garlic onion refrigerator pickles

• 1lb small cucumbers (I've seen them called kirby and kuke, so I have no idea what is right)
• pickling salt
• fresh garlic, chopped
• 2 onions, sliced into rings
• cider vinegar
• sugar
• fresh dill
• mustard seed

Combine about 1.5 cups of salt with 4 or so cups of water. Make sure that salt is well dissolved and pour over cucumbers in a tight container. Let sit at room temperature, out of the sun, for two days. Drain and rinse the cucumbers well. Combine 3 cups cider vinegar with 1.5 cups of water and 1/2 cup sugar, cook and bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Let cool for 20 minutes. In a tight fitting container, layer the cucumbers with the garlic, onion and dill with a few shakes of mustard seed. When vinegar mixture has cooled slightly, pour over the mixture and refrigerate for 1 week.

The dish: I once remarked to our favorite farmers that making pickles was more of a commitment than marriage was. I was being facetious, but there's an element of truth to that statement. There's no one step in making these pickles that's difficult, but if you skip one or screw it up your finished product will suffer. You can screw up in marriage pretty frequently and it can all end well anyway. Much like marriage, pickles are worth the effort, you'll never want to eat a pickle from a jar after you make your own. We used these on top of some pulled pork sandwiches and the taste was out of this world.

orzo and chickpea salad

• 1lb orzo
• 4 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• fresh dill, chopped
• juice of one large lemon
• high quality extra virgin olive oil
• honey
• adobo

Cook orzo according to package, then drain and rinse with cool water. In a separate bowl whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil and honey. Combine orzo, chickpeas and dill to taste (I used a lot). Toss salad with dressing, season to taste with adobo or salt. Serve chilled.

The dish: Orzo is basically rice shaped pasta, and it works perfectly alongside the chickpeas. The flavor of the dressing is dependent on plenty of fresh lemon juice. Remember, in a dish this simple, using lemon juice out of the bottle (or plastic lemon shaped thing) will yield less than desirable results. To get the most out of each lemon, use them at room temperature and roll them a little under your palm before you slice it. I squeeze the juice before I add any of the other ingredients so that if I get a seed I can easily pick it out.

spaghetti with a creamy dill salmon sauce

• 1 lb spaghetti
• 1 lb salmon (unseasoned frozen would work), cut into bite sized pieces
• low fat sour cream
• fresh dill

Cook spaghetti according to package in lightly salted water. Cook salmon in a little olive oil over a medium flame for about 10 minutes, or until desired doneness is reached. Turn burner under the salmon off. Add the sour cream and stir until creamy. Add dill, toss with the pasta and serve.

The dish: Now seems like a great time to let you know that I'm having a lot of fun doing this blog and it's been a great influence on us. We've definitely cut back on our eating out and my I'm feeling pretty good about my camera skills improving. Almost everything we've been eating has been swayed by the blog; we never go this long without repeats and we've been scouring for different plates to show in the pictures. I've done this dish before, but as a salmon fillet with a creamy sauce. At some point I'll post it as such, but I thought you might be getting bored of seeing slabs of salmon covered in something saucy. If I didn't have the blog we would have had it as we always have (or more likely wound up at Denny's) and we both thought it was really cool that since we knew you'd be reading we tried something new. I've been shocked at how many people have been following the red room rambles (more than have been posting I assure you) and I just want to say "thanks" for the motivation you provide. I'm looking forward to many more enjoyable meals together.