A Country Cupboard

Our garden has been fairly abundant in its first season.  We have certainly had masses of cucumbers.  I have canned dill slices, dill spears, bread and butter pickles, sweet relish and many jars of Christmas Red Pickles... which do not taste like pickles in the least.   

Dill slices, red pickles, bread 'n butter and relish

One taste of a red pickle and you will swear you have just bitten into a delicious cinnamon flavored apple! Tom remembers his mom making red pickles; it's one of his favorites.  The recipe is labor intensive and 3 days long, but I assure you they are well worth the effort.

The tomatoes promise to be a good harvest as there are many lovely, perfect green spheres on the plants.  I plucked my first two yesterday.  There will {hopefully} be plenty to put up for winter, so we can make fresh spaghetti sauce and salsa during those chilly days spent inside.

Tomorrow will be a rare Saturday for the hubby and I - we are both off work!  Of course, we requested the day off.  Our initial plan was to head south, to the Ponca City (Oklahoma) rodeo.  Alas our temps are still in the 100s so sitting outside under the blistering sun doesn't sound like a fun time.  We'll forego the rodeo and instead drive up to Wichita early morning for the Olde Towne Farmers Market; I'm hoping to pick up a bunch of pickling cucumbers and make some whole dills.  (We neglected to plant pickling cukes this year. That will be rectified in next year's garden.)  I'm sure the Farmers Market promises to entice with plenty of other fresh produce and fruit.  After that, we'll enjoy a free lunch with a gift card I have for the Texas Roadhouse.

Then we'll head home so hubby can finish the front porch railing that he made...

and his garage renovation, which is really quite exciting when you consider what our garage HAS been... a giant storage shed with lots of boxes and miscellaneous furniture, a scary place that also housed rats and mice and large bugs.  He has torn down the low plywood ceiling and reinforced the roof supports, taken out drywall and installed OSB board for the walls, replaced some rotted boards, removed cupboards and a sink, and today he bought the first batch of outside knotty barnwood siding. I've been taking photos all along, so I'll post some before and afters in a few weeks.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and staying cool in these extreme temps!  

Beautiful autumn is just around the corner, hooray!

naked lady lily in front yard

P.S. The winner of the kitteh name contest (even though we used our own chosen name of CiCi) is Smart Mouth Broad... I'll get your jar of strawberry jam mailed once the temps cool down!