A Snowy, Snuggly, Chowdery Kinda Day

 It snowed all day Friday and it has snowed all day today.  This is what we woke up to this morning.  A winter wonderland.  Can you believe I had my windows open enjoying the lovely weather on Thursday?  Aubrey and Addy spent most of the day today outside playing in the freezing cold.  Like I'm not even kidding.  Most of the day.  I love the snow as long as I don't have to go outside.  It love the quiet peaceful sound of a field of snow.  I love looking out my windows while I am snuggled under a blanket.  The last two days have called for a lot of snuggling and a lot of hot chocolate drinking and a lot of Christmas music listening.  It has been wonderful!

 I decided that it was a chowdery kind of day. Which is kinda weird because I usually never eat chowder and I have never made chowder.  And I don't know the first thing about making such a thing.  But when the day calls for it, what can you do.  So I started throwing things in the pot.  I started with some melted butter, added milk, cut up some leftover baked potatoes, diced some leftover ham, threw in a bag of frozen corn and tossed in some dehydrated onions.  I wasn't sure how the whole thing would turn out.  Best dang soup I have ever made.  I'm so not kidding, and I have made some good soup in my lifetime.

After dinner we declared it family movie night.  We got all snuggly under blankets and turned on netflix.  I had added some movies to the queue that I thought would make good family movie night movies.  However no one was interested in them and I was defeated by Thor.  5 to 1.  I was so excited since the last family movie night movie was The Avengers and I was asleep by the 20 minute mark.  That is probably about as long as I lasted in Thor.  I couldn't believe it when I woke up at the end of the movie and thought it was 10:30/11:00.  But Emily informed us that it was only 8:15.  

It has been a delightful snowy snuggly Saturday.

My Meatloaf Saga

So I felt so great last night when my kids were so excited about the fabulous dinner I made.  We had my world famous meatloaf and my even more famous garlic mashed potatoes.  The kids started freaking out a few hours before dinner when I began my preparations and they realized what it was.  The whole time it was baking they were salivating.  And then when I took it out of the oven they, along with their father, descended upon that meal like vultures.  They kept going on and on and on in muffled tones, what with all the food crammed in their mouth and all, about how delicious and fabulous and wonderful it was.  I hadn't seen them that excited over food in a long time.  It was a good feeling to know that I had slaved over a meal and made it out of love straight from my heart and it was so gratefully and graciously received.

Contrast that with tonight's meal experience.  The other day we were at my mom's house and she had some frozen dinners that the girls were all excited to eat.  I never buy frozen dinners.  Ever.  It was a new experience for them.  Yesterday I was at the grocery store and they had some frozen dinners on sale for way super cheap so I bought a few for the kids to eat on nights when Steve and I aren't home.  They begged me from the moment they got home from school to let them eat them.  I said no.  Those were for dinner when I wasn't home to make it.  Well I had to take Zac and Em to run a few errands this afternoon that ended up taking way longer than I expected.  Steve won't be home from work until late tonight.  And by the time I got home I didn't feel like making dinner and I didn't feel like eating anything we had anyway.  

So when I announced to the children that they could each choose a frozen dinner to eat, I pretty much got the same excited reaction that I got last night with my meatloaf and mashed potatoes that I spent 2 hours lovingly making.  

Yep.....Makes a  mom who makes dinner every night feel extra super good.

Minestrone In Minutes

The boys went on an overnight ATV trip to Moab and the girls and I were left home alone last night.  We went to Emily's soccer game, went out to dinner, then we went to the grocery store and came home to work on a little project. 

Aside from storing at least a year supply of food, our church suggests having a 3 month supply of the kind of food you eat every day on hand.  Click here to see the "All is Safely Gathered In" pamphlet.  I have been looking at different ways of doing this.  I have found several different sources that have different shelf stable meals that you can put together and have on hand.  Last week I gave one of the recipes a try.  We made Minestrone soup.  And we all loved it.  It was seriously so easy and everyone gobbled it up.  Well, all the vegetables that go in the soup are on sale at our local store this week for 49 cents a can.  The girls and I went to the store last night and bought enough ingredients to put together 12 meals in a bag.  Then we came home and put the meals together.  This is something I want to do on a weekly or semi-weekly basis.  If I can put together 6 more meals like this, that would give us 7 meals x 12.  If we eat each meal once a week then that gives us 3 months worth of dinners.  I plan on rotating them by using them but will probably only use one of each meal every month.  Unless of course an emergency arises. In that case it's Minestrone all around!

