Lemons and Pickles

After I made the chocolate slushie the other day I could not get slushies out of my brain.

Then as I was grocery shopping I spotted this bag of beautiful lemons.

Our eyes met and it was love at first sight.

I just had to bring them home with me.

Their destiny?

Lemon slushie, of course!

I love my blender.

I peeled 3 lemons like an orange and put the whole darn thing in the blender, seeds and all.

Then I added 2 cups water and 1/3 c of honey (hence the dark color).

You could use 1/2 c of sugar instead and the color would be perfectly yellow.

I blended that all up for quite a while, until the whole lemon was totally pulverized. That way if there had been any seeds they were totally undetectable.

Then I turned off the blender and filled it up with ice cubes and blended more until the ice was totally pulverized.

The result?

Perfectly sweet and tangy lemon slushie.

So, so, so refreshing on a hot, hot, hot day!

Why was it such a hot day, you ask?

You see I had been canning these beauties all morning.

Yup, I made homemade pickles.

I googled a recipe for dill pickles and found about 1,000 variations for the same thing.

I took the really simple route and made my pickle brine using 3 parts water and 1 part vinegar and pickling salt. Then I added 1/2 T dill seed to each jar and boiled them in the water bath for 10 minutes. And voila!

Home made pickles.

The only problem is that most of the recipes say to let them sit in the brine for 4-6 weeks (to let them cure) before you eat them.
HA! Like that's gonna happen.


I did have left over cucumbers and brine after I ran out of jars and dill seed so I just put the left over cucumbers in the brine in the fridge with some red onions.

They have been in there for a few days and are perfect. These may hold me over for about a week, unless the kids find them, then they'll be gone in about an hour.

I love summer.

I can't wait until I have my own baby cukes growing in my very own garden!

Not to mention tomatoes and corn and peppers and onions and watermelon and squash and zucchini and green beans and herbs. The possibilities are endless.

Ah, I love summer!