Suspect that these are a fermented pickle and you would use a salt brine to 'cure' them. Usually cukes done this way will remain a bright green as opposed to a lightening of skin color when in a vinegar based brine. Recently, I have posted many tips and suggestions on making a salt brine type of pickle. You do start with very fresh pickling cukes as well as fresh dill weed and dill seed heads. Not sure if yours were made at other times of year, besides the growing season of summer. Mine are half sours and are soaked in a salt brine/water for only about 2-3 days, depending on the cuke size. Because I like using fresh dill, they only get made in summer time. Linda Lou's recipe also has merits, as there, you also start with a salt brine cure prior to pickling. Its that first step that helps them to retain their bright color. Everyone may follow a recipe to the letter and realize that the taste might not be their preference, so start with small batches and adjust whatever you feel that was overpowering in the previous batch. Trial and error helps here. Once you get your taste preference met, then you write down the recipe. My mom used to make sweet picilili with green tomatoes, and her recipe was also composed of several recipes from different books, as well as her personal experience. Adding food colorng might be OK, but that would probably be better to add to a finely chopped cuke relish to improve appearance.

Thanks Ken. You may not be an expert (just kidding), but you have had a lot of good information. In this post along with many others I have read through. Thanks Linda Lou. I don't think these pickles will last that long around here anyway. Just wanted to check in case I make more. I may have to sooner than I think. I was going to pick another load of cukes today. I may have enough for 2 batches now. We got some heavy rain last night. So many of my cukes have swelled up so fast my trellis is about to fall over from the weight. It's not staked very good, and until now, had not been a problem. I may make some relish too. I'll just have to cut out some seeds because I think some of the cukes are a little bigger than I wanted. I think I need to get some more jars. This is kind of late to ask this question, but I didn't think of it until last night while reboiling the syrup. My question is...When draining the syrup to reboil and pour over the pickles, do you leave the spice bag with the pickles or do you keep it in the syrup and boil with it? I didn't think it would make much of a difference, but I have been leaving it in the syrup when I bring it back to a boil. Could this make the spices even stronger only because they are getting heated to a higher temp for a longer period of time. Paul

I'll echo the thoughts not to skimp on the range, but I do want to share with you...we were going to get a Dual Fuel Wolf (36"). One big savings (a few thousand) would have been to drop that down to a gas only. And then our ultimate savings was to skip Wolf all together and go with a Lacanche, which is basically the same thing, but made in France and it has color :) Ok we didn't save much...but we'd been toying with upgrading the 36" to a 48" wolf and instead got a 55 1/2" Lacanche for the same price as the 36" wolf. With in that space we also got a warming cabinet, which saved a couple grand on the warming drawer we didn't need anymore, so there was still savings and we got all we'd ever want in a stove. In our rental we have the same amount of space and wanted a nice looking range so we went with an Aga, which was much less in $$ but still had the look we were shooting for in a 36" range. Skip, a good friend of ours has the Kenmore Pro Series Range and he likes it quite a bit. He's a chef and uses it to it's utmost. His comments in discussing our choice were that he'd like that extra oomph he'd get with a Lacanche but considering that this range came in their home, he's very happy with it. They have had repairs though I think three or four times??? Issues with heat regularity on the oven were a repeated problem and I think one of the burners had a clicking issue if I remember right (this is a conversation from a couple of years). I have eaten at their home many times...he can cook like a saint on that range :) Saint Chef that is heh heh Oh now on the hand made subway tiles...I built the poorhouse that pecanpie is residing in out of the things. I'm not going to tell you how much I love them...I do...but I could have done other things with that money. I'm not sure it was the best use of our funds for an item that I actually want to have take backstage to the other bling in the kitchen. I know KNOW you can acheive a fabulous backsplash look without spending the thousands I did...and the rent on the poorhouse just ain't cutting it to recoup those costs...Pecanpie...rent's going UP UP UP!

Here are some I've watched recently: Enchanted - a very cute movie Atonement - I enjoyed it, watched it with 3 other people and they all thought it was too slow Bee Movie - cute Into the Wild - excellent The Brave One - different than what I was expecting from watching the trailer, but it was very good Dan in Real Life - very good! Watched it on the plane and now wishing I had watched it on a big screen Death at a Funeral - British comedy, hilarious!! Becoming Jane - very nice, a chick flick I guess Feast of Love - a bit slow moving but good, Morgan Freeman is in it and I always like him Rendition - pretty good We Own the Night - good, a bit of violence Martian Child - very sweet No Reservations - chick flick, sweet though, rated G I believe