Refrigerator Pickles

If you follow me on Facebook you might have seen me say recently that I have some great posts to do but was in the middle of a big recipe card project using my camera. My great uncle recently passed away, so my mom went back to Kansas to get some things from their house that had been left to her and things she wanted to keep. Her aunt died 12 or 13 years ago, my grandma's oldest sister. One of the things my mom brought back was her aunt's recipe collection. In case it's not obvious, I'm a sucker for a recipe collection. Especially old ones written on recipe cards in swirly, cursive handwriting and filed away in recipe card boxes. Conveniently shortly after she returned from that trip my mom left on another trip (she's a traveling fool, that lady!), so I brought the box of recipes home with me to take pictures of ones I wanted to have. It was quite an undertaking. I wanted to wait to upload my memory card until I was done, so that meant blog updates got put on hold.

Now, as if that wasn't enough of a tangent, do you have Market on the Move where you live? I don't know if it's just an AZ thing, but it's pretty awesome. The first saturday of the month (dates vary by location, I believe. Mine just happens to be the first Saturday.) you can get up to 60 pounds of produce for $10. Yup...60 pounds, $10. It's all stuff that's too ripe for grocery stores to take, so they sell it for super cheap. This last MOM (as it's affectionately known as) had butternut squash, zucchini, yellow squash, green and red peppers, poblano peppers, roma tomatoes and cucumbers. There are certain amounts of some things you can take, others are unlimited. This time each person was allowed 19 cucumbers. Did I mention they were organic? Score!! I decided to try my hand at making refrigerator pickles. I had wanted to try them at some other point when I had a bunch of cucumbers, but I never did. I don't remember why. Probably my kids ate them. Or they were forgotten in my garage fridge. But this time I was not going to let that happen! I busted out my cukes, vinegar, sugar, and some canning jars, and got busy!

Refrigerator Pickles
Source: adapted from allrecipes.com

1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tbsp salt
2 cups white sugar
6 cups sliced cucumbers
1 cup sliced onions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes. Place the cucumbers and onions in a large bowl. Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables. Transfer to sterile containers and store in the refrigerator.

*****

I had slightly more than six cups of cucumbers. I think I used five cukes, but they were pretty big. I really wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, but we had some on turkey burgers a few nights later, and they were really good! They're on the sweeter side, but not as sweet as an actual sweet pickle. They were just so crisp and fresh tasting. I loved them! So much better than store bought pickles, and I know exactly what went in to them! In fact, I liked these so much I made a second batch a few days later. So now I have six jars of pickles in my fridge. From what I read they'll last up to several months in the fridge. These were also super fast to make. While the vinegar/sugar/salt mixture was coming to a boil I did all my slicing. I did let it all cool in the bowl a little before I put them in jars. And you'll probably want to wipe off your jars after you're done--mine were really sticky!

(Complete side note...speaking of jars, I was at Costco last week, and they had a sozen pint canning jars for $6! That's a smokin' deal! I bought three packages--one for me and two for my friend Amy. One of the employees said they were going really fast, so if you want some, I suggest going soon to check on them!)

Cuban Sandwiches

Hello, dear blog. I've missed you so. I really have no excuse for why I've stayed away so long. Well, I kind of do but it's not a very good one. I wrote out a list of blog posts I want to do and there are seven on the list and two maybes. Yikes. That's a lot of catching up to do. Conveniently I feel like doing no sort of household chores today, other than what I've already accomplished, so that works out pretty well. Plus someone from church is swinging by at some point, so I don't want to be in the middle of, say, giving the dog a bath when she gets here.

Quite awhile ago the husband and I went on a date night to a local Cuban restaurant. My mom had bought a Groupon for it but wasn't going to be able to use it, so she generously gave it to us. Woo hoo! I love a date night, but a free date night is even better! Actually I think we ended up spending more than the amount of the Groupon because (here's a little known fact about me) I cannot resist a good, fresh mojito...the kind with real mint leaves in the bottom of the glass. Lordy mama, am I ever a sucker for a good mojito. It's actually kind of a sickness because whenever I smell fresh mint all I can think of are mojitos.

Anyway...

We went to this Cuban restaurant for dinner and decided to share two entrees. I seriously could not decide. We knew we wanted a Cuban sandwich and honestly I would have eaten anything else on the menu. We ended up getting some kind of pulled pork that was really good, but the Cuban sandwich was AMAZING. I've always been a fan of Cuban sandwiches...pork, ham, swiss cheese, mustard, pickles. What's not to love?! After having a very tasty sandwich there the husband and I decided we needed to have them again soon. So we had them for a date night dinner one Friday after the kiddos went to bed. I just kind of winged the recipe.

Cuban Sandwiches

4 slices deli ham
4 slices roasted pork
2 slices Swiss cheese
4 slices dill pickles
Mustard
2 crusty rolls or 4 pieces french bread

Split open rolls and spread both sides with mustard. use as much or little mustard as you like. On bottom half of roll, layer 2 slices ham, 2 slices pork, 1 slice Swiss cheese, and 2 pickle slices. Top with top half of roll.

Using a panini press (or whatever you like to use for a pressed sandwich), grill sandwich until cheese is melted and the bread is toasted.

*****

Pretty easy. For the pork component I used a one pound pork loin roast that I had cooked in the crockpot. I used my friend Jen's method for cooking a pork roast...throw the roast, a can of beer, some salt and pepper in the crockpot and let it cook. It was pretty awesome pork and I think my new go to method for cooking pork when I just need the meat for something.

These weren't quite as good as the ones we had at Havana Cafe, but I think that was due to the bread. I didn't have access to special Cuban bread, and I really think that would make a big difference. The husband and I both liked them, and it was a pretty easy dinner to throw together, so I'm sure we'll have them again.

Tom Douglas' Tartar Sauce

I had wanted a Tom Douglas cookbook for awhile now and kept asking for one for holidays but never got one. I happened to be at Sur La Table a few weeks ago and was looking in their clearance section and saw the one I wanted there, Tom's Big Dinners. Needless to say, it jumped into my basket! I had only flipped through it until Saturday afternoon where I sat down on the couch and read each recipe and looked at all the pictures. There's so much goodness in this cookbook, it's ridiculous. I can't wait to try more of the recipes. There's an Asian Feast menu I'm dying to try. I'll have to work that in once potty training is totally complete.

Tom Douglas' Tartar Sauce
Tom's Big Dinners, Copyright 2003
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp chopped capers
3 Tbsp finely chopped cornichons or dill pickles
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp finely chopped red onion
1 Tbsp minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce or to taste
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Put the mayonnaise in a bowl and stir in remaining ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*****

This. Was. Awesome. I will never buy tartar sauce again. I told the husband at dinner that I could just eat it with a spoon. I made it up a few hours before dinner so it would have time to sit and the flavors would combine. Most of the ingredients are things I always have on hand which will make it easy to whip up. Plus I never use an entire bottle of tartar sauce when I buy it before it goes bad, so this is an easy way to make however much I need.

In the cookbook, the tartar sauce is listed with a recipe for Fried Jarlsberg Cheese. Sounds yummy, so I'll have to try that as well. Oh, Tom, how I heart thee.