I have never been a pickle lover. That is to say, I like pickles but I have never loved them. When a dill spear comes along side a sandwich at a deli, I often leave it untouched. But sometimes I do like a pickle or two on my hamburger. Given my lukewarm feelings about pickles, I’ve found it a bit odd that I have a mounting obsession around the art of pickle making… and the many varieties of pickles to be made. It started with the bread and butter pickles which to me were as much about canning as they were about pickling. But the success of those homemade pickles went to my head, and has lead to visions of fruit pickles, Asian pickles, watermelon rind pickles… all dancing around in my mind for a couple of months now. So I’ve gone about collecting pickle recipes and ideas from books and blogs and have tucked them away for the right moment. Pickled grapes with cinnamon and black pepper is one such recipe. It sounded just odd enough that I had to try it. The recipe comes from A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg (I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it’s worth mentioning again that A Homemade Life is a wonderful book).
So when I stumbled upon these lovely red seedless grapes at the farmers’ market, I knew what I had to do. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into but I was excited just the same. Between the description from Molly in her book and the write up by Deb from Smitten Kitchen I knew they had to be good. (I mean, if Molly served them at her wedding, they have to be good… right?). Too impatient to wait eight hours, I tasted the grapes as soon as the brine went on… just to get an idea of how the flavors came together. And even though the grapes had not yet soaked in any of the vinegary tartness, I could tell it was going to be anything but boring.
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Tagged as: a homemade life, grapes, orangette, pickles, smitten kitchen
First off, I want to thank Sharon of Clairity Currents for sending me this Lemonade Stand Award:
“The award is given to bloggers whose posting demonstrates great attitude and gratitude.” I feel special :) I believe the way this works is that now that I have the award, I get to pass it on… though I think I will relish the moment a bit before passing on the good will. (Mmm, relish. Relish on a hot dog sounds really good right now. I started fitness bootcamp yesterday and find that I’m hungry all the time now).
Hey, look over there…
Oh darn, you just missed the smooth segue. It was a good one too.
I’m excited about this weekend. Why? Because I’m headed to Seattle for the International Food Blogger Conference where I’ll get to meet some of my favorite bloggers and learn a thing or two or five hundred. While in the emerald city, I’ll also be visiting my sister and her gang. Should be nonstop good times. I can’t wait!
A little added dash of excitement is bubbling up because I’m reading Molly Wizenberg’s (Orangette) new book A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table
. Excellent, excellent book. And she’ll be speaking at the conference. I totally have a crush on her writing and hope not to make a complete fool of myself if I do get a chance to speak to her.
Actually, I’m looking forward to meeting all of the bloggers… it’s such an impressive list. I’m so new to the food blogging world and stumbled upon the conference by chance, really. So I feel sort of like the new kid in school which, honestly, is a familiar feeling (I went to six elementary schools, three middle schools, and one high school. It’s a long story of how and why I wound up at so many schools and maybe someday I’ll tell you all about it, but for now it’s enough to know I’m no stranger to being the new kid). Thankfully, I’m not as painfully shy as I once was. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still shy, but I don’t hang out alone at the snack table as much as I used to. Besides, this is a conference of foodies so if I hang out by the snack table chances are I won’t be alone.
Hope you are all having a lovely Tuesday!
Tagged as: a homemade life, clairity currents, ifbc, lemonade stand award, orangette
