Happy Pickling!

That's what my mom said to me when I got off the phone with her after asking her advice on pickling. I decided it would be fun to make my own pickles. As everyone in my family knows, I had quite an obsession with pickles for awhile. One morning, when we lived in Alaska, my dad was in charge of getting us off to school. He had made our lunches (mine included two plastic wrapped dill pickles) but when the bus pulled up in front of our house he realized he hadn't fed us breakfast. "The bus is here, Dad!", I yelled. His answer? He handed me a pickle. So I ate a pickle on the bus, then ate two pickles for lunch. At recess, it was raining lightly, (as it does in Alaska, everyday pretty much) and I realized my hands were swelling up so much I couldn't bend my fingers! I went to the school nurse and she told me to cut down on my pickle consumption. Wow, digital edema secondary to sodium consumption!

So I pickled today and had lots of fun! I promised my mom I would post the photos: I did pickled beets, one with blood orange slices and one plain, pickled green beans with garlic, and two types of pickles, sliced and quartered. They should be ready for cold storage in three days and to eat in a week! I can't wait! I'll try to ration my pickled meals to avoid any unwanted bodily effects...