SOUVENIR

Dilly Beans for Alan - also notice the darling teddy bear cup and saucer, and the adorable china salt and pepper shakers - gifts from the Blanchard girls!

September 5, 2009

We have just returned from an 8-day road trip to drop Walker off at Hillsdale College in Michigan. Talk about souvenirs! We covered about eight states, saw Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands (South Dakota and North Dakota), the historic cowboy town of Deadwood, South Dakota, and many many cows. I see I have found a photo of Abraham Lincoln, not Walker and I, standing in front of Mt. Rushmore. Hmmm, its a start.

I have started a vacation journal, and started organizing my photos to make a slide show cd and a hard-cover photo album.

While we were on the road, Alan called and said his green beans were ripe and was I ready to make dilly beans when I get home? Sure! I haven't made dilly beans for quite a while and now I am remembering why. It is easy but time consuming. Right now I have three jars of Alan's home-grown beans, and three jars for us, from the grocery store produce aisle. I can't make dillies for Alan and not for Phil!

Here's my recipe:

2 lb trimmed green beans / 4 heads dill

4 cloves garlic / 1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 1/2 cups water / 2 1/2 cups vinegar

1/4 cup pickling salt

1. Sterilize jars and lids;

2.. In each jar place one head dill, one peeled garlic, 1/4 tsp cayenne

and I added a sprinkle of red pepper flakes as well.
3. Then, pack beans, lengthwise into hot jars.

4. Meanwhile, boil the water, vinegar and pickling salt.

5. Pour boiling hot over packed beans, leaving 1/3 inch head space.

6. Remove air bubbles.

7. Adjust caps

8. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yield: about 4 pints. Let them sit several weeks for the best flavor. *

*As soon as I finished processing these, Phil came in from the garage and said the radio was going to talk about a recipe for pickled beans - I turned it on and it was my recipe exactly!

This year I am going to label the lids with a marker: "Thanksgiving" "Christmas" "New Year's Eve"

Phil and I connected with Cindy and Eldon and went out to dinner (more food?!) tonight. We tried out a Thai restaurant, which I have been to once, but it was a new experience for the others. It was very good food (especially the sweet and sour soup, which I would have been happy to eat just that! - but of course I didn't).