There’s a cat named Mr. Pickles who lives among the residents of the Bayview Retirement community. As a pet therapist he brings warmth and love to the residents of the entire building. See the full story of this cute (and tubby) animal.
Ingredients:
18 jalapenos, cut in half & seeded
1 8 oz. container of Philadelphia Chive and Onion Cream Cheese (I used the 1/3 less fat….you will have some left)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
18 cocktail sausages, cut in half lengthwise (I use all beef…you may want to make a few extra just in case you are attempted to sample)
1 package of thin cut bacon (12 slices), sliced into thirds
brown sugar (to sprinkle on top before baking)
36 toothpicks
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Heat the olive oil in a saute pan and add the cocktail sausages. Stir and cook until heated through and browned well.
Next, lay the peppers out like as assembly line…and begin stuffing. First, the cream cheese, then add a sausage half.
Take the bacon piece and wrap it around the jalapeno, securing it with a toothpick. Repeat with the remaining jalapenos.
Place jalapenos on a baking sheet and sprinkle liberally with the brown sugar. (This helps to caramelize the bacon)
Bake for 45 minutes in the oven. (If the bacon still isn’t browned, turn on the broiler for a few minutes)
Ready to serve!
Kim Diggs, kdiggs@starlocalmedia.com – Star Local Media
Tropical Punch, Peach Mango, Hot N’ Spicy and Sour Grape – these are all flavors of sliced pickles that Latonja Williams, owner of Tatyanna’s Pickle Palace, has cooked up after taking customer requests. She runs her flavored pickle business out of her home, experimenting with various flavorings. Her most widely used agent to get the robust flavor she’s looking for – Kool-Aid.
The discovery that pickles can add a new element to fruity or savory flavors came to Williams as a happy accident. She took the first steps in what would grow to be a business when she was a kid playing with her cousin.
“I started [making these pickles] when I was about 10,” Williams said. “Me and my cousin would get the Kool-Aid, and steal a little sugar from my mama and mix it and put some pickles in it. I think it was just something we used to do. When we used to get Kool-Aid, we used to put lemons in it, and I decided one day that I was going to try it with a pickle in mine. That’s where it all started.”
She never really thought about turning the discovery into a business until her daughter, Tatyanna, started becoming more active in school and participating in a lot of activities. In order to be able to afford all of the fees that came with that, she decided to turn a family tradition into a business. But it took a conversation with a friend to give her the nudge to get started.
“What happened was one of my friends made a tropical punch [pickle] and she wasn’t selling it, and I told her she should do it,” Williams said. “When she decided she wasn’t going to do it, I thought ‘Why don’t I do it?’”
For a while, she sold them out of her home for $1. They were selling so well that she decided to take her business to the next level and start selling them at events.
“My first event was Zydeco Fest,” Williams said. “I made 10 different flavors, and the grown-ups were actually the ones going crazy for the pickles.”
Since 2014, her pickles have taken off across the state and throughout Louisiana. She’s sold pickles at Taste of Rockwall, Essence Festival in New Orleans, festivals in Seagoville and Balch Springs, the Martin Luther King Parade in Dallas, a Mardi Gras parade in Shreveport and many other places.
From 8 a.m.-8 p.m. each Saturday, she can be found at Paschall Park in Mesquite, Texas selling pickles. She continues to set up and sell at events.
One of the upcoming events is a party that lasts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 24 at Bradfield Place, 3700 Oates Drive, a senior living community in Mesquite. There, families will be able to participate in games, watch live entertainment and compete for prizes. Admission is free.
She will also be selling her pickles at Trunk or Treat in Rowlett, texas. It begins at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 at Mercer Place, 5701 Dexham Road, Rowlett. Trunk or Treat is a Halloween event in which people decorate their cars to fit a specific theme and children dress up in costume and visit each car to get candy and prizes.
Williams’ latest goal is to grow her business and apply to sell her confections at the Texas State Fair next year.
Living on the streets is no doubt terrifying, and two little dogs found a way to make it more bearable.
Hope for Paws, a rescue organization in Los Angeles, received a video text message of two homeless dogs fending for themselves.
They helped each other make it through the rough times, and their rescuers knew that they also needed to be rescued together.
When they found and approached the pups in a trash heap behind a building, the duo were friendly and eager to be rescued — but also unwilling to leave each other’s sides. The pair allowed rescuers to pet them and give them attention, and even accepted food.
Hope for Paws volunteers named the dogs Dill and Pickles. They put a leash over the boy, Pickles, first, so Dill could see that it was safe. If her best friend could do it, then so could she.
