Autumn Spiced French Toast Recipe with Maple Butter Glaze • Gluten free, or not!

A couple of weeks ago our church did a Christmas pageant, in which French toast featured a prominent roll. One of the characters just went on and on and on about how much she loved French toast on Christmas morning, and although I haven't eaten French toast in years, suddenly I found myself with an irresistible craving for it. I think I haven't liked French toast in the past because it tends to be soggy and bland. This recipe is anything but! The spices really kick the flavor up a notch, and the milk to eggs ratio us just right, leaving these light and fluffy. And when you top it all with the maple butter glaze? Heavenly. A warm, melt in your mouth breakfast, perfect for a chilly autumn or winter morning.



Autumn Spice French Toast with Maple Butter Glaze
serves 2-3 (makes 4-6 slices)
double the recipe to feed more

this recipe is simple to make gluten-free - just substitute in gluten free bread. My new favorite is Udi's gluten-free white sandwich bread, but use whatever you like best.

ingredients
2 large eggs
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
4-6 pieces day old bread (you don't want it too moist, or the toast will get soggy in the middle), gluten-free or not
vegetable oil for frying
1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons, or 1/2 a stick)
1/4 cup grade A maple syrup


1. In a medium sized bowl, combine 2 eggs, 1/3 cup milk, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon ginger. Whisk to combine.

2. On medium heat, heat enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom of a nonstick pan. Dip a slice of bread into batter, coating each side, and fry in heated pan, 2-3 minutes on each side, until toast spring back when lightly touched in the center. Set aside and repeat.

3. For Maple Butter Glaze: Heat 1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons or 1/2 stick) and 1/4 cup grade A maple syrup in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then remove from heat, and let cool. Pour into a serving vessel, or directly over toast. Enjoy!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

Boy howdy, are these cookies delicious! I had all these grand plans for making Christmas cookies this year, and believe me, my plans were grand. I was going to make no less than 12 different types of cookies, and share them with all my family, friends and neighbors, and be know as the most awesome home baker in all the land.

HA HA HA.

I did end up making about 5 batches of cookies all told, but you know... stuff happens. And I didn't even especially like most of the cookies I tried... except this one! This cookie recipe is so different and unexpected. I love the cinnamon and chile with the chocolate, which makes for a delicate chocolate cookie that is spiced but not spicy. It has a really unique flavor profile, and is definitely something different. If you like Mexican food at all, you will love this cookie!








Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies

Like a snickerdoodle cookie, this cookie is made with cream of tartar and rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture, but ground chile gives it a "smoky, earthy" flavor. You can find ground chile (such as arbol, ancho or chipotle) in the spices section of your grocery store, or you can substitute cayenne pepper if ground chile simply cannot be found (but you will lose some of the smokiness).

I am also giving the gluten-free version of this recipe that I have adapted, but you can always make it with all-purpose flour like the original Martha Stewart recipe. Simply substitute all purpose flour cup for cup with the gluten-free flours mentioned below.

A note about gluten-free flours: After trying and testing virtually every gluten-free flour and combination of flours out there, this is it. Oat + sweet rice flour is the absolute perfect combination of flours for cookies, and nothing can match it for natural taste and texture. This is how a cookie is supposed to taste, and you would never even know it's "gluten-free:" it's that good! So don't mess with something that ain't broken, I say. Use these flours!



Ingredients
1 cup oat flour
1 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup UNLEAVENED all-purpose gluten-free flour, such as Bob's red mill (some come with baking soda already in the flour, and this will mess things up!)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon chile

For sugar and spice powder
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground chile


1. preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in the upper and lower thirds (or be lazy with me, and put one rack right in the middle. I'm too busy to be bothered with the turning and rotating of baking sheets during baking. Sorry Martha!)

2. Whisk together 1 cup oat flour, 1 cup sweet rice flour, 1/4 cup all purpose gluten-free flour, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon chile powder. Set aside.

