Pickle Kin

Harold, purveyor of gourmet pickles from Texas is most certainly my kin folk. I first "met" Harold via this here ol' blog when he left a comment on one of my posts urging me to stop messin' around with other "hot" pickles and to try his instead. After corresponding back and forth it was theorized that he may be my long lost father...'cept my dad is alive and well and I look just like him, so, love ya Dad, but there is no doubt that Harold and I are related somewhere along the brine line.

Well, I called him out about his pickles not messin' around and sure enough, he had the smarts to send me a whole box of his pickles: a jar of the original Frances Cowley dills, a jar of his "2X" hot pickles with habaneros and a jar of his "4X" extra hot pickles with even more habaneros. I've got all 3 sitting in my fridge right this moment, no doubt keeping the other jars in there highly entertained. These are sassy pickles from Texas with a salty sense of humor.

All of these pickles come in thick, chunky slices, which I love, because for me they are a mess-free meal, only a fork need be "dirtied". The original Frances Cowley dills are just a simple, straightforward dill that tastes better than anything Vlassic, Mount Olive etc can sell you. My friend Ruby Verbena tried them at the NOLA Hot Sauce & Gourmet show and shrieked with delight (of course, Harold, I must point out, at this point she had yet to taste MY pickles, just sayin'...). My friend Annie tried these the other night at my house and said they had just the right amount of heat for her, anymore would be too much. She is a wimp (I'm kidding Annie, just testing to see if you read the blog). The 2X or "Purdy Hot" pickles and the 4X or "Dern Hot" are the same recipe as the Frances Cowley dills just accordingly spiced up with habanero peppers, although I SWEAR my 2X pickles are hotter than the 4X ones! What makes these pickles unique is their super salty taste, so if you're the type that adds salt to your tortilla chips, margaritas and cans of Tecate, these are for you.

After Harold sent me this big box of love from Texas, I had the pleasure of meeting him at the NOLA Hot Sauce & Gourmet Show. He welcomed me like family and I was happy to learn he is even funnier in person than his witty facebook updates and happier to know that he was even more hungover on that Sunday afternoon than I was! He and his pickle crew attended some sort of open bar for the show vendors and he declared that it was a flat out mistake to put him anywhere NEAR an open bar. Like I said-KIN FOLK.

And just like kin, Harold didn't let me leave without a jar of his brand new pickle offering-The Beer Pickle-which I have to say is the COOLEST jar of pickles I've ever laid my briny hands on and it deserves its own post-my google search of "beer pickle" has already turned up some very interesting things so stay tuned.

Eat Like a Freak: Garlic Jelly

I think I already do. Eat like a freak that is, but just in case, I ate especially freaky yesterday, in an especially freaky place. The NOLA Hot Sauce and Gourmet show in Kenner...

New Orleans is such a great place and while it's full of Southern CHARM, I forget sometimes that I really live in the Deep South again and then I find myself in a place like Kenner which is a mere 10 minutes outside of New Orleans and oooooooh my...there were um...a *few* rednecks there...including this guy:


It was really hard to get this photo because A) I had to look at him and B) he was pacing around because he was a participant in the "spicy lick-a-thon" and I reckon the heat was a gettin' to him.

ANYHOO, the show was great. We walked around and filled our tiny spoons with all kinds of hot and BBQ sauces, pickles and jellies. I did indeed eat like a freak, 'cuz I don't even like jelly but I LOVED THIS STUFF:

Is Garlic Jelly weird? Any kind of jelly is weird to me, so I'm just asking...but whoa is this stuff GOOD! I have no idea what I'll eat it on since I don't eat a lot of bread but I may have to make an exception for this stuff. Plus I just really love the way it looks, all those little chunks of garlic and bits of parsley suspended in jelly really captivate me (probably because I'm a Southern redneck myself-mawmaw, LOOK! Jelly!).

The maker of this magical stuff was one of my favorite people I met that day. Rita Smith and her husband Roger make all kinds of salsa, jellies and of course pickles, but it was the line of jellies that really grabbed our attention. You can look them up on their website, which is on the internet, (so is my blog, by the way) at www.olehomestead.com. I'm pretty sure it's the only place you'll find "Crawfish Jelly" (which is the most amazing color of peachy pink I've ever seen and I wish now that I'd gotten a jar just to gaze upon)!

I met some other amazing folks but that'll be the next post I write!

NOLA Hot Sauce Show!

The New Orleans Hot Sauce & Gourmet Show will be held this weekend at the Pontchatrain Center in Kenner. Admission is $5 and I guarantee you will get your money's worth that day.

Also, I need a ride. Let's go on Sunday. Thanks.

(PS) Check out this gorgeous website!

Made in NOLA

Two weekends ago I stayed in on a Friday night (really hard to do in NOLA) so I could hit the farmer's market on Saturday morning, you know, EARLY before it got too hot... but I slept til' 10 anyway and I just resigned myself to the fact that it's summer in New Orleans. It's HOT no matter what you do or try to do.

I scooted down on my Vespa with the intention to just buy enough cukes to make 2-3 quarts, but I ended up getting a whole basket full for $3-they were all short and chubby, hence their bargain price, but I was going to slice them into rings anyway, so I crammed my full market bag in to the seat of my scooter and got home to get down to business!

I made 8 quarts and after all the jars were cooled down, I had to hide them under my counter so I wouldn't be tempted to open them early. It took every bit of my will power. In order to let them "sit" for 2 weeks it would be July 1 before I could open a jar. On that day, I put one jar in the fridge before leaving for work and when I got home that night I cracked open the first jar with MUCH anticipation!

The first jar was empty before the weekend was over. Yes, my day's labor 2 weeks prior was a huge success and now I'm thinking, I only made EIGHT QUARTS....sh*t!!

Here's what I used for the brine ( I ended up making 2 batches of brine-you can just double the amounts):
4 cups water (I used "spring" water, not tap)
4 cups distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)
1/4 cup of fine sea salt (actually a little less)

Pack each jar with a teaspoon of mustard seeds, a few hot peppers, a few cloves of garlic, and a sprigs of fresh dill
Pack in your cukes
Bring your brine to a boil and then carefully pour over your cukes and fill your jars
Seal your jars with your lids, that you boiled separately and let cool a bit

Do everything in your power to forget you made these for 2 weeks and then enjoy!