let's make a dill

Whilst the fiend was doing some painty touch-ups in Balaclava, I had a little wander along Carlisle Street. Having fun ogling a new suburb and its little shops and jealously regarding funky breakfast places that I'll never go to, I happened across a green grocer. And prominently placed, were a pile of pickling cucumbers!

Gasp!

I sidled over and had a closer look. Rare veg! I haven't spotted these little babies in grocers before. I handed over some squids and took my precious cargo along with some dill from 'out the back' back to meet the fiend.


Raised eyebrows.


Not to worry. We'll see later on who becomes enthusiastic all of a sudden they're converted to sweet, garlicky, crunchy treats.

turn the beet around

aren't they pretty? a bundle of beets.

this is a retro post from early summer, when a little visit to south melbourne market gave us these beets.

beet beet. sugar beet. sugar beet. bee-eeeeet.

cooked to be tender and sliced up all deliciously.


we took some straight round to an early summer bbq and delighted in their vinegary goodness.

pucker up!

look below! there's the beginnings of the stained red beet thumb from rubbing the skins off. hee.
don't breathe too deeply over the vinegar okay. it's a bit scary when it gets in your pipes.
aren't they lovely and velvety coloured in their jars, and there are a couple other little jars with diced beets too that would be fun to stir into goat's cheese and baby spinach salads i reckon. yum.

update on the pickled garlic

it's yum! i wasn't sure it would be you know. because one of the jars mayn't have sealed properly and the cloves seemed to glow green internally. weirdos.

but we opened a non-green affected jar and included some on an antipasto platter with friends the other night to great acclaim. then next day worked some chopped into a nachos salsa. winner.