Refrigerator Garlic Dill Pickles

Take advantage of local produce, especially during the summer! These wonderful refrigerator dill pickles are so refreshing! Another great way to control what goes into your diet.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 small pickling cucumbers, quartered into spears
• 1/8-1/4 sweet or Vidalia onion, thinly sliced, depending on how strong you want the onion flavor
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, mashed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dill seed
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 3/4 cup hot water

Directions:

1. Pack speared cucumbers in a quart, wide-mouth Ball/Mason jar.
2. Put onion slices, garlic and bay leaf on top and in between spears.
3. In a bowl combine remaining ingredients and mix until sugar and salt dissolve. Pour over cucumbers.
4. Close jar tightly and put in refrigerator for at least 24 hours. 
5. Eat and enjoy!

• Suggestion for multiple jars: repeat step 3 separately for each jar to get a more uniform flavor in jar.
• Note: Pickles are good for at least 1 week (the expire when they lose crispness or start to smell different)

Courtesy of my friend Caitlin

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Blackberry Cobbler (seedless)

Sorry for the lag time between posts! Life got busy, summer happened, vacations to be taken etc. Blah, blah, blah. Well, I'm back now and I hope to continue on with more delicious recipes, especially now that summer produce is in full swing!

This recipe is for those of you who don't like picking seeds out of your teeth when you eat blackberries! I made a seedless version of this wonderful blackberry cobbler I found over on allrecipes.com. I broke out the juicer and juiced 6 cups worth of beautiful, locally grown blackberries. Since the juicer did a better job of pulling out the pulp that I originally thought it would, I took the pulp/seeds mixture left after the juicing process and put it in a medium hand strainer. I placed the strainer over a small mixing bowl. I took a pestle (part of the mortar/pestle set you may have to grind herbs) and pushed the pulp through the strainer to yield another 1/2 cup of blackberry liquid. This cobbler has great flavor but did turn out more on the 'cake-y' side, compared to other cobblers I've made in the past. I contribute this to using the pulverized blackberries vs whole berries. 

Blackberry pulp/seeds in strainer

 Ingredients:

What was left of the 2 quarts

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 6 cups fresh blackberries
  
  • either use whole berries or
  • juice them as above: 6 cups fresh=3 1/2 cups juice/pulp
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly oil a 9x13-inch baking dish. 
2. Whisk 1/2 cup sugar with the cornstarch in a small bowl; set aside.
3. Place the blackberries into a mixing bowl, and drizzle with 1/4 cup of melted butter. 
4. Sprinkle with the cornstarch mixture, and stir/toss to evenly coat. 
5. Spread the berries into the prepared baking dish. 
6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly blended. 
7. Stir in the milk, vanilla extract, and 1/4 cp melted butter until combined but still slightly lumpy. 
8. Pour the batter over the berries.
9. Bake in the preheated oven 55-60 minutes, until crust is golden brown/the berries are tender (if still whole).

 Courtesy of: Baron's Blackberry Cobbler at allrecipes.com

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