watermelon feta salad

 Watermelon feta salad which I planned to make today but I used up all my cucumbers making relish so I'll pick some up tomorrow and make it then!  

Ingredients 3 cups watermelon, cubed 1 cucumber, thinly sliced ½ cup feta cheese, crumbled Handful of fresh mint leaves 1 Tbsp olive oil Juice of ½ lime Pinch of salt & pepper

Instructions Combine watermelon, cucumber, feta, and mint in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and lime juice. Toss gently, season with salt and pepper, and serve chilled.

dill relish (for canning)

One of my favorite farms has pickling cucumbers ready, so I rushed out to pick some up and actually ended up with a very good deal.*  I eat dill relish especially with tuna, and what I can find in the store has a lot of additives.  So why not make my own?  I can control quality better and it's local (the garlic is from my yard).  

Recipe from here. I doubled the recipe because I ended up with 5 pounds of cucumbers and it looks like it'll fit into my stockpot (I'll probably have to do two canning loads though since I have such a little canner).  (Note:  actually it filled the canner with odd various jars from pickles and such, and then there was about a pint and a half left over that I will just put into the fridge to eat first)

Ingredients 

5 lbs cucumbers (weighed prior to peeling and seeding),peeled, center row of seeds removed, and finely diced

2 large yellow onion, finely diced

2 small red bell pepper, finely diced

2 small green bell pepper, finely diced (I used anaheims as I don't really care for green bell peppers)

6 cloves garlic, finely minced

0.5 cup kosher or pickling salt (neither of these have additives which is important to avoid when canning)

6 cups white vinegar

1 cup sugar (optional or use less according to taste) - I put in 1 T for this double batch

4 teaspoons dill seeds

2 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds (note: don't use heaping spoons as it's already a lot)

4 teaspoons celery seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

4 bay leaves

 Instructions

• Place the diced cucumbers, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a large mixing bowl. Combine with the salt and pour water over the mixture until covered. Let sit for at least 6 hours or overnight (I did not refrigerate). Drain the cucumber mixture in a fine mesh strainer, rinse thoroughly with water, and drain again.
• In a large stock pot, add the sugar, vinegar, and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the drained cucumber mixture and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Discard the bay leaves.
• Ladle the hot relish into hot sterile jars, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars clean and seal tightly with the lids.

  Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
• Sealed jars will store in a cool, dark place for a year. If the seal is broken, the relish will keep in the fridge for at least a month. Makes 4 pints (you can use pint-sized or half pint jars).  

  Best eaten at least a week later after the flavors have had time to meld and the vinegar mellows out a bit. In addition, the relish needs to sit to give it time to absorb some of the liquid and to thicken.

 

*(This farm is run just like the farm that used to exist down the road, where I worked after college for several months until I figured out what to do with my college degree with honors.  Just kidding, I just went to other low-pay no-education-required job for years.  I finally became a teacher when I was about 30 years old, which at least requires my college education.  At the time of working at the farm, I had no idea why people would get so excited for these massive bags of pickling cucumbers, often little old ladies.  And now here I am, rushing to get them.)