I finally gave in.

I guess I'll spare you any more vacation photos but I'm still up to my eyeballs in my back-to-school to-do list so no fresh posts today.  BUT....I found this in my drafts folder.  I wrote it with plans to post it before we left for the Cape but I guess I was just so incredibly busy, I couldn't find the time to hit publish so here you go...a post that I wrote 3 weeks ago...


Our cucumber plants have loved all the rain we've been having this summer.  Our tomatoes on the other hand, have been missing the sun.  Apparently cucumbers need lots of water, while tomatoes need lots of light.  

Every time my husband comes in from the garden he says, "Sure wish you could can some of these cucumbers."  Or, "I hate to see all these cucumbers go to waste."

And he's been saying this for several years now.

And I've been pretending I can't hear him for several years now.

But after talking to another mom at the pool who just recently made pickles, I thought, "Oh, what the heck. I'll give it a shot."

On my next trip to Wal-mart, I purchased a big canning pot, some pickling mix, and jars.  Lots of jars. 

After I unloaded the rest of the groceries and fed everyone lunch, I pulled out the directions that came with the pot.  And the first thing I read was:  DO NOT USE THIS POT ON GLASS TOPPED STOVES!!

So I cursed a little under my breath, put that pot aside to be returned to Wal-Mart, and got the tallest pot I own out of the basement.

I pieced together instructions from the back of the pickling mix and from the directions that came with the unusable pot.

I rinsed and sliced the cucumbers.  I boiled the jars and the lids.  I simmered the pickling mix.

Then I packed cumber slices into hot jars, poured pickling mix on top, screwed on the hot lids, and placed the jars into my tall pot.  I set the timer for 10 minutes and held my breath. After 10 minutes I took the jars out, let them cool, then put them in the refrigerator.

The next day, we sampled the pickles and low and behold, they were good!  My kids approved of the taste, my husband thought they were good, my parents enjoyed them and my picky brother even gave them two thumbs up!

A couple  of days later, I went through the same process and ended up with 17 quarts of pickles.  That's a lot of pickles, y'all.

I'm proud of myself for trying something new and guess what?  I picked up some salsa mix on my last trip to the store.

Thanks to a week and a half of high temperatures and lots of sun we're about to have an abundance of ripe, red tomatoes and you can only eat so many tomato sandwiches!