Granny's Refrigerator "Pickles"

Growing up, my granny almost always had a gallon jar full of cucumbers and onion slices in vinegar water. When the jar contents got low, she simply added more cucs, but very rarely actually completely emptied the liquid and started over. 

These things never really even had a name, but we ate them with just about every meal, and there really wasn't a "recipe" for it either. I made some last summer, and it took me back to childhood, and yesterday when I picked 5 rather large cucumbers out of my garden, I immediately knew what I was going to do with them. Granny's recipe was simply water, white vinegar, table salt and black pepper, cucumbers, and onions. Today, I added a little more to it. 

Ingredients:

1 : 2 ratio of White vinegar to water. If you like a stronger vinegar flavor, add more vinegar. If you like a weaker taste, add more water. 

enough cucumbers to fill your jar. Use glass jar with a metal lid if possible. The vinegar soaks into the plastic lid.

onion (depends on your preference. I use one small-medium sized white one this time)

Seasonings to taste. Salt, Pepper, Dill, Garlic, Red Pepper, etc. 

Directions:

Peel and slice your cucumbers. Today, I used six medium sized cucumbers. You can start with one to see if you like the recipe, or a dozen. It really just depends on the size of your container. 

Slice your onion into rings. 

layer the cucumbers and onions in your container until you're either out of cucumbers or your jar is full. 

Add the seasonings. I added a couple of crushed clovers of garlic and some dill (left over from canning real pickles last week) to the layers and then added the sea salt, black and red peppers to the top layer of the cucumbers. 

Add the vinegar and water a little at a time. i.e. 1/2 cup of vinegar and a cup of water until the cucs are covered in liquid.

tighten the lid and gently swish the jar around.

Refrigerate. 

You can eat these the same day if you're impatient, but if you let them set at least a couple days, they'll be better. You can adjust your flavor after tasting them to better fit your tastes, and when you eat the last cucumbers, simply add more to the already prepared liquid.

I don't let them sit longer than about 6 weeks. the longer they soak in the vinegar, the soggier the cucumbers get, and I like them still a little crunchy. 

Enjoy ! and let me know what you think!

TTU Rag Wreath

It's that time of year... The time when we West Texans clear our Saturday schedules and get our guns up. Our Texas Tech guns up, that is.
So this year, to go along with football season, my front door is sporting a red & black rag wreath.
I love making wreaths like this. They're super cheap and they don't take much brain work. If you play it right, you'll spend less than $10 on the whole project and if you're lucky, you'll already have the solid fabrics in your scrap collection. After supper I can sit down on the couch with my cutting mat and a few yards of fabric, and the next night I can sit down with piles of fabric strips and a wreath form, and before I know it, I've got a fuzzy, cute, homemade, decoration!

To make these wreaths, I use:
a 12" "box style" wreath form (the metal ones with four bars)
1/4 yard of 6 different fabrics. (I use 3 solids and 3 patterns)

The instructions are simple:
 Cut the fabric into approximately 1" x 6" strips. It's really just a personal preference.

Working by section, half knot the strips to the wreath. I work from the inside out and the last few that I've made, I have removed the outside ring of the wreath and only done the inner and third rings. The first ones I did, I covered all 4 rings. I have made wreaths both ways, it's just another personal preference as to which style you like and how thick you want your final product to be.

The Double T is just a piece of cardboard covered in a football patterned fabric and tied to the wreath. I didn't want it to be permanent since right now the plan is to hang it for baseball season, too.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treats

Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treats

Ingredients
4 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups peanut butter
1 cup light Karo Syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1 bag Hershey's Kisses (I used the caramel ones)

Directions
First things first, peel approximately 48 Hershey Kisses, and set them aside. (You'll thank me for mentioning this later)
Bring Karo and Sugar to a boil, and remove from heat.
Quickly stir in peanut butter until smooth. Add Rice Krispies, and stir until equally combined.
Drop Rice Krispy Treats by the spoonful onto wax paper.
Immediately press a Kiss into the treats and let set, without disturbing the Kisses until cooled to room temperature**
Store in airtight container. Enjoy!

**Let's just be honest... I didn't let them cool off to "room temperature" Heck, I didn't even get half of the treats onto the wax paper!  We ate it warm and straight out of the pan.       ~Erin

Bread!

Considering that it's the middle of July in West Texas, waking up today to lower 70 degree temperatures and cloudy, overcast skies, was quite a nice surprise, and it didn't take me long to decide I wanted to spend the cool morning baking bread!!

