« Eye Candy

 Although I consider myself a fairly good home cook, I readily admit that I know nothing about pickling or canning.  My mother and my grandmother, on the other hand, are quite proficient at it.  So when they arrived yesterday bearing homemade pickled beets and 'bread and butter' pickles  -- I took the loot and ran.

My mother made the bread and butter pickles in the late summer, when cucumbers were still plentiful. For those of you that have never had them, they are intoxicating good  -- thinly sliced cucumbers and onions in a sweet/sour brine of vinegar, sugar, mustard/celery seed and turmeric (which gives them their characteristic golden color). 

My grandmother made the pickled beets last week from heirloom beets.  She normally pickles red beets, so I will be curious to see how the golden and pink (Chioggia?) beets compare. The pictures really do not do these beauties justice. The colors are so vivid, you almost forget that you are looking at vegetables. They are real eye candy.