Friday, January 11, 2008

39 Pints of Pickles on the Counter, 39 Pints of . . . . .

My house smells like . . . I'm not sure I can describe it, but to me it's an aroma for the Gods. Add to the cabbage and onions of yesterday the pungent scent of apple cider vinegar and spices, make it strong, very strong . . . . When you're in the kitchen working around it, it's not too noticable, but when you go outside and come back in, you can't miss it. This morning I finished up the artichoke relish. As the title says, "39 pints of pickles on the counter." It was a lot of work, I'm tired and I ache, but it was worth it. My DH is always a jewel, but he has been an angel the past couple of days - changing diapers and entertaining Suzi a more than usual so that I could spend more time in the kitchen.

Mammie's photo overlooks the 39 pints of Jerusalem artichoke relish. The photo of her came from the local newspaper when her fruit cake had won first place in the county fair for the 51st consecutive year. She won for the first time in 1925 and in 1976, when she was 78, she entered for the last time. I went to the newspaper office to get a copy of the picture and snitched the blue ribbon sticker to have them framed together for her. She was so surprised. It came back to me when she passed away, and has been hanging in my kitchen ever since. I think I'll take a little time off now. I'll be back the first of the week.

1 comment:

Vicky said...

LOL, I was waiting to see how many pints you were going to make. Jenny described last year to me about the pickle relish and what had to be done. Can I put you listed as one of my favorite blogs?