Regular dill pickles take about 10 minutes to make. Up to a half-hour if you’re going to can them.

Sweet pickles take a minimum of 7 days.

Day 1: Trim the ends off your cucumbers.

Then pour boiling water over them and let them sit overnight. I think people used to do this in a crock of some sort, but I just used one of my stainless steel pots.

Day 2: They now look like this:

Not as pretty as they used to be! Pour boiling water over them and let them sit again.

Days 3 and 4: repeat day 2.

Day 5: Big excitement! We get to mix up the brine.

It takes nearly a full bag of sugar! And some vinegar. A little salt, and the pickling spices. It smells like Autumn!

Also, it’s time to cut up the cucumbers into whatever size pieces you want. I decided to cut mine into chunks.

Pour the brine over the cucumbers, and let them sit for 2 days. I gave them a stir each morning and night.

Day 7 (or day 8 in my case since we weren’t home on day 7): It’s finally time to can them! Bring everything to a boil, and then pack in hot jars. Can in a boiling-water bath.

I got 6 pints out of my batch. No one else in the family likes them (they all tried one and made faces and icky sounds). My father-in-law has been begging for sweet pickles, so he has a few jars heading his way.

For future reference, it takes exactly 5 of my little cucumbers, and a half-recipe of the brine to make 2 quarts of pickles.

These went straight to the refrigerator. We love refrigerator pickles. So easy to make (not that canning is difficult, it’s just more steps and more dishes!), and the cukes stay crispy.

The only problem is waiting for them to be ready to eat! It takes a minimum of a week (2 for them to really absorb the flavor).

I checked the cucumber plants last night, and there are a lot of babies plumping up! Next pickling day, I’ll make a batch that isn’t spicy for the kids. I also want to try making some sweet pickles.

Added to this week’s grocery list: Vinegar, garlic, and dill. My little dill plants are growing, but not fast enough to be used for the pickles yet!

Plus one more that was picked yesterday.

I’m not sure how many jars I’ll get out of these 5, maybe 2 quart jars (not packed tightly). We’ll make refrigerator pickles, using this recipe I used last year.

I’ll make some spicy for the adults, and not as spicy for the kids. Some zucchini will likely be added to the mix as well!

Unfortunately, this isn’t from berries from my garden (we don’t grow enough for that!).

A couple of months ago, strawberries were on sale at the grocery store (and they were good berries too!). I bought 5 or 6 containers. I washed, hulled, and cut them up, and then flash froze them. Then I put them into a vacuum-sealed bag and back into the freezer.

On Memorial Day, I finally had time to turn them into jam!

The recipe says it’ll make 8 half-pints, but I got more than that. 8 half-pints (one I didn’t process, it went straight to the fridge since we were out of jam) and 3 quarter-pints. I just love those tiny little jars!

Last year I had 5 half-pints, and that lasted us almost the whole year. So this will definitely have us covered for the next year.

3 turkey breasts, all ready to go!

Carrots, celery, and onion in the bottom of the pans, oranges and apples stuffed in the cavities, rosemary butter under the skin, and melted butter, salt and pepper on the top.

Here’s how I make chicken stock.

First, I save any chicken bones from roasted (or even fried) chicken. Don’t use anything that was grilled (at least if it was grilled over charcoal!). I just keep a Ziploc bag in the freezer and add to it whenever we have bones. Those rotisserie chickens from the grocery store are perfect for this too.

I also save any vegetable scraps from carrots, celery, onions, and sometimes garlic. When we peel carrots and trim off the ends of celery and onions, they all get tossed in a Ziploc bag in the freezer too. Save herbs scraps too – stems and leaves from parsley, rosemary, and/or any other herbs you like.

I have a big stock pot, that comes with a strainer insert. It’s perfect for making stock.
Toss the chicken bones into the pot.

Next, add in the frozen vegetable scraps.

I didn’t have enough scraps this time, so I added in some fresh vegetables too. First some garlic:

Next, some celery.

I just bought 2 fresh bunches, so I just chopped up all of this leftover bunch to put in the stock.