3. In a stand mixer, combine 1 cup (2 sticks) room temperature butter with 1.5 cups white sugar for a full 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture. Beat until just combined.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon chile. Roll 1 heaping tablespoon of dough into a ball and role in the sugar-spice mixture. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake until cookies are set in the center and beginning to crack, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Apparently, the difference between a good cookie and an AMAZING cookie is cream cheese frosting.

Want to know something interesting, Internet? When I first started to suspect I had celiac disease, I was without health insurance, and thus without access to the expensive tests used to clinically diagnose the disease (blood tests, endoscopies, and genetic tests). So after talking it over with my doctor, we decided that the best thing for me to do would be to start a gluten free diet, and see what happened. So I did. And it was like a miracle. It was like all the health issues that had been plaguing me for years were magically lifted. My chronic GI problems were cured, my chronic pain and fatigue dissipated, My insomnia disappeared, my canker sores and tooth decay ceased, and of course, after a few months I got pregnant! After only a few weeks on the gluten free diet, I was supposed to do a gluten "challenge" and eat something with gluten to see if it had any effect on me. I ate a biscuit, and I almost immediately boated up, flushed, and felt the familiar GI pain, fatigue, and inflammation. It was the last gluten I ever ate. My doctor and I agreed that I most probably had celiac disease, and that I should stay on the diet until I once again had health insurance, and we could run all those expensive tests.

That day is today. A few weeks ago, I met with a gastroenterologist (say that 10 times fast), who also agreed that I most likely have celiac disease. However, because I have been on the gluten-free diet for so long (three years folks!) he warned me that it will most likely be very difficult to get a clinical diagnosis. By this time, my guts have probably healed, leaving little evidence of the disease behind. Two weeks ago, we did an endoscopy, and I learned that I do indeed have very healthy looking intestines. Yay? Am I happy that my guts are so good looking these days, or am I sad that getting a diagnosis is going to be so hard? Since my guts looked so good, I figured I would probably be getting some negative biopsy results back, and I wasn't sure where to go from there. Imagine my surprise when, by some strange twist of fate, my biopsies from that procedure were lost. The doctor was very embarrassed to inform me of the fact, said nothing like that had ever happened at that hospital before, and that he was very sorry, and would not charge my insurance for the procedure. Would I mind doing the procedure again?

Gobsmacked, I was talking to a friend of mine, a nurse, who said I was actually pretty lucky that the biopsies were lost: my insurance is less likely to approve any subsequent biopsies with a negative one on my record, making it that much harder to get a positive diagnosis. So, to increase my chances of getting a positive diagnosis this time around, I am doing what is called a "gluten challenge." Essentially, I am going to eat a TON of gluten for the next 30 days before my next biopsy. My hope is that it will cause enough damage to my upper GI tract to get a positive diagnosis. And if it doesn't? Well, at least I gave it my best shot. 30 days is really the minimum for a gluten-challenge, with some recommendations going from 3 months to 5 years! I am just not willing to go that long (it's HARD y'all), but 30 days I can do.

And honestly? I am having one hell of a last hurrah! First I had a crunch roll at my local sushi restaurant, liberally dunked in soy sauce. Then I had a chocolate doughnut. And then I ordered some Papa John's pizza. Since then I have been gobbling down every gluteny things i haven't been able to make for the last three years: cheese danishes! apple strudel! naan bread! Israeli couscous! Whole wheat sourdough sandwiches! Soba noodles! On doctor's orders, I have been STUFFING myself with gluten. I would love to say it feels good, or that everything tastes as good as I remembered or imagined, but honestly? It doesn't. None of this stuff is as good as I remembered (or maybe, as good as I had built it up to be in my rose colored memory). And NONE of it is worth the side effects: the bloating, the fatique, the GI pain, the inflammation, etc. etc. (ok, well, maybe the doughnuts) I am only on day 3, and I feel SO sick.