Here is Aubrey measuring out the spices and placing them in a zip-lock bag.

Addy organizing the cans 

Here is our finished product!  12 meals ready to make and eat!  

I put the macaroni in a zip-lock bag with a paper that has the recipe printed on it.

I know this is not the most fancy packaging but we do have a plethora of these bags on hand.  I haven't decided how to store these yet.  I was thinking of putting them in 5 gallon buckets, but they aren't going to fit.  I am now thinking maybe some rubbermaid totes or something.

Anyhoo!  The girls and I had so much fun putting these together.  They were so simple to do.  Here is the recipe I used.  It is my own slightly tweaked version of Wendy DeWitt's recipe.

Minestrone 

1c macaroni

1 can corn

1 can green beans

1 can tomatoes

 (we used Italian seasoned tomatoes because that is all they had left at the 

store of the brand that was on sale but when I made it last week

 I just used plain diced tomatoes)

1 can black beans (we like black, you can use kidney or whatever)

2T dry onion

2t salt

1t pepper

1t garlic powder

2t Italian seasoning

2T parsley

Dump everything into a pot (do not drain canned goods). Add  3 cups of water. Cook 20-30 min.  (I think I might have added more water, can't remember.  Wendy's recipe only calls for 1 C.  Just add whatever you might fancy.  I'm wondering if she cooks the past first even though it doesn't say that in her recipe and that is why she only adds 1 cup.  I just cooked my pasta in the same pot with everything else and added more water.)

I served it with this yummy and easy Artisan Bread. This recipe comes from my friend and neighbor Jamie:

6 1/2 C flour

3 C hot water

1 1/2 T Kosher Salt (this is too salty for me, I usually do 1 T)

1 1/2 T yeast

Mix by hand.  Let sit 2 hours in bowl.  Shape on pan (I use a cookie sheet) into 2 loaves (think artisan shape, I kinda do an ovalish shape).  Let sit 1 more hour.  Brush with egg whites.  Bake at 500 for 20 minutes.  Put a bowl of water in oven while baking to create steam.

I am so excited for a few reasons to have these meals.  Number 1 for my food storage.  Number 2 for those nights when I need something fast and easy.  Number 3 for those nights when Steve and I are on a date and the kids are left to fend for themselves.  Number 4 this meal was less than $3 per meal to make!  Try putting a few together yourself!

Everything You Knead To Know About Dough

My brother Sam and his wife Teresa, who is with child, came down from Idaho to spend Memorial Day Weekend with us.  We had them and my mom and Lauren over for dinner tonight and a MIB marathon.  We watched the first two Men In Black movies tonight because we are going to see the third one tomorrow.      I don't think I have ever seen the second one.  I don't know why I watched it tonight.  It was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  I got up and went to the other room to clean for the last 15 minutes of the movie because I could stand it no more.  When it was over everyone was getting ready to leave me and Steve was exhausted and couldn't stay awake.  I tried to get people to not leave because I still had an hour before I had to go pick Emily up from a late over at her friends house.  I asked them what I was going to do to stay awake if they left me and Teresa said I should blog because I haven't in a long time.  This is true.  So here I am.

On Wednesday, two days ago, we had a little neighborhood baking day.  Tish and Trish and my sister Lauren and I all went over to April and Veronica's house and Trish gave us all a lesson on making bread and cinnamon rolls.  We made them from scratch and even ground our own wheat!  Did you hear me?  We ground our own wheat!

(Please note my new haircut.  I woke up that day and thought I might literally go insane if I had to go one more minute with my hair the way it was.  So I picked up the scissors and started hacking away at it.)

 Trish, the expert, showing us how to roll the cinnamon rolls

 April

 Lauren

 Me.  We had to take these pictures just to show that Trish didn't do all the work.  

She did most of the work, but we did help.  A little.

 We ended up with four gorgeous pans like this.  

And four beautiful loaves of bread.  We each took our bread home to cook in our own oven so our house could smell yummy.  It all turned out fabulously delicious.  My kids were so excited to come home from school to these cinnamon rolls.  Thanks again Tricia for sharing your expertise with us!

