After making my Sriracha pickles, determining I loved them, my next problem was what to do with them. Being a person who hasn’t typically eaten pickles, the only thing I’ve really ever done was peel it off of my Krystal burger and feed it to Milo on road trips. This pickle, however, seemed to need more presence than just slapping it on a hamburger. Then I had the aha! moment. Chicago dogs! They’re usually slathered in a plethora of pickles – relish and spears.

I’ll say this upfront – my leaping off point was the Chicago dog. This is in no way actually a Chicago dog. Nothing bugs me more than someone bastardizing my hometown favorites, which is basically what I’m going to do here. Apologies in advance.

The Chicago dog is said to be “dragged through the garden” it has so many vegetative toppings on it. There seems to be a few variations, but the idea is relish, pickle spears, tomato, sport peppers, mustard, onions, and celery salt top an all-beef hot dog. Since I had spicy pickles, with a sweet and tangy flavor, I decided I to forgo the sport peppers, figuring I had the pucker and spice covered. (more…)

Filed under:
Cooking outdoors, Dairy free, Dinner, In the Garden, Lunch by Courtney

Let’s just preface this post by saying I’ve always hated pickles. Not just disliked, but hated in that “oh my god I’m so grossed out by this thing” way that you can hate a food. In high school someone taunted me by waving a pickle in my direction (of the food variety, let’s not let our minds end up in that track!). I immediately, without hesitation, slugged her as hard as I could. Hmmm, anger issues much?

Anyhow, fast forward to the present-day, calm-cool-semi-collected Courtney, who last year in her CSA received a pound of pickling cucumbers. Not one to throw away good food, I decided I would attempt to pickle the things, and at the least I could push them off on my husband and friends. I dug in, searching my favorite sites for pickle recipes, hoping to come across something that didn’t include dill. After all, if I’m going to spend the time in the kitchen, I would like to at least try the thing I make. Not being a fan of dill or pickles, I can’t imagine bringing such a thing near my tongue.

Then I stumbled upon it – the Sriracha pickle! Sriracha = something I love. Pickle = something I hate. (more…)

Filed under:
Condiments, Dairy free, Gluten free, Prep for Later Use, Vegetarian by Courtney