A unexpected and rather happy consequence of this challenge is that it has put to bed the nagging worry in the back if my mind that gluten-free food (especially baked goods) can never taste as good as gluteny food. I have always worried just a little bit that gluten-free cookies and cakes only taste good to me and my gluten-deprived tastebuds, and that other people are only being nice when they say my stuff tastes good. Since I can't compare, I can only take their word for it. I am happy to say, after eating quite a lot of longed-for and forbidden treats over the last few days, that gluten-free stuff can taste just as good, if not better than, gluten-based baked goods. If anything, wheat is actually quite bland tasting, and has much less flavor than gluten-free flours and flour mixes (which may be why some people recoil from gluten-free treats: it's not that it's bad, but it's different than what they have come to expect).

So when I say that this is an extraordinary cookie, I say that with no reservations or apologies. This in not just a good "gluten-free" cookie: It's a damn good cookie, gluten-free or not!



Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese
Adapted from Everyday Food, September 2010

You can totally swap in the gluten-free flours for all purpose wheat flour, as that is what is in the original recipe, so I am sure it works. I love using oat flour - it has a familiar taste that everyone recognizes, and in this recipe it works really well with the rolled oats and the vanilla bean speckles.

1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1.5 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1/2 cup golden raisons

8oz cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
6 tablespoons powdered sugar


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with oven racks in the upper and lower thirds. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, corn starch, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

2. In an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy and pale, 5 minutes. Add in vanilla, molasses, and eggs, mixing until just combined. Slowly add flour mixture, and mix until just combined. With a rubber spatula, fold in oats and raisins.

3. Drop dough in 1 LARGE tablespoonfool mounds on two baking sheets. Bake until cookies are just set at the edges, and slightly soft in the middle, about 11 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

4. In mixer bowl, beat cream cheese, vanilla bean paste, and powdered sugar until light. spread filling on flat side of cookie, then sandwich with second cookie. Repeat. Enjoy!

Baby James' Favorite Chocolate Pancakes (And Mine Too!)

Now that he is all grown up and one years old, Baby James has decided that he no longer needs to eat any kind of food other than white food: cheerios, turkey, string cheese, french fries, noodles, doughnuts, and of course, milk. That's it! Notice anything missing from that list? Anything like, I don't know, fruits or vegetables?

I'm not even going to go into all the things I've done to try and get James to try a bite of juicy peach or a nibble of mango. From the way that kid turns his head away and squinches his mouth and eyes shut, you'd think I was asking him to eat dirt! Which, by the way, he will eat. Yes, that's right: He will eat dirt, but he won't eat a bite of peach.





So I've had to resort to being tricky. There is one non-white edible substance James will deign to eat (other than dirt, which does not count), and that is chocolate. James LOVES chocolate. He's wild about it, and whenever he suspects we have some he will wave his fat little hand for it and cry like there is no tomorrow. So when I found this recipe, it seemed perfect: What better place to hide a few blueberries and some spinach than in a chocolate pancake?




I know what you are thinking: Blueberries and SPINACH in a pancake? Yuck! And that's exactly what I thought too. The first time I made this recipe, I was just hoping they were not too horrible to eat, mainly so I could get some fruits and vegetables into my child. I never expected them to be so absolutely delicious, and I certainly never expected to like them so much I wanted to eat them all myself! And the spinach? It's pureed so fine, you can't even taste that it's there. Really, I promise. What you can taste is how incredibly soft and moist these pancakes are. There's no need to slather them with gobs of butter and syrup, because these pancakes are tender and soft all by themselves. I like to roll them up with some fruit inside, but baby James likes them just the way they are.




This is just photographic proof that my child has at some point eaten something containing spinach and blueberries. Note the cheerios on the tray and the football hold he has on the bottle of milk.



