pickled red onions

 Pickled red onions are easy to make and very delicious. 

2 red onions, sliced

2 cups water

2 cups white wine vinegar

1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons of salt

I do not own a mandolin slicer, therefore, I slice my onions as thin as I can. This works perfectly fine. My husband actually likes the thicker onion slices.

Heat the water and vinegar, adding the sugar and salt to dissolve. Place the cut onions in a quart jar and after the  water cools pour it over the onions. I like to add only peppercorns to my onions. You may like to add garlic or herbs, do whatever you and your family likes. Keep them in the refrigerator, they are good for use after only a few hours, but they only get better over time.

I keep this as an ongoing food in my refrigerator because we enjoy eating them on our salads.

When the onions have been eaten, I will add freshly sliced onions to the vinegar water. That vinegar water is concentrated and  is still able to pickle satisfactorily, I will do this about two extra times. This is especially helpful when I am in a pinch for more onions as soon as possible.

spring home economics

When I was in Junior High and Senior High School I was fortunate to be able to take elective classes simply called Home Economics I and II. I loved these classes pertaining to all things involving home! Perhaps even then the course of my "career" was on a pathway of  preparing me for the years ahead.  With the increasing high prices of things today economy is even more vital for the family household and we certainly should take lessons in the dire importance of home economy.   Depending on the season there can be added extras of home economy and yes, the plain truth is it might take a bit more time and forth going effort. But I have discovered that after the extras become a part of the routine of your daily homekeeping  they flow organically providing a purpose and calm knowing a difference is being made in the economics of your home.

We are now into the spring season and I am reveling in the specific tasks and joys that spring economics provides. At last...a backyard clothesline!  This new acquisition is a Brabantia Retractable Clothesline. I especially like how I can stand in one place and give it a gentle swirl and continue on pegging the laundry with the added benefit at the end of the day to easily removing the dry laundry.

And the fresh smell of laundry dried outside on the line can not be bottled.

 

Where do you fold your clothes after either removing them from the dryer or the clothesline? I usually fold mine at the dining room table. This day it was laundry from the guest house ready to be later transported across the street, from the stay of a dear friend this past week.

She was the only doctor's wife in Branford, Maine, who hung her wash on an outdoor clothesline instead of putting it through a dryer, because she liked to look out the window and see the clothes blowing in the wind. She had been especially delighted, one day, when one sleeve of the top of her husband's pajamas, prodded by the stiff breeze off the bay, reached over and grabbed her nightgown around the waist.

                                                         ~Lois Lowry