Allyson's Chinese Sweatshop That Cranked Out 200 Meals In One Day

On Thursday my mom and I drove to Brigham City to go to a class Chef Tess was teaching about her 52 week meal in a jar plan. She uses freeze dried food and puts it in canning jars and adds all the spices and ingredients you need to make a meal. When you are ready to eat it you just add water and cook for about 20 minutes and eat. We decided we wanted to do it so we gathered all the supplies Thursday and Friday. We enlisted our dear friend Carla to do it with us. And since Sam and Teresa came down from Idaho for a visit, well, we enlisted them too! We were like, oh yeah, it will just take a few hours on Saturday for all of us to put the meals together. HA! More like a few 12 hours.

I did get a little sweatshopish on them. My mom and I have two totally opposite ways of doing things and I had to put my foot down when she just wanted to jump in and start throwing stuff in the bags all willy-nilly like. (we decided to put our meals in mylar bags instead of jars) I insisted on some organization. My mom sent Emily to turn on some music and I nixed that idea. So yes, my mom did say something about my sweatshop overlord ways. A few times. Oh well, it got the job done. Eventually. We were all dead tired when we finally finished up the last of the clean up at 9 pm that night, after starting at 9 am. I can't tell you how excited we were when we realized we had to set the clocks up one hour.

We had an assembly line where we each had our ingredient for each recipe and we put the right amount in the bag and passed it down to the next person.

Here's a picture of my mom writing on the bags. This is what I know she is thinking:


-I can't believe Allyson is making me divide my meals in half instead of putting enough food to feed 6 people in a bag when it is just me and Lauren at home to eat it.... (FYI: She did call me today and tell me that she and Lauren ate one of their 1/2 meals last night and there was plenty left over and she was glad she only did half meals.)(mmmhhhmmmm....)

-I can't believe Allyson is making me put my meals in these practical mylar bags when the jars would be so much cuter on my shelves.

-This would be so much better if we could turn the music back on. Dang overlord. Who does she think she is?

About 6 hours into the whole long process Lauren had pretty much had it.

We borrowed the mylar bag sealer from our church dry pack cannery. Sam was in charge of sealing the bags. Addy was in charge of bag transport.

Our meals that we ended up with. I have 40 complete meals (just add water) to feed my family. Carla and my mom (since they have less people eating at their house and since my mom has a bossy daughter who thinks she is in charge of everything and everybody) went home with 80, yes EIGHT-EEE meals each! Each! My mom sent half of her meals home with Sam and Teresa so she has 40 and they have 40. Pretty good haul for a days work, I'd say. The meals packaged the way they are will last 4-5 years (Yes I know mother, they would last 5-7 in the jars. That can break in an earthquake. Or in a kitchen with 200 glass jars and kids running around. And that are hard to transport.) I plan on throwing a few in our 72 hour kits.

We did take a short break in the early evening. Emily went to a Birthday party. Sam and Teresa and Lauren took Zac, Aubrey and Addy to see The Lorax. I worked on stuff I had to do for church and my poor sweet dear mother finished the meals and started the clean up. Then we grilled hamburgers and did a little Kinect Zumba. I have a picture of Zac and me doing Zumba but that is a picture that I will not be posting. So you will have to make due with this one of Sam and Teresa.

Please Pass The Zucchini

It's that time of year. My garden is producing like crazy! We have our share of veggies and then some. The thing we have the most of? You guessed it! Zucchini. It's pretty much coming out of our ears at this point. Here are a few things I have done with my Zucchini. First. These roasted veggies. This is my favorite way to eat vegetables. I started making them this way several months ago and my family and I love it so much, I make them like this once or twice a week. It is a great way to get rid of extra vegetables you have laying around. Especially the ones that your kids won't eat when you serve the one vegetable by itself. Like bell peppers, for instance. I just cut up whatever vegetables I have on hand and throw them all into a big bowl. I think this time I had cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, bell peppers, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. I make this different every time because it just depends on what I have. I throw them all in a bowl, add some fresh herbs, olive oil, salt and pepper (if you use carrots and potatoes, cut them smaller than the other vegetables because they take longer to cook). I mix it all up and then pour it on my big Pampered Chef stone bar pan. A regular cookie sheet works fine also. I put that in the oven and depending on how much time I have I either cook it at 350 for about an hour or 425 (because that's as hot as the stone can handle) for 30 minutes or so. There is something about cooking the vegetables this way that really brings out the flavor and makes them so extra yummy. Really, when I make them like this, I fill the whole pan (and its a big one) and it is piled high and my whole family gobbles the entire thing up.