Baby James' Favorite Chocolate Pancakes
adapted from The Sneaky Chef" by Missy Chase Lapine

I was so impressed with this recipe I went out and bought Lapine's book. These pancakes have all kinds of nutritious goodies in them: whole grains, milk, eggs, and antioxidant rich chocolate, spinach, and blueberries. A lot of times recipes call for applesauce to be swapped in for the fat or oil in a recipe, and the spinach/blueberry puree has the same effect: The fat or oil can be reduced because the spinach and blueberries puree bring so much moisture to the cakes. And it tastes maaaeervelous, of course.

Although if you slather these with nutella and powdered sugar, that might negate some of the health benefit, just a little bit. But today is my birthday, so I think I am allowed to have as much nutella on my pancakes as I like!


Ingredients
1 cup pancake mix (I am very pleased with Pamela's gluten free pancake and baking mix, but use whatever healthy mix you like best, gluten-free or not)
1 cup milk (rice milk, soy milk, or almond all make good alternatives)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup spinach, packed
1/4 cup blueberries
1 large or jumbo egg
1-2 tablespoons healthy fat, such as coconut oil (you can also use butter or vegetable oil, but these are not as good for you)




In the bowl of a food processor, combine 1/4 cup blueberries...




...and 1/4 cup spinach (packed).




Puree until very smooth. Set aside.




In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup pancake mix...




...2 tablespoons cocoa powder...




...1 jumbo egg...




...1 cup milk...




...and the blueberry spinach puree.




Whisk batter until smooth.




Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, pour batter into heated pan.




Heat one one side until little bubbles begin for form on the surface of the pancake.




flip over. Cook on second side until pancake springs back lightly at the touch. Remove from heat. If desired, keep in a warmed over (200 degrees) until the rest of the pancakes are done cooking.




Repeat.




Top with berries, powdered sugar, nutella, nuts, whiipped cream, whatever. Enjoy!

Heirloom Tomatoes with Creamy Gorgonzola Dressing

Look! More tomatoes I did NOT grow in my garden! Yes, friends, I am still feeling cranky that I have 21 tomato plants taking up real estate in the backyard, and it's August and still not a single tomato harvested, forcing me to purchase tomatoes from the store. CURSES. Although today one tomato started to blush a little yellow. Could this be the beginning of the bushels or tomatoes I had hoped for?? My heart is going pitter pat even at the thought.

On the bright side of things, look what a fabulous tomato salad you can make, even if you have to buy your tomatoes from the grocery store! And OH MY GOD. I totally wasn't even intending to blog this, it being the first time I had made the dressing and I didn't even bother to take pictures as I made it, but honestly people, THIS SALAD BLEW MY MIND. The tomatoes and the dressing and the seasonings all blend together into a perfect harmony of contrasts and compliments and I just about passed out after the first bite I was so overwhelmed with the tangy creamy sweet sour goodness. This tomato salad was so good that it was equal to, if not better than, the salad that allegedly cured my infertility nearly two years ago this month.

Please, I beg you, even if you don't like tomatoes, please try this. It just might be the best salad in the whole wide world.





Heirloom Tomatoes with Creamy Gorgonzola Dressing
adapted from the recipe by Ina Garten

The best place to find heirloom tomatoes is probably your local farmer's market, but I bought these at Trader Joe's and I thought they were delicious. Whatever you do, just make sure that the tomatoes you choose are fully ripe when you eat them; if they are white or mealy in the center, they are not worth eating.

Ingredients
3 pounds heirloom tomatoes, mixed colors and sizes
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 pound Gorgonzola cheese, divided in half
1 cup good mayonnaise
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley


slice and core tomatoes, cutting the large ones into thick slices, and halving cherry tomatoes. Arrange on platter, and sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper, and parsley.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine half the Gorgonzola, 1 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup cream, and 2 tablespoons vinegar, as well as 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Process until combined, but still chunky.

Drizzle the dressing over the tomatoes. Crumble the rest of the blue cheese, and serve at room temperature. Enjoy!

Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes

See these tomatoes? These are tomatoes I did NOT grow in my garden. Even though I have 21 tomato plants growing in my back yard, I haven't harvested a single tomato all summer. NOT ONE. This has officially been the coldest, grayest, most gloomy summer ever, and I have hardly a thing ripe in my garden, other than pickles, even though it's nearly mid-August.

