Thursday Recipe - Sweet Slice Pickles

And another wonderful pickle recipe from my awesome pickle cookbook. This one holds up well to processing. You can use little cucumbers or fully ripe ones or anything in between. It's pretty quick to do, too.

Sweet Slice Pickles

Cucumbers - enough to fill 5 pint jars once sliced
1 T. mustard seeds
2 t. celery seeds
whole cloves
3 c. 5% acidity white vinegar
5 c. sugar
1 T. pickling salt

Scrub cucumbers thoroughly. Slice off blossom end and stem, discard. Slice the cucumbers into 1/4 inch slices. Stuff the slices into pint jars, packing tightly.

Divide mustard seed evenly between jars. Repeat with celery seeds. Add 2-3 whole cloves to each jar.

Heat vinegar, sugar, and salt together until it boils.

Pour hot syrup over cucumber slices, dividing it evenly between the jars. If you need more liquid to fill the jars, just add some plain vinegar on top.

Process and seal as appropriate to your altitude.

Makes 5 pints of sliced sweet pickles.

You can add sliced onions or peppers to this if you want. Just substitute it in for some of the cucumber slices.

Thursday Recipe - German Pot Roast

My kids told me I had to post this recipe so I don't lose it. The meat was tender and flavorful and dinner was a great success. It was also really easy. The slow cooker did most of the work.

German Pot Roast

1 - 1 1/2 lb bottom round steak, thick cut
1/2 c. sliced onion
1 c. baby carrots OR carrot slices
1/4 c. chopped dill pickles
1/2 c. hot water
1 T. beef bouillon
2 T. brown mustard
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper
dash ground allspice
1 bay leaf

Put steak in bottom of a small crockpot - I used a 1.5 qt pot. The meat should fill the crockpot about 1/3. Put onions and carrots around the sides of the meat. Spread the pickles over the meat. Mix water, bouillon, mustard, salt, pepper, and allspice together; then pour over the meat. Drop in the bay leaf.

Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 3-4 hours, until the carrots are tender and the meat falls apart.

If you want to thicken the gravy -
30 minutes before serving, break the meat into chunks and stir everything gently to mix. Stir 2 T. cornstarch into 1/2 c. cold water until smooth, then stir into the hot gravy in the crockpot. Cover and let cook on high until gravy is thickened.