Pickling Olives, Something New

We have this big olive tree near our front door, and this year it was blessed with lots of fruit. One of our sons told us to pick them, so my husband did. We thought that the son wanted the olives for pickling, but instead he had thought it would be a good "hobby," or adventure/experiment, for us. As hobbies go, it's not that awful so far. If he recommends a dog, I'll veto the idea.

So, for a couple of weeks we sort of took turns changing water in the soaking olives. My husband kept looking up "recipes" and techniques. Then he bought a special jar in the local supermarket and handed the job to me.  After reading some of the links he sent, I just did what I felt like doing and poured the olives into the jar, plus another jar, added coarse salt, fresh garlic, peppercorns, lots of water and some vinegar we had in the house. And, no, I didn't measure anything. I sealed it all up to the best of my abilities imagination.

 I left the jars in a corner of the kitchen counter. And now we have to wait a month or two. Right?

This Year Too Many Olives Have Gone to Waste

No, this isn't a political post. There's nothing controversial about these olives. They grow in the tree by my house on my land, near the front door.

The problem is that unlike in previous years, I haven't had requests by people to pick them. The ground underneath is splattered with olives that had fallen. Usually all sorts of neighbors as for my olives, and I usually say "yes," hinting that we'd like some of the oil.

They probably should have been harvested about a month ago. We've never collected olives to take to the olive presses for oil. One of my daughters tried a few times to salt/pickle them or whatever people do to make olives for eating. Hers never came out tasting very good, so these olives are waiting.

Davka, yesterday one of our regulars asked, so maybe they will be harvested and maybe we'll get some really fresh and pure olive oil. It's such a waste not to use them. They are gifts from G-d.

Pragmatic, Spontaneous aka Creative Cooking

There are two basic types of cooks.  One plans meals, checks recipes and buys the food needed.  My sister-in-law is like that.  We are very close but, oh, so different.  She can go to a half a dozen stores just to get the exact cheese needed for a recipe. 

I'm the opposite.  I never really know what I'll be cooking until I see what there is in the fridge, freezer and pantry.

My meals don't have fancy themes.  I can make a variety of different sorts of dishes for the same meal.  The closest thing to a theme would be "healthy," "balanced" and simple.

I'll give for an example my latest "invention" aka experiment.

Someone gave us a jar of olives.  We don't eat olives.  It's not that we don't like them, but...  I also had some basmati brown rice, which had been cooked up for the pre-Yom Kippur fast meal.  I made a shidduch, match, decided to cook them together.

First I sauteed onion, pepper, some olives (and the brine/liquid) and olive oil.  When I could smell it cooking, I added the cooked rice, cooked covered and stirred on a low flame.  (You may need to add a bit of water.)  When I could smell the rice cooking and the flavors blending, I turned it off.

It was a success.  Everybody liked it.