If you happen to hail from somewhere other than the promise land, then you may not know that in Southern California, and particularly in the beach cities, we usually experience what we call "June Gloom" during the first few weeks of the summer. It's overcast and cool, and on particularly heavy days in can even sprinkle a little bit of rain. It usually clears up by July 4th and everyone spends the rest of the summer lying around scantily clad and eating gelato, riding beach cruisers, and getting enviably tan. This summer, we have all been bundling up in parkas and wondering if the sun will ever shine again.





So I didn't grow these tomatoes. The weather? She is not so cooperative this summer. I am only a tiny little bit cranky about this.

I don't know about you, but I have of sort of devotion to fire roasted diced tomatoes. I love them with the burning love of a thousand suns. Whenever a recipe calls for canned tomatoes, my heart leaps just a little bit because I am just so! in! Love! with that smokey, caramelized yumminess. Lately, though, we have been forgoing many recipes calling for canned anything, because a new study has shown that bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical in the plastics used to line the interior of food cans, leaches into food. BPA is an estrogen mimicker and an endocrine disruptor, and can be especially harmful for babies and young children. It is associated with cancers, early puberty, low sperm count, infertility, heart disease, obesity, and developmental problems such as ADD. It has been banned from baby and toddler bottles in 5 states, and legislation for a similar ban is working its way through California's political machine even as I type this. If you or your children consume canned and packed foods on a regular basis, you are likely exposing yourself and your children to BPA, and in amounts that are high enough to affect your family's health. Scary, right?




Canned food? We don't really eat it anymore. And yes, I could buy the fancy organic canned tomatoes in the enamel lined can from the health store, and I do buy then when I need some canned tomatoes in a pinch. But the health food store is on the other side of town, and making the extra trip can be a bit of a hassle, and OMG it almost gives me a heart attack to pay $5 for a can of tomatoes. Plus, how cool is it to make your own?? Super cool.

You could can these the traditional way (I give directions below), freeze them, or just make small batches, store them in the fridge, and eat them as a summer treat. They are fantabulous on top of salmon. Whatever you decide to do, there couldn't be a easier, cheaper, or healthier way to make your own fire roasted, diced tomatoes. BPA-free and all :)






Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes

Ingredients
tomatoes
lemon juice (optional)


Preheat grill or broiler. Halve tomatoes or slice into thick wedges. Scrape seeds out with a spoon or the tip of your finger (I forgot to do this for this batch, so there are lots of seeds in the photos).


Grill or broil tomatoes, until they are softened and slightly charred. Remove from heat, and let cool. Remove skins - they should just peel right off, easy.


Pack into sterilized canning jar, and add 1 TBS of lemon juice for every cup of tomatoes (this is to make sure the ph level of the jars is correct, given the offchance there are some botulism spores in your jars. If you are freezing your tomatoes or planning on consuming them right away, you can skip this step).


Add a little water so the jars are full up. Screw the lids on the jars, and process in a water bath (boil in a pot with water 1" over the tops of the jars) for 40 minutes. Remove jars from water, and let cool. If the jars have sealed properly, the jar lids will dimple down, and they can be stored in your pantry all winter long, up until next summer, when you get to make some more with next tomato crop. Enjoy!

Crisper than a Klausen's! Crisp Refreshing Homemade Fermented Kosher Dill "Half Sour" Pickles

Last summer I totally fell in love with the idea of making my own pickles. Full of optimism, I bought 5 pounds of the most gorgeous Persian cucumbers, and spent hours slicing cukes, simmering vinegar, perfecting seasonings, canning and processing. And oh my, those pickles were gorgeous: they looked like jewels in their shining glass jars. We waited in anticipation for the jars to cool, the pickles to pickle, the spices to infuse, and when we opened the first jar, pulled out the first emerald spears, we closed our eyes, took a bite and...

mush.

