My August Working Country Kitchen

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Good Morning, welcome to my working kitchen.

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Summer is such a busy time in a gardener's kitchen. Between our 'mess' from the basement damage, and the garden which is now 'giving up its bounty', I haven't really showed any photos of my house, porch or garden. 

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But Velkommen have a cuppa in my kitchen and we will catch up. I always have blue and white in my kitchen. In the summer I opt for dashes of red and yellow added. 

(The kettle is vintage Swedish enamel, I've always had some pieces of this from my family and I pick them up whenever I see them.)

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Gnomes all year round, thrift store find in porcelain.

You can have tea from the caddy...or...

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Have some coffee at our coffee machine. Yes, that is a big arse restaurant coffee machine. My husband bought this on the sly, and well, we had to design the kitchen around it.

But, IT IS THE BUSIEST

in the morning and also ideal for company. (I can have hot water brewing or decaf and regular...kept hot on the burners.)

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Sugar, sweetener, flavoring, creamer and spoons...it's all here, just pick your cup!

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Hubby also bought the towel...cracks me up.

Monday cup...please!

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And this service area works well, just to the left of the sink and filtered water.

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Another busy spot is the cabinet by the windows I have covered with a vintage tablecloth. I use this location in early spring for seedlings and now it has been full of tomatoes ripening for the last three weeks. We have to pick tomatoes before totally ripe--or the critters sample them.

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Our tomato crop was weird is year...we ended up with tons of small tomatoes, the yellows and the yellow pears.  So, I roasted most of them on parchment paper in large trays by slicing them in half.

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We did have plenty of reds and they are still producing, but only 4 plants.

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NUM!

They really are scrumptious and sweet.

So I CANNED TOMATOES!

3 BATCHES in the last week and a half.

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I put two large spoons (3-oz or so) of roasted tomatoes in each hot jar, added extra lemon juice(2 tsp.) and 1/2 tsp salt. Then added the cooked boiling tomatoes over the roasted  ones, then water-bath processed the jars for 15 min. A bit more than usual, but the roasteds weren't hot.

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I ended up with three batches over a week and a half, or 27 pint jars, of which 7 were made into sauce by cooking for 10 hours. 

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We've also had LOTS of cucumbers...yesterday I cut and seeded two large ones, some radishes, 2 small yellow squash, red pepper, onions, parsley, fresh oregano into a bowl. I added Italian dressing, some garlic oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper and a bit of Western dressing for tomato flavor and some sweetness. Num, this will keep until the weekend if we don't eat it all.

Sorry no recipe, I just sort of wing this by tasting. Once it sits for a day, it's even better.

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Last weekend I also made refrigerator Dills. This is a fast, easy and detailed recipe I shared HERE. They stay crunchy in the refrigerator for a year. My mother-in-laws recipe and it's fool-proof.

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This time of year fresh dill is plentiful normally, mine dried up in the hot weather, but the grocery had plenty.

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We ended up with a gallon and a half which I keep in the refrigerator. The sons will come and probably split the smaller jar.

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The island is always in use, but I try and have some fun seasonal decor on the end...what is more summer than a jar of old marbles, antique crocks, an antique French enamel lidded coffeepot and well something yellow to go with the sunflowers, my vintage McCoy yellow shoe.

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PHEW! Now you know why I called this my 

Working kitchen. 

Do you want another cup and stay awhile?

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Sandi

FRESH Danish Dill or Sweet Pickles

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Our Green Garden was so late, but, we were excited when the cucumbers finally started the end of July. Hubby was enthusiastic and planted four different kinds of seeds. It's so nice to use your own cucumbers, free of pesticides and harmful chemicals. 

And cucumbers that are fresh and not waxed, like the store ones--last far longer in this recipe.

Here's a couple of different ones, the fat one is kinda big, but very fresh, so perfect for fresh pickles. This is my Danish grandmother's recipe for Agurksalat, or Cucumber salad.   

Very few ingredients, fresh cucumbers sliced very thin, salt, white wine vinegar, touch of sugar, water, and fresh dill--the feathery part of the dill plant.

In a glass bowl---sprinkle maybe a quarter cup of salt over a bowl of sliced cucumbers...Mix well. (I peel thick skinned cucumbers, but leave the thin skinned ones with skin.)

(IF you wish to add onions, add ratio of 4 parts cucumbers to 1 part white onions, sliced very thin or green onions sliced very thin.)

Push all the cucumbers to the center, place a saucer on top that fits in the bowl, and a heavy weight. This is a huge jar of peanut butter. Let this sit, room temperature for a few hours, or until the cucumbers have weeped enough water to cover themselves. 

Here you can see the water. This water has to be squeezed out, you can put all of the pickles in a towel, rinse well with cold water, (you want to remove all that salt). Ball up the towel,  and then turn and squeeze the juice out until nothing more comes out. 

You can put them back in the original bowl, or maybe a smaller covered glass container. 

Add some sprigs of fresh dill (I used 4), just lay them in the dish or just add some onion slices or both.

Make a brine of two parts water, one part white wine vinegar, start with sugar-1/4 to 1/2 the amount of vinegar. (We like them not too sweet, so when you taste the brine, it's first a bit sweet, but then the vinegar kicks in and still goes up your nose) Add more vinegar or sugar to taste. Pour this over the cucumbers, chill, covered.

Example of brine for say 3-4 small to medium cucumbers (not too big)

Brine for fresh cucumbers

1 cup of water, 

1/2 cup of white wine vinegar, 

I start with 1/4 cup of sugar and then add. If you need more, add to taste. (Sprinkle of white pepper optional)

Make more brine if you have lots of cucumbers. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month, but they never last that long, LOL.

This first batch didn't last very long---and I had my lunch of tomato basil hummus on multi grain bread and a healthy dose of my Danish Dill Pickles, NUM.

Grandmother would say,  "There you go to eat!" or

Vaer sa god at spise!

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 Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 

Thank you for your cooperation, 

Sandi