Sweet Relish

I don’t really care for fresh cucumbers, I don’t dislike them I just prefer other veggies when given a choice. I do, however, LOVE sweet relish and pickles. So I planted a bunch of Pickling Cucumber seeds. And they came up. And then they died. I should really find another hobby…they looked just like my green beans. Brown. And then they simply disappeared in their carefully formed beds. But that was okay! My good friend Amanda, bought an entire box for 5.00 and only used half of them. Translates to ‘Relish for Rachel’. I’ve never made relish before. So I picked up an ‘all natural sweet relish mix’ at our local store and went to work!

The recipe said 6-8 pounds so I split the difference and used 7 pounds. I weighed’em, rinsed’em and got ready to chop’em.

I only needed to get them small enough to fit into my Kitchen Aid grinder attachment.

I began chopping off each end.

Then cutting them in half.

The into quarters. They look like pickles!

Then into quarters. They look like pickles! Oh wait, they are pickles. Well, sorta.

In half again.

Done and repeat.

When all 7 pounds were finished I had a very respectable pile….

Now into the grinder they go! I used the largest plate for the attachment.

Keep grinding until……

You have this lovely bowl of chopped up cucumbers! Then, according to the directions, you have to add a half cup salt. This was almost painful for me. I’ve made a lot of food over the years and I don’t think I’ve EVER put this much salt in ANYTHING. But here we go….

All this salt and green juice made me think about margaritas. Then I wished I had one. But I didn’t. The closest margarita to my house would be about a 35 minute drive. I got some water instead.