Absolute mush.




So soft and mushy that the pickles disintegrated in their pretty jars until they looked like jars of sad pea green soup. We threw them all away.

It was such a bitter and total epic FAIL, that I couldn't even blog about it. That's how disappointed I was (according to my husband, I do not deal well with disappointment or frustration. Go figure.) In typical fashion, I vowed that one day, I would indeed conquer the pickle, once and for all!




That day is today. It turns out I did a few things wrong last year. First, I used the wrong kind of cucumbers. Slicing cucumbers, the sort of cukes usually found in big chain grocery stores, tend to be soft and watery, perfect for salads and cucumber sandwiches, but far too soft for pickles. Those Persian cucumbers were so soft and bendy I was doomed from the start. What you want are pickling cucumbers, which are crisp enough to stay crunchy for the long haul. Second, the brine/hot pack waterbath process also had me doomed, because the heat that sterilizes the brine also cooks the cucumbers, making them that much softer.

The secret to getting really crisp, really deliciously cool pickles is to skip the "quick-pickle" method and do it the old fashioned way: fermentation. This is the way pickles have traditionally been made throughout history, and they are incredibly delicious. And not only do they taste better than their shelf-stable vinegared cousins, but they are better for you. Fermented pickles are "pickled" by friendly lactic acid bacteria. This fermentation renders foods easier to digest, introduces "good" probiotic bacteria into the gut (much like yogurt or kefir), and lastly, offers an alkaline balance to acidic foods, like meat. Also, they taste better. What's not to love?





"Half Sour" Kosher Dill Pickles
probably the hardest thing about this recipe is finding the right kind of cucumbers to pickle. This summer, I grew my own organic pickling cucumbers in my back yard, but you can also also find pickling cucumbers at farmer's markets and specialty stores. I think you can probably use Persian or kirby cucumbers in this recipe, but I can't guarantee how crisp the results will be.

It is VERY important that the brine is made exactly as the recipe indicates, with the exact same ratio of water to salt. Fermentation pickling works by allowing the lactic bacteria, naturally present on the surface of all vegetables, to flourish and ferment the cucumbers. The salt brine inhibits the growth of other bacteria, so it's important to be at the right strength. Too little salt, and bad bacteria may grow in your pickles. Too much salt, and the pickles are too salty to eat without soaking first.

This recipe is for "half sours," or pickles that are half-fermented and finished off with a splash of vinegar. They take about 2 days to ferment, give or take depending on the weather. You can flavor your pickles with whatever spices and herbs you like, through fresh dill and mustard seeds are traditional and a good place to start. Or you can get creative, adding minced fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, olives, red peppers, etc.

Ingredients
small firm cucumbers, such as pickling, kirby, or persian cucumbers
pure filtered water
kosher salt or sea salt (no iodine)
fresh dill
mustard seeds
optional: red pepper flakes, minced garlic, black pepper, etc.

1. Scrub cucumbers well, and cut of flower end, as it contains enzymes which can soften the cucumber. If desired, slice cucumbers into spears or slices. Rinse any herbs you will be using as well.

2. Pack cucumbers into a large food-grade crock or jar, leaving at least 1" of head space at the top. I have been making mine in large French style mason jars, but you can make them in almost anything. Pack cracks with sprigs of fresh dill and sprinkle with mustard seeds or other spices.

3. Make brine: mix together salt and water, with 1/4 cup salt to every 4 cups water. Mix together thoroughly, until brine is clear. Pour over packed cucumbers.

4. Cover pickles with a lid or cheesecloth, and let ferment. Depending on how warm or cool your home is, this process can take anywhere from 2 - 7 days. When small bubbles begin to form on the surface of the pickles and dill, you pickles are done. You can continue to let them ferment as long as you wish: they will not go bad, they will simply continue to intensify in acidic flavor. When your pickles are at the desired sourness, pour off the 1" of brine head space, and add a splash of vinegar. Store in the fridge, which will slow fermentation. Enjoy!