In Brine

This last weekend was a doozy! When making summer plans, I made an effort to leave some days open so I would have time to process some of summer's bounty. I am glad I did, because the list of things I want to make is a mile long!

I spent nearly all of Saturday and Sunday processing foods in a variety of ways and barely made a dent in my list. I'm going to break the recap down into a few posts so it is a little less all over the place. That is what is nice about a blog; I can give the illusion that my mad weekend of preserving was organized, categorized and tidy.

First up: things that are pickled or pickle-like.

The inspiration for these pickled sun gold cherry tomatoes was two-fold. Kim brought some pickled tomatoes to the last food swap and shortly before that I had seen the idea on Food in Jars. I used the vinegar/sugar/salt/water ratio from the Food in Jars recipe and the rosemary and garlic flavor from Kim's tomatoes. I didn't bother peeling them and don't think they were any worse for the wear with the peels on. I poured the brine over the tomatoes and let them sit out at room temperature for a few hours before putting them in the fridge. These sun golds are a vibrant pop of summer in your mouth!

I've had these zucchini pickles on my radar for quite a while and finally got around to making them. Slicing the zucchini was super easy with our new mandolin. I like the orange and green combination and so far the pickles have stayed pretty crisp. The flavor hasn't become that deep yet, so I am hoping the zucchini will suck up some more flavor as they sit.

Last up on the brine bandwagon is relish! I followed the cucumber relish recipe from Canning for a New Generation. The food processor made easy work of the mincing after I handled the cleaning and chopping. (I washed so many dishes this weekend!)

The recipe was no frills. So, when I gave Paul a sample and his review was "tastes like relish", I wasn't too surprised.

I do think the lineup of relish was quite handsome, even if it wasn't super gourmet.