Texas Pickled Veggies

One of things I've always wanted to learn was how to pickle...I love pickled veggies. During our spring break my husband and I decided to give it a go. We perused through the produce section of our local market and grabbed various veggies to pickle then we got started.

Texas Pickled Veggies
1/2 pound pickling cucumbers
1/4 pound fresh green beans
3 carrots
1 pound of okra
8 cloves of garlic
fresh dill
fresh cilantro
4 Tbsp honey
3/4 quart of white vinegar
6 Mason jars (any size)
pickling spices (coriander seeds, mustard seeds, cinnamon, ginger, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, caraway, allspice, black pepper and cloves- most grocery stores should have a mixed pickling spice you can purchase instead of purchasing all of these separately)

First thing you want to do is sterilize your glass jars. Bring water to a boil and let the jars soak in the boiling water to sterilize. Do not handle these jars with your hands after this point, use tongs.

Next, pour your white vinegar into a large sauce pot, add in the honey and pickling spices bring to a boil. Let boil for two minutes. Then remove from heat and let the liquid come to room temperature.

While the pickling liquid is cooling start to chop your veggies and herbs. With the carrots I sliced them into discs, I chopped the ends off the green beans and sliced up some of the cucumbers into discs and some into spears. I roughly chopped my herbs. Then we started to assemble our veggies into their jars.

You can assemble these any way you want, I decided to put smashed garlic in the bottom of each jar, then in one jar I put all green beans, one was all pickle spears and another was all okra; the rest of our jars we put a mix of veggies. I had six jars to fill, you can also use any veggies you want- some use cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, green tomatoes, daikon, etc. 

Once the pickling liquid is cooled to room temperature, add the herbs, stir and gently pour into each jar. Make sure to stuff the pickling spices into each jar, fill to the top and seal the jars together. I put these straight into the fridge, you can leave them in the pickling liquid for 24 hours up to a month or even longer.

Try this awesome recipe out & enjoy! xoxo Lo

Bakin' it up!

Some days are just great days to spend in the kitchen, hands deep in flour with an apron on. I love baking! For my wedding I created welcome bags for all my out of town guests...and all of my family were out of town guests. So with 30 welcome bags to be made, there needed to be a sweet, homemade element. I had once seen a Texas sugar cookie with a mini red heart on it in a bakery, every since then I knew I wanted to make this for my wedding. Since all of my family came from all over the United States, this Texas cookie would work perfect.

You of course do not have to make Texas cookies, they could be in any shape. What I really want to show you is the wonderful sugar cookie recipe. I also added the blue heart because my favorite color is blue, you could dye your dough any color to your lovely cookie confection.


Texas Sugar Cookies

1 large egg
2 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour

Whisk egg and vanilla into a small bowl and set aside. In a standing mixer, cream butter until fluffy, scrape sides of bowl and add sugar. Beat until light, add egg mixture and beat for about one minute. Add the salt to the flour in a separate bowl, reduce speed and slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Just mix til blended, do not over mix.

Remove dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface. Roll out dough to about a 1/4 inch thick surface. Use your cookie cutters to make whichever patterns you'd like. If you want to create a colored cookie part to place on your sugar cookie, take part of your dough, add whichever color you'd like and mix thoroughly. Bake cookies for 8 minutes at 350 degrees.


Cherry Brownies

1 cup softened butter
4 squares of semi-sweet chocolate (4 oz)
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp ground coffee
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped candied cherries (you can use fresh or dried as well)

My husband and I were invited to a pool party a few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to make brownies with my new standing mixer. I didn't have any nuts but we had ground coffee and candied cherries. First I put a double boiler onto the stove to melt my chocolate squares. If you don't have a double boiler, simply put a metal bowl over a sauce pan which has about a cup of water in it. You don't want the water to touch the bottom of the bowl.

Place butter, sugar and vanilla into the mixer, mix for about 30 seconds. Turn the speed up and beat for about two minutes. Turn the speed down slightly, add eggs, one at a time. Stop and scrape the bowl. Add melted chocolate mixture, turn down speed. Add all remaining ingredients and mix til blended, do not over mix (30 seconds). Pour into a greased and floured baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

These delectable desserts will have your mouth jumping for joy! Simple sugar cookies with a little flair and chocolatey brownies with soothing hints of coffee and gooey pieces of candied cherry. YUM!

Enjoy! xo Lo

Grillin' Summer Feast

Are you afraid of your grill? During the summer I always crave grilled meats and veggies...there is absolutely no reason to be afraid of your grill. Anything you cook in a saute pan or in the oven, you can cook on the grill. This day my Aunt and cousin had flown in from New Hampshire and I was determined to grill them a Texas-style meal. My new husband loves pork ribs and I recently discovered a chocolate-spice rub (thanks to Paula Deen) and tweaked it a bit to fit my culinary style. We always check our calendar to see what veggies are in season and try to purchase locally. We decided on: chocolate-spice rubbed pork ribs, baby portabella mushrooms, parmesan corn on the cob and red onions.

Chocolate-Spice Rubbed Pork Ribs

Grab a rack of ribs from your local store, make sure they are not frozen, take them out of their packaging and let them rest at room temperature while you get the rub ready.

Rub
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs Italian Seasoning
2 tsp onion powder
1 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbs olive oil

Combine rub ingredients together and brush over rack of ribs. Use your hands to make sure every inch of the rack of ribs is covered with the spice rub. Cover with aluminum foil, let the rub rest and marry into the pork ribs. Once your grill (I prefer charcoal, for flavor purposes) is ready place the ribs on the grill, set your timer for 20 minutes.

Veggies
Grab 4-6 corns on the cob, 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Half unwrap your corn stalk leaving a few of the leaves on the outside, drizzle each with olive oil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and salt & pepper to taste. Then wrap the corn back up and place on grill.

Buy two packages of baby bella mushrooms, cut in half, marinate in soy sauce, cilantro, agave nectar and Worcestershire sauce. Once they have marinated for 30 minutes place on skewers then place on grill.

Mushroom Marinade
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup cilantro
1 tsp agave nectar
1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce

Grab two red onions and slice thickly, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper then place on grill.

I decided to serve all these spectacular dishes outside, in Texas it finally starts to cool down around 7:30-8 p.m.  We impressed our New Hampshire family with some southern comfort, grillin' style food from Texas. Enjoy!

xo Lo