#17 - Pickle Something

I love pickles. I love pickled things. Pickling is easy. And cheap.

Why has it taken me so long to pickle my own things?

K Rob used to pickle stuff all the time when we were roommates in San Diego. Mostly onions, of what I remember. And every time, I'd be like, dang, this adds so much to this dish.

So, I finally had my first attempt at pickling.

I started with a search on the Serious Eats website of pickling techniques. I started with the very first recipe on the article called 23 Pickle Recipes We Love: garlic dill pickles. A classic.

The recipe called for 8 ingredients. I came home from the store with 7 of them. Luckily I had bought fresh dill for a sauce for dinner, so I subbed that in for dill seeds. I'm sure that matters, but I wasn't about to walk the full block back to the store. No way. Plus, I see fresh dill in pickle jars all the time. So...

Chop, peel, boil, combine, wait.

Viola.

Pickles.

Before

Then, I decided to give pickled garlic a go as well. The Serious Eats article claimed that I should have been the whole garlic cloves from my pickle jars the whole time and gave me the deepest regrets of my life because WHY HAVEN'T I DONE THAT BEFORE?!

So again, on my own, peel, boil, combine, wait.

.................

Well, I had some mixed results.

The spicy garlic dills? Delightful. Just hot enough to make the sides of my news break out in a little sweat, just like they do with McClure's spicy dills (the best pickles of all time). They had taste and enough crispness. I am so glad I can keep these on hand because a spicy pickle is my favorite cure for rough morning.

After: YES

The regular garlic dills? Nope. They tasted so much of apple cider vinegar and it was not good. However, I may try again with the same recipe with just white vinegar. Something about the acid and flavor of the apple cider vinegar made me put the pickle down, something I've never done with a pickle in my life.

Then, gem of all gems, the pickled garlic. I'm never going to need to worry about vampires again with these little guys. Yes, I ate them whole, just popped the whole clove in my mouth. I mean, not all of them. But I kinda want to eat all of them. They have that garlic bite but then they mellow out quickly and just leave a nice, clean mouth feel with that lingering garlic taste. Plus, they were so easy. I'm going to make these all the time, to snack when I need a little flavor, as a side for cheese plates, and to throw into salad dressings and other items. Yum.

I also bought pears to pickle but haven't quite gotten there yet. I'll add an update when I get to them.

#76 - Visit Tahoe

I am a sucker for a lake in the mountains. There's no place that feels more like home to me than Brant Lake, NY. The blues, the greens, the crisp mountain air, the cool lake water... My stress and anxiety melt off me within an hour of being there.

My love of that place has translated a bit where I feel refreshed anytime I'm in a lake in the mountains. From the first time I saw a picture, I had my heart set on having that feeling at Lake Tahoe someday.

My chances of finding an excuse to make the trip to Tahoe spiked when I met Mariko in my PhD program. They spiked again when Mari planned her wedding to Tim and invited me. A small wedding for someone I love to someone she loves surrounded by their loved ones, some of whom are also my loved ones in one of the most beautiful places in the world? I didn't even have to make a conscious choice.

The only downside to this trip was that I had to leave my annual week at Brant Lake with my family a few days early and fly from Albany to Sacramento at 6:00am and then drive 2 hours to Tahoe the day of the wedding. The only painful part was leaving camp. The rest of the trip was a breeze as I was so looking forward to exploring a new place.

Lake Tahoe itself is so very beautiful. It's funny. Even though I live just 2 blocks away from Lake Michigan, one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world, I was still in awe of the sheer size of Lake Tahoe. It's also so deeply blue and, in the summer, when I was there, surrounded by such deep greens and bright wildflowers.

What a beautiful day

 

I sat on this rock for a long while.

The wedding itself took place on a large deck overlooking the lake just before sunset. The reception was just inside. It was an incredible backdrop, and I'm so thankful to have spent a night with some of the people from my program, classmates and faculty, whom I grew to love and care for.

The next day, I had breakfast with Kai and then took my time, driving along the lake in my rental car with a fresh, local chai latte. I had to pass through some traffic on my way to Emerald Bay, but after I squeezed through a campground, the road opened up to mountain roads, sometimes just along the cliffs, looking over the lake. I drove, stopped, hiked, and wondered all day. 

Just being in such a beautiful place made me set some intentions for my future, and I'm thankful I had so much time to reflect.

One of the few proper uses of rock cairns I've seen on a popular trail

We also had a nice Saturday night where Heather won some money at the casino, and a group of us, including the newlyweds, shared drinks and stories until it was time to part. 

I am very much looking forward to the day the mountains call me back!