Before taking them back to the car, Pickles cuddled up to Dill, proving to rescuers that the only way these two got through living on their own was by being together, always.
One of the volunteers picked up Pickles to bring him to the car, and Dill immediately followed, going wherever her best friend went.
When a volunteer climbed into the car with Pickles, Dill knew that it must be safe, and climbed up onto the car, signaling that she would be OK with being lifted in, too.
Finally, both friends were in the car and ready to be taken off of the streets — forever.
Even now that they’ve been rescued, Dill and Pickles are inseparable, and don’t like to be apart for very long at all. Hopefully these two will find a loving forever home where they can be together forever and finally feel safe.
By: Dan Zahra, for the Auburn Journal
With the bounty of produce available this time of year, the pickle producing possibilities are endless. Pickling is a positive way to spend some quality time with family. Everyone creating their own jar of pretty pickled produce concoctions. Pickled asparagus to zucchini and everything in between can be pickled with different blends of vinegar, sugar, salt, peppers and water or other flavor neutrals.
The blends of herbs, spices and enhancers (such as whiskey, hot sauce or whatever you desire) will make your pickles unique. This is in every way the kind of food you play with.
I made pickled red onion, Persian cucumbers and carrot. One jar of regular, one jar of red pepper flake and one jar of whiskey pickles. I was pleasantly surprised with the whiskey pickles. I had a light bulb moment and added the whiskey to the jar to see what would happen. It added just a hint of oak-aged whiskey flavor that comes up on the backside of taste. Remember, as always in food preparation, the golden rule is “you can add more but you cannot take it out,” same as you can’t un-cook something you have overcooked. So start out with a hint and add more if needed.
I had some brine left over after filling three jars so I quickly sliced some red cabbage and garlic and pickled them as well. It all came out delicious. If you saw last week’s column on pumpkin potatoes cakes, the pickled veggies were in the foreground in the photo. They were a perfect side to the pan seared salmon.
As I write this I have some favorites waiting to bath in the glory of the brine. This batch will be cauliflower, sweet peppers, Brussels sprouts, red onion, garlic, Persian cucumbers and green beans.…
Pickling Brine
Ingredients:
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Directions:
• Place your desired herbs and spices in the jars.
• Bring the vinegar, water, salt and sugar to a boil and then let cool somewhat before pouring the liquid into the jars.
• You can add fresh herbs, red pepper flakes, mustard seed, cumin seed, pepper corns, cloves of garlic, or just use the store bought pickling spice mix and save a bunch of money by not buying them separately.
•With my pickles I made three versions all using the same brine. To make them unique I just added 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes to my spicy pickles. To my whiskey pickles I added 1 tablespoon of Irish Whiskey to the jar before adding the veggies.
• You can pickle all kinds of veggies. I chose Persian cucumbers, carrots and red onion.
By Gillian O’Callaghan – Boston Globe
SALEM — Maitland Mountain Farm, this city’s only urban farm, is a bit of a conundrum. How can there be a farm and a mountain in this seaside city with almost 5,000 residents per square mile?
Carved out of a residential neighborhood, the farm is perched on a 2½-acre lot not far from a Staples and Dunkin’ Donuts. The name came from a family friend of Peter Maitland, who with his wife, Barbara, raised four children on this property. The friend used to ride his bike up the steep hill to visit and after struggling each time to navigate the incline, he dubbed the spot “Maitland Mountain.”
For the past six years, the Maitlands’ daughter Holly, 33, and her husband, Andy Varela, 30, have been growing a host of farmers’ market vegetables and testing the appeal of others. Kohlrabi was a successful experiment, though it took some convincing for skeptical shoppers to try the odd-looking orb. The farm is not organic, but on rare occasions uses organic insecticides. “This year we haven’t sprayed anything,” says Varela. If you grow what’s in season, he says, there’s little need for fighting pests.
Making a living from a small farm is difficult, so the duo developed two big additional income sources: sweet-smelling flowers and sour-tasting pickles. Until the end of October, the farm will deliver 40 to 50 bouquets a week to local florists, as well as a weekly flower share to Farm Direct Coop, a North Shore CSA. The mainstays are more than 40 varieties of dahlias, which are paired with zinnias, celosia, lemon basil, or amaranth.
And then there are the pickles. “I have always been a pickle lover at heart,” says Holly Maitland. One year, her father grew a “plethora of pickling cucumbers.” She tried a couple recipes for quick refrigerator pickles. “They came out so good that I was hoarding them for myself.”
