Boise and pickles other stuff

I have just returned to San Diego from Boise where I was visiting my friend Kathy.  Never fear, I still have some posts left in me.  Also, it's projected to reach 102 today in San Diego, and I prefer to hide inside with the air conditioner and my MacBook.

Lucky the cat in Kathy's garden.

In addition to Basque adult beverages and urban garden tours, Kathy and I decided to make full use of her bountiful garden, and make "bread and butter" pickles.  Bread and butter pickles contain no bread and no butter. The name apparently refers to the dark days of the Depression when you buttered some bread and threw a few pickles in and called it a sandwich.  These pickles are slightly sweet and maximally sublime with just the right blend of vinegar, sugar and spices.  We used the the recipe from Food Wishes (Use Google to find "bread and butter pickle video recipe").  Most of the ingredients Kathy had on hand, though the mustard seeds required a walk to Albertsons.  Luckily, this also allowed me the opportunity to purchase a Boise State Broncos t-shirt.  We "borrowed" the red jalapenos from a neighbor's yard whilst unloading a too-big cucumber on Charlotte, the neighborhood pig (see previous post).

While visiting, or trying to visit, various urban backyards on the Tour de Coop (see previous post), we sliced and salted and simmered our pickles.  See visual details below.

Freshly sliced cukes, soon to be covered with kosher salt.
The little cukes are Mexican spicy cucumbers. 

Salted cukes, with spices, sugar and vinegar.

Kathy stirs the masterpiece before cooling.
(We let the pickles finish cooling while we went to the movies.)

Final step, filling the jars.  We left the last pickle jar open for easy noshing.

So sometimes it snows in Boise.  Kathy is prepared.  She has knit herself a hat and a scarf, a hat scarf. See picture essay below.  I'd knit myself one too, but I might develop heat exhaustion in the non-snow of San Diego.  

Step1. On wintry Boise nights, knit scarf hat in cozy living room.

Step 2: Don and wrap scarf hat. 

Step 3: All set for Boise blizzard.