Last night I made yummy fried zucchini. I just took corn meal, added salt and pepper and mixed it up in a bowl. I sliced the zucchini, dipped it in water and then the meal and then cooked it in hot canola oil until it was brown and crispy. It was so good. Next time I think I will try baking it instead of frying it. You know. For health reasons.



Earlier this week I made the best muffins I have ever had. I LOVED them. And so did my kids. They were zucchini muffins, but you could hardly tell there was zucchini in them even though there was plenty. And they were so light. You know how zucchini bread or cake is really dark and heavy? Not these muffins. They were perfect in my opinion. I made it without the optional items.

Zucchini Muffins Recipe

3 cups grated fresh zucchini
2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
Pinch salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup walnuts (optional)
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

You don't need a mixer for this recipe.

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the zucchini mixture and mix in. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Stir in walnuts, raisins or cranberries if using.

2 Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown,and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done.

So all these things have taken care of a portion of our zucchini crop. Now what about the rest of it? This weekend, and for several weekends hereafter, I plan to chop and grate and freeze enough zucchini to last us all winter. I will put enough in each bag to use in one recipe. Like the muffins. The recipe calls for 3 cups grated zucchini, so I will freeze several bags with 3 cups in each. And if we get tired of zucchini over the winter, well, it will be a nice treat for the chickens.

What do you do to dress up your zucchini? Please share!

What's For Dinner - I'm Bringin' Back The Parsnip

When I read that title, it reminds me of the time I was picking out carpet for my house. I wanted a low nap, grey, berber kind of carpet. The man who was helping me wouldn't show me any samples of berber because he said no one gets berber anymore, especially not grey berber. Everyone gets the same shaggy brown, and I would be sorry if I didn't put something like that in my house. I tried really hard to explain to him that the reason I wanted the berber was for the exact reason he felt I shouldn't get it. He kept telling me it wasn't in style. And I looked at him and said, "Well, I'm bringin' it back". He wasn't amused and just looked at me like I was stupid.

You might think I'm stupid too, with the whole bringing back the parsnip thing. But this is my goal. To make all of you start eating parsnip, so they will carry more of it in the store, so I can find it without a 10 minute hunt in the produce department. I had never had parsnip before, but we got it in our Bountiful Basket Co-op a while back. It is so good. It's like a big giant white carrot, but it tastes so much better than a carrot. I'm so not kidding. It is the new carrot, as far as I'm concerned. So I actually bought parsnips at the grocery store the other day when I was doing my Thanksgiving shopping. Who would have ever thunk it? I'm going to make the same dish I made before when we had parsnips. Because it was really super fantabulously yummy, everyone liked it, and I have been craving it since I last made it. And I think the beautiful fall colors will look dandy on the Thanksgiving table.

So if you want to try it, and I feel that you do, here's the recipe. I call it:

Allyson's Scrumptious Roasted Root Veggies

diced carrots

diced parsnips

diced sweet potatoes

diced any other kind of potato you have on hand

(I think mine were russet)

diced onion

diced red bell pepper

diced zucchini

(i know the last 2 ingredients aren't root veggies, but i had then and i wanted to get rid of them so i threw them in)

pour some olive oil over the veggies, add some salt n pepa, a lot of minced garlic, and some italian seasonings, stir,cover with foil, bake in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until tender.

Yum! So this is one of the dishes that will be making an appearance at my table on Thursday. I really sometimes can't stand blogger because it does dumb things such as: not letting me change the font color back to normal. Anyhoo, another thing that will be gracing my table, which I am a little nervous/excited about? This turkey. (click on the turkey word to be taken to the link)

Go buy parsnips! So I can show that carpet man exactly what I mean!

GO AWAY ORANGE TEXT!

What's For Dinner Wednesday - A Delightsome Pear

So, somewhere along the way, I lost a whole day. I was trying to decided what kind of post to do today and thought that "What's For Dinner Wednesday" would be good. But guess what? Today is not Wednesday. Who knew? Anyhoo. This is one of our family's newest most fav-O-rite desserts. We have been getting a lot of pears from our food co-op lately. We have had this like 100 times in the last month. Well, maybe not 100, but pretty close.