When Varela moved to the farm and tried them he said, “You’ve got to do something with this.” That summer, they were selling pickles at farmers’ markets, and within two years had a contract with Costa Fruit & Produce of Charlestown to distribute pickled products and horseradish to kitchens across New England. “It’s helping us make it through the winter,” says Maitland. To keep up with demand, they buy cucumbers from neighboring farms and other places. A cold-brine method keeps the vegetables crisp and crunchy. Jett’s Spears are mild, and Holly’s Spears are spicy. Peter’s Giardiniera, a mix of carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower, celery, and peppers, in a briny concoction of spices, has plenty of garlic and red chile flakes.
Peter Maitland and his brother, Greg, built the house on this property. Now Holly and Varela, and their 3-year-old son Jett (the same Jett of the mild pickles), live here with Peter and Barbara. Peter, a retired merchant marine engineer, always had an extensive garden and raised chickens.
Holly moved home after finishing Massachusetts College of Art and Design and started working for a landscape design company. In 2009, the year the Salem farmers’ market launched, the father-daughter duo tried a small stand with eggs, vegetables, and flowers, and the farm has been expanding ever since.
She and Varela met on eHarmony, drawn together by shared careers in the food industry. Within five months, Varela, originally from Southern California, arrived in Salem from Montauk, N.Y., where he was working in a restaurant. He quickly embraced the role of family farmer. As relatively new growers, the two have learned by trial and error. “It’s not what you know about farming,” says Varela, “it’s about how much work you want to put in.”
They find support among fellow farmers and restaurants they supply. The Sea Level Oyster Bar on Salem Harbor offers Maitland’s spicy pickle chips, fried to a crisp and served with chipotle dipping sauce. “They are great pickles to start with. And then you add that they are local, and made right in Salem, you can’t get better than that,” says culinary director Serie Keezer, who also oversees Finz Seafood & Grill on the harbor.
The pickles are also at Milk & Honey Green Grocer in Salem. “It’s great to be able to offer customers products that come right from their own town,” says owner Sharon Driscoll. She’s had customers so enamored of Holly’s Spears that they’ve wiped out her entire stock in one purchase.
And, no, the young farmers never get sick of pickles. Varela likes to dice them, and, with a generous splash of brine, make a pickle guacamole. And Maitland, the original pickle lover, dips her spicy spears in hummus.
They’ve built a very sweet and sour life atop Maitland Mountain.
Maitland Mountain Farm pickles available at Milk & Honey Green Grocer, 32 Church St., Salem, 978-744-6639; The Corner Butcher Shop, 240 Elliott St., Beverly, 978-969-3194; Willow Rest, 1 Holly St., Gloucester, 978-283-2417; Appleton Farms Dairy Store, 209 Country Road, Ipswich, 978-356-3825; Appleton Farms at Boston Public Market, 100 Hanover St., Boston. Flowers, produce, and pickles available through Oct. 22 at the Salem farmers’ market in Derby Square on Thursdays.
Gillian O’Callaghan can be reached at gillian.ocallaghan@globe.com.
Catherine Smart – Boston Globe
Makes 1 quart
These fresh, snappy dill pickles take minutes and will keep for a month in the fridge, no canning required. Store in a clean quart-size jar.
| 2 | medium thick-skinned cucumbers (about 1½ pounds), halved cross-wise and cut into 2-inch spears |
| 1 | small bunch fresh dill |
| 1 | jalapeno, halved lengthwise |
| 1 | cup distilled white vinegar |
| 1 | cup water |
| 1 | tablespoon salt |
| ¼ | teaspoon whole peppercorns |
| 1 | clove garlic, smashed with the back of a knife, peel removed |
1. In a clean 1-quart canning jar, arrange the cucumber spears, dill, and jalapeno so that they are tightly packed.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the vinegar, water, salt, peppercorns, and garlic. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers, screw on the lid, and let cool to room temperature.
3. Transfer the jar to the refrigerator and let pickles cure for 24 hours before eating.
By Victoria Guerra –
In the oddest Mac and Cheese news in recent times, Luke Gatti, from the University of Connecticut, became infamous earlier this week when a video of him in the school’s dining hall went viral, as the student demanded in expletive-filled words to be served a plate of bacon and jalapeno Mac and Cheese.
After going viral on YouTube in a video that reached over 2.7 million views (the original clip has since been taken out over a copyright claim, although someone else uploaded the content later on), the latest Mac and Cheese news on this case reveals that Gatti may have gotten expelled from the university.
