Pickles

I've been trying to post in the middle of the week, so I'm not sure if Sunday would be considered really late, or really early... :) We'll just say it's a couple days late.
I made several new recipes this week and I took pictures, however, I took them on my phone and when I tried to email them to my computer, they didn't all go through. I only got one and, unfortunately, I deleted them before I could re-send them. *Sigh.*
The first thing I made was rice pudding! I tried it when I was younger and for some reason I loved it--guess it's kind of a cozy, comfort food thing for me...although that said, I can't eat it all the time. I found a recipe on www.allrecipes.com and made a few little tweaks to it and it turned out pretty good. Lots of cinnamon and raisins--yum! :)
The second one I made was baked potato soup. I LOVE the kind served at Outback, so I keep looking up recipes for it, hoping to find something even slightly close to that. The one I tried was okay... I can't remember the blog I found it on, but I wrote down the recipe, so it's one I'll probably make again. The base is mostly broth, then you stir in a little milk and sour cream at the end (the first potato soup recipe I tried had more milk and cheese, so it ended up way too rich...hard to eat very much at a time). This one was very filling, but was easier on the stomach! I had a nice picture of a bowl of the soup, topped with bacon, cheese and green onions, but...you'll have to just imagine how good it looked! :)

And the last thing I tried this week was homemade pickles! I love pickles. My Mom cans her own every year and she has a super easy recipe that doesn't have to be processed, so I wanted to start with that. She usually pickles cucumbers and carrots (I know, pickled carrots sound weird, right? But they're really good!) but this year she also added green beans to the mix! I haven't tried pickled beans, but I'm sure they'd be good. Maybe.
Anyway, I picked up all the ingredients except cucumbers. I don't know if I waited too long in the season for little ones, of if nobody sells them that small but I couldn't find any. I like pickled carrots just as much so I picked up a 5 lb. bag of carrots and I eagerly awaited Parker's next nap. :) Once he was snug in his bed I went to work. I peeled and cut the carrots, then packed them into the jars. I wasn't sure how many jars it would take, so I did three quart-sized ones and two pint-sized. I alternated the carrot sticks with a few sprigs of dill, then once they were full I poured the brine over them to fill the jars. I had a little more of the brine left over, enough for another jar, but I had already used up all the dill and most of the carrots, so I just poured out the extra. Finally, the jars were covered and sealed and sitting in my cupboard for the next four weeks until I can open one and try them! Yum! :) Since this is my Mom's recipe, I can post it on here!

Dill Pickles
1 qt. vinegar
2 qt. water
3/4 cup pickling salt (course salt without iodide)
1/2 cup sugar
lots of small cucumbers or carrot sticks
dill weed

Wash and sterilize jar and lids. Wash vegetables and pack into jars, alternating layers of veggies with sprigs of dill. Set aside.
Combine vinegar and water; boil for 5 minutes. Stir in salt and sugar and boil for 1 minute longer. Pour over vegetables, filling jars almost to the top. Cover and seal. Allow pickles to set for 4 weeks before opening. Makes 5 quart-sized jars.

Once again, the pictures I took did not go through, except for one of the final product...