What's Up Wednesday

I was starting to blog more regularly but it's slowed down a bit.  Ooops!

So, here's an update from the last week....

I turned my cucumber harvest from last week into a big jar of refrigerator pickles.  I made sweet pickles and they're delicious!  I'd like to figure out how to make the next batch a little less strong though.  I'm wondering if it's ok to add a little water to the vinegar?

Here's my harvest from this morning...more cucumbers, and a couple of Meyer lemons to flavor my water today.  The cucumbers are growing like crazy!  The vines are loaded with tiny ones that'll be big in no time!  I may need to learn how to do canning!

The pumpkin plants are exploding in size!  Here's what they look like this morning...

A couple of tomatoes are just about ready to pick!

We now have three baby eggplants.

It's been pretty hot lately.  But, one of my friends and I decided to go to a winery one day last week.  We found a nice spot to sit in the shade and the misters kept us comfortable....along with a cold glass of one of their delicious white wines!  We enjoyed relaxing and knitting so much that we have another outing planned this week and more of our knit friends are going to join us.  That should be a lot of fun!

On Sunday, hubby and I took our tandem bicycle down to the Carlsbad and went for a long ride along the ocean.  It was wonderful!  The temps were in the mid 70's, the sky was clear, and the ocean was calm and gorgeous!  We stopped for breakfast at one of our favorite places in Encinitas, The Potato Shack.  It's been there for a really long time and has great food and friendly service.  They even have gluten free pancakes and French toast!  Yum!

After breakfast, we headed south a few more miles.  We stopped to take in the views and snapped a photo of our Tandem.  We've had this awesome beast since our daughter was little.  Hubby and our daughter and hubby and I have even used this in mountain bike races!  He pulled it out last week, tuned it up, we took it out for a spin, and we're in love with it yet again.

On our way back north to Carlsbad and where we parked, we stopped at a place I've been following on Instagram for a while and was anxious to try, Lofty Coffee in Encinitas.  They roast their own coffee beans and make their own almond milk and hazelnut milk!  Not only were our drinks delicious but they were also pretty.  Here's my hubby's cappuccino with hazelnut milk...

And, here's my latte with almond milk.  They treated us to a homemade goody (not sure if it was a cookie, a muffin, or ??) that was gluten free, vegan, and yummy!  Their coffee grinder was acting up and delaying our coffee.  So, they brought the treat out with an apology.  How nice is that?!

We sat outside right along Pacific Coast Highway / Highway 1 and enjoyed the cool weather and our treats.  So nice!

These beauties were in the parking lot.  Plants love it down there and grow so well in that awesome weather!

What have you been up to this last week?

A Week on Instagram

I was quite busy with Instagram last week.

I thought it might be fun to share the photos I posted.

I had an errand to run one day near where my daughter lives.  So, I picked her up and we spent the afternoon together.  We decided to visit Roger's Gardens.  We wanted to see what they had in their Easter section.  Plus, it's always a fun place to spend some time.

Here are some of the photos from our visit...

We loved the colors in this flower arrangement...

This was an interesting idea they had near the entrance.

It's fabric bags that were filled with soil and plants and attached to the wall. 

I love Hydrangeas!  So pretty!

They look like they have a little bead or pearl in each center.

Just a couple blocks away is a shopping area called "Fashion Island".

I'd never been there and thought it would be fun to check out.  They have lots of fun stores to browse through...lots of expensive and pretty clothing.  And, it's outdoors instead of being a mall.

It was a gorgeous day!  We could even see the ocean from one side of the shopping center.

They had lots of really cool water features throughout the shopping center.

We had a lot of fun watching the giant Koi fish.  They were friendly and we could even touch them!

Ewwww!...slimy!  I like how this Instagram photo turned out...looks kind of like a painting.

I enjoyed a lot of tea last week.  I even made some chai tea lattes.  Mmmmm!

I like Yogi brand tea a lot and their tea tags are fun to read.

This was a good one....so true!

I made some refrigerator dill pickles.  I put a little cauliflower in the top part of each jar.
I hope they survived the death of our fridge.

They're in an ice chest right now.  The new fridge arrives tomorrow.  I can't wait!

I'd just gone grocery shopping the day before.  It turned warm really fast...almost like it changed from being a cold making box to a heat making box!  So, we lost quite a bit of food.  Oh well!  That's life!

I made a couple batches of lemonade last week.  I used Meyer lemons from the tree in our back yard.

Mmmmm!  I like mixing it with green tea sometimes too.  More yum!

Sadly, I had to throw out a large pitcher of lemonade when the fridge died.  Just couldn't drink it fast enough and there wasn't room in the ice chest.  We tried to eat a lot of the food that night too.

Can't wait to make some more lemonade when the new fridge arrives.

The recent rains have transformed the landscape around us.  It's changed from brown to green.

It's gorgeous!  We're soaking in the sights as much as we can because it won't last long.

In fact, the weather is in the 80's and 90's this week.

So, I bet the green will go back to brown within a week or so.

It always amazes me how fast it can change one way or the other.

I did an experiment of trying to make my favorite recipe of cheddar/ham chowder but without

any dairy ingredients.  I can't eat dairy anymore.  I used cauliflower to make a creamy base.

It was a success and SO delicious! 

That's my week on Instagram!  I just love posting on there.

The effects are fun too but I don't always use them.

Do you use Instagram?  If so, you can find me there under the user name, "acorntooak".

Refrigerator Pickle Update

Today was the day...we tried the refrigerator pickles I made a couple days ago and they really good! Yay! They're super crispy and tasty! I can't believe how easy they were to make and how well they turned out. It kind of makes me wonder why we ever buy factory made pickles.

I'll definitely do this again. I'll make some changes with the spices though. The spice mix I bought had cloves and that flavor is very noticible. I think the pickles would taste better without it.

An interesting note about the garlic...it has a bluish tinge to it. I looked it up and that's totally normal. It has something to do with the sulfer in the garlic mixing with the acid in the vinegar. I bet the factory ones add some kind of chemical to keep it from doing that. I'd rather not eat that chemical! Homemade is better!

Pickle Time

I've been watching more cooking programs lately in an attempt to get inspired and find new things to spice up the menu around here. In doing so, I've seen various versions of refrigerator pickles and thought they'd be fun to try.

I searched through online recipes to find one that I liked both the method and ingredients. Unable to find exactly what I wanted, I winged it...like I often do. I sliced and layered cucumbers, sliced onions, and roughly chopped garlic into a jar. While I was doing that, I had a pan heating on the stove with the vinegar, garlic, salt, sugar and spices.


The cucumbers, onions, and garlic filled the jar to the top. But, when I added the liquid, they floated up and left some space at the bottom. If this works out, I'll pack it all in tighter next time. After I poured the liquid in, I put the cap on and left the jar to sit on the counter for a few hours before placing it in the fridge.


In a couple of days we get to try them. I can't wait! I hope they're as yummy as they look!

Have you ever tried making refrigerator pickles? How did it go? I'd love to hear about it. :-)