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Ontario, Canada
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
--Bobby Flay

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  • [March 19, 2020] - Effective Mar 17, this blog will no longer accept advertising. The reason is very simple. If I like a product, I will promote it without compensation. If I don't like a product, I will have no problem saying so.
  • [March 17, 2020] - A return to blogging! Stay tuned for new tips, resources and all things food related.
  • [February 1, 2016] - An interesting report on why you should always choose organic tea verses non-organic: Toxic Tea (pdf format)
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Monday, July 15, 2013

Best Bread and Butter Pickles Revisted

Every year I develop and/or try new home canning recipes.  Of those, some are duds, others are keepers and then there are the one or two outstanding recipes.  In many ways this is to be expected.  The duds are simply not to our expectations based on flavour and/or texture BUT that doesn't mean the recipe can't be tweaked to become a rather good recipe at some point.  This is especially true of some of the basic recipes in Bernardin Complete Guide to Home Canning, Ball Blue Book or recipes for jams and jellies using traditional pectins.  I often tweak these recipes for the trial run just based on experience and know what can be safely tweaked, substituted, added or omitted.  The end result is a creation tailored to the tastes of our family. 

best bread and butter pickles
Last year, I made a lot of pickles.  One of the recipes I used was Best Bread and Butter Pickles modified from Small-Batch Preserving (2001) by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard.  I did a bit of slight tweaking ingredients as well as added calcium chloride to the jars in this recipe even though I had not made it before.  These pickles were a huge hit!  They are delightfully delicious, better than any store bought bread and butter pickle!  They aren't too sweet and have a nice tang without a bite.  They are quite pretty presented in a pickle dish for serving.

If you are looking for a nice flavoured, sure to please bread and butter pickle, do try these pickles.  You won't be disappointed.  The recipe is quite easy but the results are above average!


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