Perspective and Pickles

I decided to be ambitious this weekend. I had a pretty lengthy to-do list which started bright and early on Saturday - with a 14-mile run.

I took off from my apartment and headed around the Iwo Jima Memorial, down past Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River, around the Lincoln Memorial, alongside the Reflection Pond, past the WWII Memorial and the Washington Monument and then turned around at the Smithsonian Castle. INCREDIBLE. There is no better city for your long run...I am telling you. Just breathtaking. And I love watching the reaction of the tourists who are seeing this incredible sights for the first time. It's a great distraction from the monotony of running for 2+ hours.
The best part of my run was on my way back home -- I was at about mile 8 -- and starting to feel tired and had a dull ache in my back. I looked over at the WWII Memorial and noticed some people escorting about 100 WWII vets out onto the memorial for a photo. The volunteers helping to wheel/guide the veterans out kept saying "thank you for your service" and several of the old men were wiping tears from their eyes. I had to stop and watch. Wow, was this moving. And it really put my complaints in perspective. After paying my respects and witnessing this moving sight, I continued on and had a really great run, and was able to reflect on all the blessings of my life that I take for granted. I think living in DC has given me a new-found respect for those who serve in the military.

So after a morning run and an afternoon at the Arlington County Fair with the kids I babysit for, I had a lot left on my to-do list today. Including -- wait for it -- canning my own pickles!

My Aunt Carlotta makes some killer dill pickles. I have many fond memories of sleepovers with my cousin, Chrissy, that involved us polishing off a jar or two of homemade pickles. :) My aunt is one of the best cooks I know -- she's the one who turned me on to the wonders of rice pudding, if you recall.
Since I don't live in Minnesota, mooching jars of pickles off of Aunt Yiya is more challenging. So I decided just to mooch her recipe and can my own. I drove all over Virginia, DC and Maryland, looking for supplies this morning, and when I got home made my first batch. It's kind of labor intensive, but I think it's well worth it. I just have to wait 6-weeks to try them and see if they turned out! Recipe and pictures below. :)

Aunt Carlotta’s Dill Pickles

(Makes about 3 quarts)

· Small pickling cucumbers

· 2 cups water

· 2 cups vinegar

· 6 Tbsp canning salt

· 3-6 garlic cloves, peeled

· 3 Tbsp dill seed

· 1 bundle of fresh dill

Fill jars with the cucumbers. Bring water, vinegar and salt to boil. Pour in jars*, filling to one-inch from top. Put 1 Tbsp dill seeds and 1-2 cloves of garlic and a couple of piece of dill in each jar. Put lids on and wait for them to seal (you'll hear a pop).

*Make sure the jars are clean and hot. (I kept mine turned upside down in a cake pan with an inch of water on the stove and boil the water while I'm putting the cucumbers in the jars.)

It’s easiest to do it in small batches like this. I did 12 quarts, so had all my ingredients ready to go and then did 3 quarts/jars at a time.

For the record, I bought the jars and canning salt from Wal-Mart, the cucumbers from a farmers market and rest from the grocery store. I looked at a co-op for bulk dill seeds, but couldn't find them. So I bought 5 of the small McCormick spice jars of them. Next time, I'll plan ahead and buy the dill seeds online, since they're tough to find!
Also, the cucumbers I got are pretty big, so I put 4 or 5 whole cucs in each jar, then sliced some up in quarters and slid a few spears in each jar, as well. We'll see how that turns out (my aunt usually only makes whole pickles).