Cucumbers and Onions

I don't know if any of you are familiar with this, um, pickle? Side dish? Concoction? Anyway, I was introduced to it by a good friend a couple years ago. She said you just mix vinegar, sugar, and water to get a 'flavor' that you like, then add sliced cucumbers and onions. Well....mine aren't right. I seem to remember hers being crunchy-ish. Mine are.....floppy. Like, REALLY limp. I ended up doing a mixture that is equal parts vinegar, water, and sugar. I love the flavor, and the onions are nice and crunchy, but the cucumbers are kinda grossing me out. Anyone have a solution? I'd sure love to know what I'm doing wrong. Maybe I'm remembering hers wrong, and mine are actually the way they're supposed to be....hmmm......

Oh, and I made a lot of the 'brine' for only a couple of cucumbers and one onion. She told me I could keep the liquid and just add more cucumbers and onions as needed. Would that affect the cucumbers if there was just too much liquid?

Thanks for any tips!

Catching Up

Did June happen? It's all such a blur...

There's so much to tell--there were many times when I thought of ideas for blog posts, took pictures, then proceeded to get distracted by the next thing and missed the chance.

I went to the Farmer's Market!



I updated my Ravelry page!

So many things on the needles right now, and all I can think about is what I want to cast on next.

Kids were crazy over the weekend. It might have had something to do with an abundance of sugary snacks and a deficiency of sleep. Also, the full moon. And fireworks. Just sayin'.


homemade patriotic parade, copyright 2009 by mycrazykids

I started using our cloth diapers again. The Happy Housewife had a post about CD'ing today, actually. A couple of weeks ago, we were running low on disposables that had been given to us, and I just decided I wasn't going to buy any more, at least for a while. I knitted up a couple of cute wool soakers and am really happy with how they're working. There's lots of info out there on the benefits of wool, so I'm not going to go into it here. I'm sure you can find some of it at Cloth Diaper Nation. I'm not a member there, but it was recommended by an acquaintance, and looks very comprehensive. So, I just use plain ol' chinese prefolds with a snappi, under the soaker or a homemade polar fleece cover I made a couple years ago. They work really well, too.

The weather cooled off this evening, bringing a shower along with it. After the very warm and humid afternoon, it was quite a relief. The short rain didn't deter my dh from taking off to go 'tubing on the lake with his buddies, though, leaving me a bit disappointed to not have a family dinner together. I cooked a ham in the crockpot on my back porch this afternoon, and whipped up some mashed potatoes and gravy, and some corn to go with it. He didn't know what he missed.

I think I'm gonna go warm up some bread and gravy right now. Sometimes, life is just better with gravy.