This is what I love about it. It's good. Dang good. It is the easiest thing ever to make. It's kinda fancy nancy if you are trying to impress. And it is totally healthy because the main ingredient is fruit. You pretty much have to eat it, for your health's sake!

This is what ya do. You take a pear. Cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds. I have a small melon baller and it works perfect for that job. Place the pears in a baking dish, put an oh-so-generous pat of real butter in the hole you just made with the melon baller or spoon. Sprinkle some brown sugar and chopped pecans on top. Then pop 'em in the oven 'til you can't stand the yummy smell any longer and you just have to devour them right there at that very moment. Sometimes I bake them at 350, sometimes, if we can't wait so long, 400. Whatever. It's not rocket science. But it is good. If you are in Texas, serve it with a scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. If not, you can serve it with some other inferior brand of vanilla. My inferiority of choice is Bryers Natural Vanilla.

Here's Aubrey patiently waiting for me to take the picture so she can finally get at it.


And I must give credit where credit is due. Thanks goes to me mum, who is the one who first showed me how to make this little delight.

What's For Dinner - Vegetable Medley

I haven't done one of these posts in a long time. I made this for dinner tonight and it was SO DANG YUMMY I just had to share. Even my kids LOVED it. I participate in a food co-op every week. I love all the fresh fruits and veggies I get for only $15! If you are interested, you should check it out. They have locations all over UT and some in ID, AZ and TX. I love it because I get my fruits and veggies there, and we have tried so many things we never would have tried otherwise. I go to a bread outlet about once a month and stock up on bread that I freeze. I buy 8-10 gallons of milk at a time and put them in my extra fridge. That means I make a trip to Costco or Sam's about once a month and a trip to a regular grocery store about once a month. I LOVE not having to go to the store every week! And I save a ton because there are no impulse buys (except for that one trip a month).

Anyway, back to dinner. I had a lot of leftover veggies that I needed to use from the past few weeks. So I took a baking dish, threw some chicken tenders in, then cut up whatever vegetables I wanted to get rid of. They were: potatoes, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, and red and green bell peppers. I threw those on top of the chicken. I also added some minced garlic. Then I took a bottle of store brand "Olive Oil and Vinegar" salad dressing and dumped that on top of the whole thing and popped it into the oven. An hour and a half later we had the most fabulous dinner. I served it with Rhodes rolls. 'Cause I'm fancy like that. So seriously, it was the easiest dinner to make and it was delish. Next time you have a plethora of vegetables, you should give it try!

Ole!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we had bean and cheese burritos and chips and salsa for dinner. Sigh...I know, I know. I'm just fancy that way. Just call me Fancy Nancy. Really I had planned on making enchiladas with homemade tomatillo sauce. But I was really tired and I just wanted to feed the kids cereal and put them in bed at 5:00. So really, when you look at it that way, beans and cheese ain't so shabby now, are they?

Monday Morning Musings - Howdy Folks!

WOO HOO!!! I'm so excited y'all! I get to go to the Great State Fair of Texas today! With Oprah. I'm so sick and tired of hearing everyone talk on their blogs and of Facebook about going to the fair, and I have to miss out. I have heard tales from friends of fried butter, fried coke, and fried pecan pie. You know, the pecan tree is the state tree of TX.

"Men from lesser states may know their state capital but you – you know your state's bird, tree and reptile. You display your pride with your Lone Star tattoo… and contempt for any state that doesn’t start with Tex and end with iss.”

But I digress. Set your DVR's, you don't want to miss it. It IS the biggest state fair in the US of A. I can just hear Big Tex now, "Howdy Folks! Welcome to the State Fair of Texas!"

Whew! Back to life as normal. Or as normal as it can possibly get around here. I had some big undertakings goin' on round here this month. I was in charge of collecting donated items for Humanitarian School Kits for a big service night we had with the women at my church. Then I turned around and got to be in charge of Red Ribbon Week at the kids school. But that is all over now. And I must say, after spending 2 1/2 hours at the school every day last week, I have a much greater appreciation for teachers. Here is Zac and some of his friends during Red Ribbon Week.

