This morning I made a big breakfast! But then I sent it all out the door.

Shane and Liam went to a farewell brunch for some missionaries who are leaving the field to work somewhere else in the world. Dane and Arel are still getting over some flu bug so Heidi and I stayed home with them. But I had agreed to make something for the brunch so I got up and went to town making a fruit salad of

Mangoes

Papaya

And Bananas.

As well as “Super Breakfast Casserole” (Sorry I forgot to take a picture…it turned out beautiful too!)

8 eggs

1 1/3 cup milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 package bacon, browned (could also use sausage)

Approx. 2 lbs. cubed potatoes (boiled to cook them most of the way) – enough to fill a 9x13 in. pan.

 Line pan with potatoes.

Sprinkle drained chopped up bacon over potatoes.

Mix together eggs and milk and pour over potatoes.

Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350 F for 45 -60 minutes.

Works really well to prepare the night before and bake in the morning!

 
This smelled so good when it came out of the oven. I think I may make another one to eat for supper or for a meal tomorrow.

While the oven was going I thought I’d use up some over ripe bananas to make:

 Our favorite Banana Bread

 Combine:

¼ cup oil

1/3 cup water

1 cup sugar

 Add:

2 beaten eggs

2-3 mashed bananas

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 Combine separately and add:

2 cups flour

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

½ -1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 375 F (190 C) for 45-60 minutes.

Serve warm slices with butter. Mmmmm!

Since we always have bananas around here I make this often with the over ripe bananas.

And I usually make a double or triple batch because we ALL love it so much that it disappears pretty quickly.

Heidi and I got to go home to the U.S. to visit family back in March of this year and spent a wonderful time with family. While I was there I also spent a few days at my Grandma and Grandpa’s enjoying some time with just our family. My Grandma is an amazing cook and a favorite thing for us “kids” (meaning everyone from my Mom and her siblings on down to the little kids) to do is stand in Grandma’s frig. or cupboard doors and see what strikes our fancy for a bite to eat. We are also a family that loves condiments and pickled things and I discovered during one meal at Grandma’s that she had made pickles that were so crisp and “dilly”! Yum! I raved over them and she pulled out her recipe cards and copied me this recipe for Refrigerator Pickles.

After all this time I decided to try my hand at this recipe and so this past weekend I went to work. Here’s how it went…

Here’s Grandma’s recipe (which I think comes from my Great-Grandma actually):

Refrigerator Pickles:

Cucumbers - cut them how you like for pickles (I did spears) – enough to fill 6 quart jars and 1 pint jar.

 Wash cukes and let them stand overnight in cold water. Next morning rinse and pack them into jars.

Put 1/8 tsp. Alum, 2 heads of Dill (seeds optional), 1 clove of Garlic, 1 Onion chunk, 1 dried Red Pepper (optional) in each jar with the pickles.

Make brine:

Put 1 Quart of vinegar, 1 cup of Salt, 3 Quarts of Water in a pot and boil.

Pour this brine into the jars and SEAL BY HAND.

After jars are cooled, refrigerate. Enjoy after about 10-14 days.

Best as time goes by.

* The alum makes the pickles crisp.

Makes: 6 Quarts and 1 Pint of Pickles.

 For 1 Jar of pickles use: 4 oz. of vinegar, 2 Tbsp. of Salt and 12 oz. of Water.

So that’s the recipe, this is what I ended up doing. 

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I pretty much followed the instructions for soaking, rinsing and packing the cukes. I made the brine just as suggested. Instead of a head of Dill, I used dill seed and dill weed I had bought at Wal-mart. (I am hoping to grow my own dill though soon!) . I also added more garlic and red onion to each jar than was suggested and I did not have dried Red Pepper so left that out. To one jar I added ½ of a fresh hot red pepper to try spicy pickles.

After pouring in the brine I discovered I had enough for one more pint jar so I put garlic, hot peppers and onion chunks in that jar with the rest of the brine.

So I got to this point and was not sure what was meant by “Seal By hand”. Instead of calling Grandma like I should have I pulled out my mini Pressure Canner booklet to see if they had a recipe for Pickles. Sure enough! Their recipe said to water bath can the filled jars. (Which IS what I was thinking)

I got the water boiling and water bath canned them as per the instructions (30 minutes for the altitude I am at- just over 6,000 feet…the recipe says 15 minutes for lower altitudes). As I was doing all this I was trying to remember what Grandma told me about these pickles and why, if you water bath canned them you would need to keep them in the Frig.? Then it came to me that you don’t worry about them sealing at all and just keep them in the frig. to make Refrigerator Pickles! Silly me. But as I went on I realized I DID want them to be sealed so I could keep them in the cupboard.

My last pint jar of hot peppers, garlic and onions did not seal so I just stuck that one in the frig. My husband couldn’t wait 10 days and opened it up yesterday to eat with his supper. Of course I had a taste too. They were good! But I can see where time would make them even better.

We can hardly wait to open the pickles! (no one makes pickles in Peru so we crave them after a while) Arel kept coming to me all day Sunday and Monday asking me when we could open the pickles to eat them. I told him we’d get one out on Thanksgiving day.

Thanks Grandma for a great recipe! I look forward to making more and having them on hand. One thing I miss with a sandwich is pickles or as a snack. Mmmm!