Pick a Peck of Pickled Peppers
9:00 p.m. - 2004-07-27


Our cucumber vines have gone wacko and are producing huge cuks by the dozen. Well, not that many, but about half a dozen a day, and who can use up that many? I made my annual sweet pickle relish for future potato salads and sandwiches, then pondered making some dill or sweet pickles. I asked my husband which kind he liked, only to find out that he hates pickles. How can he love cucumbers in sweetened vinegar sauce with dill, and still hate pickles? So I made a few more kinds of relish, because I really liked the new relish on my ham sandwich today. I am trying a relish made with yellow squash and red peppers (ended up tasting just like store-bought sweet pickle relish) and India relish, which has more mustard in it, and which I have never tasted before. I see a lot of potato and macaroni salad in our future.

My mother always made the potato salad according to a recipe she found in a magazine during the 50's. It was supposedly from Mamie Eisenhower and had a lot of unusual ingredients, like chopped black olives, celery, pimentos, and green onions, in addition to the usual hard boiled eggs and pickle relish. The hot potatoes are mixed with a vinaigrette type mixture so that they soak it up and taste wonderful, before the rest of the ingredients and amazing amounts of mayonnaise are mixed in. Because this is what we grew up on, this is the way we view potato salad. Now I make lots of kinds, and I admit, I like them all, except the overly sweet tasting ones.

I am still trying to learn the maps at work, but don't like it much yet. Today at work, my boss Sue called us in to her office to see the little baby frog stuck to the outside of her window. She wondered how it got there and where it came from, because the lovely, but fake, stream that runs through the building grounds and ends in a pond, has chlorine in it. We all watched it for awhile, and then it hopped away.

Melissa will be out in a week for her visit, and then Abby leaves for her third year, which begins in August with band camp. We are going to go to Monterey to see the aquarium. I love the Monterey area, and I do believe there is a very good yarn shop in Pacific Grove. I always wanted to go inside, but last time I was there, it had just closed when I spotted it. I hope it is still there.

News reports say that West Nile virus was found for the first time in a bird in Northern California. Yuk. Mosquitos love me, so I guess I will just keep my fingers crossed and stay in after 5 o'clock.

I think my relish is cool by now, so I will go pack it up for the freezer.