Dilly Beans or Dilly Carrots and a brilliant idea!

[HardwareGrl]

I am going to have to thank 2Beers for planting this idea in my head. 2 Beers, you are brilliant!

I started a thread about food as gifts, so imagine this gift idea…
A gift basket with a bottle of vodka, a bottle of Bloody Mary mix (it would be even better if it was your own tomato juice that you had canned) AND a jar of pickled Brussels sprouts, a jar of dilly beans, and a jar of dilly carrots for garnishing Bloody Mary’s. I’d be thrilled to get a present like that!

So, if you are interested in pulling this off, I guess you’ll need the recipes, huh?

Dilly Beans OR Dilly Carrots (4 pints)
2 lbs Green Beans OR 2 lbs Carrots (you can save time by buying a bag of baby carrots)
¼ c canning salt
2 ½ c Vinegar
2 ½ c water
1t cayenne pepper
4 cloves garlic (or more depending on taste)
4 heads dill OR 2t dill seed
Trim off the ends of the green beans, OR rinse your carrots. Combine salt, vinegar, water, cayenne pepper in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, boil for 5 minutes. Pack beans lengthwise in jars, OR fill jars with carrots. Add garlic and 1 head dill or 1/2t dill seed to each jar. Ladle hot brine into jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Cap and seal. Process jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Let jars cool and check for seal. Pack into gift basket, and prepare to be lauded till the cows come home.

Now, does anybody have a good recipe for Bloody Mary's? You could print that off and stick it into the basket too!

[Mufasa]

That sounds really good. Neat idea - now if I can get the Cotton Exchange on River Street to give up their Bloody Mary recipe...

[HardwareGrl]

(12-03-2010 10:02 PM)Mufasa Wrote:  That sounds really good. Neat idea - now if I can get the Cotton Exchange on River Street to give up their Bloody Mary recipe...

If you do, please, please, please share!

[2Beers]

Also picked asparagus is good too!!! I'd have to admit buying said veggies is a bit easier for me, but a brilliant idea Hardware as a basket gift !

[Brutus]

I love pickled asparagus but it has to be crunchy. And forget the rosemary that so many are flavored with! I love rosemary as a background flavor...like over lamb, but I find I'd rather taste the veg than chew on an herb..just me. I can't imagine using rosemary in a Bloody Mary (thus losing the opportunity to call it a Bloody Rosemary) but I look forward to other's suggested combinations.