Summer is in full swing here and I'm trying to take advantage of this short season as much as possible. Summer is both amazing and terrible, on the one hand I am so happy the warm weather is here, winter was so long and dreary. My garden is finally going well, (will do a proper post about that soon) and we are able to hit the beach and swim in the ocean...
The bad: WASPS
I can't remember if I posted about it last year but we have a bit of a wasp problem. They previously made a nest in our internet box, have tried numerous times on our patio, one on the side of our TRUCK???? and this one found yesterday in one of our green bins. I don't understand why they are attracted to making nests in manmade things when they have so much nature.
I managed to get a pretty good macro shot without getting attacked so that's a win, the full image of this badass:
More good: FISHING
We have a petty busy fishing spot near us, it's a cove with a mix of salt and freshwater. Often when I pass in the summer there are loads of people there and they seem to be doing well. This past weekend my father came for a visit and brought his fishing rods. We headed over and caught a ton of Mackerel. Keep in mind I haven't fished for more than 20 years but once I got the hang of casting I managed to reel in about 8 and I think my father got around 20+.
We threw most of them back but decided to keep the 4 biggest ones to take home and eat.
It's a pretty strong flavored fish with a lot of tiny bones but it worked well in a rice / chicken veg style dish. Here is one of my beautiful catches:
FRIDGE PICKLES
I absolutely love pickles and while I am still waiting for my cucumbers to come in I decided to use some store bought cucumber to make my own fridge pickles.
Here's a basic recipe:
Boil a mix of half water / half vinegar
add a splash of sugar (I used maple syrup)
allow the mix to cool a bit
slice the cucumber up and shove it in a jar
spices here is where you can get creative, i threw in a sprig of oregano, chopped garlic, salt and chili flakes because I like them spicy. You can use a lot of different things here, dill, mustard seeds etc. depending on your taste
once the mix is cool pour it in the jar, seal the jar and shake it up a bit
put in fridge and allow to marinate overnight.
the next day they should taste great :D
Please note these are not properly canned so they have to stay refrigerated, they do stay good for a pretty long time but you should probably consume them within a few weeks (I've gone much longer but this is not medical advice)
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