Everyone, thank you so much for all of your help. I will definitely do this again, next harvest. What I've learned: the cucumbers that I chose were too large. In my tastings, the smaller ones had far better texture. I will use a different variety for the "huge" dills that I love. (Thank you for the recommendation, ksrogers.) They are not at all difficult to make. They do require a little bit of diligence, but even less diligence than "sea monkeys" do. The taste of these is absolutely better than fresh pack pickles, though not as impressive as I expected. Next year, I will use MUCH more dill. And, it is not necessary to buy that HUGE, beautiful crock that I was lusting after....I've got a very inexpensive aluminum stock pot that I lined with a food-grade plastic bag, and a little math tells me that I'm about $150 ahead... Carol, Jim, and Ksrogers, thank you, again, for you patience and advice on this. I was more worried about them being "safe to eat" than I realized, and your comments were both helpful and reassuring! Alright. My bread is in it's final rise, so I'm heading back to the kitchen! Wishing you all a wonderful afternoon, John Scott Smith

thanx for answering my question about the sugar. interesting bit of discussion on this "food product". and chase--i can promise you and everyone else that ever sent me a home-made goodie, it was treated with MUCH more respect than what you see in this thread! and i have to say, the idea of the frito chili/pepperbelly dish has caught my attention too! has middle age turned me into a kid or what??? be that as it may, we just ate the first koolickle a little bit ago. yesterday morning i took 1/2 the pickles out of a jar of commercially prepared dills and let them drain while i made a batch of cherry-flavored kool aid. mixed the two together and refrigerated until this afternoon. by then, everything except the skins of the cukes had turned a weird shade of red--think of a maraschino cherry. first munch seemed very sweet, as did the second one. until you got close to the skin of the cuke, it tasted VERY much like a sweet pickle. it was only in that last little bit of the cuke did you get any hint of the dill pickle that it started out to be. but believe it or not, it was sort of tasty in it's own odd little way. and i'll bet a group of kids would think they were fun in some, screaming red fashion! if it's a slow day at camp carol, perhaps your kids might enjoy "making" sweet pickles! and just as sort of a post script... i was one of those weird kids who liked sauteed chicken livers wrapped in bacon. a friend of mine made something similar and said she wanted me to eat pickled watermelon rind, wrapped in bacon and broiled. i was SURE they'd be awful but they were actually quite tasty! do i have to turn in my forum membership to the food police yet?

Gripper gripper gripper! Wins over every product for wood, drywall, metal... Glidden does horrible job of promoting this product. Would not use other if u give it to me. I tint is to color of my finish paint and eliminate needing 2nd coat of paint over the primer. Have used 100's of gallons of this stuff. Has a slight sheen like a satin so I use 2 coats of it for my rentals with no final paint coat. Easier to clean up and only 1 coat needed when tenants move. Feather brush areas with dark marks or water spots when needed to report bad areas. Comes in premixed grey for foundations porches... but must order it as none of the box stores stock it any more. Glidden is Home Depot product rather than Lowes.

That is something I might try. It's just kool-aid flavoured donut holes. Not deep fried kool-aid. As for deep fried hot dogs, pickles, butter, chocolate bars: those sound disgusting and I would never try them. Deep friend anything is so bad for you, but those are the icing on the cake. The donuts, I would try.