According to The Daily Mail, this Mac and Cheese news comes from Twitter, after a few residents from UConn spotted the now infamous Gatti leaving campus, with someone taking a snap of the bacon and jalapeno lover packing up his things inside the trunk of a car.
This Mac and Cheese news might not be a happy ending for Gatti, but the Internet is certainly glad he won’t be able to yell at diner workers anymore.
In other related Mac and Cheese news in Gatti’s case, The New York Post reports that since the scene went viral, local UConn-owned pub Blue Oak Tavern is now honoring the viral video by naming a new macaroni and cheese dish, just the way Gatti likes it (white cheddar, applewood smoked bacon, diced jalapenos and panko bread crumb toppings), calling it “Luke’s Mac N Cheese” and describing the dish as “worth getting arrested for.”
As WTSP reports, the original clip went like this: Gatti, who was up until a few days ago a freshman at UConn, started yelling at a manager at the university’s student union in Storrs last Sunday night after he was refused service because, surprise, he was carrying an open alcohol container inside the premises.
Later on, things got physical, prompting police to reach the scene.
State fair food vendors are always in search of the next big deep-fried thing.
They hope to create a deep-fried delicacy that will join the ranks of the N.C. State Fair’s greatest hits: deep-fried candy Snickers, deep-fried HoHos and the Krispy Kreme cheeseburger.
Several vendors will share samples of their creations at an event at 11:30 a.m. Monday in Raleigh that state Agriculture officials put on for the media. The fair is Oct. 15-25 at Raleigh fairgrounds.
Food vendors have incentive to create the next popular deep-fried treat: increased sales.
The deep-fried bananas foster that the Ragin’ Cajun booth served last year increased their sales by 20 percent, according to owner Chris Wrenn. Although Wrenn has been serving food at the fair since 2009, he hadn’t tried to compete in the annual scrum of the best new deep-fried treat at the fair.
But this year, Wrenn and his business partner, chef Joseph Fasy, began working on what they hope will be a follow-up hit: pimento cheese hushpuppies with bacon and jalapeno and served with a sriracha bang bang sauce.
Pimento cheese seems to be popular item this year. The folks behind Woody’s, a sports bar in Raleigh and Cary, are doing deep-fried wontons filled with pimento cheese. “The whole world is crazy for pimento cheese,” said Woody’s co-owner Shawn Whisnant. “So we thought why not deep fry it for the fair?”
Wrenn and Fasy sat down recently to talk about how they tried to come up with a deep-fried fair hit.
The men met about three years ago. Wrenn owns Old North State Catering, which he runs out of a fully equipped 42-foot trailer. Wrenn’s church, The Gathering, cooks a meal once a month for families in need and someone reached out to Fasy to help with the Thanksgiving feast. Fasy is a longtime hotel chef who has worked for Hyatt and the Biltmore Hotel.
“We’ve been together ever since,” Fasy said.
Wrenn added, “My wife calls it a bromance.”
Fasy helps Wrenn develop menus for his catering events, pairing his classical cuisine credentials with Wrenn’s down-home Southern cooking. The men use those events as opportunities to test recipes that may also work for the fair. This year’s pimento cheese hush puppies were a big hit at a recent wedding. The men only recently completed the recipe, increasing the amount of jalapenos and brine in the batter.
“We got it right on the jalapenos this time,” Wrenn said after taking a bite of the most recent batch.
Not every dish will work at the fair, the men said. Their attempt to make a barbecue chicken and waffle sandwich failed. The dish was delicious with homemade waffles, but those can’t be done at the fair and a frozen waffle just didn’t taste good enough.
Wrenn and Fasy certainly learned some lessons from their bananas foster success: Have one dedicated line, register and deep fryer for what you hope will be your breakout hit. And be prepared.
This year, Fasy is planning to make 35 gallons of sriracha bang bang sauce.
by HEATHER YAMADA-HOSLEY – Lifehacker Australia
When you’re craving pickles, nothing else will do. Quick pickles can satisfy your cravings in a few minutes, but often lack the flavour of their cooked-and-cooled cousins. If you smash those cucumbers before pickling, you can get the best of both worlds.
A classic Chinese side dish, smashed cucumber pickles absorb pickling liquid more easily than their traditional, sliced counterparts, and offer a great combination of flavours and textures.
Lay your cucumber on a sturdy cutting board and smash it with the flat side of a cleaver or other broad knife. Cut the smashed cucumber into chunks and salt it. Then let it drain for about ten minutes before adding your pickling liquid (in this case, rice vinegar, minced garlic, and sesame oil.) You can eat these on their own as a side dish, or toss them onto salads for a delicious hit of acidity.