Pickled Garlic Turns Blue, Who Knew?

I made three jars of dill refrigerator pickles with a gift of summer cucumbers. It was my first attempt at making pickles and they came out well. Or at least that’s what I gather since Husband sucked down all but the taste I got from Jar Number One.

I was about to open Jar number two when I noticed that the garlic cloves in the pickle jar were turning blue. They weren’t fuzzy (thank goodness) but I figured that blue garlic can’t be good and poured the jar and it’s contents in the compost bin.

It killed me to throw out food.

When I noticed that some of the garlic in Dill Pickle Jar Number Three had a spot of blue on it.

I did a little research. Turns out that pickled garlic, turns blue as part of the pickling process. Blue garlic is safe to eat! I also learned that pickled asparagus turns pink.

Weird.

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Six Questions about Replacing Rusty Aluminum Baking Pans

I wanted to use the last of my in-laws rhubarb to make a peach and rhubarb crumble. My glass baking dish was already in use. I rooted around in the back of the cupboard for a metal baking pan of the same size.

I was very surprised to find that the inside of my metal baking pan was rusty! I checked the rest of my cake pans and they are rusty too. How can this happen? I don’t use these pans very often!

Has this ever happened to you?

My first thought was to use sandpaper to remove the rust and save my baking pans. Then I remembered that aluminum has to be coated with something to make it food safe. If I sanded off the rust, I’d sand off the coating and that would make matters worse when I used the pans.

My best bet will be to replace the rusty baking pans with a new set. Now I have even more questions about what to get because I got my current pans as a Christmas gift.

Making Blackberry Jam without Pectin

Husband and I picked a big bowl full of wild black berries on the in-laws farm. We brought our sweet treasures home and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. I wanted to turn them into blackberry freezer jam.

Mother in law taught me how to make freezer jam when I was just a girlfriend. It’s easy to do and I don’t have to worry about my fear of canning because you pop the jelly into the freezer instead of a water bath when you are done. Easy!


I already had a bunch of new jelly jars, rings, and lids left behind from an old roommate so the expense was minimal. I had plenty of sugar on hand too.


I decided to make my freezer jam without pectin. I’d like to go on about how I don’t want extra additives in my food (which I actually try to avoid as much as possible) but the reality was that I spent an hour in Kroger looking for pectin and they didn’t have any. I since Chef Druck made jam without pectin and Food in Jars has an amazing blackberry jam recipe I figured I’d combine the two and give it a go.

I got four and a half jars of jelly from one bowl of blackberries. It is a little sweet for my taste, but as first efforts go, Husband declared it a win!

Have you ever made jam? Then check out the following below!


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