The Modern Victory Garden

This year’s preserving efforts had a few new recipes and a return of some old favorites.   I thought it might be fun to do a follow up to the previous posts and let you know what my judgment is on how several items turned out. 

In the totally new to me category there was pickled jalapeño peppers and spiced red cabbage relish.   We just opened the first jar of the pickled jalapeño peppers this evening and gave them a try.   Wow!   Those turned out very good.   I am glad I added the crushed red pepper flakes to the recipe because the peppers were not very hot this year and the red pepper flakes added a really nice heat.   This recipe (as modified by me) earns big thumbs up.   Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the spiced red cabbage relish.   I opened the first jar of this several weeks ago and could not even finish the first spoonful.   Yuck.   This recipe earns a big thumbs down and I am going to have to just empty the remaining jars out before someone injures themselves trying to eat some of it.   Yikes!                      

In the old favorites category we had dill pickle relish, pickled beets, and dilly green beans. True to form, these old standbys delivered to expectations.   I have to say though that I had forgotten how much I love dilly green beans. Once a jar is opened, it gets consumed almost immediately.   Nothing like a crisp croccantini flatbread cracker with a schmear of fromage blanc and then topped with a crisp dilly green bean. The spicy heat of the bean is complemented by the smooth creaminess of the cheese.  Heaven.           

So there you have it.   With the exception of the horrific spiced red cabbage relish, the rest of the specialty preserved items turned out wonderful.   If you used that spiced red cabbage relish recipe because I posted it…. you have my most sincere apology!