A couple of carrots and an onion cut in half.

Finally, the best part. Some fresh rosemary just cut off of my plant.

A handful of kosher salt.

A handful of pepercorns.

Then add water. It took 30 cups this time.

Just add enough to cover the bones and vegetables.

Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to low so it’s just simmering. The rosemary makes the house smell so good!

I let it simmer for a couple of hours. I give it a taste to know when it’s done. Then I let it reduce a bit to concentrate the flavors. Strain it and put into containers and freeze!

This time I’ll be using a lot of it for Thanksgiving, so I’m just going to keep it in the fridge.

Potatoes were not in my plan for today.

But when I was reorganizing the pantry, I noticed that all of the potatoes in the 15-pound bag that we bought earlier in the week were starting to sprout.

Ugh.

So, cooking 15 pounds of potatoes became my plan for the day.

First I scrubbed them all. Then I picked out 4 to save to bake for dinner tonight.

The 10 or 12 biggest ones I put in the oven to bake.

While they baked, I peeled about half of what was left and boiled them.

While those boiled, I diced up the remaining potatoes.

The diced ones were roasted with olive oil, green peppers, onions, salt and pepper (2 9X13 pans).
The boiled ones were mashed.
The baked ones were cut in half, had their insides scooped out, and mashed, and then put back in the shells for twice baked potatoes.

Then they all got divided up, put in containers, and put in the freezer.

We are set on potato side dishes for quite awhile now!

You’re thinking I’m almost a whole week off, right?

Nope. It’s “Get your Turkey out of the freezer day!”

Put it in the refrigerator on a tray of some sort (sometimes there might be a small hole in the bag and it will leak all over your fridge!). I use a cookie sheet lined with some paper towels or newspaper.

And then just leave it until you’re ready to cook it (get it out an hour or so before you’re ready to roast, so it can come to room temp). I sometimes flip mine over after a few days. It’s probably not necessary. But it doesn’t hurt.

And also what I already have, so I don’t buy more!

For T-day, and stock:
Celery – 2 bunches
Onions (Have)
Apples (if the girls have eaten them all, which is very likely to happen)
Oranges
Cranberries (Unless Palma is seriously going to show up and bring cranberry sauce, which would be totally awesome!)
Orange Juice
Apple Cider?
Bread (I think at least 4 loaves)
Poultry Seasoning (check how much I have)
Butter (Have)
Green Beans (Have)
Ham (For in the green beans)
Flowers (For table decorations)
Napkins
Aluminum roasting pans (1 or 2 for turkeys, 2 for stuffing)

For day-after breakfast:
Sausage (Have)
Eggs (Have)
Crescent rolls
Shredded cheese (Have)
Coffee (Have, but check that we have enough)
Orange Juice (in prior list)

Also need to plan something for day-after-day-after breakfast. Maybe just bacon & eggs & toast for simplicity. Will need bacon. Have eggs & bread.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

My mom told me yesterday that Marsh had turkey breasts on sale for $0.88/lb. That’s cheap! They never seem to get below $1.69/lb here. So she picked one up for me, and said she had a whole turkey I could have too.

So that gives me 3 turkey breasts and 1 whole turkey. Now I won’t roast all of those. It’ll be some combination.

What combination will depend on how many people are coming. I haven’t heard back from everyone yet. I may have to send out a reminder. I like to know how many are coming as early as possible! There are decisions to be made! How much to buy? How many tables? Do we need more wine glasses?

I’ve been reading the November issues of Better Homes and Gardens. Especially the turkey recipes. I think I might try brining this year. I never do because it takes a lot of brine to do as many turkeys as I roast each year. But I’ve always wanted to try it. We’ll see. I will probably decide not to for ease again this year! My turkeys always turn out pretty darn yummy without it.

Plus since I roast the day before and then store in broth – they don’t get a chance to dry out anyway!

Speaking of broth, I need to make some more chicken stock soon. I will try to document the process and post here in case anyone wants to make their own too. If you do, start saving up any vegetable scraps (carrots, onions, celery, herbs, garlic) and chicken bones!

This post is making me hungry!