Getting pickled

Is it wrong how excited I am that Pop up Video is returning? Anyways, I was very busy this weekend working on various projects. It was a big time in the kitchen. Had been thinking about my favorite brunch at my favorite restaurant in the world, The Publican in Chicago. They make their own Bloody Mary mix, of course, as well as their own pickles. The last time I was there the garnish for the Bloody Mary was pickled cauliflower. It was crisp and sweet and salty and beautiful against that rich red. So I decided some pickled vegetables were in order. So here's what I did.

Pickled vegetables

1 clean gallon jar
Assorted vegetables. (I used cauliflower, green tomatoes, red onions, carrots, and cucumbers, but you could use just about anything you find fresh at the farmer's market.)
4-5 cups of white vinegar (You want enough to fill your jar)
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
Spices such as cloves, mustard seed, celery seed, red pepper flakes, whole peppercorns. (I eyeballed the spices, but basically a small palmful of each, around two tablespoons.)

Chop the veggies into bite size pieces. Load them into your jar tightly. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl, making sure the sugar and salt dissolve. Pour in the jar. Put a date on the jar somewhere. Load the jar into the fridge. These pickles should sit in the fridge for a least seven days. The longer they sit, the better they will be. Make sure you give the jar a good shake everyday so all the veg can pickle.

Day One

So this is Day One of my blog.  I guess I should give a bit of background info so this thing makes sense.  I am a self proclaimed hipster living in a small town in Central Florida.  Since most of the world knows what Central Florida is known for, you can understand how difficult it might be for those interested in something other than giant mice and flying elephants.  The funny thing is, I actually work at one of those places of imagination, and, even funnier, I actually enjoy it.  But I do have other interests.  I'm probably better suited to live in Brooklyn, but I can't take the cold and I hate to be away from my family.  So, instead, I create my lifestyle here.  It's not always easy, but I enjoy a challenge.  So this blog will be about my life.  It will be my adventures, my recipes, my ideas, my observations, my questions, and basically anything else that I think is interesting.  And I think I'm pretty interesting.  And maybe some of you will think so too.