feeling dilly

My posting has been back to the bare minimum this week. Fighting a cold and working full time is no picnic in the park! I did have a great weekend and the joy of that has carried me through this week and moving full-steam ahead in preparation for next weekend!

Last weekend we had a great trip to the Farmer's Market. I love when the seasons change and there's a fresh crop of new goodies to explore!! There are still some remaining signs of summer - and I snapped up some cucumbers after recalling a quick pickle recipe I recently spotted.

I'd never made pickles before and I figured it was now or never.

I did a little internet research for a recipe I liked. I had some criteria: it had to be easy and it had to incorporate what I already had in my pantry. Lazy much? Yes.

What I wound up with is my own recipe based on various others found online. Keep in mind that I wasn't really exact with my measurements. Again, lazy. The following recipe made me 4 - 8oz. jars of pickles.

Quick Dill Pickles


Jars, rings and lids
6-8 small cucumbers
4 small carrots
handful of beans - I used dragon's tongue beans, a fave in our house
fresh dill

peppercorns

head of garlic

3 cups water
2 3/4 cups white vinegar (I used a combo of rice and brown rice vinegar, but use what you have)
pinch or two of sea salt
sprinkle of celery salt


Prepare your jars rings and lids. I did this by boiling the jars and rings in a shallow pans of water. The lids just need to be dunked in some warm water so I waited for the water I had used on the jars to cool down and plopped the lids down in there for a few minutes.

Slice up your garlic - or leave it in whole cloves. Its entirely up to you! Place the garlic cloves, along with some of the peppercorns down in the jars. You could also sprinkle in some chili flakes for heat or chopped chilies for more heat!

Prep your veggies. I cut the end off my cukes and carrots and sliced them in spears. My beans I just cut the ends off. I did not cook my beans, but I'm thinking that I maybe should have. Once you have all the veggies sliced, assemble them in the jars. Pull off a handful of the fresh dill and stuff that in with the veggies.

Boil together the water, vinegar, salt and celery salt. You could also add fennel seed, cumin, coriander or celery seed. Once the salt is dissolved, distribute evenly amongst your jars leaving about 1/2 inch at the top. I used a ladle to pour in my liquid but you could also use a funnel just as easily. Put on your lids and rings then allow the jars to cool a bit. Once they are cool enough to handle, pop 'em in the fridge and try to resist sampling them for about 2 weeks. I failed that test and tried one the next day. They seem to be coming along quite nicely!

I was totally in love with this entire process and hope to do some more pickling in the future!!

Have you ever tried pickling anything? 

Please share any favorite recipes or experiences with pickling.

XO,

Chelsea

I HEART Thursdays - In The Kitchen

Few things please me as much as stepping into our kitchen and whipping up something delicious. Admittedly, that something is usually something sweet. I prefer my food healthy and my sweets SWEET. Its my own little way of justification. If I eat pretty healthy most of the time, then I can hoard the elaborate desserts!! Case in point: I made these delicious little morsels last night, Halfway Cookies.

 (image source: the kitchn)

Intrigued?? Check out the recipe over at The Kitchn. Mine didn't turn out exactly as I had planned, but I refuse to give up. It just means I will have to make them again to master them ;)

I definitely find cooking therapeutic. There is something soothing about coming home after a hectic day and creating something to feed my loved ones. Weeknight cooking is a bit less...creative, with hungry faces staring up at me. But I do usually manage to carve out some time over the weekend to channel my inner Julia Child.

Spending all this time in the kitchen has me craving cute and useful gadgets and tools to outfit my space.

I'd have to start by donning this sweet apron. 

Wouldn't want to mess up my duds. 

 

With these amazingly adorable bowls I'm sure to bake up something sweet.

I'll gather up all my ingredients and be sure to have these around for good measure.

I'll keep a close eye on things 

and be sure not to flip out

(source: spatula and coffee scoop below)

 

But I might get parched midway

 and have to go for a tall glass cooled down with some super cute ice cubes,

 

or perhaps I'd prefer a frothy, hot cappuccino

to help wash down the goodies

(image source: flickr)

What's your favorite thing to whip up in the kitchen?

XO,

Chelsea

two things...a day late

So it appears I've been quite behind on my blogging and reading! My Google Reader shows 1000+ unread - yikes! A very busy last week and family in town has somewhat prevented me from being on top of the extraneous tasks in my life, but the upcoming 3-day weekend is all I need to get back in the groove!

Lately, I've been joining in Kassi's Two Things Tuesdays and decided that I'd stay on that...even if its a day late!

Right now, I'm absolutely loving having these peonies around the house. They are so huge and have a very faint sweet smell that I find intoxicating. They are literally about the size of dinner plates - just gorgeous!

Consider a strange thing to be loving, but I am so thrilled about this mortar and pestle I picked up yesterday. Carl and I have been discussing how badly we need one and I happened upon one at Sur La Table yesterday and couldn't help wrapping it up and bringing home to my sweetie. We've been pretty geeked out on cooking and kitchen gadgets, so this is the perfect thing to add to our almost perfectly outfitted kitchen.

Hope you are all having a wonderful week so far! 

What are you loving? 

Leave it in my comments, or grab the McLinky and link up!

XO,

Chelsea

fancy fridays numero dos

well, its definitely a TGIF sort of week!
I'm tired from staying up way too late and trying to put my house away.
I'm still dying to get to some crafting, but for now decorating has been satisfying my crafty urges.

I just love to decorate. And re-decorate.
I like to call my current state deja-vu decorating! I'm finding all my treasures that I was separated from for quite some time and falling back in love with all of them. I promised myself I would do some serious housecleaning and go for a very spacious, minimal aesthetic. But then the little ole bohemian in me snuck out and I find myself creating little vignettes in all the nooks and crannies of our new place.

All this decorating and nesting definitely has me thinking of spring! There's nothing like clearing out the clutter and making way for color!!

I'm definitely fancying the saturated pastels I've been seeing. They're making my heart go pitter-patter and have me dreaming of springy picnics:

 

speaking of vignettes, this is absolutely dreamy

 

I cannot get enough of books

these brighten even a snow day

love love love

seeing these two pastel minis together totally made me happy

 I've always wanted to do this

but I'm sort of chicken...

I can't wait to paint my nails some fun pastel shades

 

 and do this

planning to use bakerella's recipe and try my hand at making these this weekend

And on a completely unrelated note:
I blogged yesterday about being totally in love with Andrew Bannecker's work. I was all set to pop into his shop and purchase the Barney & Friend print I featured yesterday

 

but then I saw these sweeties

 

and now I can't decide! HELP PLEASE! 

Any thoughts/comments would be helpful. I love them all so much!

What are your plans for the weekend?

XO,

Chelsea