Cooking at Gramma's House

It has been some time that I have made something just for the fun of it. We have mostly been in survival mode since moving to my father's and adopting a rather unorthodox schedule. My husband commutes 5 hrs plus door to door one to two times a week, leaving me on 24hr twin tot duty for days at a time and my new 'at home' sewing business.... (anyone want an apron) have completely monopolized my time. Remember time? This is not a new struggle for me... As crazy as it may seem and as much as I bitch about it, this schedule makes me happy.... slightly crazy yes (but that is half the fun) but happy none the less. It helps me appreciate times like now, when we get to spend a few quieter days at gramma's house just hanging out.

The tot's gramma loves cooking and all things food, so when I announced that I was going to make quick pickles at her house and asked her "what old vegetables did she have?", she started  handing them over with reckless abandonment. She like most cooks get one, two, five, ten recipes worth of ingredients in their fridge and like most,  run out of time to make them all before the ingredients go off.

Quick Pickles

this is an adapted recipe from someone? 

that I just kinda winged on the fly

because I couldn't remember, who, where or when I had read it....

• One to One water/vinegar- I used 1 litre water to to 800ml white vinegar/200 ml apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tbsp course salt
• 1 tbsp pickling spices (whole cloves, mustard seed, cinnamon, pepper, bay leaf)
• hefty amount of vegetables, clean, peeled and sliced or quartered- I used 3 medium carrots peeled and cut into sticks, one and a half red peppers sliced, half a head of cauliflower in florets, sliced fennel bulb, one large white onion sliced, one medium zucchini (which is what started the whole thing because gramma's pea patch had yield tonnes of them and they were going slightly off) or anything else you can find.

Put water, vinegar, sugar, salt and pickling spices in a large pot and bring to a boil. Once at a boil taste mixture for sweet, salt, sour balance and adjust for your liking- I found I had to add a bit more sugar.

Start adding in vegetables depending on cooking time for a total of about 15 mins. All are done when onion and zucchini are transparent. To keep the some crunch of of the veg remove from the warm liquid right away and allow them to cool separately, you can combine them later to store in the refrigerator.