Father's Day Pickles

Father's Day on the food blogging expanse annoys me. That double chocolate Guinness caramel truffle cake can just go away.

Whilst, I would love a slice of that double chocolate Guinness caramel truffle cake, my dad (well, his diabetes) wouldn't. Which can leave you in a mix when it comes to gifts. Cake and whiskey are pretty much blacklisted.

Pickles aren't. Dads love pickles. I've bookmarked that double chocolate Guinness caramel truffle cake for my birthday anyway

Makes 1 x 500ml jar

Ingredients

Vegetables
2 medium sized carrots, peeled, trimmed, and cut into long strips.
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1/2 small onion, finely sliced
5 thin asparagus spears, trimmed and cut in half
Small handful of fresh cauliflower florets, separated
Couple of sprigs of parsley and dill (optional)

Pickling Liquid
250ml white wine vinegar
200ml water
3tbsp sugar (I used a sugar replacement)
1/2tsp salt
Small pinch of coriander seeds, caraway seeds, fennel seeds and a few peppercorns.
1/2 bay leaf

Method

1, Sterilise a 500ml preserving jar and set to one side.
2, Prepare all your vegetables fully and rinse well.
3, Simmer the pickling liquid ingredients together for a few minutes and then add in all the prepared vegetables except the fresh herbs. Simmer these gently for a couple of minutes.
4, Strain the ingredients, retaking the pickling liquid and blanch in ice cold wage to retain greenness and crunchiness.
5, Return the pickling liquid back to heat and bring up to the boil.
6, Pack the blanched vegetables into the jar as tightly as you can. Snuggle the fresh herbs down in there too.
7, Pour the hot pickling liquid into the jar and full to the brim. Attach the lid.

These will be ready to eat in a couple of hours but best if kept overnight.

A Gift for a Gardener

As mentioned in previous posts my parents have a large garden divided into lawn, patio, fruit trees and bushes and vegetable patches.  My dad is an avid gardener.  You’ll see him hunched over seed catalogues in the winter months, sowing and nurturing seedlings in spring, pottering around in the sheds and greenhouse in summer and sharing out all the fruits of his hard work.  You’ll also see him carefully checking on the sweet peas he grows for my mum behind the greenhouses. 

This year is a special birthday for my dad.  He has reached the big 6-5. And thus retirement!  You should have seen the glee on his face when he was telling us about the first proper day off he would have had in decades!  So I made him something special for him and the garden.

It’s simple, all you’ll need is a box, some black waterproof paint and a steady hand! (and bits to put inside!)

The box

The text, which I outlined on the reverse and then scrubbed over the top when it was positioned on the box.

Painting.  Yeah.  I have an Art GCSE.  Finally, comes in handy…

 Complete!

 Cheap herb pots…

 …Jazzed up with a bit of cellophane and some raffia! (Remember to include the growing instructions!)

A gardening journal from Paperchase and a little seed marker, just from Wilkinsons. It cost me a whole British pound!

Plus I couldn’t resist this!

Complete!