In A Pickle

The hubby and I like to watch Food Network, but it never fails to get us in trouble. I mean, how can you watch total deliciousness being made in front of you and not want to eat massive amounts of unhealthy foods?  I guess if you have a little something called willpower you can resist, but here in this house there is sometimes a shortage of that. Last week we were watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Finger Food and one of the segments included fried pickles from The Blue Ridge Grill in Atlanta, GA. I already had pickles on the brain since I was getting ready for my first adventure in pickling and canning by making homemade dill pickles the next day, and seeing these yum-o fried pickles being made put me in even more of a pickle mood. Fast forward a few days (homemade pickles are made and set aside for their 2 weeks of fermenting--is it just me or does that word make them sound totally gross? I prefer not to think of my food fermenting...) and I was still thinking about those fried pickles. Well, it was another rainy cozy day which always puts me in the mood to cook or bake something delish. Cue, fried pickles. I had everything on hand including a jar of Vlassic dill pickle chips. The one thing I took away from The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Finger Foods was that the chef at The Blue Ridge Grill used cornmeal in his batter. From there I dug around in my pantry and pulled out some additional things to whip up a batter. Here is my recipe:

Fried Pickles

Dry Batter:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal (I had white on hand but I am sure yellow would work just fine too)
1 tablespoon of cornstarch (this makes the batter super nice and crispy!)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Cayenne pepper, to taste

Wet Batter:
1 cup milk
1 egg
A few dashes of hot sauce, to taste

*Note: We made a small serving of fried pickles, so we had a fair amount of batter left over. Next time I  make them for just us (hubby is still deciding how he feels about pickles so he barely ate any anyway) I would half the dry batter recipe. You can't really half the wet batter unless you want to mess with trying to separate out half of an egg...? I didn't think so. If you are making pickles for a crowd the full recipe should do.

Drain your pickle chips in a strainer (you will still want them wet--don't pat them dry or anything--but let the excess drip off into the sink). Coat the bottom of a dutch oven or deep skillet with vegetable oil. It does not need to be deep enough to cover the whole pickle, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan and one side of the pickle. Heat oil over medium heat. While oil is heating, mix up dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another bowl. Once your oil is hot and lightly bubbling and popping you are ready to fry. {We did a single pickle first to taste test our batter seasoning. After our "test pickle" we went back and spiced things up with more cayenne and hot sauce.} Dredge your drained pickle chips into the dry batter first. Shake excess off and then dredge them in the wet batter. Dredge them once more in the dry batter and then carefully put them into the hot oil. Let them fry until golden brown and then using tongs flip them to the other side to fry. It only takes a minute or so for them to get brown so keep a close eye on them! Remove fried pickles from the oil and place onto a paper towel lined plate to drain. Serve immediately with a side of ranch dressing. I used store bought light ranch dressing (I had to save calories somewhere you know) although these would be 10 times more delicious with homemade ranch. I wasn't up to that for a random afternoon snack made from items in my pantry, but I would definitely step it up and make homemade dressing if I was serving these for guests. So, who wants to come over and be my reason for homemade ranch dressing?

Dry and Wet Batter

"Test" Pickle 

Yummy Fried Pickles!

Pickles and Ranch

Enjoy!

A Wild Hair (and no I am not having a bad hair day)

Have you ever heard of the phrase "to have a wild hair"? I don't know where I picked it up, but it has become something I find myself saying probably more often than I should. In case you have no idea what I am talking about check out this link for Urban Dictionary. Yes, that's right you need to use Urban Dictionary to understand me--I am not sure if that is very A T-Shirt and Pearls, but eh oh well. Sometimes I think I am constantly having a wild hair because I always seem to have some new project or idea that I feel I must dive 110% into, and often I have more than one of these projects going at once. Yeesh, why can't I have this same motivation for cleaning and organizing?!

So, anyway my latest wild hair is to start canning. I have never canned before but as with anything I am ready to learn and do my best. I am not really sure where this idea came from (as is true with most of my ideas) but I am really excited to get started. My first adventure in canning is going to be making homemade pickles. When I was growing up we would visit my grandparents in Pennsylvania and during the summer my grandmother and her good friend and neighbor would make the most delicious homemade pickles. I am hoping that with the help of my family I can dig up her old recipe. I do not have a vegetable garden, so for this year I am going to buy my produce at farmers markets and produce stands. Next year I am planning to put a raised bed vegetable garden in my yard so I can use my own homegrown veggies.

I have started doing some research on canning and am thinking I am going to go with a pressure canner. Although there are less recipes that use pressure canners instead of water bath canners, it would be nice to have the option. From what I have read it seems like you should be able to do both types of canning in a pressure canner anyway. I found this one online at Walmart.com and it seems to have good reviews and be good for beginners. Do you have a preference or advice on which type of canner to buy, water bath or pressure? What about brands? I am liking the one I found because I have some Wal-Mart gift cards which makes the price really nice, but I want to make sure it is a good one too.

I am also looking for recipes to try after I am done with my pickles. I have found tons of great resources online and am storing them on my Canning Pinterest Board (use the link on my homepage to follow me!) A few ideas I have are corn and vidalia onion relish (I am really excited to create this recipe), apple butter (in the fall), salsa, tomato pasta sauce, and chicken stock. What are some home canned items that you think are a must try?

I am sure that I will have many canning adventures to share with you over the next few months. I am looking forward to hearing your advice and suggestions!

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