Refrigerator Pickles

Well I'm trying out a refrigerator cauliflower pickle recipe. It's a variant of the most likely one I found online.

Into a one gallon glass jar I managed to pack:

1 large head of cauliflower broke into florets
8 oz snow peas, ends trimmed and threads pulled
1 giant (soft ball sized!) red onion cut into 1" pieces.
1 small head of garlic* (14 cloves), cracked because I get vigorous when peeling garlic :)

And I do mean packed, I closed the jar now and then and shook it to settle things and I still was shoving on the last of the cauliflower and making it do *squeaka-squeaka* noises. The original recipe called for two large heads of cauliflower, three medium onions, a bell pepper, and a pound and a half of carrots, allegedly it made 4 quarts. I don't know how they managed to pack that into 4 quart jars. O.O

For the brine I heated to boiling:
6 1/4 cups water
1 1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar (because I was thinking I was going to make a half batch when I bought the rice vinegar, forgetting that everything I make "grows")
1/4 cup pickling salt
1 Tbsp pickling spice (which hafoc had in his spice rack and I know dates from at least 1997, but it still smelled reasonably potent and I couldn't find any when I was shopping)

This turned out be to exactly the right amount of brine for my gallon jar. I have maybe two tablespoons of it left and I'll probably be able to get that in when the jar has cooled a bit.

Once the jar has cooled down I'll screw the lid on tight and push it to the back of the fridge for a few weeks before I see how it turned out. It certainly smells yummy right now.

*OMG, I forgot how absolutely wonderful really fresh garlic smells. We tend to buy a large tub of minced garlic at GFS (Gordon's Food Service, a restaurant supplier here) because it's so much easier than dealing with heads of garlic on a regular basis.

[Edit: Yes Hafoc, I did finally threw out the evil sweet carrot pickles. I doubt even the coyotes would eat them, but the squirrels might. Squirrels are strange.]

Hafoc is putting up a new ceiling

This being northern Michigan the new ceiling is getting a vapor barrier, foam board insulation, firring strips for fastening the new ceiling in place, and more foam insulation board between the firring strips. In order to seal the seams, and also to make it easier to work with, the ceiling is also getting a liberal amount of duct tape. To keep the duct tape handy hafoc is wearing it around his neck on a long leather thong.

Northwoods Bling.