It’s the start of a new semester. I’ve only got two semesters left, and this is one of them. I feel like life is kicking into high gear, and I’m going to be running to keep up.
I know I do a lot of recipes on this blog, for a woman who doesn’t actually write cookbooks. Part of that is that I love to cook. Some is simply that, well, I have to cook, so why not make eating more than refueling the First Reader and I? But I rarely have time for ‘fancy’ and never have time for gourmet. We live a simple life. In an effort to fill the need for some simple, basic recipes with few ingredients that will let me share how I keep up with life and lunacy around here, I’ll be doing Simple Life posts. They might not always be food. They might be life-hacks, like storing the sugar in a plastic pitcher so it can easily be poured to measure.
Today, it’s that handy snack that is protein-rich and tasty right out of the fridge, and you can make up a couple dozen at a time to be scarfed down in between classes…
Pickled Eggs
We like the kind with beets in, although oddly neither of us like the beets, and usually wind up tossing them out. But the color is nice and they add a little something to the flavor. You can easily omit the sugar if you’re doing low-carb, as well.
Ingredients
- Can of beets
- 1 c Cider vinegar
- 1/3 c sugar
- 2-3 tbsp dill seeds (or dill)
- 1-2 tbsp Mustard seeds
- One large onion, roughly chopped
- 4-5 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 10-12 boiled eggs, peeled
Instructions
- Combine the beet juice and enough water to make up one full cup of liquid. In a small saucepan, combine the beet liquid, vinegar, sugar, spices, and garlic cloves. Heat to the boil stirring occasionally.
- In a heat-proof container (I use 1/2 gallon mason jars) put the peeled eggs, the beets, and the onions. Sliced beets work fine, I prefer the small whole ones (although that can be confusing if you aren’t going to eat them).
- Pour the hot pickling solution over the beets and eggs, cap, and refrigerate. Leave them alone for a week for full flavor development. I don’t know how long they will keep – they never last long enough and I usually have two jars, one for eating and one for curing.
I also tried out Pappy Jack McClure’s pickled egg recipe this time. He uses a cheat: the leftover dill pickle juice. Combine that with some hot sauce (I used garlic chilli paste) and a tablespoonful of hot pepper flakes, slide the eggs in, and refrigerate for a few days. They came out very dilly with a hint of the heat from the spice.