Don't get me wrong I love pinterest recipes, actually I have a whole board dedicated to bread, and I also use AllRecipes quite a bit, but there's just something about an old cookbook every once in a while. My husband tells me I need a cookbook intervention... I loooove old cookbooks! I've inherited quite a few, but also am always on the look out for them at estate sales. The more used, the better, because in my opinion, those are the ones with the best recipes.

So, this morning, when it came to looking for bread recipes, I didn't turn on the computer, but instead, sat down at the kitchen table with a stack of old books and a cup of coffee. It took a few minutes to narrow something down, but I stumbled across a couple recipes that fit my pantry and refrigerator ingredients today. 

Both recipes are from local books, and both books are over 40 years old. And I don't care who you are or what denomination of religion you practice, Methodist Women's Cookbook always have the best recipes in them!!!

Recipe #1: Grape Nut Bread (pictured right)

Recipe #2: High Protein Honey Wheat

The recipes both claim that you're supposed to wait till the loaves have completely cooled before slicing them... Maybe you'll have more self-control than I did!

As with all breads, you should turn both these recipes out on a cooling rack as soon as you pull them from the oven! Otherwise, the crusts will turn soggy.

My [now complete] wine corner

During our recent kitchen flooring upgrade (we began the process in March and it's still not finished, but I'm going to refrain from venting about that here), I purchased a 18 bottle, double zoned, wine cooler. I found it on clearance at Lowe's for less than 1/2 price, marked "unsalable" because of a damaged box. I brought it home and the cooler itself was flawless. 

The idea was to create a wine bar/corner in the awkward, empty 120 degree corner, but because our kitchen was in such disarray, I really just had to hold my breath that I remembered the correct dimensions for the hole between the china hutch and our bay windows, and cross my fingers that the cooler would fit when it came time to move it into its permanent home. 

Because of some... errr... complications with the flooring, we ended up owning the cooler for almost a month and using it out of the living room before we got to move back into the kitchen. By that time, I had convinced myself that it wouldn't fit in the planned space, and was beginning to worry about where else it could possibly live. Thank goodness, it fit! 

The next step then become finding a rack to hold glasses above it. The space is less than 20", so I had no doubt that I could easily find a rack for around $10-$20. Boy, was I surprised when the low end hangers were more than $40!! To top that off, we didn't like any of them. So I began looking for alternative options. I really wish I could take credit, but the one I came up with was one I stumbled across on Pinterest. An old rake. I decided to put "rake" on my estate sale finds list, and see what I could come up with. 

This is what I found:

It's an older style rake, with really deep, long teeth (which are perfect for our over sized glasses!). It's also wider than the rakes they make today, and hand forged. The best part? I paid a $1 !! 

My handy dandy daddy pulled the handle off of the head, and that's when we discovered that not only had it been hand made, but it also had an empty rivet hole that worked perfectly for screwing it to my wall! Woot!

Patriotic Rag Wreath

Well, hello out there blogging world! I'm glad you stopped by!


For a couple months now, I've been pondering creating a new "hobby" blog. Because I've already got an established Wives' Tales & Fairy Tales blog site, the decision's been quite ongoing... I mean, can I really keep up with two blogs? and for that matter, Do I want two blogs?!
When I posted this Independence Day rag wreath on Facebook, I had several people ask if I'd "pinned it" and my mind was made up for me! This will now be the home of all things "Erin's Hobbies". Whether it's cookies, crafts, gardens, or just life, this will be my new go-to!
So, let's get started!
Patriotic Rag Wreath:
Materials:

• 14" 4 ring metal wreath form. I found mine in the cemetery floral department of Micheal's (aisle 10!)
• 3 yards of fabric (I used 6 colors, 1/2 yard each) Cut into aprox. 1"x6" strips (If you've got a cutting mat & rolling cutter, I suggest you use it for this project! That could turn into a lot of cutting with just a pair of scissors!!)
• Ribbon (optional) for hanging.
• Patience! Lots and lots of patience! & even more DVR'ed television to catch up on!!

 Instructions:

• I cut all my fabric strips first. This took up almost the entirety of the first evening. I poured a glass of wine, turned on the tv, and sat down on the couch with my rotary cutter and cutting mat, and cut. and cut. and cut.
• Next, Start tying. I worked by sections from the inside out. 

• You definitely don't have to do all 4 rings, but I liked the really full look. 
• My OCD took over here. I laid my fabric out in two rows: solid, pattern, solid, pattern, solid pattern, and tied them in order. I don't know that this is really necessary, but I'm much happier knowing that there's basically an even number of each color.
• Keep tying. You'll get finished eventually!

When you're finished, simply turn it over and string the ribbon through one of the vertical support bars and tie a bow, or a knot, or just skip the ribbon all together and hook the wreath form itself to the door.