The Pickled Christmas

At Thanksgiving this past October, my in-laws brought over a restaurant size jar of dill pickles.  Although our fridge isn't exactly small, it is always full.  So both DH and I knew that once that jar was opened, it would have to be eaten.

Since it's a crime to waste dill pickles, I had to think out of the "jar".  Off to the net for ideas.  And there were some "dills" out there.

Christmas Eve DS hosted the traditional open house at his new place.  The agreement was he'd clean and decorate his home and we would provide the food.  Can you see where this is going?  Yep, we tried out these crazy recipes on his guests.

Into the air fryer went about a third of the jar (after being sliced very thin).  The younger guests had fun eating these dehydrated pickle chips with the regular potato chips.  Apparently the flavour is really interesting.  I couldn't say from personal experience though since it's just way too salty for my taste.  And yes, this is how 1/3 of a jar of pickles looks after being dehydrated.

The next third of a jar was candied.  Slice the pickles then place into a large pot along with a half cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of water.  Bring to a slow boil. The water and juice from the pickles will dissolve the sugar.  I let it boil until the sugar water passed the hard candy test.  (Look up how to test boiled candy when you don't have a candy thermometer.  The explanation on the net will be better than I can provide.)  Once the sugar water was at hard boiled stage, I used tongs to pull out the pickles and let them dry and harden on wax paper.  The remaining sugar/dill water was cooled until I could touch it.  Then I rolled it into the shape of butter scotch candy.

Both the pickles and the hard candy were tasty.  But not a treat for anyone with a loose filling or dentures.  So these treats were set out with a warning.  I didn't want to be responsible for any emergency dental appointments at Christmas!

Now for what turned out the best.  The chocolate dipped pickles.  Everyone who was brave enough to give it a try really enjoyed them.  And went back for more!

Slice the pickles up, lay them on a parchment covered tray and freeze for two hours.  Melt a small bag of dark chocolate chips along with a table spoon or two of coconut oil.  The oil keeps the chocolate from hardening faster than you can dip the pickles.

Dip the pickles into the chocolate and set onto parchment paper covered plates or trays.  Then place the pickles in the fridge until the chocolate is hardened.

The trick is to pop the entire treat into your mouth.  Do not nibble.  You don't get the blend of the pickle and chocolate that way.  These were really good and the one I'd make again.  (And gift back to my in-laws should they ever bring over another restaurant size of pickles again 😊)

Shout out to my son for the wonderful job he did of decorating his home for all of us.  He chose to go over the top with decorations from the 50's 60's and 70's.  Bringing back a lot of memories of Christmas Past.

Thank you and Hugs! Love ya!

Christmas Craft Memories

My Dad worked a lot of evening and night shifts.  Which meant keeping the house quiet so he could sleep.  Some of my favourite memories of Christmas past are of Mom and I crafting at the kitchen table.  It was something we could do and not disturb Dad's sleep.

Mom and I talked about those evenings recently and neither of us could remember how we made the stars and wall hangings from aluminum foil and Christmas wrap.

You know those videos that show up on YouTube that don't have anything to do with what you are watching?  Well one I saw recently was for a Polish Star.  Curious, I checked it out.  And there it was.  The instructions for making the aluminum foil star!   I sent the link to Mom and then sat down to make a few.  Only I used bits of left over Christmas wrap instead of foil.

Back in the early 60's we didn't have glue sticks that made making these stars really easy!

But there were other stars we made from Christmas wrap.  Either hung from the ceiling or as a wall hanging.  I couldn't find those, until Eileen from hearts2hands posed a link for stars made from fabric.  There is was.  The stars we used to make from wrapping paper.  Used wrapping paper of course.  Giving second life to the previous years savings.  We were the original recyclers.

I'm not sure if Mom is going to try her hand at making any of these.  Knowing her, if she does, there will be lots of embellishments as well as improvements.