Sweet & Spicy Pickles

My parents found "Famous Dave's Spicy Pickles" at a store and absolutely loved them. So I got asked to try to duplicate them. I found Emeril's recipe :) But I couldn't just let it be. I had to adjust it...of course!

If you like a little bit of spice, you will probably enjoy this recipe. Of course you can adjust the amount of heat that you put into the recipe so if you want it spicier, add more heat and if you want them less spicy, don't add as much!

Here goes:
16 pickling cucumbers
2 large onions
1/2 cup salt
Cold Water

Wash and slice the pickling cucumbers into 1/4" slices (do not peel the cucumbers...yes I made that mistake once)

Slice the onions

In a large bowl (or split between two) mix the cucumber slices and onion slices

Add the salt (or divide between the two)

Fill bowl so that the cucumbers are covered with cold water (the colder the better...if needed, add some ice cubes)

Set aside for 3 hours

Wash and sterilize 5 quart jars and lids (or 10 pint jars and lids) while you are waiting

After 3 hours, drain and rinse the cucumbers/onions for 5 minutes with cold water.
Pack into the jars leaving 1" head space at the top of the jar

The pickling juice:
4 cups white vinegar
2 cups apple cider vinegar
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons whole black pepper corns
4-5 whole cloves
3 tablespoons roughly chopped garlic
20 chopped jalepenos (leave some seeds in for extra heat)

Combine everything in a pot, bring to a boil.

Pour hot liquid into each jar coming to 1/2" below the rim of the jar

Put lids and rings on each jar

Hot bath jars for 15 minutes in a large canner

After 15 minutes, remove from water if you have more to do, or if that is all, turn off the heat and allow to come to room temperature in the canner -- that seems to help the seals stay better sometimes.

Check your seals after the jars have cooled down to make sure they held. If they did not, either store pickles in the fridge or if it is within 24 hours, try the hot bath again.

Now the tough part...you're supposed to let the jars sit for 2 weeks before you break into them and try the pickles. My first batch...I didn't :) I waited 4 days and they tasted wonderful.

The only comment I have about this recipe is that the pickles get "tangy-ier" as they sit in the juice. I haven't figured out how to correct that yet, but other than that, I enjoyed the pickles and my parents did too.

Blessings in Christ,

Canning...again.

It's hard to believe that it's already August... It seems like just yesterday it was winter... With August comes the warmer temperatures...yes that's right. Where I am, August is typically the warmest month of the year. And also with August comes the start of canning.

This will only be my second year canning and in a way I'm dreading it, but also, I don't have as much to do as last year because we have a lot of green beans left from last year as well as tomatoes. We are going to be canning tomatoes again this year though because we have many-a tomato plants and my roommate wants to make her "mater mess". I call it a homemade ketchup, but she says it's not. All I know is it is not my favorite thing...she can have all that she makes! I will also be making pickles this year and getting rid of the ones that I made last year. I found a better recipe...one that I will post coming up soon. Other than the tomatoes and pickles I do not think we will have much to can and for that I am thankful.

Do you have a favorite canning recipe or even a recipe that uses the fresh fruits and vegetables that are coming up right now?

Blessings in Christ,

Losing One's Salvation?

Things have been relatively busy, but not too bad around here. I just put up 3 more quarts of pickled beets & cabbage. This batch I made a tad sweeter than the first. Last week we put up 4 quarts of pickles, 2 quarts bread & butter and 2 quarts dill pickles. I like them and am going to be making some more because my mom asked for some bread & butter pickles. We "cheated" and used a bought spice package, but it was cheaper than buying all the seasonings ourselves.

Last night my roommate and I went to a corn roast at a local Mennonite church. It was lots of veggies :) We got to play cornhole as well, my first time, don't suppose I was too bad... I am not so great at things like that though, putting a bean bag through a hole, not my forte. It was still fun though and that's what matters :)

My roommate has a manager at work that likes to start debates. The first one was over why one would wear a covering all the time, like what's the purpose of wearing it when you're not in church or at a church function? That was his question. He comes from a church, if I understand right, where the women wear their coverings at church (for service only), for a formal church event (ie. wedding or funeral), or when they go out on the town. They do not wear it while at home or when they are eating. The latest debate has been sparked because he said you cannot lose your salvation, once you gain it, God will never let you lose it. My roommate says you can lose it. So, tomorrow at lunch he wants to continue the debate. We have been looking through our Bibles for scripture that supports that someone who has been saved can ultimately lose their salvation.

Some of the scripture we have found and been led to by other Christians who believe that one can lose their salvation are as follows:
Hebrews 6:4-8 (This is a hypothetical situation, Paul was not saying that the Hebrews lost their salvation, but what would happen if someone strayed away from their faith)
Hebrews 10:26 (Same note as above)
Matthew 7:21
2 Peter 2:20
Mark 11:25-26
John 9:31
How I read these scriptures, some of them are what we must do in order to be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven (ie. forgive one another) and if we neglect to do these commands, then our Father will not forgive us and if we are not forgiven we are not allowed into heaven. Other scriptures state how it would be difficult for someone who has tasted the Kingdom of Heaven and left it to be welcomed back into it, in other words, someone who has been saved and fell from grace, it will be harder for them to return to the faith than someone who has never been saved before.

The list of abominable sins are found in:
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Galatians 5:19-20
These abominable sins can be committed by anyone, and if we commit them we must repent before we would be welcome in the Lord's Kingdom. I take this to mean that even if we call ourselves Christians and were once saved if we commit one of these sins, we must repent otherwise when we go knocking on the pearly gates of heaven, we will not be welcomed and rather turned away to the wrath of hell. However, if we repent and turn away from these sins, God will forgive us and we will be welcomed into His kingdom when He calls us up.

What are your thoughts? If you have any scripture that supports losing one's salvation (or supports that one cannot lose their salvation) please share :)

Blessings in Christ,

Canning Adventures!

So my new roommate and I decided to can some green cabbage and red beets the other night. Oh boy, the kitchen was an absolute mess! We decided to can them together to try to make the German sweet pickeled cabbage... I'm not quite sure how it will turn out, but I am excited to try it!

We blanched our cabbage and then shocked it with ice water while cooking the beets. We ended up using 5 beets to bleed for the pickling juice, but we only cut up 3 of the beets to put in the jars with the cabbage. Then we used 2 cups & 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of pepper and 1 tablespoon of salt as the spices. Mixed that in with the beet water after they were done cooking and added vinegar to taste. Make sure it isn't too sweet for your liking though because ours was really sweet before we added the vinegar.

For one rather large head of cabbage and 3 beets we needed 3 regular mouth quart mason jars. We divided everything up while we hot bathed the jars and lids. Then did the canning as quickly as possible! One of the jars did not seal so we ended up putting it in a pot of hot water over night which sealed it right up! We did save our beet juice for when we finish canning our beets we have left, but that would be up to you if you want to save the juice or not.

What else are we going to can? Well I would love to can some banana peppers for sandwiches, I have gotten on a kick with those banana pepper rings...oh so yummy! I think we are also going to try to can some green beans and maybe some salsa. But we shall see on the salsa...

Thought I would share this with you. Happy canning!

Blessings in Christ,