Bog Heaven

Every turkey needs the perfect cranberry sauce, and this one did not disappoint.  If you're taking on the task of making the entire Thanksgiving meal, this is one dish you can make in advance.  In fact, it tastes better if you make it a couple days in advance because it allows all the flavors to really develop as they mix and meld together.

For each bag of cranberries, you'll want 1 cup of red wine and 1 cup of sugar.  We had 2 bags of cranberries, so we started with 2 cups of wine and 2 cups of sugar.  You can use any kind of wine you like.  If you want sweeter cranberries use a sweeter wine.  If you want to highlight the tartness, use something more tannic. We just happened to have some cranberry wine on hand, which really added a cranberry punch to our sauce.  Let it simmer and reduce on the stove until you end up with a thin syrup.

Once it's syrupy, add in your cranberries.  I like my cranberry sauce to still have some whole cranberries, while Justin likes them to really cook down, so we compromised.  We added about 3/4 of our cranberries to the sauce initially, and let them cook down.  Then we added the rest towards the end, just so they could soften, but still stay whole.  If you want them to all cook down, add them all at once.  If you want them to be more whole, just cook them less.

Give your berries a good toss in your syrup, and just let them sit on the stove and simmer away.  You'll start to hear them pop as they cook.  Then you'll want to add in a liberal amount of black pepper, and just a tiny dash of salt to help cut the sweetness, along with some chopped mint, and orange zest. Fresh herbs and a little citrus help balance the dish and make for a more complex flavor profile.

Once you have your desired consistency, you can pull it off the stove, and transfer it to your serving dish. Just remember to pull it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you're ready to serve it, just to take the chill off it.  Garnish with a sprig of mint, and voila, a delicious side dish, fresh out of the bog.

That's a Dilly of a Pickle!

Hi diddily ho bloggerinos!    We're both huge fans of pickles, and since we got a few kirby cucumbers in our last share, it seemed like the perfect time to try to make them. We searched the interwebs for some recipes and settled on this one and this one, plus we added a few of our own spices.

Start by washing your cucumbers, and making sure they don't have any dirt on them. Since our jars are still full of kimchi and saurkraut and we don't have canning supplies, we just used a plastic container with a lid.  Any airtight container should work, as long as it's been sterilized.

For the pickling liquid, we mainly followed Alton Brown's suggestions...mixing up a brine, though we did add a splash of vinegar.  For spices, we roughly chopped up about 6 cloves of garlic, and added in red chili flake, mustard seeds, carraway seeds, black peppercorns and a whole bunch of dill.

Once your spices are in your container, stuff your cucumbers in there.  You want to make sure they are nice and snug in the container.  Then, pour in your brine so the cucumbers are completely submerged.  If the cucumbers are nice and snug, they're less likely to float to the top when you pour in your brine.  Then just place your lid on the container, and make sure you get as much air out of it as possible.

Now you'll have to be patient, and let your cucumbers pickle.  Store them in a cool dry place.  We just placed ours in one of the kitchen cabinets, away from the stove.  After about 3 days, you'll notice bubbles rising to the top of your container.  This is proof that fermentation has begun, and you're on your way to having pickles!  If you notice any scum forming in the top of your pickling liquid, wipe it off immediately.  We noticed some white film on one of our pickles, so we wiped it off with a paper towel that was soaked in a little vinegar.

Fermentation should be complete in about 6-7 days, once the bubbles stop rising and your pickles taste sour.  Then transfer them to the refrigerator, and start to enjoy them!  If any of the pickles get soft or start to smell funny, you should discard them.  Ours came out nice and garlicky, with a slight heat to them.  They're the perfect snack or or sandwich companion!