. pepper

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Marinate 8 chicken breasts, for at least 4 hours or overnight, in the following:

Jerk marinade (reserve a little bit to brush on the chicken while its grilling)

1 cup fresh lime juice - about 6 limes

Grill the chicken until done (ours took about 15 minutes per side on our smoker).  Or you can bake in the oven at 350° for 45 minutes – 1 hour.

I served the chicken with Mango Salsa (or Pineapple Salsa is also really good) and Cilantro Lime Rice, and some steamed zucchini.

Mango Salsa

Printable Recipe

Source:  Bobby Flay

Combine in a small bowl:

2 mangoes, small diced

½ red onion, diced

1 jalapeno pepper

2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

3 Tbsp. lime juice

3 Tbsp. orange juice

Season with salt and pepper

For pineapple salsa, use 1 can pineapple tidbits drained, or 2 cups fresh diced pineapple instead of mangoes.  Skip the orange juice.

Cilantro Lime Rice

Source:  Joelen’s Culinary Adventures

2 cups hot cooked rice

Add in:

¼ cup lime juice

chopped cilantro

{Silly Kitty}

Carlyle said to Kit this morning:  “It’s weird, but I think my next favorite thing to taking a nap is watching my owner taking a nap.”

Little Miss Katy needed some attention!

{Stone}

Our stone will be all done tomorrow!  I’ll put up a final picture this weekend.

I can’t wait to see our siding go up next!  It’s going to look really good!

The Perfect Summer Meal

 

BLT (with garden Ts), real Macaroni and Cheese, and my new favorite Watermelon Salad!  YUM.

Watermelon Salad

Printable Recipe

Ok.  I know what you’re going to say…”That doesn’t sound good.”  But I’m telling you…it is a-mazing.  It’s got that special combination of sweet and savory and it tastes out-of-this-world! 

We ended up with 2 whole watermelons at our Fourth of July cookout…for only 7 people!  We have watermelon out the ying-yang!  So I’ve been eating it for breakfast and lunch pretty much everyday, and I was looking for something different for it. 

And Paula Deen to the rescue! 

I just kind of eye-balled the ingredients, but this is approximately how much I used.

Ingredients:

6 cups watermelon, chopped into 1 inch cubes
½ red or white onion, thinly sliced
2-3 Tbsp. feta cheese
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Toss watermelon, onion, and cheese in a medium bowl.
2. Pour vinegar and oil over and toss again.  Season with salt and pepper.

 

Go make this now with all your extra watermelon!

Ahhh…the first batch of salsa this summer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I used: all from the garden, except for the lime and vinegar of course!

3 tomatoes (I like the skin peeled off)

2 baby red onions

2 jalapenos

3 cloves of garlic

juice from 1 lime

splash of red wine vinegar

season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Just mix it all up in the food processor!

{Stone Preview}

A little bit of the stone got put on yesterday!  

I'm really happy with the color we picked.  You can't ever tell how it will really look until it actually gets on the house.  And it's hard to make a decision based on those little sample pieces.  

Ours is Bucktown Ledgestone by Stonecraft.