On Friday I handed out my last pack of Smarties and said for the last time, "Be a Smartie, don't do drugs", tore down the Red Ribbon decorations, went home and packed my bags and hit the door baby. It was time again for my 24 hour Scrapbook Crop. Please pretend like I don't look so nasty in the photo below. I worked hard and came home with an 84 page album of our 2 weeks with Mike and Sheila this summer.

LaRee and I were all by ourselves this year because Laura had to go and pop out a kid and Dianna had to do homework. We missed you girls!

YAY!!! Steve painted the mud room wall. It is my sincere hope that before winter hits, this room will be complete with shelves for shoes and backpacks and hooks for coats and jackets. Hint, hint baby.

I have been on this "making doughnuts" kick lately. I don't know if it is the fall weather or what, but it just feels like doughnut making weather to me. The girls love getting in on the action.

If you wanna know how I make 'em, it is so dang easy. Now my Bishop's wife, she made doughnuts for the whole neighborhood last week and she made, made her doughnuts. In fact, Zac was watching her make them and he told her that I had just made doughnuts that week. Then he watched her a little longer and said, "Oh! Did you make your own dough? My mom just used dough out of a can for ours." So my doughnuts aren't as fabulous as hers, but for the likes of me, they will do. Here's how I make 'em:

I just get the refrigerated biscuit dough and use a bottle top (real fancy pants here) to make a hole in the center. Then I heat up some canola oil in a big pan and drop the dough in. It takes less than a minute for the first side to cook, then I flip 'em over and cook the other side. Then I drop them in a bowl of powdered sugar. Like I said, they aren't fancy, but we think they're yummy round here.

Crock Pot Mishmash, For The Lack Of A Better Name

This is one of my favorite things to make because :

A) It is easy
B) It smells good all day long while it is cooking
C) I always have all the ingredients for it on hand
D) It is versatile
E) Everyone likes it


I just put chicken breasts in the crockpot and dump in a can of black beans, corn and rotel tomatoes. I use mild rotel, because despite me Texas heritage, my taste buds are babies. I let it cook all day in the crockpot and it really does smell terrific.
Now you get to the options. Sometimes I just serve it with chicken breats intact and all the mixture over it, with rice and salad on the side. Sometimes I dice the chicken and serve the whole thing over rice.

But my most fav-o-rite way to serve it is as smothered burritos. Mmmm, mmmm. I shread the chicken, mix it with cooked rice, load it into tortillas, smother them with green burrito sauce, add a little (or a lot) of cheese, and bake. Oh yeah. It's that good. My mixture above made 2 pans of burritos this size.

Roots

When my grandmother was here visiting, I had a little chance to explore my roots. We went to Tolman Park. Tolman is my mother's maiden name. This park is named after our ancestors. I thought I would include some pictures for those of you who might be interested, but feel that you live too many states away to come and visit.

We were also able to visit the Thomas Tolman Family Genealogy Center (we are direct descendants of Thomas Tolman) and see many pictures of our ancestors. It is something I have been meaning to do for a long time and I am glad I was able to experience it with my grandmother and my mother.

We also had a little family bonding time while making a recipe for

Grandma Tolman's Refrigerator Pickles

I, for my whole life, have hated sweet pickles. Blah! But back when we had my mother's birthday party our friend Kami brought the refrigerator pickles she made from this recipe my mother gave her. I refused to try them, but Kami guilted me into it saying something about my heritage, blah, blah, blah (I ♥ U Kami!). So I tried them and I actually liked them. Here is the recipe if you are interested. It is my great grandmother Tolman's recipe, and it surprisingly easy to make.

Mix in large bowl:
4 cups sugar
4 cups vinegar (white or apple cider)
1/3 cup plain salt (not iodized)
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp. celery seed
1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed

In gallon jar (or 4, 1 quart jars) place sliced, unpeeled cucumbers and alternate with layers of sliced onions (about 2 medium onions). Pack tightly in jars and pour liquid over them. Put lid on and refrigerate. They will be ready to eat in 7 days. These can be kept in refrigerator for up to 8 months. Juice can be reused during this time if all the cucumbers are eaten. Needs no processing.

It is funny having these in my refrigerator because I can remember always seeing and avoiding them in our fridge growing up because I thought they looked so nasty.